channel margins in a pennsylvanian braided fluvial deposit the morien group near sydney nova scotia canada abstract braided fluvial deposits in the pennsylvanian morien group contain an unusual association of erosional features at contacts between sandstone and mudstone units which represent flat lying to vertical channel margins mudstone intraclasts up to 2 m in diameter form lensoid lags at channel bases and are interpreted as bank collapse rubble flutes on vertical channel walls channel floors and intraclasts indicate active flow whereas rills on steep surfaces resulted from downslope drainage over the edges of banks or mudclasts delicate plumose patterns on vertical fracture surfaces modified by flow formed during cracking of the muds by desiccation and bank collapse scoured desiccation cracks are common on flat lying surfaces where flow parallel linear scours 50 cm deep may have expl ited orthogonal desiccation cracks the channel margin features described here require deposition and subsequent reworking of cohesive fines on high topographic levels of a fluvial system due to alternating periods of flooding and subaerial exposure braided and ephemeral river systems with variable discharge are likely to provide the most suitable setting for these features

the 1976 friuli ne italy thrust faulting earthquake a reappraisal 23 years later we revisit the 1976 friuli earthquake sequence by combining hypocenters relocation long period surface wave inversion field geology and strong motion modelling we show that fault related folding is the main active deformation by which the seismic energy was released during the main shock ms 6 5 and that some of the surface effects reported in 1976 correspond to widespread bedding planes displacements induced by flexural slip folding the fault evolved from blind to semi blind along strike showing the control of the inherited structural geology on the fault surface break and rupture arrest our fault model produces waveforms that fit the accelerograms recorded in the area

submerged tidal notches in the rijeka bay ne adriatic sea indicators of relative sea level change and of recent tectonic movements abstract the rijeka bay coast is formed predominately in carbonate rocks due to relatively sheltered position processes of bioerosion dominate while mechanical wave action has low impact biological zone limits in rijeka bay are well expressed and they reflect the local biological mean sea level bmsl therefore they were used as referent levels for measurement of submerged tidal notch position these in situ biological indicators could be more useful than sea level mareograph data well developed tidal notches are permanently submerged and quite ubiquitous in the whole rijeka bay area that is they are situated in the infralittoral zone they have elongated asymmetric shape inasmuch as the roof top of the notches is well preserved they were correlated with well defined biological zone limit upper limit of white we zone sensu schneider j 1976 biological and inorganic factor in the destruction of limestone coast contributions to sedimentology 6 1 11 results of survey showed that in most of the area tidal notches are located 50 60 cm below bmsl however within the bakar bay notches are from 103 to 115 cm below bmsl regional occurrence of well preserved tidal notches at 0 5 0 6 m below bmsl indicates their possible coseismic origin rapid tectonic subsidence deeper positions of tidal notches in the northeastern part of rijeka bay and within bakar bay indicate enhanced subsidence of that zone which is assumed to be the most seismotectonicaly active

tectonic effects on late holocene sea level changes in the gulf of trieste ne adriatic sea italy abstract a multidisciplinary approach has been used to evaluate late holocene relative sea level change along the eastern coast of the gulf of trieste published data together with new 14 c dating have been compared with predicted curves in order to evaluate the tectonic behaviour of the studied area observations derived from precise geomorphological archaeological and sedimentological measurements dated from 10 ka cal sampled at elevations ranging between 25 and 0 10 m tectonic rates range from 1 01 mm y gulf of trieste and 1 99 mm y villaggio del pescatore but are probably higher in the northwestern sector where the elevation of post roman geomorphological markers is lower a detailed surveying of notches beachrocks submerged shore platforms and the geological setting of the coastal area highlight the variability of tectonic subsidence indicated by geophysical data collected in the central part of the gulf analyzed data indicate active tectonism the tectonic setting of the northernmost sector is affected by the presence of strike slip faults which cause differential downdrop of the shoreline as suggested by significant increases of notch depths ranging between 1 0 m and 2 7 m

a seismic source zone model for the seismic hazard assessment of the italian territory abstract we designed a new seismic source model for italy to be used as an input for country wide probabilistic seismic hazard assessment psha in the frame of the compilation of a new national reference map we started off by reviewing existing models available for italy and for other european countries then discussed the main open issues in the current practice of seismogenic zoning the new model termed zs9 is largely based on data collected in the past 10 years including historical earthquakes and instrumental seismicity active faults and their seismogenic potential and seismotectonic evidence from recent earthquakes this information allowed us to propose new interpretations for poorly understood areas where the new data are in conflict with assumptions made in designing the previous and widely used model zs4 zs9 is made out of 36 zones where earthquakes with m w 5 are expected it also assumes that earthquakes with m w up to 5 may occur anywhere outside the seismogenic zones although the associated probability is rather low special care was taken to ensure that each zone sampled a large enough number of earthquakes so that we could compute reliable earthquake production rates although it was drawn following criteria that are standard practice in psha zs9 is also innovative in that every zone is characterised also by its mean seismogenic depth the depth of the crustal volume that will presumably release future earthquakes and predominant focal mechanism their most likely rupture mechanism these properties were determined using instrumental data and only in a limited number of cases we resorted to geologic constraints and expert judgment to cope with lack of data or conflicting indications these attributes allow zs9 to be used with more accurate regionalized depth dependent attenuation relations and are ultimately expected to increase significantly the reliability of seismic hazard estimates

origin of shore normal channels from the shoreface of sable island canada a suite of modern shore normal channels was discovered on the southern shoreface of sable island canada repetitive multibeam and sidescan surveys of these features as well as box coring and sampling showed that the depressions were perennial features of the shoreface they occurred in fine and medium sand and were most abundant in depths less than 20 m they were up to 1 m deep and 50 m wide increased in size seawards and generally followed the seabed slope the channels dominated the inner shoreface becoming wider and deeper seawards to depths in excess of 40 m there is a continuum of scales in width and depth of these channels the smallest of which are equated with gutters preserved in the geological record the internal structure of the shoreface sediments where the gutters are found is characterised by normally graded tempestites composed of cut and fill structures overlying an erosion surface thus the environmental setting internal structure and scale are similar to ancient counterparts gutters have been interpreted to result from downwelling over palaeo shorefaces during ancient storms myrow 1992b the composition of gutter infill as well as the stability evolution associated bedforms and hydrodynamic conditions under which they formed were examined to verify genetic interpretations of the ancient counterparts the multi sensor benthic lander ralph was deployed within a field of shore normal channels for 17 days during late winter 1998 ralph burst sampled flow at hourly intervals whilst imaging the seabed resulting sequential imagery revealed the genesis of a group of five gutters during storm spin down that was coincident with the formation of large scale wave ripples this was followed by infilling of the gutters and wave ripple destruction within 20 hours by longshore sand transport the gutters were located within and parallel to a larger channel 50 m wide and 0 50 m deep they were formed by coastal set up and subsequent downwelling that was triggered by the rotation of storm winds from seawards onshore wind to landwards offshore wind the gutters formed within 2 to 3 hours during spin down of a winter storm under live bed conditions of sand transport wave height and mean tidal flows were well below those of the storm peak and so they were not directly responsible for creating the gutters the mechanism we propose for the evolution of gutters supports the geological interpretations that is a storm driven downwelling event as described by swift and niedoroda 1985 however the downwelling event appeared to take place suddenly rapid acceleration in flow briefly few hours duration and within narrow corridors guided by wider and deeper channels of the shoreface high turbidity during the time of gutter formation leads us to believe that the phenomenon of inner shelf turbidity currents as suggested by walker 1985 exists and may be instrumental in channel formation

geodetic constraints to the kinematics of the kapareli fault reactivated during the 1981 gulf of corinth earthquakes abstract comparison of historical and of post seismic triangulation data is used to model vertical crustal movements in the vicinity of the kapareli fault or the alkynonides earthquakes north fault one of the two antithetic normal faults which reactivated during the 1981 gulf of corinth ms 6 7 earthquakes this fault is characterized by a much smaller geomorphological signature than the south or perachora fault of the same seismic sequence analysis of geodetic data on the basis of polynomial filtering and elastic dislocation modelling as well as analysis of structural and coastal change data permits us to conclude that the upper bound in the uncertainty level of most of the available elevation changes is 20 30 cm usually lower than the corresponding dislocation signal in addition the available geodetic data have a systematic pattern and are consistent with structural data for this reason they permit more precise constraints on the geometry and the role of the kapareli fault or the alkyonides earthquakes north fault its total length is estimated about 17 km about 50 longer than its surface trace about 30 40 cm subsidence of its hanging wall as well as at least 15 cm maximum uplift of its footwall is also inferred this new evidence suggests that although in the long term the kapareli fault may represent a rather secondary antithetic fault to the alkyonides earthquakes south perachora fault during the 1981 earthquakes it probably had a more important structural role

earthquake clustering in the eastern mediterranean during historical times most coastal sectors which show evidence of holocene coseismic uplift in greece and the eastern mediterranean were raised during a short period called here the early byzantine tectonic paroxysm ebtp between the middle of the fourth and the middle of the sixth century a d the areas uplifted at that time include cephalonia and zante in the ionian islands lechaion and the perachora peninsula in the gulf of corinth the pelion coast of thessaly antikythira and the whole of western crete a coastal sector near alanya in southern turkey and the entire levant coast from hatay turkey to syria and the lebanon the amount of the ebtp uplift was generally between 0 5 m and 1 0 m but reached a maximum of about 9 m in southwestern crete in several areas zante pelion coast antikythira western crete alanya the ebtp uplifted shoreline is the only evidence of holocene emergence in other areas however a similar uplift occurred earlier in the holocene levant coast or more recently cephalonia evidence of preseismic subsidence prior to the ebtp uplift has been reported from thessaly antikythira and crete in both the latter islands the ebtp uplift was preceded by a series of about 10 coseismic small subsidence movements each measuring some tens of centimeters which took place in the preceding 3000 years no evidence was observed of postseismic vertical displacements

post roman sea level changes on pag island adriatic sea dating croatia s enigmatic coastal notch abstract the presence of a regional wide notch 45 to 115 cm below present biological mean sea level bmsl along the adriatic coast of croatia at a string of sites between zadar and rijeka provides evidence for a rapid but poorly constrained subsidence event s after roman times for more than a century this geomorphological tidal level indicator has attracted rich scientific debate but many unresolved questions remain in this paper we present new results from caska bay pag island looking at notch morphology and holocene salt marsh stratigraphy to constrain the chronology of this crustal deformation on pag island the typical salt marsh stratigraphy comprises low to high salt marsh muds interjected by an unconformable marine layer which lies between 50 and 100 cm bmsl consistent with an abrupt transgression the palaeoecological record shows an abrupt shift in assemblages across the salt marsh mud sand sediment contact translating abrupt coastal changes geochronological data constrain this event to around 1000 to 1200 cal ad the altitude of the layer is coeval with the submerged notch attested on limestone cliffs around the bay the u shape of the notch profile coupled with the sharp palaecological contacts and submerged roman pier implies that sea level rise was episodic and not gradual as suggested by regional numerical models together our findings shed new light on the chronology of the enigmatic croatian notch on the island of pag and highlight the need to couple geomorphological studies of rocky coasts with high resolution sediment records

relative sea level change in western istria croatia during the last millennium relative sea level change occurred along the western coast of the istrian peninsula in croatia sediments from two cores located in the bay of santa marina and soline bay have been analyzed for microfaunal and sedimentological investigations chronostratigraphical evidence was obtained from 14c dating of lagoonal shells gastropods from the sedimentological and paleo environmental analysis 4300 years of continuous deposition in a shallow marine environment was determined at around 550 cal bp marine sedimentation changed to continental consequently the initial sedimentation rate of 0 7 mm y changed to 2 36 mm y after 550 cal bp those upper deposits of continental origin are today partly submerged the data were further compared with a geophysical model which allows the prediction of the local sea level curve as the results from the cores are largely below the curve tectonic subsidence of the area is confirmed radiocarbon analysis allowed the age of the shells to be related to the age of the submerged tidal notch that occurs almost continuously some hundreds of meters south eastwards from the gulf of trieste to the dalmatian coast

subsidence and evolution of the thessaloniki plain greece based on historical leveling and gps data comparison of historical leveling and of recent gps data reveal that the wider thessaloniki plain north greece a 2500 years old delta has subsided in the last 50 years up to 3 5 m these results are consistent with independent estimates of subsidence in the suburbs of thessaloniki and testify to a plain wide effect rather localized increased subsidence resulting from hydrocompaction due to intense pumping is superimposed on the plain wide subsidence the latter seems to mimic the long term tendency of landscape change as the correlation between recent surface deformation and deformation derived from boreholes reveals furthermore differential subsidence seems to control the flow of rivers and the overall morphology of the delta the significance and necessity of geoid corrections in the comparison of historical and gps data is also indicated

leakage below dam sites in limestone terrains by enhanced karstification a modeling approach unnaturally high hydraulic gradients below dam sites enhance dissolutional widening of fractures in limestone a model is presented which suggests that under unfavorable conditions leakage rates could become unbearably high during the lifetime of the dam at the beginning when water is impounded leakage rates are low and increase slowly a positive feedback loop however causes a sudden dramatic increase of leakage within a few years deep grouting becomes necessary to prevent such failures inefficiencies in grouting may leave some open fractures in the grouting curtain these fractures widen faster than pathways below the grouting curtain and reduce the effect of the grouted region located below therefore open fractures act in a similar way as reduction of the grouting depth

a 125 kyr long geological record of seismic source repeatability the messina straits southern italy and the 1908 earthquake ms7 2 the occurrence of characteristic earthquakes along segments of major active belts has been described as early as the beginning of the century the large 1908 messina straits blind normal faulting earthquake provides an opportunity to investigate the repetition of characteristic earthquakes and the persistency of the main features of the fault zone over a time scale in the order of 100 kyr we have compared seismological and geodetic descriptions of the 1908 rupture process with long term crustal deformation recorded at different stratigraphic levels by marine terraces marine sedimentary units and landscape features the wealth of elevated coastal features in and around a region affected by large normal faulting earthquakes indicates that coseismic strain is superimposed on much faster uplift on a regional scale we investigated in detail the pattern of deformation of the 125 kyr old lowest emergent terrace and found that it mimics the pattern of elevation changes observed following the earthquake this suggests 1 that the 1908 earthquake is characteristic 2 that its segment boundaries have been stationary during the past 125 kyr and 3 that even the locations of the regions of largest coseismic release do not change through many seismic cycles based on a comparison between observed heights of the 125 kyr terrace and 1908 displacements we estimated an average repeat time of 1000 yr for a 1908 type earthquake we also investigated the height position age and state of deformation of older terraces and found 1 that uplift of the region started about 1 ma and has since continued rather uniformly at 0 9 1 4 mm yr 1 2 that during this time the straits have narrowed at a rate of 10 20 mm yr 1 and 3 that all the main geomorphic features of the messina straits result from the interaction of fast regional uplift 1908 type coseismic subsidence and global sea level fluctuations

landscape and depositional controls on palaeosols of a distributive fluvial system upper cretaceous brazil abstract the stratigraphic record of distributive fluvial systems is commonly characterised by frequent and complex interstratification of palaeosols among channel and overbank deposits however current models focus primarily on sedimentation and pay only limited attention to palaeopedogenesis thereby failing to incorporate important palaeoenvironmental and stratigraphic information this study proposes a pedosedimentary model for distributive fluvial systems that depicts and accounts for two palaeopedogenetic trends one downdip in relation to distality from the fan apex and one along strike in relation to distance from active channel belts palaeosols are reported in detail from an upper cretaceous succession of the bauru basin southeastern brazil through the application of macro micromorphological and geochemical studies combined with facies and architectural element analyses of sediments in the downdip palaeopedogenetic trend the proximal zone of the depositional system is characterised by a dominance of well drained inceptisols that develop on amalgamated channel fills in the medial zone inceptisols occur interlayered with overbank deposits containing entisols and poorly drained vertisols the distal zone preserves more mature and poorly drained inceptisols developed on deposits of overbank and sporadic distal channel fills these pedotypes show an increase in maturity and hydromorphism moving away from the apex to the fan toe this is likely linked to i the progressive approach of the topographic surface to the water table and ii the average increase in distance to an active channel belt in distal locations the along strike palaeopedogenetic trend culminates in poorly developed palaeosols in floodplain regions that correspond to topographic depressions located between channel belts and which were subject to recurrent floods because palaeopedogenesis in the floodplain region is penecontemporaneous to sedimentation pedotypes show an increase in maturity bioinduced calcification and hydromorphism with distance from the active channels they pass laterally from entisols and inceptisols near active channels to vertisols away from active channels conversely following avulsion abandoned channel belts remain as topographically elevated alluvial ridges located at some distance from the newly active channels and positioned above the water table and this leads to the development of better drained and better developed inceptisols relative to pedotypes of the floodplain region overall both palaeopedogenetic trends demonstrate the overriding controls of topography sedimentation rate and parent material on pedogenesis with only minor climatic influence this work offers a novel pedosedimentary model for distributive fluvial systems and highlights the palaeoenvironmental significance of palaeosol trends providing new constraints for the recognition of distributive fluvial systems in the rock record

coastal uplift earthquakes and active faulting of rhodes island aegean arc modeling based on geodetic inversion the geodetic inversion technique was used to model the fault pattern responsible for the uplifted holocene notches along the ne rhodes island coast se edge of the hellenic aegean arc input in the modeling was the elevation of uplifted notches up to 6000 yr old which are interpreted to reflect remains of fossil shorelines to testify to a series of earthquakes producing both uplift and subsidence i e to elastic dislocations and to correspond to geodetic data senso lato these shorelines up to 3 8 m high were probably originally continuous along the whole of the 75 km long se rhodes coast possibly locally disturbed by minor normal faults and reflect the last phases of the uplift and tilting of the island as a rather rigid block since late pliocene their radiocarbon dating was further refined from archeological data testifying to an about 1 m subsidence associated with the 227 bc earthquake followed by 3 m seismic uplift inversion constrained by the hypothesis of a compressional fault offshore rhodes was based on standard uniform slip elastic dislocation analysis it proved to depend only weakly even on extreme glacio isostatic corrections and indicated that coastal uplift is dominated by a main compressional fault zone offshore sub parallel to the island coast with normal faults inland reflecting thin skin tectonics this fault pattern similar to that of western crete is confirmed by seismic reflection profiles indicating a major reverse close to the modeled fault and can explain 1 the occurrence of strong m 7 5 historical earthquakes producing tsunamis and destruction on an east mediterranean scale 2 the alternation of uplift and subsidence as a result of fault shift inside the same fault zone and 3 the long term uplift of the island as a rather conjugate effect of the formation of an about 4 5 km deep 5 myr old marine basin se of rhodes bounded to the nw by the modeled fault zone the seismic risk of rhodes higher in its ne part of the island and than what was previously believed is associated with strong m 7 5 earthquakes producing widespread destruction tsunamis coastal uplift and coastal subsidence

tectonic control on the sequence stratigraphy of nonmarine retroarc foreland basin fills insights from the upper jurassic of central utah u s a abstract continental successions of the north american western interior retroarc foreland basin provide an excellent opportunity to evaluate the tectonic controls on nonmarine sequence stratigraphy the transition between the upper jurassic brushy basin member anastomosed fluvial system of the morrison formation and the gravelly braided river deposits of the buckhorn conglomerate has been studied to assess the dispersal of coarse clastics and the development of associated basin wide unconformities in a sequence stratigraphic framework the sharp contact between the two members is interpreted to be conformable based on stratigraphic sedimentologic and petrologic data collected at and near cedar mountain in central utah while a regional mature paleosol at the top of the buckhorn conglomerate indicates the presence of a major sequence boundary these interpretations are combined with paleoflow data and fluvial architectural analysis to reconstruct the evolution of the alluvial equilibrium profiles that controlled deposition of the succession the buckhorn conglomerate is interpreted as an example of a post orogenic deposit on the basis of 1 its tabular geometry 2 distance from the contemporaneous thrust belt 3 shift to transverse paleoflow direction from the preceding brushy basin axial drainage 4 conformable lower contact and 5 presence of an overlying sequence boundary with a westward expanding hiatus eroding the coeval foredeep the onset of a protracted period of low rate of orthogonal convergence between the farallon and north american plates resulted in tectonic quiescence and consequent isostatic rebound of the middle to late jurassic thrust belt and the contiguous contemporaneous foredeep as well as dynamic uplift the ensuing basin wide decrease in subsidence rate induced the progradation of the buckhorn alluvial plain into the morrison back bulge depozone and the subsequent generation of the overlying pedogenic unconformity which separates the deposits of the jurassic flexural event from the overlying sevier tectonostratigraphic unit

sedimentology and mineral composition of the kurnub sandstone in wadi qsieb sw jordan abstract the kurnub sandstone of early cretaceous age crops out in wadi qsieb in the southwest of jordan with a thickness of 130 m moderately developed fining upward cycles with irregular erosive bases together with the presence of plant fragments and the absence of body or trace fossils point to a fluviatile depositional environment probably a river of intermediate sinuosity results of grain size analysis confirm this interpretation the sandstones are compositionally and texturally supermature quartz arenites formed mainly by recycling from early palaeozoc sandstones and less commonly by direct supply from the arabian nubian shield the absence of feldspars and unstable heavy minerals is attributed to intense chemical weathering attacking sands that were deposited with a low rate on a craton bordering the tethys sea the thickness recorded here and the absolute absence of hornblende are in contradiction with what has been published by nasir and sadeddin 1989

the italian cmt dataset from 1977 to the present abstract the ingv harvard european mediterranean regional centroid moment tensor rcmt catalog collects solutions routinely computed since 1997 for earthquakes with moderate magnitude 4 5 m 5 5 in the mediterranean region the database represents an extension to smaller magnitudes of the harvard global cmt catalog based on analysis of seismograms recorded at regional distance and modeling of intermediate period surface waves the catalog includes about 600 events 200 of which in the italian region this study extends the catalog back in time for the italian region as long as made possible by available digital data i e since 1977 with the same analysis and inversion method used for current seismicity as a result we present here 65 new moment tensors for years between 1977 and 1997 these solutions represent 45 of the total number of events analyzed the existing seismograms being often too scarce to allow a stable solution the new dataset includes events in many seismic zones where moderate seismicity had previously been scarcely documented e g the po plain the central to southern apennines and the adriatic sea the complete dataset including previously determined rcmts and cmts represents the seismic deformation in the italian area during the last 25 years

tidal notches in vinodol channel and bakar bay ne adriatic sea indicators of recent tectonics abstract detailed mapping of coastline in vinodol channel and adjacent bays in the kvarner area northern adriatic sea revealed the existence of well expressed submerged notches ranging in their elevation from 45 to 115 cm below mean sea level noticeable difference in the height of these presumably coeval tidal notches is attributed to neotectonic movements since the roman times the difference of 0 1 m on opposite parts of vinodol channel is in accordance with the presumed thrusting tectonics in the adjacent vinodol valley the deeper position of coeval tidal notches in bakar bay the drowned part of vinodol valley indicates it is the tectonically most active zone investigation of tidal notches in this case complements information from the solid rock geology and measurements of recent tectonic movements revealed by gps positioning moreover it indicates the potential of detailed mapping of tidal notches for neotectonic research in some coastal areas

revision of the earthquake catalogue and seismicity of croatia 1908 1992 the paper presents the results of croatian earthquake catalogue revision for the period 1908 1992 the revised catalogue lists a total of 4853 events 4486 after 1908 of which 3700 are mainshocks all primary data sources available to us seismograms phase onset time readings macroseismic questionnaires were consulted in order to improve the quality and reliability of magnitude intensity and location along with the most important earthquake parameters the catalogue contains entries that enable assessment of the reliability of location and bibliographic references using the temporal analysis of the maximum likelihood estimate of the b value in the frequency magnitude relation the catalogue is estimated to be complete for events with m 4 0 throughout the investigated period the magnitude completeness threshold decreases to 3 8 after the middle of the century and to about 3 6 in the last three decades it is noted that the b value variation with time is closely tied to the seismic activity as well as that at present there seems to be a lack of seismic energy release corresponding to the m 6 0 6 5 earthquake

a review of possible eustatic isostatic and tectonic contributions in eight late holocene relative sea level histories from the mediterranean area abstract this paper consists of a comparison between eight late holocene sea level histories investigated by the author in different mediterranean areas and sea level predictions in the same areas made by global isostatic models the areas include three regions that are generally considered as tectonically relatively stable 1 the southern coast of france 2 sardinia and 3 the southern coasts of tunisia where late holocene evidence may be either of submergence or of emergence also considered are 4 a subsidence region in the northern adriatic and actively uplifting areas 5 in calabria and 6 in nisyros island greece lastly case studies in areas affected by repeated coseismic vertical displacements include 7 western crete and antikythira island in the hellenic arc and 8 the levant coasts of turkey syria and the lebanon in each case the question of whether the evidence available may or may not be consistent with gradual isostatic or eustatic displacements has been explored it appears that in non tectonic areas the hydro isostatic effects have been overestimated sardinia or underestimated southern tunisia by the same models in the northern adriatic the closest mediterranean area to the former scandinavian ice sheet glacio eustatic effects are suspected to be almost absent our analysis failed to quantify isostatic effects in areas of rapid tectonic uplift calabria and nisyros but rejected predictions of significant isostatic subsidence in the hellenic arc and on the levant coast finally several data from tectonic and non tectonic areas are consistent with nearly stable global eustasy since 6000 bp thus challenging the assertion of significant additional melting of antarctica after the complete melting of the former northern hemisphere ice caps

stress triggering in thrust and subduction earthquakes and stress interaction between the southern san andreas and nearby thrust and strike slip faults 1 we argue that key features of thrust earthquake triggering inhibition and clustering can be explained by coulomb stress changes which we illustrate by a suite of representative models and by detailed examples whereas slip on surface cutting thrust faults drops the stress in most of the adjacent crust slip on blind thrust faults increases the stress on some nearby zones particularly above the source fault blind thrusts can thus trigger slip on secondary faults at shallow depth and typically produce broadly distributed aftershocks short thrust ruptures are particularly efficient at triggering earthquakes of similar size on adjacent thrust faults we calculate that during a progressive thrust sequence in central california the 1983 mw 6 7 coalinga earthquake brought the subsequent 1983 mw 6 0 nunez and 1985 mw 6 0 kettleman hills ruptures 10 bars and 1 bar closer to coulomb failure the idealized stress change calculations also reconcile the distribution of seismicity accompanying large subduction events in agreement with findings of prior investigations subduction zone ruptures are calculated to promote normal faulting events in the outer rise and to promote thrust faulting events on the periphery of the seismic rupture and its downdip extension these features are evident in aftershocks of the 1957 mw 9 1 aleutian and other large subduction earthquakes we further examine stress changes on the rupture surface imparted by the 1960 mw 9 5 and 1995 mw 8 1 chile earthquakes for which detailed slip models are available calculated coulomb stress increases of 2 20 bars correspond closely to sites of aftershocks and postseismic slip whereas aftershocks are absent where the stress drops by more than 10 bars we also argue that slip on major strike slip systems modulates the stress acting on nearby thrust and strike slip faults we calculate that the 1857 mw 7 9 fort tejon earthquake on the san andreas fault and subsequent interseismic slip brought the coalinga fault 1 bar closer to failure but inhibited failure elsewhere on the coast ranges thrust faults the 1857 earthquake also promoted failure on the white wolf reverse fault by 8 bars which ruptured in the 1952 mw 7 3 kern county shock but inhibited slip on the left lateral garlock fault which has not ruptured since 1857 we thus contend that stress transfer exerts a control on the seismicity of thrust faults across a broad spectrum of spatial and temporal scales

direct determination of tidal levels for engineering applications based on biological observations abstract the scarcity of tide gauges in a global scale and the variability of the tidal levels along contiguous coasts mainly due to changing hydrographic conditions make the determination of tidal levels especially of the mean sea level not an easy task determination of such levels with a precision of about 10 cm necessary for most coastal engineering works is usually based on records of temporary tide gauges or on geomorphological techniques in this paper we present an alternative approach permitting to accurately identify tidal levels with a precision suitable for civil engineering applications based on biological observations on rocky shores including breakwaters and quays more specifically we present evidence that the biological zonation i e the distribution of coastal species in well defined sub horizontal belts is practically insensitive to seasonal and other small scale fluctuations of the sea level and is clearly related to certain levels mostly the mean low water mlw this approach somewhat similar to what has been used in the past for instance for the determination of the geodetic vertical datum in the republic of venice italy till approximately ad 1800 permits direct determination of the mean sea level or of other tidal levels on the basis of biological observations without statistical analyses of tide gauge records with an accuracy of 5 10 cm especially in microtidal low energy coasts

archaeological remains as sea level change markers a review abstract the mediterranean sea constitutes a unique basin from an historical and archaeological point of view as it has been a privileged way of communication for thousands of years for the people that dwelled on its shores their passage has left many traces on the seabeds in the areas where the ancient commercial routes passed and remains of structures where moorings havens or dwellings existed some of these structures nowadays submerged offer interesting indications aiding the reconstruction of the ancient coastlines this contribution aims to examine recent work in coastal geo archaeology targeting both 1 gathering and discussion of the data particularly those pertaining to the italian coasts and 2 commentary on the methodological debate and verification of the possibility of a protocol that may contain unequivocal referring elements to investigate the archaeological evidence currently underwater because of the relative sea level variations harbour infrastructures fishponds villae maritimae caves nymphaei private or public buildings or town quarters pre and protohistorical villages quarries caves etc a clear and more coherent methodological assumption may be needed the archaeological interpretation must initially establish the maritime and or harbour nature and vocation of the site determine its typology and specific usage analyze the elements of its building techniques that reveal themselves as meaningful markers of height or depth at the time of building and its functional elements the measure of the emerged part with respect to the average sea level and point out the time of construction its chronological range of usage frequentation the dynamics of its abandonment destruction obliteration the evaluation of both the height and functional depth to the mean sea level depends on the typology of the archaeological evidence its use and the local tide amplitudes the surface of a pier surely has a functional elevation different from that of a haulage area or a platea or a pavement

the 1953 earthquake in cephalonia western hellenic arc coastal uplift and halotectonic faulting summary geomorphological marine biological and radiometric data in combination with earlier reports reveal that the m 7 2 1953 cephalonia earthquake the most destructive but least studied earthquake in greece this century was associated with a 0 3 0 7m quasi rigid body uplift and westward tilting of the central part of the island another palaeoseismic event around 1500 yr bp associated with coastal uplifts was also identified structural data indicate that the 1953 uplift is bounded by two subparallel east dipping major reverse faults and corresponds to a piston like motion this structurally unusual pattern of seismic deformation is detached from the deformation of the basement conspicuously a thrust and different from the long term deformation pattern of the area it is probably due to the particularities of salt tectonics a 1500m thick salt layer acts as a regional dccollement while thinner layers are sandwiched between the carbonate thrust sheets that compose the overburden and reduce their friction during fault movement this crustal anisotropy is responsible for the observed anomalous attenuation of seismic waves during the 1953 and historical earthquakes the 1953 seismic surface deformation mimics long term halotectonic patterns but is not directly indicative of the regional stress field for it reflects uplift induced stresses only

sea level change during the holocene in sardinia and in the northeastern adriatic central mediterranean sea from archaeological and geomorphological data abstract we provide new data on relative sea level change from the late holocene for two locations in the central mediterranean sardinia and ne adriatico they are based on precise measures of submerged archaeological and tide notch markers that are good indicators of past sea level elevation twelve submerged archaeological sites were studied six aged between 2 5 and 1 6 ka bp located along the sardinia coast and a further six dated 2 0 ka bp located along the ne adriatic coast italy slovenia and croatia for sardinia we also use beach rock and core data that can be related to holocene sea level the elevations of selected significant archaeological markers were measured with respect to the present sea level applying corrections for tide and atmospheric pressure values at the time of surveys the interpretation of the functional heights related to sea level at the time of their construction provides data on the relative changes between land and sea these data are compared with predictions derived from a new glacio hydro isostatic model associated with the last glacial cycle sardinia is tectonically relatively stable and we use the sea level data from this island to calibrate our models for eustatic and glacio hydro isostatic change the results are consistent with those from another tectonically stable site the versilia plain of italy the northeast adriatic italy slovenia and croatia is an area of subsidence and we use the calibrated model results to separate out the isostatic from the tectonic contributions this indicates that the adriatic coast from the gulf of trieste to the southern end of istria has tectonically subsided by 1 5 m since roman times

crustal velocity and strain rate fields in italy and surrounding regions new results from the analysis of permanent and non permanent gps networks summary we present a new geodetic velocity solution for italy and the surrounding areas obtained from an analysis of continuous and survey mode global positioning system observations collected between 1991 and 2002 we have combined local regional and global networks into a common reference frame velocity solution providing a new detailed picture of the regional scale deformation field in the central mediterranean our velocity estimates are computed with respect to a new stable eurasian reference frame constraining the kinematics of the greater african eurasian plate boundary system in the study area we provide strain rate values for the main seismotectonic districts which are in good agreement with the seismic deformation inferred from earthquake focal mechanisms the southern tyrrhenian area calabria the apennines the southeastern alps the southern dinarides and the albanides display deformation rates at the order of 20 30 nanostrain yr 1 the corsica sardinia block moves according to eurasian plate motions and there is no indication that the opening of the tyrrhenian is still active the pelagian and sicilian domains are separated by a northwest southeast discontinuity the sicily channel rifted area and marginally significant relative motion between the pelagian plateau and the african plate is also observed the southern tyrrhenian is affected by north south compression and accommodates up to 50 per cent of the africa eurasia relative plate motion whereas the calabrian arc exhibits 2 mm yr 1 northwest southeast extension the observed deformation pattern suggests the presence of a major approximately north south tectonic discontinuity separating the sicilian and calabrian domains an extensional boundary observed along peninsular italy coincides with the distribution of seismogenic faults along the axis of the apennines this boundary separates a tyrrhenian and an adriatic domain with diverging velocities orientated north nnw ward and northeastward respectively the apennines are extending perpendicularly to the chain axis at rates of less than 3 mm yr 1 and only in the outer northern apennines indications of active shortening are observed insignificant deformation is observed in the western po plain and the western alps while the central and eastern alps display north south shortening the eastern adriatic domain is shortening perpendicular to the dinaric front with strain rates increasing from north to south the locus of collision between the aegean balkan system and the adriatic and ionian domains is marked by the kephalonia fault system which accommodates up to 20 1 mm yr 1 of right lateral motion the deformation pattern observed in the peri adriatic domain is well described by a counter clockwise rotation of the adriatic microplate around a pole located in the western alps

average strain rate in the italian crust inferred from a permanent gps network ii strain rate versus seismicity and structural geology summary high quality weekly solutions for the coordinates of 45 permanent gps stations spanning 1 6 years and covering the alpine mediterranean area are used to estimate a horizontal velocity field aligned with the itrf2000 velocity datum after subtracting model velocities for the eurasian plate we show that the residual velocity field north of the apennines in the adriatic dinaric region describes a nne trending tectonic flow with a negative velocity gradient from 6 mm yr 1 ne of the apennines to virtually zero ne of the dinarids in the calabria region we observe a divergent pattern with nnw orientation which turns to west as one moves north towards tuscany very small residual velocities are observed for stations in the sardinia corsica block spain southern france and north of the alps this regional pattern of velocities defines areas of intraplate strain on the basis of good station coverage and of a strain rate value above a threshold we define five provinces calabria central apennines both in the extensional regime and north adriatic eastern alps and south adriatic under compression we show that the orientations of the principal strain rate axes agree with the stress pattern that is inferred from local seismicity a comparison of the geodetically determined strain rate with the strain rate associated with the seismic moment of earthquakes in the past 30 yr shows that each province may differ considerably from the others in the amount of seismic moment that is accommodated by surface strain for example the umbria seismic sequence of 1997 seems to have released a seismic moment that was not exceptionally large but concentrated over a short time interval so that the equivalent coseismic strain rate was larger than the value observed geodetically on average depending on the assumptions on the seismogenic volume and time span 70 100 per cent of the surface strain seems to be accommodated by the release of seismic moment in the upper italian crust

submerged notches coastal changes and tectonics in the rijeka area nw croatia abstract submerged coastal notches characterize the coast of the wider rijeka area nw croatian coast adriatic sea these notches originate from a notch formed approximately 2 000 years ago their depth ranges between 0 50 and 1 15 m and their subsidence history is a matter of debate a detailed study of all the available data in relation to the tectonics of the area was made using signal analysis techniques our analysis revealed that the notch depth reflects the superimposition of two different effects a quasi regional relative sea level rise of about 55 cm and of a subsequent local tectonic subsidence with amplitude gradually increasing to 60 cm in the vicinity of the major thrust in the bakar bakar vinodol area elastic dislocation modeling permitted to explain this last local subsidence in terms of loading of the footwall of this thrust and provide evidence for an unrecorded earthquake of minimum magnitude m w 6 8 which occurred most probably in the last few centuries this result indicates that the convergence between the southern alps and the adria is at least partly accommodated by earthquakes and puts some constraints in the estimations of the seismic risk in the wider region

the database of individual seismogenic sources diss version 3 summarizing 20 years of research on italy s earthquake geology abstract this paper describes the main characteristics the evolution and the structure of the database of individual seismogenic sources diss and particularly of its release of early 2007 the database contains the results of the investigations of the active tectonics in italy during the past 20 years the first two sections of this paper document the recent evolution in mapping and archiving italian active fault data in relation to important achievements in the understanding of italian tectonics some of which were spurred by significant earthquakes the central sections describe the current structure of the database the reasons for its assumptions and data categories its current contents its evolution through several years of improvements the last section describes how the current contents of the database correspond with the existing strain and stress data available from focal mechanism borehole breakout and gps data for the whole of italy the database supplies a fresh and unified view of active and seismogenic processes in italy by building on basic physical constraints concerning rates of crustal deformation on the continuity of deformation belts and on the spatial relationships between adjacent faults both at the surface and at depth

relative sea level change and climate change in the northeastern adriatic during the last 1 5 ka istria croatia abstract a new high resolution relative sea level rsl reconstruction is presented for the past 1500 years based on four bio constructions formed by alga lithophyllum byssoides algal rims two algal structures have been studied on the southern premantura site and two on the eastern istrian coast uboka and brsec sites in the northeastern adriatic the data from the algal rims 47 radiocarbon data points enabled the distinction of four major phases of rsl change which corresponds to periods of climate change rsl between ad 400 and 800 during the dark ages cold period dacp was almost stable after ad 800 during the medieval climate anomaly mca the rsl increased up to 0 8 mm yr the following little ice age period lia interval i ad 1400 till 1600 is again characterised by rsl stability rsl slowed down which allows the rims at the southern coast to reach the width of 40 80 cm at their uppermost part and up to 20 cm for those along the eastern coast between ad 1600 and 1750 during the colder lia ii interval algal rims do not form as lia ii is assumed to be a period of rsl fall algal rims reveal that from the second part of the 19th century the rsl rose by 13 15 cm at the premantura location and around 10 cm at the brsec and uboka areas providing rates between 1 and 0 7 mm yr respectively for the current warm period cwp the sea level trends were quantitatively defined using an errors in variables integrated gaussian process eiv igp model with full consideration of the available uncertainty following correction for the total land level change assumed to be around 0 4 mm yr four successive trends in sea level change were confirmed sea level dropped during the dacp at a mean rate of 0 4 mm yr and increased to 0 5 mm y as a consequence of medieval warmth thereafter it was relatively stable during lia i fell up to 0 1 mm yr during lia ii interval and has been slowly rising again during the cwp moreover l byssoides 18o records show that these periods of sea level changes are consistent with changes in temperature and thus with periods of rapid climate change

interseismic deformation above the sunda megathrust recorded in coral microatolls of the mentawai islands west sumatra past half century vary from 2 to 14 mm yr 1 and increase southwestward toward the subduction trench the pattern is consistent with rates of subsidence measured by a sparse network of continuously recording global positioning system cgps stations and with locking of a 400 km long section of the underlying subduction megathrust between about 1s and 4s this record of subsidence and tilting extending nearly a century into the past implies that the region is advancing toward the occurrence of another giant earthquake however evidence of episodic rather than steady subsidence reflects a behavior that is more complex than simple elastic strain accumulation and relief most prominent of these episodes is an extensive emergence subsidence couplet in about 1962 which may be the result of rapid aseismic slip on the megathrust between the islands and the trench lower subsidence rates recorded by the corals since about 1985 may reflect failure on many small patches within the locked section of the megathrust

forecasting the evolution of seismicity in southern california animations built on earthquake stress transfer 1 we develop a forecast model to reproduce the distribution of main shocks aftershocks and surrounding seismicity observed during 1986 2003 in a 300 310 km area centered on the 1992 m 7 3 landers earthquake to parse the catalog into frames with equal numbers of aftershocks we animate seismicity in log time increments that lengthen after each main shock this reveals aftershock zone migration expansion and densification we implement a rate state algorithm that incorporates the static stress transferred by each m 6 shock and then evolves coulomb stress changes amplify the background seismicity so small stress changes produce large changes in seismicity rate in areas of high background seismicity similarly seismicity rate declines in the stress shadows are evident only in areas with previously high seismicity rates thus a key constituent of the model is the background seismicity rate which we smooth from 1981 to 1986 seismicity the mean correlation coefficient between observed and predicted m 1 4 shocks the minimum magnitude of completeness is 0 52 for 1986 2003 and 0 63 for 1992 2003 a control standard aftershock model yields 0 54 and 0 52 for the same periods four m 6 0 shocks struck during the test period three are located at sites where the expected seismicity rate falls above the 92 percentile and one is located above the 75 percentile the model thus reproduces much but certainly not all of the observed spatial and temporal seismicity from which we infer that the decaying effect of stress transferred by successive main shocks influences seismicity for decades finally we offer a m 5 earthquake forecast for 2005 2015 assigning probabilities to 324 10 10 km cells

laurentide glaciation in west central alberta a single late wisconsinan event the grande prairie region in west central alberta shows evidence of late wisconsinan laurentide glaciation in the form of a widespread till containing abundant erratic clasts derived from the canadian shield two sections located on the smoky river at watino and on the simonette river 80 km to the southwest expose sediment lying stratigraphically below the till a similar sequence is exposed in both localities 5 10 m of coarse quartzite gravel overlain by a thick sequence of sand and silt the gravel contains no laurentide erratics and is thus preglacial the contact between the basal gravel and the overlying sand and silt is sharp and conformable 14c dates from the base of the simonette section and throughout the watino section suggest a middle wisconsinan age thus the sediment exposed is interpreted as a conformable middle wisconsinan sequence the sedimentary sequences were deposited in a moderate to low energy braided stream system flowing towards the north the general fining up trend in the

scismotectonics of the northwest external dinarides abstract the region of the tectonic contact between the alps and the dinarides is studied comparing all the available geological geophysical and seismological data the peculiar crustal structures in particular the difference in thickness of the alps dinarides and pannonian basin can be correlated to the seismically active zones the highest seismicity is related to the adria microplate underthrusting the southern alps beneath the friulian piedmont arc this movement produces a composite lateral slip and an underthrust which is subparallel to the dinarides along the yugoslav coast the seismicity in western yugoslavia is more diffuse than in friuli although it is possible to pick out three narrow parallel bands with dextral shear subparallel to the periadriatic vardar fault system which separate the apulia from the pannonian area the interaction of this system with the sinistral strike slip faults of the western carpathians belt enhances the seismicity of the easternmost sector of the alps analogies and differences in the seismotectonic behaviour between central friuli and western yugoslavia are studied and a unique model with a vertical mechanical disengagement at the rear of the compressive fronts of the southern alps and external dinarides is proposed

submerged notches in istria and the gulf of trieste results from the geoswim project abstract this paper is aimed at mapping the submerged notch along the northeastern adriatic coast and discussing the relations between the submerged notch the seawater the groundwater and the freshwater discharge along the coasts of the study area using hydrological and observational data collected during a solitary snorkel swimming expedition along 250 km long route along the istrian coasts and thermal and topographical data we discuss the hydrogeological and topographical constraints on the origin and development of the submerged notch in the northeastern adriatic sea the submerged notch was surveyed at depths ranging between 0 6 m m s l and 2 6 m m s l in the northern sector of the gulf of trieste italy and at about 0 5 0 7 m m s l along the limski channel croatia along the savudrija peninsula a slightly carved submerged notch was surveyed at 0 5 0 6 m m s l the modern notch is completely lacking in the study area topographical data highlight that the submerged notch occurs in correspondence of plunging cliffs moreover the submerged notch developed in correspondence of the submarine springs that allow mixing zone dissolution data suggest that the mixing zone dissolution caused by the freshwater from submerged springs or from the largest rivers in the gulf of trieste was a major factor in developing submerged notches these new observations provide basic data for future studies on the development of the submerged notch along the northeastern adriatic coast previously linked almost exclusively to bioerosion

active coastal thrusting and folding and uplift rate of the sahel anticline and zemmouri earthquake area tell atlas algeria abstract major uplifts of late quaternary marine terraces are visible along the coastline of the tell atlas of algeria located along the africa eurasia convergent plate boundary the active tectonics of this region is associated with large shallow earthquakes m 6 5 numerous thrust mechanisms and surface fault related fold we conducted a detailed levelling survey of late pleistocene and holocene marine notches in the algiers region that experienced 0 50 m coastal uplift during the 2003 zemmouri earthquake mw 6 8 east of algiers holocene marine indicators show three pre 2003 main notch levels formed in the last 21 9 ka west of algiers on the sahel anticline the levelling of uplifted marine terraces shows a distinct staircase morphology with successive notches that document the incremental folding uplift during the late pleistocene and holocene the timing of successive uplifts related to past coseismic movements along this coastal region indicates episodic activity during the late holocene modelling of surface deformation in the zemmouri earthquake area implies a 50 km long 20 km wide ne sw trending se dipping fault rupture and an average 1 3 m coseismic slip at depth further west the 70 km long sahel fold is subdivided in 3 sub segments and shows 0 84 1 2 mm yr uplift rate in the last 120 140 ka the homogeneous holocene uplift of marine terraces and the anticline dimensions imply the possible occurrence of large earthquakes with mw 7 in the past the surface deformation and related successive uplifts are modelled to infer the size and characteristics of probable future earthquakes and their seismic hazard implications for the algiers region

tectonic constraints on the late pleistocene holocene relative sea level change along the north eastern adriatic coast croatia abstract in spite of very favourable coastal features late pleistocene holocene relative sea level changes along the eastern adriatic coast are still not completely resolved mostly due to the intensive and complicated regional and local neotectonics we gathered current knowledge that generally presents the north adriatic area as subsiding one and proposed a reconstruction in new light of possible very slow local uplift average rate of 0 1 0 25 mm a for last 80 ka which is supported by well dated submerged speleothems and tectonic reconstruction in addition such a scenario supports also the formation of tidal notches that are common in the north adriatic region but not yet entirely understood however according to the latest mediterranean data on sea level during the marine isotope stage mis 5 1 being at 1 m 80 ka ago we do not dismiss the possibility of subsidence which would have been 0 18 0 23 mm a on average for the last 80 ka but notch formation under such condition would not have been realistic apparently the position of the north eastern adriatic coast on a convergence area requires extensive palaeoenvironmental studies including structural lithostratigraphical palaeontological archaeological and radiometric data and application of isostatic modelling

submerged caves of croatia distribution classification and origin presently 235 submerged caves and pits have been recorded along the croatian coast and islands partly or completely submerged by sea water contrary to the inland situation recorded submerged features are predominantly horizontal 60 though there are indications that the real situation is similar to that of the continental part where 69 are vertical pits completely marine conditions are established in 126 caves and the rest are anchihaline caves and submarine springs speleothems are found in more than 140 caves by their origin the investigated caves are all continental features formed in mesozoic and palaeogene carbonates subsequently submerged owing to sea transgression due to the relatively low wave energy rapid sea level rise and maturity of the host rock they do not fit into concepts of a sea cave or a flank margin cave development but they fulfil several conditions for being the blue holes since the term blue hole is mainly associated with the bahamian karst our attempt is only to show the possible similarities with no intention of ascribing that term to the croatian caves beside karstological issues croatian submerged caves are unique environmental archaeological and tourism assets

evidence for coseismic and aseismic uplift in the last 1000 years in the focal area of a shallow thrust earthquake on the noto peninsula west central japan 1 raised shorelines on the noto peninsula on the western coast of central japan suggest a millennial history of recurrent uplift emergence of the coastline by up to 50 cm was recently recorded in association with a moderate earthquake m w 6 7 on 25 march 2007 the shoreline uplift is indicated by the displacement of sessile organisms such as calcareous tubeworms which can also be examined as indicators of past shifts in shoreline level three levels of pre 2007 paleoshorelines are thus identified on this stretch of the japan sea coast the lowest of these dated at ad 1720 1950 tilts northward away from the likely source of a pair of ca m 6 4 earthquakes in 1892 which occurred in a different area to the 2007 earthquake the middle paleo shoreline dated at ad 1430 1655 records a 30 40 cm emergence that may be aseismic the high paleo shoreline dated at ad 1025 1235 records a coseismic uplift of 50 cm and is limited to the area raised coseismically in 2007 the most recent event preceding the 2007 earthquake thus appears to have occurred approximately 1000 years ago

the sedimentary record of carboniferous rivers continuing influence of land plant evolution on alluvial processes and palaeozoic ecosystems abstract evidence from modern rivers and the deep time geological record attests to the fundamental importance of plant life for the construction of physical habitats within fluvial environments data from an extensive literature review and original fieldwork demonstrates that many landforms and geomorphic features of modern river systems appear in the palaeozoic stratigraphic record once terrestrial vegetation had adopted certain evolutionary advances for example stable point bars are associated with the onset of rooted plants in the siluro devonian and avulsive and anabranching fluvial systems become common at the same time as extensive arborescent vegetation in the carboniferous in this paper we demonstrate a correlation between the diversification of physical fluvial environments and the expansion of terrestrial fauna and flora with an emphasis on the culmination of these trends within carboniferous alluvial systems many extrinsic factors have been considered as possible controls on the evolutionary timelines of terrestrialization for organisms however a fundamental prerequisite for achieving terrestrial biodiversity was the variety of physical habitats especially riparian systems available for newly evolved organisms in association with abundant lowland meandering systems the widespread appearance across carboniferous alluvial plains of fixed channel and anabranching reaches created further physical landforms for colonization and would have promoted increasingly complex hyporheic flow regimes furthermore the associated increase in arborescent vegetation and supply of large woody debris to inland and coastal rivers would have created a wealth of microhabitats for continental organisms we argue that the expanding extent and diversity of physical alluvial niches during the palaeozoic is an underappreciated driver of the terrestrialization of early continental life the study of the deep time fossil and stratigraphic record also illustrates that vegetation is a fundamental prerequisite for the creation of biogeomorphic alluvial landforms and physical habitats and microhabitats

notches in the northern adriatic sea genesis and development abstract the genesis and development of the submerged notch occurring along the northern adriatic limestone coasts surveyed at depth ranging between 0 35 and 2 8 m and amplitude consistent with the local tide is discussed using new and published data on its elevation and data on limestone lowering rates collected using a micro erosion meter and a traversing micro erosion meter coastal limestone lowering rates in the northern adriatic range between 0 008 and 1 170 mm y and they are about eight times higher than inland limestone lowering rates data support the hypothesis that notch is presently carving even if no present day notch has been surveyed in the area the lack of a modern notch and the presently submerged notch position could be related to 1 a rapid still acting tectonic downdrop or 2 an increase in weathering erosion rates causing by different environmental conditions e g during the so called medieval warm period marked by more aggressive weathering both chemically biologically and or mechanically than present conditions due to an increase in rainfall or variations in the acidity of seawater pros and cons of these hypotheses are discussed in the paper

alluvial channel bank collapse phenomena in the old red sandstone hitra group western central norway the old red sandstone ors on the island of hitra forms an approximately 1350 m thick succession of alternating continental mudstones sandstones and conglomerates of possibly latest silurian to devonian age within the middle part of this succession just above a major scoured surface a spectacular slump feature was observed the phenomenon is interpreted as a unit of overbank channel bank mudstones which because of undercutting and liquidization caved into a low sinuosity river channel the hitra sequence is the only one in the norwegian ors where such phenomena have as yet been identified

recently submerged tidal notches in the wider makarska area central adriatic croatia abstract the active tidal notches in the makarska area which were observed and described in historical records from the beginning of the 20th century andrijasevic 1910 have been reanalysed 107 years later detailed mapping of three locations in the wider makarska area revealed their level of submergence which varied between 30 and 37 5 cm below the recent mean sea level msl according to location this investigation points to the recent acceleration of relative sea level change during the current warm period cwp and also to the past temporary still stand according to data from central adriatic islands of vis ravnik and bisevo this still stand probably lasted around 500 years during the little ice age lia period however the notch in the dubrovnik area which was as stated in historical data suess 1885 1908 active at the end of the 19th century is still active today indicating tectonic uplift of the dubrovnik area