stable isotope composition of late pleistocene holocene eobania vermiculata muller 1774 pulmonata stylommatophora shells from the central mediterranean basin data from grotta d oriente favignana sicily abstract this paper presents stable isotopic results oxygen and carbon from both modern and late pleistocene holocene shells of the land snail eobania vermiculata muller 1774 from favignana island sicily it aims to contribute to the understanding of climate and vegetation history of this region during formation of upper palaeolithic mesolithic and meso neolithic deposits of grotta d oriente ort results from both an evaporative model fbm and an empirical regional isotopic model i e linear relation between oxygen isotopic composition of shells 18 os and those of local precipitation 18 op indicate that the 18 os values of modern specimens are mainly controlled by local temperature relative humidity and 18 op at the time of snail activity data also suggest that the modern snails are nocturnally active almost all year round in the study area the carbon isotopic compositions of shells 13 cs of the same specimens indicate a diet prevalently or exclusively composed of c3 vegetation the 18 os values of late pleistocene specimens suggest that climate conditions at 14 2 ka cal bp were similar to the present day in agreement with additional 18 os records from southern italy by contrast early middle holocene shells are notably 18 o depleted and suggest wetter conditions possibly combined with a decrease in isotopic composition of precipitation source compared to the present day when compared with regional palaeoclimatic records a large scale isotopic response to millennial scale changes in atmospheric and hydrological conditions e g enhanced rainfall in the central eastern mediterranean is observed during the early middle holocene the 13 cs of late pleistocene and holocene specimens are consistently higher than those of modern ones for the late pleistocene this could be reasonably explained in terms of water stressed vegetation on the other hand this seems to be less valid for holocene counterparts when the climate was wetter probably 13 cs values result from the combination of distinct competing factors involving atmospheric co 2 concentration seasonal water budget vegetation type cover and other carbon sources results reveal coherent relationships between regional 18 os and 13 cs demonstrating that late pleistocene holocene land snail shell remains from archaeological sites may provide useful snapshots of past seasonal climate conditions

the stable isotopic composition of modern soil carbonate and its relationship to climate the oxygen isotopic composition of modern soil carbonate is well correlated with the isotopic composition of local meteoric water the carbon isotopic cycle for co 2 in soils can be described in terms of the proportion of biomass using the c 4 photosynthetic pathway and the co 2 respiration rate of the soil at low soil respiration rates significant atmospheric co 2 mixing can occur in general the carbon isotopic composition of soil carbonate is related to the proportion of c 4 biomass present in soil but soils that freeze to the depth of carbonate formation often have a significant atmospheric component this suggests that freezing of the soil solution should be considered as another important mechanism for soil carbonate formation because of these relationships the isotopic composition of soil carbonate may be a paleoclimatic and paleoecologic indicator in cases in which diagenetic alteration has not occurred

holocene trends in 18o in land snail shells from the negev desert and their implications for changes in rainfall source areas abstract the 18o value of the carbonate of land snail shells is related to the 18o content of precipitation which in turn relates to the source region and trajectory of the rain bearing air masses analyses of 18o of the shell carbonate of 76 radiocarbon dated holocene samples of the land snail trochoidea seetzeni from the northern negev desert in southern israel were carried out and the results were compared to modern snails from the same region early holocene 18o values are similar to modern but during the period centered around 6500 6000 yr b p a depletion of some 2 below modern is observed a change in the atmospheric circulation pattern for this period is thus indicated most likely an increase in the frequency of storm systems reaching the region from north eastern africa by 3500 yr b p 18o values had reached modern levels and indicate a stable pattern of atmospheric circulation since that time

oxygen isotope signatures from land snail helix melanostoma shells and body fluid proxies for reconstructing mediterranean and north african rainfall abstract in this paper we show that oxygen isotope ratios from the shell carbonate of the land snail helix melanostoma reflect local rainfall parameters stable oxygen isotopes were measured in the body fluid 18 o body and shells 18 o shell of live collected h melanostoma along a north south transect across the gebel akhdar in northeast libya 18 o body ranged between 8 1 and 13 0 whilst 18 o shell ranged between 1 0 and 2 8 to investigate the relationship between snail oxygen isotope composition and climate these measurements were correlated with ambient air temperature relative humidity rainfall amount and the 18 o composition of rainwater 18 o rain strong and significant correlations were found between 18 o shell and 18 o rain and between 18 o shell and rainfall amount r 2 0 79 and 0 85 respectively suggesting that h melanostoma shells can be used as a proxy for past rainfall conditions when combined in multiple linear regressions 18 o rain and rainfall amount explained 90 of the variance in 18 o shell r 2 0 90 simple and multiple linear regressions were used to develop predictive models for these climate parameters as h melanostoma shells are commonly found in mediterranean and north african archaeological and geological deposits the predictive equations developed in this study hold great potential for reconstructing pleistocene to holocene rainfall and aridity patterns in the gebel akhdar and for assessing the relationship between environmental changes and human behavioural changes

vegetation response to upper pliocene glacial interglacial cyclicity in the central mediterranean abstract new detailed pollen analysis of the lower part of the upper pliocene semaforo section crotone italy documents cyclic behavior of vegetation at the beginning of the northern hemisphere glaciations the competition between four vegetation units subtropical humid forest deciduous temperate forest altitudinal coniferous forest and open xeric assemblage probably reflects modifications of vegetation belts at this montane site several increases in herbaceous open vegetation regularly alternate with subtropical humid forest which expresses rapid climatic oscillations the complete temporal succession deciduous forest rich in quercus followed by subtropical humid forest taxodiaceae and cathaya then altitudinal coniferous forest tsuga cedrus abies and picea and finally herbaceous open vegetation graminae compositae and artemisia displays the climatic evolution from warm and humid interglaciation to cold and dry glaciation it also suggests an independent variation of temperature and humidity the two main climatic parameters the vegetation history of southern calabria recorded in the semaforo section have been correlated with the 18o signal established in the atlantic ocean

finite fault inversion of dinsar coseismic displacement of the 2009 l aquila earthquake central italy 1 we define the geometric and kinematic characteristics of the fault activated during the mw 6 3 6 april 2009 l aquila earthquake from the modeling of envisat and cosmo skymed the first ever x band interferogram inverted for a coseismic dislocation study dinsar interferograms our best fit solution for the main shock is represented by a normal fault 16 km long and 12 km wide with a small right lateral component dipping 47 sw with a maximum slip of 90 cm although the seismic dislocation probably ended at 1 km depth the updip projection of the fault plane corresponds to the northern segment of the mapped paganica s demetrio fault where alignment of surface breaks was observed in the field the absence of this fault in existing seismic source catalogues suggests that an improved approach involving detailed surface and subsurface geological and geophysical investigations is needed for a better assessment of the seismic hazard at the local scale

systematic variations in the carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonate along elevation transects in the southern great basin united states stable carbon and oxygen isotope variations in holocene soil carbonates that formed in the unsaturated zone were examined along several elevation transects in the southern great basin united states a region with a semi arid climate our intent was to study the relationship between the stable isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonates and climate ecological variations differences in parent material and soil depth 13 c of pedogenic carbonate in three different soil profiles from different elevations decreases with soil depth indicating a decrease in the ratio of atmospheric to plantderived co 2 downprofile pedogenic carbonate at the soil air interface approaches a 13 c value in equilibrium with atmospheric co 2 in all three soils observed 13 c profiles for pedogenic carbonate can be described using a one dimensional model for 12 co 2 and 13 co 2 assuming isotopic equilibrium between soil co 2 and soil carbonate the modeled best fit to observed isotopic profiles suggests that the profile differences in part result from differing soil respiration rates at each site 13 c in deep pedogenic carbonate 50 cm varies by about 12 per mil over a 2 440 m elevation range being enriched in 13 c at the lowest elevations the slope of 13 c for these carbonates versus elevation is very similar for soils developed on carbonate and on noncarbonate parent materials depletion by 4 6 to 4 7 per mil per 1 000 m increase in altitude between 300 to 2 740 m above mean sea level for the localities studied this concordance makes it likely that there has been complete isotopic exchange between hco 3 in solution and soil co 2 prior to carbonate precipitation soil co 2 and soil respiration rates increase systematically with elevation the plantderived component of soil co 2 indicates that c 3 plants dominate the biomass at most measured sites in agreement with plant surveys calculated equilibrium fractionation factors between soil co 2 and soil carbonate are very similar to those observed again indicating complete isotopic exchange between carbon species in all the soil co 2 and soil carbonate data suggest that the 13 c variation with elevation observed in the soil carbonates results from differing soil respiration rates at each site as well as from variations in the proportion of c 3 to c 4 and cam plants in each site9s surface biomass 18 o values in pedogenic carbonates are higher at lower elevations due in part to the more positive 18 o values for meteoric waters at lower elevations the average 18 o value of deep 50 cm pedogenic carbonate at all sites however is enriched 2 4 to 3 7 per mil with respect to values we predict should be in equilibrium with the isotopic composition of local meteoric waters this suggests that evaporative isotopic enrichment of soil waters may have occurred at all elevations prior to precipitation of carbonate or that seasonal differences in the isotopic composition of meteoric waters coupled with differential infiltration may be taking place one or both of these processes also may explain the 18 o decrease in soil carbonate with depth observed in two of three soil profiles

morphological characters and multi element isotopic signatures of carbonates from chinese loess paleosol sequences abstract morphological characters and multi element isotopic compositions of carbonates from the loess paleosol sequences in northwestern china are examined to explore the origin of the minerals samples are collected from various sections ranging from holocene to 0 9 ma within the sequences and fractions with grain sizes 45 and 45 m exhibit an almost perfect spherical shape while those 13 c and 18 o values between minerals and biologically originated samples indicates that the 206 pb 204 pb 207 pb 204 pb 208 pb 204 pb and 87 sr 86 sr these results suggest the utility of fine carbonate particles in the soil profile in reconstructing a potentially higher resolution 13 c and 18 o time series to elucidate the paleoclimatic fluctuation in the chinese loess plateau during pleistocene the discovery of the nano rod calcite in chinese loess together with previous findings of the similar mineral form in asian dust strongly suggests the possibility that these highly reactive caco 3 form may alter the aerosol properties during transport

kaolinitic paleosols in the south west of the iberian peninsula sierra morena region spain paleoenvironmental implications abstract this paper studies the physical and chemical characteristics of eight different soil profiles with paleohorizons rich in kaolinites and developed on different lithologies along the southern border of the hercinian iberian peninsula sierra morena region the paleohorizons of four of these soils are defined by low ph levels desaturation of the exchange complex and proportions of kaolinite of over 75 these characteristics are associated with subtropical pedogenic conditions during the pliocene period a further two soil profiles are contemporary and defined by the following features they occupy depression areas the clay fraction is dominated by kaolinites and smectites the exchange complex is saturated and the ph is above neutral values the last two soil profiles are developed on pliocene continental deposits and have more moderate pedogenic features their kaolinite levels are around 50 and their evolution is associated with shorter periods of exposure to these subtropical alteration conditions

carbon isotopes in continental weathering environments and variations in ancient atmospheric co2 pressure abstract abundance and carbon isotope data from an fe co3 oh component in apparent solid solution in oolitic goethites have been used to infer ancient atmospheric co2 pressures a test of the validity of these estimates might be comparisons of the carbon isotope compositions of fe co3 oh in oolitic goethites with time equivalent pedogenic calcites temporal trends of the oolitic goethite and pedogenic calcite 13c values are generally similar but time equivalent samples from each of these two groups are not common in the existing data to facilitate discussion of the concept comparisons were made of available goethite and calcite samples even though ages of the compared samples in each pair were not identical in four out of the five comparisons fe co3 oh abundance and 13c data were combined with pedogenic calcite 13c data to calculate physically reasonable soil co2 concentrations for the ancient calcitic soids this suggests that the compared oolitic goethite and pedogenic calcite systems were responding to the same global scale phenomenon i e atmospheric co2 atmospheric pco2 as determined from the goethites in these four well behaved cases ranged from values indistinguishable from modern within analytical uncertainty to values up to approximately 16 time modern modern atmospheric pco2 was taken to be 10 3 5 atm one interpretation of the fifth anomalous comparison is that atmospheric co2 levels increased from about 3 times modern to about 18 times modern from the triassic into the early jurassic this inferred value for the pco2 of the early jurassic atmosphere is not uniquely constrained by the existing data and needs to be substantiated however even considerably lower early jurassic atmospheric pco2 values of 6 to 9 times modern i e 1 3 to 1 2 of the estimated value of 18 times modern would still indicate significant differences between the global carbon cycles then and now these results highlight the need for more research on the behavior of the atmosphere during and after the triassic jurassic transition

succession and stable isotope composition of gastropods in holocene semi arid alluvial sequences bardenas reales ebro basin ne spain palaeoenvironmental implications three alluvial units ranging from the middle to late holocene in age were distinguished in bardenas reales natural park ebro basin ne spain based on morphosedimentary analysis and radiocarbon data in this sensitive mediterranean alluvial system the succession and isotopic composition of gastropods greatly contribute to establishing the prevailing palaeoenvironmental conditions the oldest unit 4763 87 to 2848 55 cal yr bp represents fluvial channels and swamped areas includes the greatest proportion of aquatic gastropods ancylus fluviatilis and lymnaea truncatula and marsh species vallonia pulchella and presents the most negative values of 18o mean 2 21 pdb the intermediate unit 1403 60 to 836 65 cal yr bp shows a high rate of alluvial activity related to irregular torrential rainfall with sedimentary features of aridity and this unit includes only dry open ground gastropods xeroplexa sp chondrinidae indet and granopupa granum and presents the least negative values of 18o

the use of land snail shells in paleoenvironmental reconstruction fossil land snail shells constitute a valuable source of paleoenvironmental information for the quaternary they can be dated by a variety of methods including radiocarbon amino acid racemization and epimerization and perhaps also thu and esr the vast majority of paleoenvironmental studies based on land snail shells have examined the faunal composition of fossil assemblages from which a variety of paleoenvironmental characteristics such as biome temperature and moisture conditions have been reconstructed still there are a number of problems involved in using this approach and these are discussed shell morphology has occasionally been used to reconstruct such factors as rainfall and temperature stable isotope studies on quaternary land snails include analysis of 18o values of organic matter in the shells to reconstruct c4 plant distributions from which rainfall amounts can be inferred and analysis of 18o values of shell carbonate from which trends in the oxygen isotope composition of rainfall can be reconstructed stable carbon isotopes of shell carbonate have also been studied but their interpretation is not clear amino acid epimerization analysis dalloisoleucinel isoleucine ratios of land snail shells has been used for estimation of paleotemperatures some potential uses of land snail shells for paleoenvironmental reconstruction include the study of stable isotopes of h and n periodic growth lines and deposits of pedogenic carbonates on the shells

geostrophic adjustment a mechanism for frontogenesis abstract a simple two dimensional model is used to determine the geostrophically adjusted state of an initially motionless fluid with lateral density gradient it is an extension of the much studied two layer models to the case when the initial stratification is continuous and allows a more detailed examination of the density and current fields in addition the model has demonstrated that geostrophic adjustment with its accompanying transverse circulation can produce regions of convergence and thus steepen the initial density gradient in cases when the initial density transition is sharp enough fronts or density discontinuities are formed at these convergence regions along which the surface fluid particles drawn in from both sides of the fronts move into the interior the density jump across the fronts is the greatest at the top and bottom surface and diminishes toward the interior where differential vertical motion during the adjustment can significantly level the isopycnals one observed frontal

study of the diet effect on δ13c of shell carbonate of the land snail helix aspersa in experimental conditions abstract this study aims to demonstrate the influence of the metabolic co2 derived from the diet and of the atmospheric co2 on the shell carbonate 13c of the pulmonate snail helix aspersa maxima raised under controlled conditions adult snails were analyzed and compared with three hatching and 1 day old young snails stemming from the same breeding one day after the 2 day old individuals were raised during 1 month three groups of gastropods were fed with fresh lettuce c3 plant 13c 27 49 three groups with corn c4 plant 13c 11 7 and three groups ate alternately both c3 c4 the difference between the average 13c values of the adult snails on the one hand and the hatched and 1 day old snails on the other hand indicates a depletion of 2 47 therefore the isotopic parents offspring signal is not preserved the depleted ingested albumen by the snail embryo in the egg during the building of the shell could explain this depletion the c3 diet experiment gave the expected isotopic composition difference between the diet lettuce and the shells average 13cshell lettuce 13 75 0 52 this result shows a clear diet effect on the isotopic composition of the snail shells for the c4 experiment the difference in carbon isotope composition between the corn and the shell 13cshell corn yielded an average value of 4 89 0 87 the main result is that 13c is not constant and appears to depend on the type of ingested food several hypotheses can arise from this study to explain the different fractionations a differences in the quality of the two diets b differences in turnover rate for c3 and c4 feeders the groups regularly fed with mixed diet yielded 13c values showing a preferential use of c3 food for most values the c3 c4 mixed dietary alternation probably led snails to use mainly the lettuce instead of the corn powder

middle pleistocene mis 14 environmental conditions in the central mediterranean derived from terrestrial molluscs and carbonate stable isotopes from sulmona basin italy abstract a paleosol from the middle pleistocene lacustrine fluvial succession of sulmona basin central italy was analysed for the land snail shell content and the stable isotope composition of the shells and associated pedogenic carbonates the paleosol known as fiorata paleosol is covered by a thick tephra layer dated to ca 527 ka allowing the pedogenetic horizons to be correlated to the marine isotope stage mis 14 early mis 13 interval the terrestrial mollusc assemblage contained few individuals and was characterized by a low number of species which predominantly indicate open and dry habitats thus suggesting that fiorata paleosol likely developed during glacial conditions of the mis 14 the 13 c values of pedogenic carbonates and terrestrial shells indicate prevailing c 3 type vegetation probably marked by some degree of water stress calculation of the 18 o precipitation values derived from pedogenic carbonates and shell 18 o values indicate that the average temperature was 3 5 c lower than present day this study highlights how paleosols despite offering only snapshots of past climate and environments provide valuable complementary information to paleoclimatic data obtained in the adjacent lacustrine intervals specifically for the sulmona successions

kinetics and fractionation of carbon and oxygen isotopes during the solid phase transformation of biogenic aragonite to calcite the effect of organic matter abstract the phase transformation of biogenic shells from aragonite to calcite can modify the primary carbon and oxygen isotopic values 13c and 18o and thus affect their significance as paleoenvironmental proxies while the biasing of 13c and 18o by dissolution and reprecipitation phase transformation dr has been extensively studied thermal solid phase transformation spt in archaeological shell middens is rarely considered in this study the effects of intra crystalline organic matter on the kinetics and carbon and oxygen isotopic fractionation during thermal spt are evaluated by comparing two sets of experiments on powdered aragonite snail shells heated in air and pure nitrogen atmospheres the results show that during heating temperature below 400 c the intra crystalline organic matter could inhibit the phase transformation due to the shielding effect of organic matter while during heating temperature above 400 c the decomposition of the intra crystalline organic matter increases the kinetic rate of the phase transformation the activation energy for the phase transformation was determined to be 150 5 kj mol 1 lower than that of 247 kj mol 1 obtained for abiogenic polycrystalline aragonite and close to that of 158 to 163 kj mol 1 for abiogenic single crystal aragonite this is attributed to the larger lattice parameter c in biogenic aragonite and the increasing porosity of calcium carbonate with the decomposition of organic matter in a nitrogen atmosphere the deviation of 13c and 18o between the heated sample the mixture of aragonite and calcite and the original shell aragonite 13cm a and 18om a is negligible during heating temperature below 400 c however 13cm a from 0 43 to 0 00 and 18om a from 1 54 to 0 02 are significant during heating temperature above 400 c the temperature dependence of 13cm a in biogenic carbonates is much more significant than that in abiogenic carbonates which clearly reflects the occurrence of isotopic exchange between the intra crystalline organic matter and the carbonates in air the heating induced calcium carbonate is depleted in 13c by up to 0 48 and in 18o by up to 3 46 compared with the original samples which is mainly caused by isotopic exchange with the external carbon dioxide in air and the intra crystalline organic matter with the latter being the dominant source our results demonstrate that the decomposition of the intra crystalline organic matter increases the kinetic rate and induces carbon and oxygen isotope fractionation during spt from aragonite to calcite this study provides direct evidence for evaluating the preservation of carbon and oxygen isotopes of biogenic calcium carbonate shells which have undergone the spt process in archaeological shell middens

paleoclimatic implications of the spatial patterns of modern and lgm european land snail shell δ18o abstract the oxygen isotopic composition of land snail shells may provide insight into the source region and trajectory of precipitation last glacial maximum lgm gastropod shells were sampled from loess from belgium to serbia and modern land snail shells both record 18 o values between 0 and 5 there are significant differences in mean fossil shell 18 o between sites but not among genera at a single location therefore we group 18 o values from different genera together to map the spatial distribution of 18 o in shell carbonate shell 18 o values reflect the spatial variation in the isotopic composition of precipitation and incorporate the snails preferential sampling of precipitation during the warm season modern shell 18 o decreases in europe along a n s gradient from the north sea inland toward the alps modern observed data of isotopes in precipitation gnip demonstrate a similar trend for low altitude sites lgm shell 18 o data show a different gradient with 18 o declining toward the ene implying a mid atlantic source due to increased sea ice and a possible southern displacement of the westerly jet stream balkan lgm samples show the influence of a mediterranean source with 18 o values decreasing northward

oxygen isotope composition of living land snail shells data from italy sixty seven shells of living land snails were selected from 31 different localities across italy to investigate the relationships between their oxygen isotopic composition 18os and the mean value of local rainfall 18op despite the difficulty for some localities to correctly estimate the oxygen isotopic composition of local rainfall a good relationship was found this indicates that the oxygen isotopic composition of environmental water used by the snails is in italy strictly related to that of the local meteoric precipitation however the relationship found is substantially different from that previous established for central europe indicating that regional climatic conditions are important in defining the final isotopic composition of land snail shells moreover these equations may not hold for different climatic conditions existing during for instance glacial and interglacial periods the data also show that isotopic differences among species are relatively narrow and that they may depend on ecological factors i e style of life rather than any clearly identifiable different vital offset

stable isotope composition of land snail body water and its relation to environmental waters and shell carbonate abstract day to day and within day diel variations in d and 18 o of the body water of the land snail theba pisana were studied at a site in the southern coastal plain of israel three phases of variation which relate to isotopic changes in atmospheric water vapor were distinguished 1 on rain days snail water becomes isotopically depleted approximately in the direction of the rain isotope values but always less depleted in d as is atmospheric water vapor 2 during the 1 3 days following a rain the snail water becomes isotopically enriched along a line with slope 18 o space this relates to an increasing influence of humidity derived from the mediterranean sea 3 a period of relative stability of the isotopic composition persists until the next rain event the isotopic variations can be explained by isotopic equilibration with atmospheric water vapor and or uptake of dew derived therefrom during the winter when the snails are active there is only very minor enrichment in 18 o relative to equilibrium with water vapor or dew apparently as a result of metabolic activity but this enrichment becomes pronounced after long periods of inactivity within day variation in body water isotopic composition is minor on non rain days shell carbonate is enriched in 18 o by ca 1 2 relative to equilibrium with body water in most regions the isotopic composition of atmospheric water vapor or dew is a direct function of that of rain because the isotopic composition of snail body water is related to that of atmospheric water vapor and the isotopic composition of shell carbonate in turn is related to that of body water land snail shell carbonate 18 o should provide a reliable indication of rainfall 18 o however local environmental conditions and the ecological properties of the snail species must be taken into account

anatomy of late orogenic extension the northern apennines case abstract late orogenic extensional structures overprint the compressional structures of the northern apennines fold and thrust belt the tyrrhenian sea is the result of major continental extension and rifting which started in the thickened zone of the apulian corso sardinian collision it is believed to have commenced as early as in the late oligocene or early miocene in the corsica basin extension post dates the collision by approximately 20 ma the extensional stress field observed in the internal part of the northern apennines co exists with compression in the foreland part of the belt field borehole and refraction and reflection data were used to investigate the geometry of extension and how it affected the compressional abric in the northern apennines analysis of the collected data has revealed a complex geometry for the extension across the belt a geological cross section from the island of elba to the west of the italian peninsula to ancona in the east as well as a geodynamic model for the evolution of the northern apennines is presented and discussed from the early miocene stretching of the collision thickened crust created a n s rift which evolved into the present northern tyrrhenian sea typically two sets of extensional faults a low angle e dipping and a w dipping one are observed across the chain usually the w dipping faults have similar attitudes to those of the older reverse faults reactivating some of the thrusts as normal faults the e dipping normal faults however cut down section through the pre existing thrusts and in the internal part of the belt accommodate most of the displacement associated with extension a change in fault polarity occurs in the tuscan region and major faults dip towards the west a type subduction of the apulian crust under the corso sardinian block occurred after collision leading to the delamination of the apulian lithospheric mantle away from the crust collision induced delamination of the mantle lithosphere away from the zone of collision resulted in mechanical thinning of the lithosphere beneath the orogenic belt this process induced late orogenic crustal stretching in the internal zone of the northern apennines as the convergence between the apulian and corso sardinian blocks continued the extensional and compressional fronts accompanied by the delamination migrated from the hinterland towards the foreland of the orogen

regional moment tensors of the 2009 l aquila earthquake sequence broadband waveform inversion of ground velocities in the 0 02 0 10 hz frequency band is successfully applied to 181 earthquakes with m l 3 of the april 2009 l aquila italy earthquake sequence this was made possible by the development of a new regional crustal velocity model constrained by deep crustal profiles surface wave dispersion and teleseismic p wave receiver functions and tested through waveform fit although all earthquakes exhibit normal faulting with the fault plane dipping southwest at about 55 for the majority of events a subset of events had much shallower dips the issue of confidence in the derived parameters was investigated by applying the same inversion procedure by two groups who subjectively selected different traces for inversion the unexpected difficulty in modeling the regional broadband waveforms of the mainshock as a point source was investigated through an extensive finite fault modeling of broadband velocity and accelerometer data which placed the location of major moment release up dip and about 4 7 s after the initial first arrival hypocentral parameters

the quaternary eolian sequence of madeira stratigraphy chronology and paleoenvironmental interpretation a thick ca 40 m sequence of coastal eolian sediments occurs on a narrow peninsula on the eastern end of the island of madeira located in the eastern atlantic at 33 n latitude the sediments consist of black volcanic sands with or without bioclasts as well as clay units up to 2 m thick a series of inceptisols eutrochrepts and one alfisol a hapludalf are developed in these sediments land snail shells and secondary carbonates in the form of well developed rhizoliths calcretes fissure fills and soil nodules are present in abundance the chronology of the sequence was determined by 14c and u th analyses of land snail shells and secondary carbonates and amino acid epimerization analysis of land snail shells all sediments including the clay units are originally of eolian origin derived from the beach to the south of the deposit but some have been redeposited by colluviation temporal variation in the lithology of the sediments relates to variations in sea level with black sands being deposited during lower sea level stands and clays at the lowest it is suggested that fine marine sediments exposed during low sea level stands may also be the dominant source of silty or clayey units in other coastal eolian deposits in the subtropical atlantic and mediterranean the sequence spans from 200 000 300 000 years ago up to the 20th century sedimentation was discontinuous and often rapid erosional hiatuses are present during the holocene eolian sands started accumulating at 8200 yr b p during a transgressive phase and stopped at 4500 yr b p as sea level approached its present height colluviation increased dramatically following the first human settlement of the island in the 15th century and continued up to the 20th century as dated by amino acid epimerization analysis of land snails earlier periods of colluviation were identified from the age distribution of land snail shells redeposited in younger colluvium paleoenvironmental reconstruction was based mainly on soil and sediment features including rhizolith morphology and land snail faunas but also on stable isotope variations 13c 18o in land snails and secondary carbonates pollen generally not well preserved and phytoliths most of the portion of the middle pleistocene represented in the sequence was characterized by moderately dry conditions in comparison to the late pleistocene and holocene during the last interglacial relatively wet conditions occurred wetter than during the holocene interglacial moderately moist conditions were present during the accumulation of the thick unit dating to ca 80 000 yr b p as sea level fell subsequent to this period conditions appear to have become drier starting ca 50 000 55 000 yr b p conditions were especially wet but prior to the last glacial maximum markedly arid conditions ensued toward the end of the last glacial wet conditions returned and produced the best developed soil preserved in the sequence moderately moist conditions occurred during the early to middle holocene but apparently become slightly drier after 4500 yr b p the impact of human settlement can be seen in the loss of woody vegetation and enhanced gullying and colluviation during the last ca 500 years

stable isotope composition of late glacial land snail shells from grotta del romito southern italy palaeoclimatic implications abstract stable isotope composition of living and fossil land snail shells was determined at grotta del romito southern italy with the aim to reconstruct environmental and climatic variation in the area during late upper palaeolithic the investigated succession comprised 15 different excavated layers spanning between ca 13 000 and 14 500 yr cal bp the oxygen isotope composition of snail shells indicates a marked decrease at the layer d8 suggesting a climatic deterioration consistent with the gi 1d climatic event older dryas this climate deterioration may have been related to a substantial decrease of mean annual temperature with associated changes in the regional atmospheric circulation however the environmental conditions at the time of shell s growth in the other intervals sampled suggest condition comparable to the present day the carbon isotope composition of fossil snail shells is in agreement with other records which indicate a general increase of the 13 c values of organic matter during pleniglacial to late glacial caused by substantially lower atmospheric co 2 concentration at that time

paleocene eocene climatic variation in western north america evidence from the δ18o of pedogenic hematite reconstruction of the pre pleistocene climate of continental interiors has been hampered by a lack of climatic proxies and limited temporal resolution we developed a new approach based on the oxygen isotope composition 18 o of hematite which occurs as a coating on fossil vertebrates and used this method to study climatic change across the paleocene eocene boundary in the bighorn basin wyoming hematite coatings form in soils or shallow sediments and therefore may be used to monitor near surface conditions hematite 18 o values are measured by combining selective leaching laser fluorination and mass balance calculation these values in conjunction with 18 o values for co occurring carbonates are used to assess the plausibility of published hematite water oxygen isotope fractionation relations though uncertainty remains as to the appropriate fractionation all are relatively insensitive to temperature variations thus differences in hematite 18 o values most likely reflect shifts in surface water 18 o values analysis of hematites spanning the paleocene eocene transition reveals a roughly 4 decrease in the 18 o of surface water in very early eocene time this episode probably reflects a cooling event perhaps as great as 6 c that started 0 7 m y after the terminal paleocene 13 c excursion which corresponds to a pulse of extreme marine warming following the cooling which lasted 0 6 m y temperatures rebounded to values close to those for late paleocene time the cooling episode coincides remarkably well with other indicators of environmental and climatic change from the basin such as mammalian turnover events and mean annual temperatures estimated from leaf physiognomy

an isotopic study of paleosol carbonates from olduvai gorge the isotopic composition of paleosol carbonates from olduvai gorge can be used to give estimates of the paleoclimatic history of east africa during the plio pleistocene oxygen isotopes are indicative of major changes in the isotopic composition of meteoric water while carbon isotopes are indicative of major changes in the fraction of biomass using the hatch slack c4 photosynthetic pathway three major periods of climatic change in this terrestrial setting occurred at about 1 67 1 3 and 0 6 myr these involved major changes in flora as well as major changes in the isotopic composition of meteoric water overall the climate has become warmer and more arid over the past 2 2 myr

stable isotope analyses on the last 30 ka molluscan fauna from pampa grassland bonaerense region argentina abstract fossil and living shells of terrestrial and freshwater molluscs collected from various sites in the bonaerense and patagonia regions of argentina were analysed for their stable isotope content as a possible tool for palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction the oxygen isotope composition of calcareous shell from freshwater samples was interpreted in terms of a change in moisture condition and the related evaporative effect on surficial bodies of water linked to a climatic shift the carbon isotope composition mainly records changes in biological productivity interpretation of the isotopic composition of the land snail carbonate is more complex and worldwide data from living shells have been used to decipher to some extent the palaeoenvironmental record contained in their isotopic composition overall the interpretations deduced from isotopic data of land snails as well as from nearby freshwater molluscs are quite comparable the isotopic data suggest that arid conditions occurred between 35 and 15 ka b p and warmer conditions around 35 25 ka b p a shift toward a new phase comparable with the present meteorological and climatic situation probably began around 9 ka b p and it was linked to some short but severe climatic fluctuations thus suggesting that high climatic stress characterised this period moreover a trend toward slightly arid conditions is suggested by isotopic data possibly sometimes after 5 ka the differences arising from the geographical location and the short duration of each single series studied still hamper an extensive interpretation of the isotopic data

stable isotopic evidence from paleosol carbonates and fossil teeth in greece for forest or woodlands over the past 11 ma abstract mio pliocene fluvial rocks containing buried paleosols are common in greece and turkey we used the carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonates associated with these paleosols to estimate the proportion of c3 trees shrubs and cool growing season grasses and c4 warm growing season grasses plants once present on the landscape evidence from the paleosols in well known fossil bearing formations in the lower axios valley in macedonia and from samos pikermi near athens and rhodes all show that mio pliocene vegetation was dominated by c3 plants as the entire region is today in addition nearly all paleosols contained carbonate indicating that mean annual pitation has remained under about 1 m yr during the last 11 ma the carbon isotopic evidence thus precludes the presence of serengeti type c4 grasslands favored by summer precipitation but permits c3 forest or grasses fed by winter rains or forest with mixed seasonal precipitation however there is no evidence in the published palynological records from the region for abundant grasses given these lines of evidence we suggest that dry forest and woodland largely c3 dominated the vegetation of the region c3 grasslands if present were probably of very restricted extent this reconstruction is supported by carbon isotopic evidence from fossil teeth from samos and from pasalar in nw turkey and by published evidence on masticatory morphology of turolian age ruminants from samos and pikermi our findings imply that the classic fossil bearing localities on samos and at pikermi and from the lower axios valley in macedonia were not open savannas as has been previously suggested but rather woodlands or forests

implications of the apparent 14c age of cultured achatina fulica and the spatial features of 14c ages among modern land snail shells in china abstract it has long been known that many terrestrial snail shells are subject to the so called limestone effect however the magnitude and impact of this effect on the 13c values of snail shells and soft body tissue 13cshell and 13cbody are still unknown in this study achatina fulica snails were hatched and cultured under controlled conditions and supplied with 14c free calcium carbonate and lettuce a c3 plant as a calcium source and food supply respectively the snail shells and soft body tissues were sampled monthly for 5 months and 13c and radiocarbon dating analyses were conducted to trace carbon source variations at different growth stages our results show that the apparent 14c age of the shells and the corresponding 13cshell values increased progressively from the 1st to 3rd months and subsequently decreased during the 4th and 5th months the results demonstrate for the first time that carbonate ingestion has a straightforward influence on the 14c ages and 13c values of shells and that the limestone effect changes over the lifetime of snails moreover the apparent 14c ages of snails sampled in the field are older than modern ages when taken from the northern carbonate region and relatively young or the same as modern ages when collected from ferralic soils this further supports our findings from cultured snails and suggests that snail shells are good archives for radiocarbon dating purposes in southern china although the 13c values of the soft body tissues of cultured snails vary synchronously with those of the shell this seemingly common phenomenon cannot be easily explained by carbonate ingestion as the snail bodies are of more recent origin than the shells atmospheric co2 may be another candidate explaining the synchronicity between 13cshell and 13cbody as well as the f 14c variations of snail bodies however it is still unclear how snails differentially incorporate carbon from different sources e g carbonate and atmospheric co2 at different growth stages since carbon from different sources is combined in the bicarbonate pool in the hemolymph before being used by snails

pedogenic carbonates in texas stable isotope distributions and their implications for reconstructing region wide paleoenvironments abstract pedogenic carbonates are ubiquitous in paleosols through geologic history and have been widely used to speculate on paleoclimatic conditions during their formation they are widespread and well developed in large areas of texas a majority are of late quaternary age and have formed across a range of climatic conditions on various types of substrates to evaluate the usefulness of pedogenic carbonates as environmental indicators this study investigates regional scale trends in stable isotope compositions of pedogenic carbonates across approximately 900 km of texas the 13c values of 49 pedogenic carbonate profiles 182 analyses on various host strata e g limestone igneous rocks range from 10 6 to 0 7 v pdb most 13c values are evenly distributed between 9 and 1 and the 18o values range from 9 1 to 0 2 v pdb mainly between 6 and 2 there is no correlation between carbon and oxygen isotopic values r2 0 0002 pedogenic carbonates in the texas gulf coastal plains southern high plains and west texas exhibit higher 13c values than those in south and central texas which corresponds to the spatial change in vegetation between c4 dominated and c3 dominated plants the marked increase in 13c values of the pedogenic carbonates from the tertiary strata into the overlying quaternary strata confirms the invasion of a c4 biomass into the southern high plains since the early pliocene from east to west the 18o values of late quaternary pedogenic carbonates decrease gradually a trend that mimics the spatial variation of 18o values of modern meteoric water primarily due to the increased distance from the gulf of mexico source of most of the meteoric water in contrast to the regional trends the stable isotope values of some pedogenic carbonates developed on marine limestone and calcareous alluvium in central texas and south texas have isotopic signatures inherited from the host strata in addition some of the 13c values of pedogenic carbonate nodules in the gulf coastal plains have been affected by saline groundwater soil carbonates formed in the shallow parts of the profile such as petrocalcic horizons may have also been influenced by the atmospheric co2 nevertheless climatic trends are readily apparent in the isotopic data thus demonstrating their potential value in region wide paleoclimatic analyses

monitoring the earthquake source process in north america with the implementation of the usgs national earthquake information center prompt assessment of global earthquakes for response system pager rapid determination of earthquake moment magnitude is essential especially for earthquakes that are felt within the contiguous united states we report an implementation of moment tensor processing for application to broad seismically active areas of north america this effort focuses on the selection of regional crustal velocity models codification of data quality tests and the development of procedures for rapid computation of the seismic moment tensor we systematically apply these techniques to earthquakes with reported magnitude greater than 3 5 in continental north america that are not associated with a tectonic plate boundary using the 0 02 0 10 hz passband we can usually determine with few exceptions moment tensor solutions for earthquakes with m w as small as 3 7 the threshold is significantly influenced by the density of stations the location of the earthquake relative to the seismic stations and of course the signal to noise ratio with the existing permanent broadband stations in north america operated for rapid earthquake response the seismic moment tensor of most earthquakes that are m w 4 or larger can be routinely computed as expected the nonuniform spatial pattern of these solutions reflects the seismicity pattern however the orientation of the direction of maximum compressive stress and the predominant style of faulting is spatially coherent across large regions of the continent

stable isotopic composition of carbonates in quaternary sediments of the skala podil ska sequence ukraine abstract stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen in carbonates from quaternary sediments sequence of skala podil ska in podolia were studied samples were collected from two loess with fossil soils packages from lacustrine loams separated them and from the underlying alluvium the isotopic analysis was carried out on the bulk loess fossil soils and loam samples calcitic concretions and other detrital and auhigenic forms of carbonates rhizocretions these are thin tubes lined by micrite empty or filled by root fragments with calcified cells and calcified cortex of the roots variation in carbon isotopic composition of soil and loess samples depends on the 13c 12c ratios of authigenic and detrital caco3 containing components therefore the carbon isotopic composition of rhizocretions affected bulk isotopic composition of loess and soils likewise the isotopic composition of lithoclasts and bioclasts influence the isotopic composition of carbonates from the loams of lacustrine like subsequence the 13c as well as 18o values for concretions from all the analysed horizons in the sequence fell within a very narrow range this suggests that carbonate concretions and rhizocretions were formed under roughly similar conditions with considerable supply of soil co2 to the groundwater bicarbonate the smallest 13c value obtained for calcified root cortex for calcite precipitated directly inside the root structure may indicate mineralization of c3 plants

carbon dioxide in the paleozoic atmosphere evidence from carbon isotope compositions of pedogenic carbonate stable carbon isotope compositions of pedogenic carbonate occurring in three clay rich vertic paleosols within paleozoic red bed successions in central pennsylvania provide a record of past pedogenic environments and can be used to estimate co sub 2 pressure p sub co sub 2 of the paleozoic atmosphere the delta sup 13 c values of carbonate nodules from paleosols in the deltaic lower bloomsburg formation upper silurian reflect the contribution of carbon from marine groundwater or fossils coupled with low biological activity the delta sup 13 c values of carbonate rhizocretions from stratigraphically high paleosols in the bloomsburg formation and in the alluvial catskill upper devonian and mauch chunk upper mississippian formations suggest an extensive c sub 3 flora and significant contribution of atmospheric co sub 2 paleozoic atmospheric co sub 2 levels inferred from delta sup 13 c of pedogenic carbonate are significantly higher than present levels

oxygen isotope dating of the australian regolith australia has had a long and complex history of intense surficial weathering and this has led to the extensive development of laterites bauxites and deeply weathered profiles of a variety of ages across the continent1 2 a detailed knowledge of the age s of such weathering phenomena is of great importance for the reconstruction of australia s post palaeozoic geomorphic and palaeoclimatic history however in many instances absolute geo chronological information is not obtainable using conventional techniques here we describe and evaluate a new method that can provide an estimate of the age of intensely weathered profiles based on the oxygen isotope composition of minerals developed by deep weathering lateritization processes this method allows the definition of four ages of weathering in eastern australia from the late palaeozoic to the present and suggests that some profiles previously thought to be late cretaceous or tertiary in age may be of pre late mesozoic age the oxygen isotope data indicate that the minerals used in this study have retained their original isotopic composition for periods of up to 250 million years despite the continued presence of meteoric waters of progressively higher 18o content during this interval

stable carbon and oxygen isotopes of pedogenic carbonates ajo mountains southern arizona implications for paleoenvironmental change abstract in this study we compare the stable isotope composition of late holocene pedogenic carbonate from a late holocene soil developed on the pediment below the ajo mountains in southern arizona usa with measurements of the 18 o of the soil water throughout the seasonal cycle and with 18 o and 13 c measurements on older dated soils the comparison with the soil water composition shows that the pedogenic carbonate is forming in equilibrium with highly evaporated soil water at the highest summer temperatures the 13 c of the carbonate apparently reflects equilibrium with co 2 of an isotopic composition consistent with the present mixture of c3 desert shrubs and cam cactus comparison with glacial period soil carbonates shows that there has been little change in the 18 o but that the 13 c was about 4 5 heavier independent evidence indicates that glacial period summer temperatures were probably much cooler and that the 18 o of precipitation was also lighter the increase in the carbonate water fractionation factor with decreasing temperature probably counteracted the decrease in the 18 o of precipitation producing little net change in the 18 o of the soil carbonate we attribute the decrease in the 13 c to replacement of a glacial period c4 grassland by holocene c3 cam desert shrubs and succulents this replacement was probably in response to an increase in temperature and reduction in summer precipitation at the end of the last glacial period the 13 c of older soil carbonates indicates that landscape was dominated by grassland for most of the past 700 ka and that the present vegetation likely represents a relatively brief anomaly

real time determination of seismic moment tensor for the italian region this work has been funded by the 2005 2007 dpc s4 and 2008 2010 dpc s3 italian civil protection contracts

paleosol nodules as pleistocene paleoclimatic indicators luochuan p r china abstract loess deposits with their interbedded paleosols in central china record the world wide climatic changes of the past 2 5 ma the carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of carbonate nodules in a loess profile at luochuan record paleoclimatic and paleoecologic conditions of paleosol formation interglacial periods during the past several 100 000 years it appears that the climatic and ecologic conditions during different periods of paleosol s 1 s 8 formation interglacial periods were very similar at luochuan and are marked by a presence of a mixed c 3 and c 4 type flora or mixed grass and wood and or shrublands

stable isotope record in mollusca and pedogenic carbonate from late pliocene soils of central italy abstract the late pliocene younger than 2 5 ma alluvial fan succession of toppetti quarry near todi umbria central italy includes many palaeosols pedogenic carbonate concretions and mollusc remains were separated from 73 palaeosols collected along 150 m of exposure and analysed for their oxygen and carbon stable isotope content 13c and 18o of the pedogenic carbonate and land snail shells suggest that no dramatic change in local climate took place values of the pedogenic carbonates are similar to other data reported for the mediterranean region 18o data suggest a mean annual temperature and or 18o similar to modern climatic conditions carbon isotope data from both land snails and pedogenic carbonate are consistent with a prevailing type c3 vegetation a mixture of forest and c3 grassland sustained by a mean annual precipitation between 300 and 1000 mm mainly in the cool periods of the year seems to be the most likely scenario the limited variation shown by the isotope composition of the biogenic and inorganically precipitated carbonate indicates that the environmental variations are referable mainly to change of humidity rather than temperature

paleoclimatology of the casas del rincon villafranchian series spain from stable isotope data abstract stable isotope analyses were performed on 49 samples of lacustrine carbonate and 69 samples of carbonatic shells of both aquatic and terrestrial gastropods from the pliocene series of casas del rincon jucar river area spain in agreement with the paleontological data the isotope results indicate that the series was deposited under variable climatic and environmental conditions when compared with the paleoclimatic evolution idicated by marine series in western mediterranean area the series of casas del rincon appears to record the marked climatic deterioration which took place about 3 1 3 2 m y ago a chronological succession is proposed for the faunistic events of the studied series the rincon 1 vertebrate fauna is probably 2 5 2 6 m y old

carbon and oxygen isotope composition of shell carbonate of desert land snails abstract variation in 13 c 12 c and 18 o 16 o ratios in the shell carbonate of several species of land snails was studied along a climatic gradient in semi arid to arid areas in the southern levant 13 c was found to be enriched in snails from communities having plants with a c 4 photosynthetic pathway depleted 13 c values were found in areas with high mean annual rainfall apparently due to higher input of metabolic co 2 as a result of greater snail activity shell carbonate 18 o values show a weak relation to the 18 o values of rainwater the shell 18 o values are enriched by 2 8 relative to isotopic equilibrium with environmental waters enrichment is suggested to result from metabolic effects on body water with lower activity producing greater enrichment but evaporation could also be a factor consistent differences in both 13 c and 18 o were found among species and may relate to the time when shell deposition occurs as with most paleoenvironmental indicators the application of shell isotopes is complicated by the multiplicity of controls of isotopic composition

oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of modern terrestrial gastropod shells from lipari island aeolian archipelago sicily abstract oxygen 18os and stable carbon 13cs isotopic compositions of modern terrestrial gastropod shells from lipari island in the aeolian archipelago sicily have been analysed and compared with local meteoric water 18o 18op and vegetation 13c 13cv respectively results reveal that the 18os 18op relationship over the study area differs from those obtained on continental europe and italian shells implying that even at the scale of the mediterranean basin different relationships may co exist these differences have been interpreted as the increasing influence of mediterranean vapour water on tyrrhenian coasts at relatively low altitude up to 600 m asl which compensates for the effect of the 18op and possibly of temperature on shell 18o the steady state flux balance model fbm in agreement with previous studies suggests that snails are active prevalently at night shell carbon isotope ratios reflect the 13cv as predicted by the metabolic model and represent a valuable tool for identifying c3 plants with very distinct isotopic signatures

a late pleistocene refugium in mediterranean north africa palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from stable isotope analyses of land snail shells haua fteah libya abstract the late pleistocene to holocene archaeological record of north africa is key to understanding the emergence of anatomically modern humans into west asia and europe and the broadening of subsistence strategies in the shift from hunter gatherer to pastoral agricultural lifeways some contend that these developments were modulated by major shifts in climate and environment evaluation of this hypothesis requires the pairing of local and regional climate records with well dated archaeological sequences the haua fteah archaeological site in the gebel akhdar region of libya provides a key site to test this hypothesis as the cave contains one of the longest and most complete sequences of human occupation in north africa as well as abundant material for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction this study uses stable isotope analyses 18o and 13c of the terrestrial mollusc helix melanostoma to construct a palaeoenvironmental framework for interpreting north african human environment interactions from the upper palaeolithic to the neolithic 30 000 to 5000 years ago the land snail stable isotope records from haua fteah suggests that cool arid conditions in the cave peaked during marine isotope stage mis 2 this stage was however only marginally drier than previous and subsequent stages and coincided with an increase in occupation density in the cave this suggests that the gebel akhdar may have served as an environmental refugium from the more extreme aridity in the surrounding sahara and arid coastal plains for late stone age lsa populations in north africa conditions became progressively wetter towards the holocene however generally wetter conditions were interrupted by two arid episodes at c 8 0 ka and 7 3 ka that appear to coincide with regional changes reflected elsewhere in the mediterranean basin

late pliocene northern hemisphere glaciations the continental and marine responses in the central mediterranean abstract detailed pollen analyses and oxygen isotope records of three foraminiferal species globigerina bulloides uvigerina peregrina and cibicides pachyderma from the semaforo and vrica composite sections crotone southern italy have been compared to the global climatic changes depicted by late pliocene early pleistocene foraminiferal 18o records of site 607 in the north atlantic and hole 653a in the tyrrhenian basin west mediterranean major overturns in the mid altitude vegetation are shown near isotopic stages 82 60 58 and 50 at about 2 03 ma 1 6 ma and 1 37 ma according to the raymo et al 1989 and ruddiman et al 1989 timescales at the same dates glacial 18o maxima either became higher or display step increases in the western mediterranean or in the open ocean as well this suggests that size increases of northern hemisphere ice sheets were the driving factor for regional or local marine and continental environmental changes within the mediterranean basin near isotopic stages 62 60 close to the conventional plio pleistocene boundary the climatic conditions severed enough within the mediterranean basin to modify the continental environment as depicted by a sudden increase of artemisia percentages while the first significant southward migration of the north polar front may have been recorded by an influx of left coiling neogloboquadrina pachyderma in the central mediterranean it also appears that boreal guests entered the mediterranean during phases of 18o enrichment of foraminiferal calcite there does not seem to be any discrepancy between the climatic concept of the pliocene pleistocene boundary and its chronostratigraphic definition

stable carbon and oxygen isotopic variations in modern rabdotus land snail shells in the southern great plains usa and their relation to environment abstract variations of stable isotopic ratios of carbon 13c 12c and oxygen 18o 16o were investigated in modern shells of two species of rabdotus land snails r dealbatus and r alternatus in the southern great plains geographic variation in relation to climate and vegetation microgeographic variation variability among individuals and detailed records of seasonal variations within individual shells were studied stable carbon isotopic ratios in shell carbonate are primarily a function of the isotopic composition of the diet of the snails as represented by the isotopic composition of shell organic matter this in turn reflects the presence or absence of cam crassulacean acid metabolism or c4 plants vegetation density may have a small effect on the carbon isotope ratios microgeographic variation samples within 25 to 300 m is greater than that seen across different climatic regions and points to very local control of isotopic variations predominantly related to vegetation seasonal variations as assessed through serial analysis of individual shells up to 35 samples per shell may provide a means for distinguishing between isotopic influences of perennial cam vs annual c4 plants carbon isotopic variations in time series of shells from a site provide a means of reconstructing temporal changes in environment and climate oxygen isotopic values of shell carbonate are uniform across the region and also show no significant microgeographic variation the oxygen isotopic composition appears to be mainly a function of the rainwater isotopic composition with no direct influence of rainfall amount or evaporative effects the 18o values are only 2 enriched relative to estimated equilibrium with rainwater variability is low sd of 0 8 among sites so the isotopic composition of fossil rabdotus shells can provide a precise record of changes in the isotopic composition of rain over time

stable carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of modern land snails along a precipitation gradient in the mid latitude east asian monsoon region of china abstract the stable oxygen and carbon isotope composition 18oshell and 13cshell of land snail shells preserved in chinese eolian loess deposits have the potential to reconstruct past changes in the east asian summer monsoon easm since the late oligocene to assess the potential of 18oshell and 13cshell for the semi quantitative reconstruction of past variations of the easm we studied modern snails and the corresponding vegetation composition of three distinct ecosystems woodland grassland and mountains spanning a large rainfall gradient 178 1403 mm in the mid latitude east asian monsoon region the results show that different snail species in the three ecosystems have significantly different values of 18oshell and 13cshell the snails in woodland from the eastern plain area have significantly lower 18oshell and 13cshell values than those of snails in grassland from the chinese loess plateau and the snails from the qinba mountains region have values intermediate between the two systematic variations of the 13c of snail shells body tissues and local plants are evident along the rainfall gradient indicating that 13cshell is mainly influenced by the 13c of ingested plants which is controlled by the easm we confirm that 13cshell is a reliable precipitation proxy and we obtained a new empirical equation 13cshell 0 0030 0 0003 map 8 80 0 32 r 0 76 n 74 p

background seismicity in the central apennines of italy the abruzzo region case study abstract we investigate background seismic activity of the abruzzo region a 5000 km2 area located within the central apennines of italy where in the past 600 years at least 5 large earthquakes i xi x have occurred between april 2003 and september 2004 a dense temporary seismic network composed of 30 digital three component seismic stations recorded 850 earthquakes with 0 9 the seismicity occurs at a low and constant rate of 2 6 e 04 events day km2 and is sparsely distributed within the first 15 km of the crust minor increases in the seismicity rate are related to the occurrence of small and localised seismic sequences that occur at the tip of major active normal faults along secondary structures we observe that during the 16 months of study period the fucino fault system responsible for the 1915 fucino earthquake ms 7 0 and the major normal faults of the area did not produce significant seismic activity fault plane solutions evaluated using p wave polarity data show the predominance of normal faulting mechanisms 55 with ne trending direction of extension coherent with the regional stress field active in this sector of the apennines around 27 of the focal solutions have pure strike slip mechanisms and the rest shows transtensional faulting mechanisms that mainly characterise the kinematics of the secondary structures activated by the small sequences we hypothesize that the largest known nw trending normal faults are presently locked and we propose that in the case of activation the secondary structures located at their tips may act as transfer faults accommodating a minor part of the extensional deformation with strike slip motion

stable isotope composition of the carbonate concretion in loess and climate change carbonate concretions are commonly found in the loess in china oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions of carbonate concretions collected from 14 different paleosols s1 s14 in the lishi formation of luochuan loess section china were analysed the isotopic compositions of concretion in loess are useful tools in paleoclimatic study usually the more developed the paleosol is the less negative the 18o values and the more negative the 13c values are the oxygen isotopic composition of these paleosols varies within a range of about 1 3 the carbon isotopic composition however shows larger variations from one paleosol to the other within a range of 5 3 an attempt was made to semi quantitatively estimate the paleosol formation temperature and precipitation based on the carbon and oxygen isotopic data obtained

early pleistocene palynostratigraphy of fornace tini valle ricca central italy abstract pollen assemblages of a well dated marine section fornace tini in central italy were studied the section covers a time span of about 300 000 years between 2 1 m y reunion event and 1 8 m y ago olduvai event assuming a constant sedimentation rate intervals of 3000 to 6000 years were sampled around the reunion event a cool mountain forest vegetation prevailed in valle ricca the climate improved afterwards a shift of the coast line caused by a sea level rise can be deduced from the expansion of coastal forests in a warmer period following the reunion event another climatic deterioration followed as is shown by high amounts of pollen from a mountain conifer forest at the base of olduvai the coastal forest with thermophilous plants starts to expand again marking the onset of another mild period

palaeoclimatological reconstruction using stable isotope data on continental molluscs from valle di castiglione roma italy thirty molluscan shells from twenty levels from the first 4 5 m of a long core drilled in the crater lake of valle di castiglione near rome have been analysed for their oxygen and carbon stable isotope compositions the investigated portion of the core covers the last 14 2 ka bp the large range in 18o 11 suggests that hydrological conditions exercise the main control on the isotopic composition of the biogenic carbonate in the valle di castiglione palaeolake samples younger than about 5 ka show a marked 18o depletion which we attribute to the onset of a temperate wet climate corresponding to the maximum of humidity isotopic results are in good agreement with pollen analyses and prove to be a sensitive tool for reconstructing quaternary climatic evolution from the continental lacustrine sediments of central italy