styles of failure in late holocene highstand prodelta wedges on the adriatic shelf on the continental shelves of the northern mediterranean basin the late holocene highstand systems tract hst prograded un der the influence of major rivers after the attainment of the present sea level highstand about 5 5 cal kyr bp on the adriatic shelf the thickness distribution of the late holocene hst reflects the location of major deltas on the western side of the basin and the geostrophic cir culation which prevents a more uniform sediment dispersal toward the center of the basin very high sediment accumulation rates 1 to 10 cm year resulted in the construction of a hst depocenter up to 35 m thick this shore parallel depocenter is affected by failure of limited displacement over as much as 40 of its extent gas impregnation is common in the topset region and occurs at very shallow levels a few meters below the sea floor five areas are characterized by a variety of sea floor and subsurface crenulations although locally some of these crenulations have an intriguingly regular geometry sediment failure is the most plausible mechanism for their formation sediment failure better explains the large variety of geometries that characterizes the coastal mud prism of the late holocene hst furthermore we observe that these crenulations occur only where the downlap surface at the base of the hst is disrupted and affected by geometries that are con sistent with fluid escape processes this relationship suggests that the basal surface acts as a weak layer for sediment failure failure occurred in variable water depths from the northern slope of the modern po prodelta 10 20 m water depth to the narrow shelf offshore bari 40 110 m water depth in all these areas the proximal part of the hst prodelta wedge is intensely gas charged the thickness and age of the sediment sections affected by failure are slightly differ ent from place to place but appear everywhere younger than 5 5 cal kyr bp where failure affects the entire hst the detachment occurs on the downlap surface at its base failure geometries characterize the head region whereas compressional features such as pressure ridges and mud diapirs dominate in the toe region ranging in depth between 70 and 110 m where failure is limited to the upper few meters of the hst there is a clear lithologic change decrease in carbonate fraction and grain size across the basal surface this lithological change reflects a switch in sediment supply from local apennine rivers below to po derived mud this change occurred at the onset of the little ice age documenting the indirect control of short term climate change and hu man impact on sediment architecture the deformations affecting the late holocene hst in the various areas show differences in internal geometry but appear everywhere to be characterized by limited downward displacement and can be attri buted to shear dominated retrogressive failure it is suggested that some degree of consolidation occurred immediately after mobilization possibly induced by the escape of fluids nowhere has failure evolved into disintegration and flow likely because the type of cyclic loading that triggered it was not prolonged over a long enough interval short lived radionuclides in the uppermost stratigraphic layers which postdate the failure in the area offshore ortona allowed us to quantify systematic changes in sediment accumulation rates as a func tion of the underlying deformed sea floor in areas of wavy sea floor troughs show sediment accumulation rates of greater than 16 mm yr a figure that is fourfold the rate measured on the flanks of the troughs

seafloor undulation pattern on the adriatic shelf and comparison to deep water sediment waves abstract on the adriatic shelf a large field of seafloor and subsurface undulations typically 300 m wide 2 5 m high and several km long parallel to the bathymetric contour affects the progradational clinoforms of the late holocene prodelta wedge above a regional downlap surface that shows evidence of deformation and fluid escape the undulations are associated with mud reliefs that occur farther seaward in elongated swarms perpendicular to the regional slope and to the crests of the undulations a quantitative measurement of key morphobathymetric parameters such as wavelength height asymmetry and wave form indexes was performed on 13 selected seismic reflection profiles perpendicular to the undulations these measurements are determined with respect to water depth or downslope distance from the shallowest undulation the results highlight substantial differences from deep water sediment waves these differences include 1 most undulations show a staircase morphology with sub horizontal upslope limbs of 100 300 m delimited seaward by sharp edges and steep downslope limbs 2 landward or upslope dipping limbs do not develop 3 there is no consistent downslope decrease in wavelength or amplitude as opposed to most cases of sediment waves related to overflowing turbidity currents 4 there is a consistent downslope loss in crest continuity approaching areas where mud reliefs and sediment deformation are evident at the seafloor 5 many of the undulations show differences in angle of climb and in some cases a single undulation at the seafloor results from the burial and merger of more undulations in the underlying section these differences compared to bottom current or turbidity current sediment waves are augmented by the observation that the adriatic shallow water undulations are also typically associated with gas charged sediment fluid escape sediment deformation and localised failure planes it is therefore suggested that seafloor undulations evolved in response to sediment deformation and were successively amplified by differential deposition from bottom currents crossing an irregular seafloor in general we feel that case by case solutions should be found to explain the origin and evolution of seafloor wavy features based on the geologic stratigraphic setting the recognition of possible weak layers and the co existence of a variety of other deformation geometries that may occur within or adjacent to the field of wavy features the adriatic example can reinforce recent suggestions that besides purely depositional bedforms there exist also wave like deformation structures and multi process sediment waves faugeres et al 2002 multi process generated sediment waves on the landes plateau bay of biscay north atlantic marine geology 182 279 302

application of stochastic simulation to co2 flux from soil mapping and quantification of gas release 1 conditional sequential gaussian simulations sgs have been applied for the first time to the study of soil diffuse degassing from different volcanic and nonvolcanic systems the application regards five data sets of soil co2 fluxes measured with the accumulation chamber methodology at the volcanic areas of solfatara of pozzuoli italy vesuvio cone italy nisyros greece and horseshoe lake california and at the nonvolcanic degassing area of poggio dell olivo italy the sgs algorithm was used to generate 100 realizations of co2 flux for each area probabilistic summaries of these simulations together with the information given by probability plots were used 1 to draw maps of the probability that co2 fluxes exceed thresholds specific for a background flux i e to define the probable extension of the degassing structures 2 to calculate the total co2 output and 3 to quantify the uncertainty of the estimation the results show that the sgs is a suitable tool to model soil diffuse degassing producing realistic images of the distribution of the co2 fluxes that honor the histogram and variogram of the original data moreover the relation between the sample design and the uncertainty of estimation was investigated leading to an empirical relation between uncertainty and the sampling density that can be useful for the planning of future co2 flux surveys

geochemical study of travertines along middle lower tiber valley central italy genesis palaeo environmental and tectonic implications several travertine deposits dating to the pleistocene outcrop along the tiber valley between orte and rome mineralogically they are mainly composed of calcite various lithofacies stromatolitic phytoclastic and massive were identified and relatively wide ranges of carbon 13c 8 11 to 11 42 vs vpdb and oxygen 18o 22 74 to 27 71 vs vsmow isotope compositions were measured the isotope and chemical compositions of water and free gases in some cases associated with the travertines were also measured carbon isotope data show that several samples fall in the typical range of thermogenic travertine i e linked to the addition of deep inorganic co2 the oxygen isotope composition of the springs associated with the travertine deposits points to travertine precipitation by slightly thermal water of meteoric origin in general these travertines are in association with or close to mineralised groundwaters with slightly acidic ph low thermalism and enrichment in sulphates or sodium chloride and rich co2 gas emissions the origin of which may be linked to decarbonation reactions the travertine bodies are locally connected with crustal structural lineaments favouring the circulation of ascending deep co2 rich fluids conversely some samples show isotopic connotations of meteogenic deposits representing travertines formed mainly from soil biogenic or atmospheric carbon dioxide generally present in shallow groundwater or surface water according to their morphology and isotope data these travertines may be attributed to the sedimentary environment of waterfalls these new geochemical and morphological data are integrated with those already available in the literature regarding the study area and contribute to shedding light on palaeo environmental conditions in western central italy during the quaternary

the gargano promontory an important italian seismogenic tsunamigenic area abstract gargano is a small mountainous promontory protruding into the southern adriatic and from a structural point of view it is part of the apulia foreland deformative structures both inland and offshore the promontory are quite common and can partially be associated with a substantial quaternary uplifting seismogenically this area is well known because several historical strong earthquakes have been reported to occur here and recent important seismic sequences have been recorded this paper is a contribution to evaluate the seismogenic as well as the tsunamigenic potential of this region particular attention has been given to study the major events some of which were able to produce tsunamis the epicenter location of some of these earthquakes computed solely on the basis of macroseismic data would point to focal regions on land but this is questionable if tsunami generation is taken into account as regards the tsunamigenic potential statistical analysis is used to evaluate the local geographical distribution of expected tsunamis and the mean return periods it is found that large events are expected on average every 228 years while a tsunami of any size is generated every about 84 years which is in good agreement with the experimental observations

observed evolution of tropical deep convective events and their environment abstract using a compositing technique the temporal progression of tropical convective systems and the mean atmospheric state in their vicinity is constructed from a time series of geostationary satellite and operational rawinsonde data the technique establishes the stage in the life cycle of convection prevailing at a given place and time by a simple objective method using time series of satellite brightness temperature tb histograms collected from a region surrounding the site soundings are classified according to their placement in the convective life cycle and composites formed that represent the areal mean state of the convecting atmosphere at each stage for several scales of horizontal averaging the temporal structure found here for the mesoscale mean atmosphere closely resembles existing observations of the horizontal structure of a tropical squall line albeit with certain reductions in amplitude and stabilization rate this supports the generality of previous findings that the physical m

zonal and vertical structure of the madden julian oscillation abstract a statistical study of the three dimensional structure of the madden julian oscillation mjo is carried out by projecting dynamical fields from reanalysis and radiosonde data onto space time filtered outgoing longwave radiation olr data mjo convection is generally preceded by low level convergence and upward motion in the lower troposphere while subsidence cooling and drying prevail aloft this leads to moistening of the boundary layer and the development of shallow convection followed by a gradual and then more rapid lofting of moisture into the middle troposphere at the onset of deep convection after the passage of the heaviest rainfall a westerly wind burst region is accompanied by stratiform precipitation where lower tropospheric subsidence and drying coincide with continuing upper tropospheric upward motion the evolution of the heating field leads to a temperature structure that favors the growth of the mjo the analysis also reveals distinct differences in the vertical structure

the late holocene gargano subaqueous delta adriatic shelf sediment pathways and supply fluctuations the gargano subaqueous delta formed on the eastern and southeastern sides of the gargano promontory in the western adriatic this subaqueous deposit represents the southernmost portion of the late holocene highstand systems tract hst growing along the western side of the adriatic as an extensive wedge of deltaic and shallow marine mud the late holocene hst rests above a regional downlap surface that marks the time of maximum landward shift of the shoreline attained around 5 5 cal kyr bp at the end of the late pleistocene holocene sea level rise high resolution seismic stratigraphic and tephra correlation indicate the presence of a thin basal unit recording condensed deposition between 5 5 and 3 7 cal kyr bp over much of the basin above this unit sediment accumulation rates increased to high values as much as 1 5 cm yr 1 reflecting the stabilisation of relative sea level and the forcing from high frequency climatic or anthropogenic changes affecting river dynamics the late holocene mud wedge of which the gargano subaqueous delta is a significant component reaches up to 35 m in thickness and has a volume of ca 180 km3 the shore parallel thickness distribution of the mud wedge reflects the dominant oceanographic regime of the basin and the asymmetric location of the mostly western sediment sources with a combined modern delivery of 51 7 106 t yr 1 of mean suspended load in sections perpendicular to the coast the late holocene mud wedge appears composed of forestepping clinoforms with gently dipping foresets typically 0 5 the gargano subaqueous delta is characterised by a submarine topset in water depths shallower than 25 28 m and accounts for about 1 7th of the total volume of the late holocene mud wedge despite the absence of direct river supply to the gargano area in the area of maximum interaction between shore parallel currents and basin morphology progradation occurs onto a flat and barren bedrock outcrop in about 50 80 m water depth the rapid transition from a thickness of 30 m of late holocene mud to nil is a good indication of the role of southward flowing bottom hugging shelf currents in causing the redistribution of sediment along the adriatic inner shelf additional evidence of this regime comes from 1 the most recent sigmoid defined at seismic stratigraphic scale deposited since the onset of the little ice age showing a shore parallel thickness distribution and a main depocentre to the southeast of the gargano promontory 2 the maximum values of sediment accumulation rates over the last century documented by 210pb measurements defining a narrow shore parallel belt immediately seaward of the depocentre of the most recent sigmoid the gargano subaqueous delta grows from the outbuilding of progressively younger progradational sigmoids that tend to parallel the previous ones the gargano subaqueous delta differs from other documented late holocene subaqueous deltas because its growth reflects 1 sediment transport dominated by bottom currents sub parallel to the strike of the composing clinoforms 2 a complex supply regime including the po delta 350 km to the north and several coalescing apennine rivers acting as line source 3 several alternating intervals of enhanced outbuilding and condensed deposition and 4 an in phase growth of the most recent sigmoid with the major progradation of the po delta during the little ice age

morphometric analysis and genetic implications of pro deltaic sea floor undulations in the northern alboran sea margin western mediterranean basin abstract several fields of seafloor undulations from pro deltaic wedges in the northern margin of alboran sea western mediterranean basin are described in this paper a series of elongated subparallel bathymetric undulations are distinguished in the foreset to bottomsets regions of the holocene pro deltaic wedges related with the guadalfeo and verde seco rivers multibeam data surficial sediment samples and high resolution seismic profiles have been used in this study and integrated in a geographical information system quantitative measurement of key morphometric parameters wave length height asymmetry length and wave form index was performed on multibeam data and seismic profiles using the arcgis software wave form index and depth data were analysed statistically and a cluster analysis was carried out in each area according to these results we infer that sea floor undulations in the study areas are best explained by the influence of strong sediment flows normal to bathymetric contours probably coupled with the effect of subsequent slow sediment deformation processes such as sediment creeps the influence of bottom current activity is considered less likely as the position of river mouths and the very high slope gradients seems to be the key factors which control the development of these sea floor undulations the alboran sea sea floor undulations are compared with those of other fields in shallow water environments and the different processes of formation evaluated

faulting associated with historical and recent earthquakes in the eastern mediterranean region summary this paper summarizes evidence for surface faulting in historical and recent earthquakes in the eastern mediterranean region and in the middle east such information is particularly important for studies of active tectonics and for palaeoseismology we have found 78 cases of faulting pre 1900 and 72 post 1900 some of which show that faults that have apparently been inactive this century had already ruptured before 1900 for some cases faulting could not have been predicted from 20th century activity and in others it could have been expected but has not been observed during the instrumental period the data are suycient to allow the derivation of relationships between magnitude and rupture length

paleoseismic evidence of legendary earthquakes the apparition of archangel michael at monte sant angelo italy abstract the gargano promontory a carbonate massif belonging to the adria microplate the foreland of both the apenninic and dinaric mountain chains is a well known seismogenic area with historic earthquake up to i max x mcs july 30 1627 m 6 7 nevertheless paleoseismic data on the region are still scarce and no trench fault stratigraphy has been analysed along the major e w trending right lateral strike slip fault system that cuts through the whole massif the south gargano line sgl the over 60 km long on shore trace of the sgl the mattinata fault is clearly segmented this study focused on the eastern active fault segment the monte sant angelo fault msa to verify the associated seismic potential analysis of contemporary descriptions of the august 10 1893 earthquake m 5 2 coupled with field work allowed identification of surface faulting along the msa along the fault there is paleoseismic evidence of the occurrence of larger earthquakes after collecting geomorphic evidence of paleo earthquakes we selected two trench sites at the base of two prominent fault escarpments where the msa is characterized by significant vertical components of fault displacement the preliminary results demonstrate that i the recent vertical slip rate of the msa range between 0 2 0 3 and 0 7 mm yr ii the msa moves with incremental slip episodes with vertical surface offset up to several decimeters iii based on the stratigraphic and geomorphic evidence of surface faulting observed and assuming a rupture length of around 20 km the seismic potential of the msa segment would be similar to that displayed by the western sgl segment during the 1627 event a large earthquake on the msa is reported only in ancient legends the most relevant of which being the one describing the apparition of archangel michael at monte sant angelo traditionally dated ad 493 using a multidisciplinary approach combining paleoseismic and historical data it has been possible to interpret the legend and hereby identify an event of surface faulting before 8th century ad a recent scarplet up to 1 m high on the msa can be seen to be related to this legendary earthquake which in turn seems to correspond to the maximum possible magnitude geologic phenomena observed during the earthquake at the site of the sanctuary appear to lie at the very origin of the veneration of the place

propagation and initiation mechanisms of the madden julian oscillation 1 an observational study of the propagation and onset mechanisms of the madden julian oscillation mjo is performed using cyclostationary empirical orthogonal function analysis and a kelvin rossby wave decomposition method for the noaa outgoing longwave radiation and the ncep ncar reanalysis data in these analyses two different regions of surface convergence are observed ahead of mjo convection by different wind components as previously found in a sst coupled gcm simulation at the leading edge of enhanced convection the friction induced meridional convergence appears during the developing phase when the enhanced convection is located over the indian ocean and the maritime continents another region of surface convergence is identified just east of an enhanced convection core and this tends to pull the convective core to the east the surface convergence is formed by zonal wind convergence and kelvin and rossby waves both play a comparable role in the formation of the convergence zone therefore the frictional kelvin rossby wave cisk conditional instability of the second kind is regarded as a primary factor for the eastward propagation of the mjo over the western indian ocean moistening in the boundary layer occurs 2 weeks earlier than the beginning of a new mjo cycle this moistening accompanies low level convergence by encircling kelvin waves which propagated from the region of enhanced convection during the previous cycle as well as by rossby waves generated from the region of reduced convection over the indian ocean this earlier formation of the boundary layer moisture convergence provides a favorable environment for triggering new convection this interaction of kelvin and rossby waves also accounts for the suppression of convection from the western side of the convection core for example over the indian ocean anomalous surface divergence appears at the western edge of the enhanced convection due to both circumnavigating kelvin waves from the region of reduced convection of the previous cycle and rossby waves from the region of the enhanced convection itself thus the mjo is a self maintaining and self generating form of tropical variability through the interaction between convection and large scale circulation in the presence of boundary layer dynamics

scent of a myth tectonics geochemistry and geomythology at delphi greece extensive geochemical investigation of water travertine soil and diffuse gas coupled with geo structural analysis provides new insights into local fault fluid interaction and allows us to pinpoint basic elements in the geological origin or geomythology of the delphic oracle still debated by geologists delphi hosted the most famous oracle of antiquity supposed to prophesy under the effects of intoxicating gas exhaling from a chasm in the ground co 2 h 2 s rich ethylene rich or ch 4 rich gases have been invoked to explain the mantic vapours although previous interpretations dismissed the results achieved by classical scholars this study fits together history archaeology mythology and geology in a single coherent frame we highlight that no hydrocarbon gas discharges are released at present to the surface in the area the lack of any geochemical anomaly indicates that the delphi active fault does not at present constitute a preferential route for the circulation of thermogenic deep fluids the mythological gas exhaling chasm can plausibly be related to episodic seismic ruptures in the ancient past which affected for a limited time gas pockets fed by a relatively deep confined hydrothermal system the delphi fault has produced shocks up to ms 6 7 1 august 1870 and similar seismic faulting events in the past could have episodically triggered co 2 h 2 s rich emissions

gas seepage and assumed mud diapirism in the italian central adriatic sea abstract an assemblage of acoustic and topographical features recorded on high resolution 3 5 khz sub bottom profiler records are discussed a close relationship between locally elevated sea bed mounds or ridges and the several acoustic features is found in the adriatic sea off ortona italy these features include acoustically turbid or opaque zones assumed to represent gas charged sediments acoustically transparent sediments assumed to represent sediments with relatively high pressured pore water free of large gas bubbles acoustic fountains assumed to represent 1 2 m wide sediment columns of relatively high pressured pore water where the gas charged pore water may migrate vertically through the sediment acoustic voids assumed to be up to 50 m wide sediment zones near the sea bed containing high pressured gas charged pore water finely layered sediments assumed to represent sediments with sharp density contrasts caused by varying gas concentrations a function of grain size and stagnant pore water gas seepage to the water column originating at the acoustic voids the positive topographical sea bed features are assumed to represent sediment clay diapiric structures the mechanism of diapir formation and its association with the gas charged sediments and gas seepages is discussed diapirism is assumed to result when plastic clay near the sea bed is charged with gas migrating from below bubbles forming and concentrating in the plastic clay causes local density reversals whereby the clay flows upwards due to buoyancy thus forming the elevated topographical features and the associated gas seepages

analysis of holocene sedimentary features on the adriatic shelf from 3d very high resolution seismic data triad survey very high resolution vhr 3d seismic data were collected on the adriatic shelf offshore the city of ortona in order to define the small scale geometric complexity of late holocene deposits three groups of units are distinguished from the bottom up 1 units u1 to u3 forming the transgressive system tract tst 2 units u4 and u5 representing the condensed interval deposited on the maximum flooding surface mfs and the basal unit of the high stand system tract hst and 3 u6 to u10 forming the progradational units of the hst the muddy hst deposits show seafloor and subsurface sedimentary features over up to 40 of its extent on the adriatic shelf in the area offshore ortona the hst shows shore parallel undulations in water depth of ca 30 70 m and mud reliefs in water depth of ca 70 110 m the mud reliefs are subcircular in plan view and occur in swarms perpendicular to the regional contour that are connected to each other by shore parallel junctions the genesis of these features is interpreted as a combination of two different mechanisms 1 sediment deformation in relation with the condensed section and 2 depositional process related to shore parallel currents interacting with topographic irregularities the evolution of the hst sedimentary pattern is closely related to a key unit u5 that influences both the seaward transition from linear to complex features and the stacking pattern

tephra layers in late quaternary sediments of the central adriatic sea abstract magnetic susceptibility curves of ten cores collected in the western adriatic shelf and in the mid adriatic deep allowed us to recognize thirty tephra layers whose age based on physical and biostratigraphic data encompass a time interval ranging from less than 70 ka to the present chemical features of the tephra defined by sem eds analyses performed on glass shards indicate alkaline affinity mainly with k na 1 and trachytic compositions with two minor benmoreitic and phonolitic groups these characteristics are consistent with campanian and subordinate etnean provenances because of chemical and age constraints the glass shards can be referred to six tephra layers already described in the literature such as c20 c14 citara ischia c10 campanian ignimbrite c2 nyt neapolitan yellow tuff ams pf agnano monte spina phlegrean fields from campanian area and y1 from etna volcano indicating an age ranging from about 70 to 4 ka ams pf and c2 nyt dated 4 4 and 12 3 ka respectively are the most widespread tephra beds in the study cores the occurrence of ams pf never recorded in marine sequences up to now represents a very good marker for holocene adriatic sediments c2 nyt already recorded in the central tyrrhenian sea in lacustrine sediments from southern italy and in the campanian area is a good stratigraphic marker for inter sea and sea land correlations y1 tephra dated 14 2 ka also occurs in on land sediments of central italy and in marine sediments from the tyrrhenian and ionian seas it now represents one of the most widespread stratigraphic markers in the central mediterranean region

seasonality in the madden julian oscillation abstract this study using observational data and global reanalysis products synthesizes existing knowledge on the seasonality in the madden julian oscillation mjo and discusses its possible dependence on the mean background state the seasonality in the mjo is documented in terms of its components in low level zonal wind and precipitation a single peak season boreal winter exists near the equator in the indian and western pacific oceans for the broad tropical region however the seasonality in the mjo is featured by a latitudinal migration across the equator between two peak seasons the primary peak season is in boreal winter december march during which mjo signals are mainly confined to the indian and western pacific ocean and reach their maxima in the south pacific convergence zone the secondary peak season is boreal summer june september during which the strongest mjo occurs north of the equator from the bay of bengal to the south china sea and another separated region of strong mjo

the ad 60 denizli basin earthquake and the apparition of archangel michael at colossae aegean turkey this paper illustrates the results of a multidisciplinary study on the active tectonics of hierapolis and colossae in aegean turkey tectonic analysis is combined with a study of historical seismicity highlighting the use of historical sources from oral tradition legends and myths to derive important geological information for which the legendary account is the only witness strong correlation between tectonic and historical mythological data suggests that the legendary narration is based on real geological events this allows a better understanding of the local active tectonics and seismic history at hierapolis it is possible to recognize evidence of surface faulting from the ad 60 earthquake at colossae we can reconstruct the local geomorphic evolution and show its relationship to the ad 60 earthquake in particular cases deciphering local folk tales legends and myths may provide useful data on the historical seismicity of an area this subject has only recently been investigated by geologists bentor 1989 guidoboni 1989 armijo et al 1991 nur 1991 piccardi 2000 2005 but is still complicated because it deals with documents derived from oral tradition many of these documents are based on a codified religious terminology which sounds unfamiliar today and contributes to the lack of precision in specific cases where geological phenomena are clearly quoted geological analysis can be used as an interpretative key of legends this study presents a case history where legendary narrations from the denizli basin aegean turkey fig 1a provide useful geological and palaeoseismological information in particular traditions related to a famous earthquake that occurred in ad 60 and two famous ancient sanctuaries of this area colossae located at the southern margin of the basin and hierapolis about 15 km to the nw are examined fig 1b early christian and medieval legends based on geological events are attached to these two places the apparition of archangel michael at colossae and the apocryphal account of the arrival of st philip at hierapolis both legends were later commemorated by famous sanctuaries that have attracted pilgrims through the centuries moreover at hierapolis the geological basis for these legends constituted the source event for local religious rituals also at an earlier level in the greek roman sanctuary of apollo only sparse descriptions about the effects of the ad 60 earthquake are available in historical documents thus oral tradition is the only source of further information the natural phenomena that led to these legends are coseismic geomorphic effects related to that strong earthquake for which legend is the only existent testimony the cases illustrated here are clear examples of how particular hagiographic legends can constitute quasi historical documents following a tectonic study of the area and review of historical accounts this paper focuses on two main aspects of local myths and geology the first recovers important information to reconstruct the seismotectonic parameters of the ad 60 earthquake in particular identifying its source as being the master fault of the denizli basin and the second gains insight into the true origin of particular legends and the reasons for sacred site selection in addition this multidisciplinary approach sheds light on important developments in the evolution of western religious thought

a high resolution late holocene palaeo environmental record from the central adriatic sea a multi proxy study of a holocene sediment core rf 93 30 from the western flank of the central adriatic in 77 m of water reveals a sequence of changes in terrestrial vegetation terrigenous sediment input and benthic fauna as well as evidence for variations in sea surface temperature spanning most of the last 7000 yr the chronology of sedimentation is based on several lines of evidence including ams 14c dates of foraminifera extracted from the core palaeomagnetic secular variation pollen indicators and dated tephra the temporal resolution increases towards the surface and for some of the properties measured is sub decadal for the last few centuries the main changes recorded in vegetation sedimentation and benthic foraminiferal assemblages appear to be directly related to human activity in the sediment source area which includes the po valley and the eastern flanks of the central and northern appenines the most striking episodes of deforestation and expanding human impact begin around 3600 bp late bronze age and 700 bp medieval and each leads to an acceleration in mass sedimentation and an increase in the proportion of terrigenous material reflecting the response of surface processes to widespread forest clearance and cultivation although human impact appears to be the proximal cause of these changes climatic effects may also have been important during these periods signs of stress are detectable in the benthic foram morphotype assemblages between these two periods of increased terrigeneous sedimentation there is smaller peak in sedimentation rate around 2400bp which is not associated with evidence for deforestation shifts in the balance between terrigenous and authigenic sedimentation or changes in benthic foraminifera the mineral magnetic record provides a sensitive indicator of changing sediment sources during forested periods of reduced terrigenous input it is dominated by authigenic bacterial magnetite whereas during periods of increased erosion anti ferromagetic minerals haematite and or goethite become more important as well as both paramagnetic minerals and super paramagnetic magnetite analysis of the alkenone u37k record provides an indication of possible changes in sea surface temperature during the period but it is premature to place too much reliance on these inferred changes until the indirect effects of past changes in the depth of the halocline and in circulation have been more fully evaluated the combination of methods used and the results obtained illustrate the potential value of such high resolution near shore marine sedimentary sequences for recording wide scale human impact documenting the effects of this on marine sedimentation and fauna and potentially disentangling evidence for human activities from that for past changes in climate

depositional and erosional bedforms in late pleistocene holocene pro delta deposits of the gulf of patti southern tyrrhenian margin italy abstract multibeam bathymetry high resolution seismic profiles and seafloor samples have been analyzed to characterize depositional and erosional dynamics recorded pro deltaic deposits and outer shelf sediments along of a sector of the ne sicilian margin southern tyrrhenian sea the deltaic deposits cover an area of ca 15 km 2 in front of the mazzarra river and are morphologically characterized by waveforms trending overall along strike and incised cross strike gullies of variable length the gullies are shallow and characterized by small coaxial erosive scours in the inner middle shelf whereas they become larger and deeper in the outer shelf upper slope in relation to the marked increase of slope gradients at the shelf break here the wider gullies are characterized by a frame of crescent shaped bedforms interpreted as cyclic steps indicating the occurrence of sedimentary gravity flows in supercritical regime prodelta waveforms are widespread between 50 and 120 m with wave lengths of 34 110 m and wave heights of 0 5 3 m morphometric characterization and spatial distribution of the waveforms suggests a main role in their genesis played by hyperpycnal flows although we cannot discard the possible effect of internal waves or slow deformation processes i e creep depositional and erosional features similar to those observed on the seafloor are evident in the subsurface stratigraphy revealing the onset and growth of the mazzarra delta since the last glacial maximum the post glacial sea level rise caused lateral shifts of the mazzarra river mouth controlling migration of depositional lobes and intensity of seafloor incision and sediment reworking ultimately resulting in the observed wavy bedforms extending from the inner shelf to the upper slope

the madden julian oscillation observed during the toga coare iop global view abstract during the toga coare intensive observing period november 1992 february 1993 two pronounced madden julian oscillation mjo events associated with super cloud clusters and westerly wind bursts were observed this paper presents a global view of the mjos including the origin of the super clusters in the indian ocean their migration into the maritime continent and the toga coare large scale soundings array lsa in the western equatorial pacific and their rapid decay over cold water of the eastern pacific the structure and evolution of the mjo are examined with emphasis on the coupling between large scale motion and convection because of differences in propagation speeds the positions of maximum zonal wind perturbations relative to deep convection undergo systematic changes during the travel of the mjo however the centers of deep convection always coincide with those of large scale ascent the super cloud cluster accompanies a wide area of warm air in the upper troposphere over the warm

geological events in the bible the books of the bible contain numerous frequently very exact descriptions of geological events some of these are discussed here earthquakes and their accompanying landslides the crossing of the river jordan seiches and tsunamis the flood flooding sodom and gomorrah faulting burning gas seepages the burning bush and volcanism mount sinai these geological events appear in the biblical text mainly for artistic reasons they serve as a suitable background to dramatize the biblical account they create a supernatural atmosphere for the main stories but the time and place at which they occurred are of no importance to the narrator and might be shifted freely

gas geochemistry and seismotectonics a review abstract publications on soil and spring gases have been examined regarding their relationships with both tectonic and seismic activities the main sources behaviours and uses of species detected in soils and springs are displayed and their mode of sampling and analysing briefly described the main patterns of degassing in soils are described and we outline the wide range of geochemical signatures as the result of both permeability and mineralogical contrasts because thermomineral waters have been in contact with great volumes of crustal rocks at various depths spring gases might be more representative of the local environment than soil gases moreover gas signature comparisons show that spring gases are much more enriched with deep gases and slightly contaminated by atmospheric gases therefore they can be considered as better samples for identifying precursors of earthquakes environmental perturbations are examined and it is shown from divergent cases that pressure temperature soil moisture or earth tides may generate very high perturbations of the degassing process such effects demonstrate that no systematic correction law can be proposed and that removing external contributions from gas concentrations must be performed case by case this demonstrates therefore the need for the simultaneous measurement of external parameters during gas monitoring a qualitative examination of about 150 claimed precursors proposed in the literature has been reviewed as noted by previous authors anomalies appear at distances sometimes much greater than typical source dimensions and occur in the field of strain higher than 10 9 most of them being in the field of strain higher than 10 8 taking into account the very high heterogeneity of such a set of data we can suggest that amplitudes of gas anomalies are independent of both magnitudes and epicentral distances of related earthquakes suggesting local conditions to control amplitudes on the contrary precursory time and duration of anomalies seem to increase both with magnitudes and epicentral distances abundant evidence demonstrates the major role of crustal fluids in the earthquake cycle many works have outlined the fact that crustal instabilities can appear as the result of low stress strain perturbations during loading it has been suggested that motion of fluids may occur at various scales from microcrack fluid transfer up to changes of hydraulic levels of water tables the study of subsequent anomalies is expected to supply a tool for earthquake prediction following previous authors we outline the need for further methodological improvements including the setting up of multiparameter station networks and the simultaneous recording of the main external parameters atmospheric pressure water and air temperature soil moisture for signal processing

magnitude versus faults surface parameters quantitative relationships from the aegean region historical and seismotectonic data from the broader aegean region have been collected and all possible information relative to ground deformation associated to earthquakes that hit the area have been re evaluated all events associated to co seismic surface faulting have been selected and further investigated while geomorphologic and geological criteria have been used to recognise and characterise the seismogenic faults associated to these morphogenic earthquakes sensu bull inqua 16 1993 24 in particular in order to perform seismic hazard analyses we compiled a list of all earthquakes where the surface rupture length srl the maximum vertical displacement mvd or the average displacement ad is available we thus obtained reliable values of these source parameters for 36 earthquakes of which 26 occurred during the 20th century 6 in the 19th century and the 3 remaining earlier magnitude versus srl and mvd has been compiled for estimating empirical relationships the calculated regression equations are ms 0 90 log srl 5 48 and ms 0 5 9log mvd 6 75 showing good correlation coefficients equal to 0 84 and 0 82 respectively co seismic fault rupture lengths and especially maximum displacements in the aegean region have systematically lower values than the same parameters worldwide but are similar to those of the eastern mediterranean middle east region the envelopes of our diagrams are also calculated and discussed for estimating the worst case scenario furthermore for all investigated seismogenic structures based on several geological criteria we measured the geological fault length gfl which is the total length of the neotectonic faults showing cumulative recent activity we then compared srl with gfl and their ratio shows a clear bimodal distribution with a major peak at 0 8 1 0 indicating that about 50 of the investigated earthquakes ruptured almost the entire fault length while a second peak around the value of 0 5 is clearly related to a segmentation process of longer neotectonic structures further implications of this distribution are also discussed eventually from the distribution of gfl versus magnitude we also infer an important geological threshold for the occurrence of morphogenic earthquakes at about 5 5 degrees

on large scale circulations in convecting atmospheres the dominant thinking about the interaction between large scale atmospheric circulations and moist convection holds that convection acts as a heat source for the large scale circulations while the latter supply water vapour to the convection we show that this idea has led to fundamental misconceptions about this interaction and offer an alternative paradigm based on the idea that convection is nearly in statistical equilibrium with its environment according to the alternative paradigm the vertical temperature profile itself rather than the heating is controlled by the convection which ties the temperature directly to the subcloud layer entropy the understanding of large scale circulations in convecting atmospheres can therefore be regarded as a problem of understanding the distribution in space and time of the subcloud layer entropy we show that the subcloud layer entropy is controlled by the sea surface temperature the surface wind speed and the large scale vertical velocity in the convecting layer and demonstrate how the recognition of this control leads to a simple physically consistent view of large scale flows ranging from the hadley and walker circulations to the 30 50 day oscillation in particular we argue that the direct effect of convection on large scale circulations is to reduce by roughly an order of magnitude the effective static stability felt by such circulations and to damp all of them

the geological links of the ancient delphic oracle greece a reappraisal of natural gas occurrence and origin recent studies have speculated that the prophetic powers of pythia the woman of the delphic oracle at the temple of apollo in greece were induced by hydrocarbon vapors specifically ethylene rising from bedrock fissures at the intersection of the e w delphi fault with the nnw sse kerna fault and producing neurotoxic effects including trance and delirium new surveys including gas flux from soil gas in groundwater and isotopic analyses of spring scales provide the experimental confirmation of the gas release in the delphi area presently methane ethane and carbon dioxide are being released from a thermogenic catagenetic hydrocarbon prone environment this environment is not prone to biogenic production of ethylene in amounts inducing neurotoxic effects hundreds or thousands of ppmv a wnw ese trending subsidiary fault within the delphi fault zone extending for 2 km passes under the temple of apollo and shrine of athena the temple of apollo located above this fault may have been the site of enhanced degassing in the past if gas linked neurotoxic effects upon pythia need to be invoked they should be sought in the possibility of oxygen depletion due to co2 ch4 exhalation in the indoor temple alternatively a plausible geological explanation behind the natural presence of sweet scents could be the occurrence of aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene dissolved in the groundwater spring

sedimentary structures offshore ortona adriatic sea deformation or sediment waves the late holocene mud wedge on the adriatic shelf offshore ortona italy shows undulating sub parallel seismic reflector sequences which extend several kilometres along strike and 100 200 m down dip in water depth between 20 and 80 m the amplitude of such undulations is up to 5 m and the undulations continue as stacked sediment packages downwards throughout the 35 m thick mud wedge the undulations are separated by 4 to 5 dipping boundary zones and at first glance these sediment undulations resemble the seafloor sedimentary structures visible in the humboldt feature offshore california there is an ongoing debate whether seafloor undulations are the result of deformation processes or sediment deposition and or reworking due to submarine shelf currents a dense net of recently reprocessed and digitally interpreted high resolution chirp seismic data on the adriatic shelf favours an interpretation that these undulations developed in the upper part of the stratigraphic section through sediment reworking rather than through deformation there are three lines of evidence for this 1 the spatial extent of the undulations coincides with higher seabed reflector amplitudes than found both on the shelf and in the distal part of the shelf if the features were solely caused by slope failure there should be no change of amplitudes 2 the seabed reflector amplitude is generally higher on the gently dipping or flat upslope limbs than on the steeper downslope limbs supporting a current origin that causes preferred deposition of sediments with higher acoustic impedance on the top 3 the boundaries between the undulations are dipping at angles that are much lower than the angle of internal friction of these sediments excluding that a simple model like the mohr coulomb under gravitational loading could describe the undulations as sediment deformation and failures

myth and geology this book is the first peer reviewed collection of papers focusing on the potential of myth storylines to yield data and lessons that are of value to the geological sciences building on the nascent discipline of geomythology scientists and scholars from a variety of disciplines have contributed to this volume the geological hazards such as earthquakes tsunamis volcanic eruptions and cosmic impacts that have given rise to myths are considered as are the sacred and cultural values associated with rocks fossils geological formations and landscapes there are also discussions about the historical and literary perspectives of geomythology regional coverage includes europe and the mediterranean afghanistan cameroon india australia japan pacific islands south america and north america myth and geology challenges the widespread notion that myths are fictitious or otherwise lacking in value for the physical sciences

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

multi process generated sediment waves on the landes plateau bay of biscay north atlantic detailed analyses of recently collected bathymetric and sparker seismic data support a new interpretation of the landes plateau field of sediment waves located on the aquitaine upper continental slope bay of biscay the wave geometry previously described as the result of a major sediment failure is interpreted as a structure with a complex origin including the interaction of depositional and gravity deformation processes depositional processes are mainly recorded by the upslope migrating pattern of the waves resulting from oblique or sigmoid downlap reflections on the upslope flank of the waves and by toplapping and truncated reflections on the downslope flank hemipelagic and turbiditic sedimentation may be involved in the wave building as well as contouritic processes that could be related to the existing northward polar current and internal waves gravity deformations are syndepositional discontinuous and of low amplitude affecting thick layers which alternate with undeformed layers they seem to correspond to gentle sediment creeping or stretching associated with minor listric or compaction like faults and possible limited back rotation of sediment blocks these multi process generated sediment waves could be rather common on the continental margins as they could have been mistaken with either depositional or deformational structures

the existence and vertical structure of fast eastward moving disturbances in the equatorial troposphere abstract eastward phase propagation at speed faster than 30 m s 1 of a signal in the equatorial troposphere of the eastern pacific is detected first in historical meteorological observations and then in more recent data a first baroclinic mode vertical structure is identified with this signal in separate analyses based on linear theory and complex empirical orthogonal functions respectively this rapid eastward signal is conceptualized as a far field dispersion product of strong convection associated with the intraseasonal tropical oscillation in the indian ocean and western pacific

sub millennial scale climatic oscillations in the central adriatic during the lateglacial palaeoceanographic implications abstract a multi proxy study of a sedimentary core obtained from the central adriatic basin provides evidence of short term events of palaeoceanographic variability during the last glacial lateglacial period grip event stages gi 1 and gs 1 comparison of the adriatic results with other mediterranean records reveals a common sequence of changes in palaeoceanographic conditions variations in foraminiferal assemblage data and in stable isotopic compositions indicate two short term cold oscillations which interrupted an overall cooling trend that commenced at the beginning of the greenland gi 1 episode bolling allerod episode these cold events considered to be contemporaneous with gi 1b and gi d of the grip ice core record are indicated by distinctive foraminiferal assemblages which reflect episodes of high productivity under relatively restricted water circulation with in particular reduced vertical mixing during winter differences in the foraminiferal assemblages indicate that the younger of the two cold spells is characterized by reduced ventilation of bottom waters our results combined with published data from neighbouring marine basins suggest a widespread reduction in deep water formation in the central mediterranean which commenced during the gi 1b episode and reached its maximum effect during the onset of the gs 1 younger dryas episode moreover three intervals with reduced vertical mixing correspond to the two cold spells during gi 1 and the lower phase of the gs 1 episode and show close similarities with the palaeoceanographic changes reported for the north atlantic this similarity indicates that the mediterranean and north atlantic may have been responding more or less synchronously to common forcing mechanisms

new evidence for the geological origins of the ancient delphic oracle greece ancient tradition linked the delphic oracle in greece to specific geological phenomena including a fissure in the bedrock intoxicating gaseous emissions and a spring despite testimony by ancient authors many modern scholars have dismissed these traditional accounts as mistaken or fraudulent this paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary study that has succeeded in locating young faults at the oracle site and has also identified the prophetic vapor as an emission of light hydrocarbon gases generated in the underlying strata of bituminous limestone

geodetic determination of tectonic deformation in central greece from 1900 to 1988 the global positioning system has been used to measure the relative displacements of fifteen monuments in a hundred year old triangulation network spanning part of the aegean extensional basin these displacements reflect the tectonic deformation of the region over the past century showing more than one metre of north south extension across the network the crust in this region appears to contain a few slowly deforming blocks separated by more rapidly deforming zones

slope failures and stability analysis of shallow water prodeltas in the active margins of western greece northeastern mediterranean sea sediment instabilities are common on the prodeltas of the seismically active continental margins of western greece sediment failures on the low angle 0 5 2 prodelta slopes manifest themselves as successions of peripheral rotational block slumps restricted to the foresets of the late highstand systems tract hst the individual slump blocks are about 80 150 m long and are bounded by growth faults acting as curved slip planes that extend to a mean depth of 10 15 m below seafloor shear planes develop in the lower part of muddy and or gas charged hst foresets deeper basal transparent muddy layers of the early hst bottomset together with the late pleistocene transgressive systems tract sequences tst are mostly unaffected on the steeper 2 6 fan delta slopes of the western gulf of corinth debris flows and avalanches with a significant retrogressive component dominate slope destabilisation sediment cores taken from landslide scarps and slide planes penetrated gas bubble releasing sediments thereby indicating that failure planes are in the late hst foresets upper part of the early hst bottomsets gas charged zone the foresets of the hst prodelta deposits display high water content 30 80 low bulk density 1 4 1 9 g cm 3 and relatively low values of undrained shear strength 3 20 kpa the water content of the hst distal muddy bottomsets is relatively higher 50 110 and bulk density relatively lower 1 3 1 7 g cm 3 with low values of shear strength 2 10 kpa the shear strength of the gas releasing sediment layer displays lower values 2 9 kpa relative to the overlying post failure muddy sediments of the late 100 300 years slope stability was calculated using the normalised soil parameter nsp method under undrained conditions for normally consolidated prodelta sediments this analysis indicates that instabilities could be induced by critical earthquake ground accelerations of 26 6 29 6 g for the hst foresets and 12 4 14 1 g for the basal transparent layer belonging to the early hst bottomsets consequently the early hst bottomsets has to be considered a potentially unstable layer since the regional peak ground accelerations pgas for the next 50 years are expected to range from 19 to 30 g moreover our results show that new glide planes in the prodeltaic sediment bodies of the seismically active continental margins of western greece will likely develop from the gas charged sediments of the lower part of the hst foresets to the upper part of early hst bottomsets

development characteristics and dynamic structure of tropical intraseasonal convection anomalies abstract the development and dynamical structure of intraseasonal low frequency convection anomalies in the equatorial region are investigated using 10 years 1975 85 of outgoing longwave radiation olr and 7 years 1979 85 of 200 and 850 mb wind data the composite olr anomalies for 36 cases show a four stage development process initiation over equatorial africa rapid intensification when passing through the indian ocean mature evolution characterized by a weakening in the maritime continent and redevelopment over the western pacific and dissipation near the date line in moderate events or emanation from the equator toward north america and southeastern pacific in strong events a noticeable feature in vertical structure is that the 850 mb convergence leads convection and midtropospheric upward motion by about 30 degrees longitude in both developing and mature phases equatorial upper lower level easterly westerly anomalies and associated twin anomalous anticyclonic cyclonic circulation an

doppler radar observations of mesoscale wind divergence in regions of tropical convection abstract a simple new analysis method for large single doppler radar datasets is presented using data from several tropical field experiments a cylindrical grid is chosen to respect both the geophysical importance of altitude and the radar importance of range and azimuth horizontal and temporal fine structure are sacrificed by compiling data as hourly histograms in 12 24 36 spatial grid cells of 15 azimuth 8 km horizontal range 500 m height respectively mean doppler radial velocity in each region is automatically unfolded dealiased using a simple histogram method and fed into a velocity azimuth display vad analysis the result is a set of hourly horizontal wind and wind divergence profiles with associated error estimates for circles of different radii centered on the radar these divergence profiles contain useful heating profile information in many weather situations not just occasional cases of uniform widespread rainfall consistency of independent estimates for concentric circl

distinguishing sediment waves from slope failure deposits field examples including the humboldt slide and modelling results abstract migrating sediment waves have been reported in a variety of marine settings including submarine levee fan systems floors of fjords and other basin or continental slope environments examination of such wave fields reveals nine diagnostic characteristics when these characteristics are applied to several features previously attributed to submarine landslide deformation they suggest that the features should most likely be reinterpreted as migrating sediment wave fields sites that have been reinterpreted include the humboldt slide on the eel river margin in northern california the continental slope in the gulf of cadiz the continental shelf off the malaspina glacier in the gulf of alaska and the adriatic shelf a reassessment of all four features strongly suggests that numerous turbidity currents separated by intervals of ambient hemipelagic sedimentation deposited the wave fields over thousands of years a numerical model of hyperpycnal discharge from the eel river for example shows that under certain alongshore current conditions such events can produce turbidity currents that flow across the humboldt slide serving as the mechanism for the development of migrating sediment waves numerical experiments also demonstrate that where a series of turbidity currents flows across a rough seafloor i e numerical steps sediment waves can form and migrate upslope hemipelagic sedimentation between turbidity current events further facilitates the upslope migration of the sediment waves physical modelling of turbidity currents also confirms the formation and migration of seafloor bedforms the morphologies of sediment waves generated both numerically and physically in the laboratory bear a strong resemblance to those observed in the field including those that were previously described as submarine landslides

diabatic divergence profiles in western pacific mesoscale convective systems abstract heating in the atmosphere can be expressed as diabatic divergence d which is nearly equal to the actual horizontal divergence in tropical convection high quality profile measurements from airborne doppler radar purls in ten mesoscale convective systems mcs observed during toga coare are examined and the mean profile is compared with rawinsonde array measurements young convective features have strong near surface convergence while older cells with better developed downdrafts and stratiform precipitation areas have their peak convergence aloft in the mean then surface flow is only weakly convergent or oven divergent so that the main convergence into mcss is deep and peaked aloft with a sharp melting convergence at 0 c divergence prevails above 10 km altitude but was undersampled by the radar unusual but well sampled observations in the purl dataset include a persistent widespread profile feature in one well sampled mcs a cyclone rainband oscillatory reverberations c

morphobathymetric analysis and evidence of submarine mass movements in the western gulf of taranto calabria margin ionian sea the western part of the gulf of taranto southern italy is a seismically active area with high sediment supply new swath bathymetry and sub bottom profiler chirp data were acquired on board r v ogs explora during the wgdt cruise the data were analyzed to describe the seafloor morphology and the acoustic facies of relevant morphologic features special attention was given to the features produced by mass wasting and soft sediment deformations the features identified include slides and slide scars debris flow deposits enigmatic dip slope trending sub parallel linear depressions and along slope undulations inferred to have been produced either by creeping or sediment deposition by hyperpycnal flows the description of these features contributes to the characterization of the calabria foreland basin system and provides an analogue for other basins similarly affected by a close relation between sediment supply and active tectonics

active faulting at delphi greece seismotectonic remarks and a hypothesis for the geologic environment of a myth historical data are fundamental to the understanding of the seismic history of an area at the same time knowledge of the active tectonic processes allows us to understand how earthquakes have been perceived by past cultures delphi is one of the principal archaeological sites of greece the main oracle of apollo it was by far the most venerated oracle of the greek ancient world according to tradition the mantic proprieties of the oracle were obtained from an open chasm in the earth delphi is directly above one of the main antithetic active faults of the gulf of corinth rift which bounds mount parnassus to the south the geometry of the fault and slip parallel lineations on the main fault plane indicate normal movement with minor right lateral slip component combining tectonic data archaeological evidence historical sources and a reexamination of myths it appears that the helice earthquake of 373 b c ruptured not only the master fault of the gulf of corinth rift at helice but also the antithetic fault at delphi similarly to the corinth earthquake of 1981 moreover the presence of an active fault directly below the temples of the oldest sanctuary suggests that the mythological oracular chasm might well have been an ancient tectonic surface rupture

eustatic and tectonic control on deposition and lateral variability of quaternary regressive sequences in the adriatic basin italy abstract during the late pleistocene sea level variations related to glacio eustatic cycles induced the deposition of four regressive sequences on the western continental shelf of the adriatic basin the four sequences are bounded by erosion surfaces that formed during sea level fall sub aerial exposure of the shelf and subsequent sea level rise and erosional reworking the sequences and the erosion surfaces at their top numbered 1 4 top down are correlated on distances in the order of 300 km in the central and south adriatic core control on deposits of the most recent depositional sequence sequence 1 suggests that each sequence records a fourth order ca 100 120 kyr cyclicity of sea level change within each depositional sequence progradational units representing highstand to forced regression are dominant whereas transgressive deposits are absent or reduced in both thickness and lateral extent sequences are thus referred to as regressive sequences deposition during sea level fall occurred on an overall subsiding shelf through the dispersal of fine grained sediment supplied from the adjacent alpine and apennine chains this resulted in stacked forced regression deposits thick enough to survive complete removal during subsequent phases of sub aerial and marine erosion erosion and or non deposition were enhanced only where tectonic uplift and morphological highs further reduced the remaining accommodation space resulting in local thickness reduction or in the non preservation of the regressive sequences at larger scale thickness variability and depocenter distribution north and south of the gargano promontory an uplifted block bisecting the adriatic foreland reflect differential deposition and preservation of regressive deposits as a function of contrasting tectonic setting and resulting physiography of the shelf and upper slope