bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Central and Southern Adriatic islands: tectonic implications of new paleomagnetic results
Authors: Márton Emö , Ćosović Vlasta , Imre Gábor , Velki Máté
Published: March 2022

The Central and Southern Adriatic islands, situated offshore of the Split-Dubrovnik segment of the mainland, belong to the External Dinarides. Their dominant tectonic trend is W-E, significantly different from the general Dinaric NW-SE orientation. For this reason, they are often regarded as belonging to a distinct tectonic unit, and sometimes a vertical axis counterclockwise (CCW) rotation is invoked to explain the deviation from the general tectonic trend.

In this paper, new paleomagnetic results are presented from Late Jurassic through Paleocene shallow water limestones from the Central and Southern Adriatic islands. For the localities sampled for paleomagnetic investigation, the sedimentological properties and the stratigraphic ages, based on the foraminifera population, were checked by microscopy investigation. The paleomagnetic analysis was carried out on field oriented drill cores, according to standard laboratory processing. The results were evaluated statistically on locality level. Overall-mean paleomagnetic directions were computed for several age groups and the age of the acquisition of the remanence was estimated from between-locality fold tests for a number of age groups. Comparison with earlier published results from the Northern Adriatic islands and from Stable Adria lead to the conclusion that the Central and Southern Adriatic islands had not rotate with respect to the Northern ones and even more importantly, stable Adria and the offshore External Dinarides must have moved as an integrated unit, at least from the Albian on.

This work was financially supported by the National Development and Innovation Office of Hungary project K 128625.
The deep interior of Mars from nutation measured by InSight RISE
Authors: Le Maistre sebastien , Rivoldini Attilio , Caldiero Alfonso , Yseboodt Marie , Baland Rose-Marie , Beuthe Mikael , Van Hoolst Tim , Dehant Veronique , Folkner William , Buccino Dustin , Kahan Daniel , Marty Jean-Charles , Antonangeli Daniele , Badro James , Drilleau Melanie , Konopliv Alex , Peters Marie-Julie , Plesa Ana-Catalina , Samuel Henri , Tosi Nicola ,   InSight/RISE team
Published: March 2022

We report here the results of more than 2 years of monitoring the rotation of Mars with the RISE instrument on InSight. Small periodic variations of the spin axis orientation, called nutations, can be extracted from the Doppler data with enough precision to identify the influence of the Martian fluid core.  For the first time for a planetary body other than the Earth, we can measure the period of the Free Core Nutation (FCN), which is a rotational normal mode arising from the misalignment of the rotation axes of the core and mantle. In this way, we confirm the liquid state of the core and estimate its moment of inertia as well as its likely size.

The FCN period depends on the dynamical flattening of the core and on its ability to deform. Since the shape and gravity field of Mars deviate significantly from those of a uniformly rotating fluid body, deviations from that state can also be expected for the core. Models accounting for the dynamical shape of Mars can thus be tested by comparing core shape predictions to nutation constraints. The observed FCN period can be accounted for by interior models having a very thick lithosphere loaded by degree-two mass anomalies at the bottom.

The combination of nutation data and interior structure modeling allows us to deduce the radius of the core and to constrain its density, and thus, to address the nature and abundance of light elements alloyed to iron. The inferred core radius agrees with previous estimates based on geodesy and seismic data. The large fraction of light elements required to match the core density implies that its liquidus is significantly lower than the expected core temperature, making the presence of an inner core highly unlikely. Besides, the existence of an inner core would lead to an additional rotational normal mode the signature of which has not been detected in the RISE data.
Green Sahara Periods in a warmer world: a proxy-based reconstruction of the last 11 Myr
Authors: Crocker Anya , Naafs B. David , Westerhold Thomas , James Rachael , Cooper Matthew , Röhl Ursula , Pancost Richard , Xuan Chuang , Osborne Colin , Beerling David , Wilson Paul
Published: March 2022

The Sahara is a vast, bare, intensely arid, dust exporting landscape today. Yet, in the early Holocene, the Sahara was green; a well-vegetated landscape crosscut by a network of rivers and lakes, populated by hippopotamuses, other megafauna and our early ancestors. Strong evidence also exists for multiple earlier Green Sahara Periods (GSPs), with their occurrence paced by variability in solar insolation. However, terrestrial climate archives used to provide direct evidence of past humid conditions are often plagued with intervals of erosion and/or non-deposition, while sapropels (organic-rich sediment layers in the Mediterranean Sea) only provide an indirect record of North African climate. Here, we explore how the expression of GSPs has changed across a range of global climate states, including warmer intervals than today, with new, detailed records of terrigenous inputs to North Atlantic deep-sea sediments situated underneath the Saharan dust plume. We document a long and sustained history of astronomically-paced oscillations between distinctly humid and arid conditions from at least 11 million years ago, with three distinct phases in the sensitivity of the relationship between astronomical forcing and African hydroclimate identified. Our data provide a new framework for assessing evolutionary outcomes on land, including implications for our hominid ancestors.
SCDetect: Near real-time computationally efficient waveform cross-correlation based earthquake detection during intense earthquake sequences
Authors: Armbruster Daniel , Mesimeri Maria , Kästli Philipp , Diehl Tobias , Massin Frédérick , Wiemer Stefan
Published: March 2022

Aftershock sequences or earthquake swarms generate a high number of seismic events that are not detected by standard regional network routine processes. Undetected earthquakes are mostly due to low signal to noise ratio, overlapping earthquakes, and a network configuration that targets earthquake detection with a homogeneous magnitude of completeness. Furthermore, the analyst’s workload is increasing dramatically during an intense earthquake sequence, which results in prompt manual review of the largest events, only.

We present a computationally efficient and highly customizable tool (SCDetect) to detect earthquakes in near real-time by applying waveform cross-correlation in the time domain based on a set of template events. SCDetect is a free and open-source SeisComP extension module fully integrated into the SeisComP environment. It may be used to process both archived waveform data, when operated in playback mode, as well as real-time data. In either of the use cases, waveform data is accessed through SeisComP’s standard RecordStream interface. Multiple template event based detectors may be configured. The individual detector configuration is fully stream based which allows for generic multi-stream event detection. Event parameter products for newly detected events (i.e. origins, picks, amplitudes, station magnitudes) may be sent to SeisComP's messaging system for further processing. In addition to earthquake detection, we implement amplitude calculation by measuring amplitudes on the horizontal components. SCDetect offers multiple magnitude estimation methods based on the amplitudes of the template earthquakes and the new detections (i.e regression, amplitude ratios). Magnitude estimation is configurable using SeisComP’s bindings configuration.

We applied SCDetect to recent earthquake sequences in Switzerland between 2019 and 2021. The dense seismic network operated by the Swiss Seismological Service offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the performance of the proposed module. Our first results show that these extended earthquake catalogs contain at least ten times more earthquakes than the national earthquake catalogue.
Clustering urban areas by a geological point of view: The Urban Geo Footprint tool 
Authors: Lentini Azzurra , Benjumea-Moreno Beatriz , Bricker Stephanie H. , Chiessi Vittorio , Xavier Devleeschouwer , Galve Jorge P. , Giordano Guido , Guarino Paolo , Kearsey Timothy , Leoni Gabriele , Pizzino Luca , Puzzilli Luca Maria , La Vigna Francesco
Published: March 2022

The Urban Geo Footprint (UGF) is a project currently developed in the framework of the EuroGeoSurvey Urban Geology Expert Group (UGEG) and specifically focused on the geo-environmental pressures in urban areas.

The main goal of the study is to set up a classification tool (UGF) aimed to identify the main geological features that could influence and/or interfer with (ongoing) anthropic activities within urban catchments.

The following main drivers are defined in the «UGF framework»: Geology, Climate, Geohazards, Geomorphology, Subsoil anthropic pressure. Each driving factor is articulated in quantitative and indexed (using scores) parameters. At the present early stage all these parameters are going to be indexed and weighted based on two levels of investigation: “basic” and “advanced”. The final result for each city is the “UGF INDEX”  coming from the combination of all the drivers specific scores. The higher the index value, the higher the geotechnical and environmental complexity of the urbanized catchment.

The expected outcomes of the UGF urban areas indexing are:

A classification of cities according to their geological setting and climatic features, eventually allowing their clustering and supporting sharing of knowledge and capabilities among urban areas.

Better understanding of geo-environment processes possibly interacting with urban subsurface and ground infrastructures, thus also encouraging and support cities’ subsurface resilience for sustainable (future) growth.

Help for better assessing the ‘economic’ and ‘social well-being’ benefits (i.e. in terms of ‘geological resilience’) that could derive from urban planning associated to subsoil knowledge.

A fact-sheet referred to the subsoil of each city, to be progressively updated.

Other objectives of the project are:

Contributing to develop a method for the comparison of data from different environmental urban contexts.

Improving the European collaboration and, therefore, the exchange of ideas on good practices to increase urban areas’ resilience.

Improving citizens' awareness of both the resources and the threats associated with geology.

Produce a tool for decision makers support (e.g. urban planning, hazards prevention) in order to obtain economical and social well-being benefits.
Paleoclimatic tipping points and abrupt transitions: An application of advanced time series analysis methods
Authors: Bagniewski Witold , Ghil Michael , Rousseau Denis-Didier
Published: March 2022

Paleoclimate proxy records contain abrupt transitions that may represent former instances of the climate system crossing a tipping point (TP). Properly identifying these TPs in the Earth’s past helps determine critical thresholds in present-day climate and better understand the climate system’s underlying bifurcation mechanisms.

Information contained in paleoclimate proxy records is often ambiguous because of the complexity of the system, which includes both deterministic and stochastic processes. Furthermore, paleoclimate time series differ in their time spans and periodicities, and often have high levels of noise and a nonuniform resolution. These combined sources of uncertainty highlight the need for using advanced statistical methods for robustly identifying and comparing TPs.

A recently developed method that uses an augmented Kolmogorov-Smirnov test has been shown to be highly effective for transition detection in different types of records. Here, we apply this method to a set of high-quality paleoproxy records exhibiting centennial-to millennial-scale variability that have been compiled in the PaleoJump database. We thereby detect previously unrecognized transitions in these records and identify potential TPs. Furthermore, we investigate regime changes with recurrence analysis and spectral analysis.

This study is supported by the H2020-funded Tipping Points in the Earth System (TiPES) project.
Diffuse thick fault representation in 2D SEM for earthquake dynamic rupture simulations
Authors: Hayek Valencia Jorge Nicolas , May Dave , Pranger Casper , Gabriel Alice-Agnes
Published: March 2022

Natural fault system observations feature complexity that includes damage variation from the outer damage zone to the fault core and associated rheological degradation (e.g. variation in the frictional strength and spatio-temporal slip localisation). In earthquake dynamic rupture simulations, faults are typically treated as infinitesimally thin interfaces with distinct on- versus off-fault rheologies. Commonly, such faults are explicitly represented in the discretisation of the computational domain.

Here we present a diffuse interface approach for dynamic rupture modelling. We introduce a 2D spectral element method (SEM) with an embedded smeared discontinuity representing volumetric fault slip. Our diffuse fault SEM is inspired by the stress-glut method of Andrews, 1999. In our approach, a subdomain in which the tangential stresses are limited by a critical shear strength and an empirical friction law is embedded in a purely elastic domain, resembling classical discrete fault representations. Our approach is implemented on a structured quadrilateral mesh within an SEM framework for elastic wave propagation, with PETSc (Balay et al. 2019) as a linear algebra back-end.

Our method collapses volumetric complexities onto a distribution within a compact support instead of the traditional interface approach, making it a flexible inelastic zone alternative for mesh-independent fault representation in dynamic rupture simulations. We conduct 2D numerical experiments, including a kinematically driven Kostrov-like crack and spontaneous dynamic rupture as defined in SCEC community benchmarks (Harris et al., 2018) of increasing complexity. We extract the spectral response from seismograms at different receivers normal and along the fault. We also analyse the capacity of flexible fault representation by including mesh-independent fault geometries. 

Our approach will allow us to incorporate volumetric failure rheologies in SEM dynamic rupture simulations and is part of the TEAR ERC project (www.tear-erc.eu).
Muographic Analysis of the NOvA-ND Cosmic Data
Authors: Filip Peter ,   NOvA Collaboration
Published: March 2022

Radiographic analysis of the overburden inhomogeneities above 
the NOvA Near Detector, located -100m below the surface at Fermilab, 
will be presented. A continuous measurement of the underground cosmic 
muon flux by the NOvA detector (of size 4x4x15 meters) allowed us to detect 
temporal variations of the overburden, related to the soil excavation and the concrete 
mass accumulation during the ICARUS detector installation at Fermilab. 
Utilising the internal reflection symmetries of the NOvA detector acceptance, we are
able to obtain a differential radiographic maps of the spatial overburden 
variations directly from the measured cosmic data, without using the Geant
simulations or the open-sky data subtraction.  
The 2021 Flood Disaster in Germany – Distribution, remobilization and accumulation of organic pollutants along the natural floodplains of the Rur river
Authors: Schwanen Christina , Bellanova Piero , Schwarzbauer Jan
Published: March 2022

Due to extreme precipitation and runoff, severe flooding occurred in Germany in the summer of 2021 (July 13th–16th). In the catchment area of the Rur river, especially along its tributaries Inde and Wurm, but also along the Rur itself, this flood caused severe destruction and impacts on modern and older floodplains and anthropogenic utilized areas. This led to the acute and unusual input of harmful organic pollutants, as well as the remobilization and relocation of old burdens.

Particularly floodplains are of central importance during such flood events as their natural functions include water, sediment, and nutrient retention, as well as the self-purification of water bodies. The focus of this investigation was therefore on the importance and relevance of natural floodplains during and after the 2021 summer flood. For this purpose, 16 different floodplains distributed throughout the Rur’s course were sampled immediately after the flood. The objectives were to determine pollutant concentrations, distribution, and accumulation, as well as the identification of potential pollution sources. In this context, the results of previous floodplain sampling and regular monitoring of the river’s sediments are also considered.

Preliminary results indicate elevated concentrations of several organic pollutant groups, including PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), and LABs (linear alkylbenzenes). These substances are indicators of petrogenic pollution, historical (old burdens) and current heavy industry in the catchment area, and, of wastewater and urban pollution, respectively.

By considering these indicators and identifying emission sources (e.g., wastewater treatment plants, destructed infrastructure and industry along the main river and its tributaries) and accumulation areas that are relevant for remobilization, statements can be obtained about the high dynamics of the flood event. Furthermore, the importance of natural floodplains for the accumulation and remobilization of organic pollutants, but also the self-purification of water bodies is thus investigated and emphasized. This is of great importance for the holistic assessment of the fate and behaviour of organic pollutants as well as for the estimation of short- and long-term environmental risks and hazards related to (extreme) flood events.
Tools and incentives for the curation of geosciences data. Experiences from GFZ Data Services
Authors: Ott Florian , Elger Kirsten , Frenzel Simone
Published: March 2022

GFZ Data Services, hosted at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), is a domain repository for geosciences data that assigns digital object identifier (DOI) to data and scientific software since 2004 and is Allocating Agent for IGSN, the globally unique persistent identifier for physical samples, providing IGSN minting services for physical samples since 2012. The repository provides DOI minting services for several global monitoring networks/observatories in geodesy and geophysics (e.g. INTERMAGNET; IAG Services ICGEM, IGETS, IGS; GEOFON), collaborative projects (TERENO, EnMAP, GRACE, CHAMP) and the curation of long-tail data by domain specialists.

Provision of (1) comprehensive domain-specific data description via standardised and machine-readable metadata with controlled domain vocabularies, (2) complementing the metadata with comprehensive and standardised technical data descriptions or reports; and (3) embedding the research data in wider context by providing cross-references through Persistent Identifiers (DOI, IGSN, ORCID, Fundref) to related research products (text, data, software) and people or institutions involved are used by GFZ Data Services to increase the interoperability of long-tail data.

For their data and software publication activities, GFZ Data Services provides an XML metadata editor18 that assists scientists to create metadata in different international metadata schemas (ISO19115, DataCite), while being at the same time usable by and understandable for the scientists (Ulbricht et al., 2017, 2020). Together with the new website launch of GFZ Data Services in 2022 user guidance has increased significantly and the website has further developed from a searchable data portal (only) to an information point for data publications and data management. This includes information on metadata, data formats, the data publication workflow, FAQ, links to different versions of our metadata editor and downloadable data description templates.
Effects of winter warming events on vegetation ecophysiology on a low-alpine ridge
Authors: Finne Eirik Aasmo , Tallaksen Lena M. , Stordal Frode , Bjerke Jarle W.
Published: March 2022

Extreme weather events can both influence carbon cycling and sequestration and lead to pervasive changes in ecosystem structure and function. At high latitudes and in alpine bioclimatic zones, the effect of winter warming can be particularly important for vegetation dynamics, even leading to vegetation browning. With climate change, the frequency and severity of these events are expected to increase. Midwinter snow melt that leads to full exposure of vegetation is a strong stressor to some, but not all, vegetation types. Vascular plants break hibernation during such events and become photosynthetically active. Both factors lead to reduced protection against freezing damage. Thus, returning to sub-zero conditions typically results in freeze damage. In addition to snow meltwater, rain-on-snow events can lead to excessive ground-icing causing anoxic conditions for active cells. Hence, plant leaves are killed by the side products of anaerobic metabolism. If such events occur in late winter with much sunlight, but still frost in the soil, plants tend to dry out in response to the leaf activity and the lack of water supply from the roots, and hence, shoots may die from what is referred to as a frost drought. In some cases, freeze damage, anoxic conditions and frost drought all can occur in the same area during the same winter. While the impacts of changing winter climate on plants that rely on an insulating snow-cover in winter have been well explored during the last ten years, the effects on bryophytes and lichens are much less known. Six experimental plots at a lichen and bryophyte-dominated ridge on Finse, a low alpine site in Norway (1200 m a.s.l., N 60.59°, E 7.53°) were heated by infrared lamps in February-March 2021 and a 10 cm layer of ice was experimentally developed in six additional plots. We will repeat this experiment in 2022. These sites are revisited in the following summers for ecophysiological measurements in dominant lichen, bryophyte, and vascular plants species. The results from the first year of the treatment indicate higher resilience against extreme winter warming in lichen species compared to co-occurring vascular plants, however with notable differences between different species and growth forms. I will present the results from the field experiment collected thus far, and discuss implications for biochemical fluxes and ecosystem functioning.
Removing Stripe Noise from Satellite Images using Convolutional Neural Networks in Frequency Domain
Authors: Rangzan Moien , Attarchi Sara
Published: March 2022

Many satellite images are corrupted by stripping; this noise degrades the visual quality of the images and inevitably introduces errors in processing. Thermal and hyperspectral images often suffer from stripping. The frequency distribution characteristic of stripe noise makes it difficult to remove such noise in the spatial domain; contrariwise, this noise can be efficiently detected in the frequency domain. Numerous solutions have been proposed to eliminate such noise using Fourier transform; however, most are subjective and time-consuming approaches.

The lack of a fast and automated tool in this subject has motivated us to introduce a Convolutional Neural Network-based tool that uses the U-Net architecture in the frequency domain to suppress the anomalies caused by stripe noise. We added synthetic noise to satellite images to train the model. Then, we taught the network how to mask these anomalies in the frequency domain. The input image dataset was down-sampled to a size of 128 x128 pixels for a fast training time. However, our results suggest that the output mask can be up-scaled and applied on the original Fourier transform of the image and still achieve satisfying results; this means that the proposed algorithm is applicable on images regardless of their size.

After the training step, the U-Net architecture can confidently find the anomalies and create an acceptable bounding mask; the results show that - with enough training data- the proposed procedure can efficiently remove stripe noise from all sorts of images. At this stage, we are trying to further develop the model to detect and suppress more complex synthetic noise. Next, we will focus on removing real stripe noise on satellite images to present a robust tool.
Rooting out soil structure
Authors: Hallett Paul , Islam Md Dhin , Giuliani Licida , Loades Kenneth , Price Adam
Published: March 2022

Soil has a spatially heterogeneous mix of weaker and stronger elements, and larger and smaller pores.  When studying physical constraints to root growth, however, most studies use sieved, repacked soil to create a more homogeneous environment that is far from conditions observed in field soils.  Sieved, repacked soil gives the advantage of careful manipulation of physical properties, such as density or penetration resistance, and also removes differences in carbon and microbial properties that could affect structurally different soils sampled from tillage or compaction field experiments.  To overcome unrealistic homogeneity of repacked soils, but remove soil structure treatment impacts on other soil properties that could confound interpretation, we have explored root growth in laboratory cores carefully packed to provide different soil structures. 

In one set of experiments, sieved soil was compacted then broken apart to form aggregates.  Treatments were formed by packing either the sieved soil (unstructured) or much denser aggregates (structured) to a range of bulk densities, producing a 50% increase in macroporosity at 1.55 g/cm3 density and more variable penetration resistances for structured soils.  Plant growth of barley, peas and Arabidopsis, including shoot and root properties, was affected less by bulk density in structured than unstructured soils.  For instance, root length of barley and peas decreased less between 1.25 g/cm3 and 1.55 g/cm3 for structured compared to unstructured soils, as roots could exploit macropores. 

Another experiment explored how the shape of macropores in the plough pan affected deep rooting of rice.  Round holes simulating biopores and straight pores simulating cracks were inserted through a simulated plough pan, packed to the Proctor Density of 1.53 g cm-3 and penetration resistance of 2.80 MPa at – 20 kPa water potential.  Not only did macropores improve root growth in the plough pan and through to the subsoil, but the shape of the macropore had a large impact.  Cracks compared to biopores produced 55% more root length density in the plough pan, but 26% less root length density in the subsoil. Many other root properties in the plough pan and subsoil were affected by macropore shape.

With increased use of shallow or zero tillage, and constraints from diminishing water for irrigation and the stresses of climate change, the capacity of roots to take advantage of the heterogenous structure of field soil to grow deep and wide is extremely important.  Laboratory approaches with controlled soil structure will help to unravel the underlying processes by providing careful control, which can supplement understanding obtained from structured field soils.
How to identify important magnetic helicity locations in solar active regions
Authors: Moraitis Kostas , Patsourakos Spiros , Nindos Alexander
Published: March 2022

Magnetic helicity is a physical quantity of great importance in the study of magnetized plasmas as it is conserved in ideal magneto-hydrodynamics and slowly deteriorating in non-ideal conditions such as magnetic reconnection. A meaningful way of defining a density for helicity is with field line helicity, which, in solar conditions, is expressed by relative field line helicity (RFLH). Here, we study in detail the behaviour of RFLH in the large, well-studied, eruptive solar active region (AR) 11158. The computation of RFLH and of all other quantities of interest is based on a high-quality non-linear force-free reconstruction of the AR coronal magnetic field, and on the recent developments in its computational methodology. The derived photospheric morphology of RFLH is very different than that of the magnetic field or the electrical current, and also manages to depict the large decrease in the value of helicity during an X-class flare of the AR. Moreover, the area of the RFLH decrease coincides with the location of the magnetic structure that later erupted, the flux rope. Based on these results we review the necessary steps one needs to follow in order to identify the locations in an AR where magnetic helicity is more important. This task can provide crucial information for the conditions of an AR, especially during eruptive events.
A case study of comparative seismic assessment of reinforced concrete structures using rapid visual screening methods
Authors: Bektaş Nurullah , Kegyes-Brassai Orsolya
Published: March 2022

 Abstract

Since earthquake-induced damages have been escalating in recent years, and some structures built in Europe are designed without considering seismic design standards or with considering moderate design standards, seismic evaluation of existing buildings is required to perform (Aftabur & Shajib, 2012; Valentina et al., 2018). Determining safety level of existing buildings and performing appropriate precautions is essential not only to prevent possible life-threatening issues but also to minimize economic losses. There are various methods for determining seismic safety of existing structures. Among these methods, detailed seismic assessment methods are challenging to implement; however, Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) methods are capable to applied relatively simply and in a short time to assess large building stocks. Therefore, existing buildings are needed to be inspected by RVS procedures in order to take necessary precautions before an impending earthquake. This study compares performance of 20 Reinforced Concrete (RC) residential buildings in Gyor, Hungary, by employing FEMA P-154, JBDPA and RISK-UE RVS methods. The assessment results provide a comparison of the employed methods to identify building damage state and provide the insight needed to decide whether additional existing buildings should be examined in order to reduce earthquake-induced damage.

 

Keywords:

Rapid Visual Screening; Reinforced Concrete Buildings; Seismic Assessment; Gyor

 

 

References

Aftabur, R., & Shajib, U. (2012). Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of RC Structures: A Review. International Journal of Science & Emerging Technologies, 4(4), 171–177.

Valentina, P., Georgios, T., & Luisa, R. D. M. D. N. E. S. D. S. M. M. (2018). Building stock inventory to assess seismic vulnerability across Europe (978-92-79-86707-1; No. JRC112031). Publications Office of the European Union. https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC112031
Estimation of soil organic carbon and nitrogen stocks in Irish peatlands using a predictive modeling approach
Authors: Walz Kilian , Renou-Wilson Florence , Wilson David , Byrne Kenneth A.
Published: March 2022

Peatlands play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle and are a major ecosystem with potential to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Ombrotrophic peatlands constitute the largest soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in Republic of Ireland (ROI) and cover an estimated 20% of the land surface. Peatland nitrogen (N) stock remains unknown, despite its crucial role in peatland degradation with subsequent nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and eutrophication of downstream ecosystems. Land use impacts are major drivers of both peatland carbon and N stock degradation and disturbance of the peatland carbon sink function. Hence, in the context of this research it is assumed that past and present land use activity, including afforestation, grazing, and domestic and industrial peat extraction for energy and horticultural use, are likely to affect peat SOC and N stocks.

To date, estimation of the peat SOC-stock in ROI was based on non-directly measured values of SOC-concentration, dry bulk density and peat depth. In this study, these properties were measured for the first time along the entire peat soil profile at national scale across the major ombrotrophic peatland types and land uses. A predictive modeling approach, which compared linear and additive mixed-effects models, formed the basis for quantifying SOC and N stocks. The approach encompassed a model evaluation that used an iterative data-splitting algorithm, combined with an assessment of the bias-variance trade-off.

Our results depict a similar pattern for both SOC and N stocks, with mean stock estimates (t ha-1) largest for near-natural bogs. The largest total amount (Mt) of SOC and N was stored in bogs (recently) used for domestic peat extraction. Stock calculations based on modelled SOC and N values resulted in initial estimates for the entire national peatland area and peatland type-land use strata of Irish peatlands. They revealed that national peatland SOC is nearly twice as large as previously calculated. Mixed-model analysis of main stock determinants revealed major influence of peat depth for quantification of stocks. It confirmed that land use exerts a strong influence on bulk density and SOC, whereas peat depth was found to be strongly associated with land use category.

The presented approach allowed quantification of SOC and N stocks for larger areas based on clustered soil data. It provided a methodology for identifying the best performing model to be implemented in stock assessments, thereby avoiding under- or over-parameterization. The study fills a gap in peat SOC quantification in ROI by updating existing uncertain estimates for peat SOC stock, and by providing the first estimates for national ombrotrophic peat N stock, based on measured covariates.
Zonal distribution of cosmogenic isotopes in stratosphere and troposphere via CCM SOCOL
Authors: Golubenko Kseniia
Published: March 2022

Cosmogenic isotopes are mostly produced in the stratosphere and troposphere, and the corresponding fractions depend on solar activity and tropopause altitude. Solar-cycle variability of cosmogenic isotope production is the strongest at high latitudes due to the lack of geomagnetic shielding. However, the exact zonal distribution of the production in troposphere and stratosphere regions, that is needed for the precise modelling of their transport and deposition, is not clear. In this work, we provide numerical estimates of cosmogenic isotopes production in the atmosphere for different conditions. Using the SOCOL-AER2-BE Chemical Climatic model (CCM), we present simulations of the production of cosmogenic isotopes ($^{14}$C, $^{36}$Cl, $^{10}$Be, and $^{7}$Be) and provide zonal distributions (tropical, subtropical, and polar regions) in the stratosphere and troposphere. The model is driven by four solar activity scenarios: 1) solar minimum year with solar modulation function - phi = 400 MeV and 2) solar maxima year with phi = 1100MeV. In these cases, the production is modulated by Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR). Two other scenarios are 3) ground-level enhancement (GLE) event number 5 with hard spectrum on February 23, 1956 and 4) GLE event number 24 with soft spectrum on August 04, 1972. The production rates were calculated using a combination of the SOCOL and CRAC models.
Seasonal changes in total alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon in the southern North Sea and intertidal regions around the North Frisian Islands
Authors: Meyer Julia , Voynova Yoana G. , Van Dam Bryce , Daehne Dagmar , Luitjens Lara , Thomas Helmuth
Published: March 2022

Coastal regions are highly variable ecosystems and play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. In the North Sea, the CARBOSTORE project aims to investigate some of the benthic and pelagic reservoirs of carbon. This study focuses on the seasonal and inter-annual changes in the Southern North Sea and the North Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. Large regional and seasonal variability has been documented in previous studies of total alkalinity and carbon in these regions, but the driving factors are still being investigated.

Since the start of the CARBOSTORE project in spring 2021, two seasonal cruises were completed in July and October 2021. The dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) in the southern North Sea and intertidal regions around the North Frisian Islands were measured, along with several other biogeochemical parameters measured using a Ferry Box. These surveys allow insights into the regional distribution and the seasonal cycle of TA and DIC and will help elucidate the potential sources of carbon. In addition, a close collaboration to colleagues investigating the benthic processes in this project will allow for coupling the benthic and pelagic dynamics.

Preliminary results show a gradient in TA and DIC from land to sea, as well as regional variability. In the intertidal zones, TA and DIC values are higher overall than in the southern North Sea. Higher TA and DIC values were measured in July compared to October. What is more, the intertidal regions near the Ems River show some of the highest TA and DIC values, suggesting a potential influence from riverine inputs.
The Comet Interceptor Mission
Authors: Jones Geraint , Snodgrass Colin , Tubiana Cecilia ,   The Comet Interceptor Team
Published: March 2022

In 2019, Comet Interceptor was selected by the European Space Agency, ESA, as the first in its new class of F missions. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, is making a major contribution to the project. Comet Interceptor's primary science goal is to characterise for the first time, a yet-to-be-discovered long-period comet, preferably dynamically new, or an interstellar object. An encounter with a comet approaching the Sun for the first time will provide valuable data to complement information gathered by all previous comet missions, which through necessity all visited more evolved short period comets. The spacecraft will be launched in 2029 with the Ariel mission to the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point, L2. This relatively stable location allows a rapid response to the appearance of a suitable target comet, which will need to cross the ecliptic plane through an annulus centered on the Sun that contains Earth’s orbit. A suitable new comet would be searched for from Earth, with short period comets acting as mission backup targets. Powerful facilities such as the Vera Rubin Observatory make finding a suitable comet nearing the Sun very promising, and the spacecraft could encounter an interstellar object if one is found on a suitable trajectory. The spacecraft must cope with a wide range of target activity levels, flyby speeds, and encounter geometries. This flexibility has significant impacts on the spacecraft solar power input, thermal design, and dust shielding that can cope with dust impacts. Comet Interceptor comprises a main spacecraft and two probes, one provided by ESA, the other by JAXA, which will be released by the main spacecraft on approach to the target. The main spacecraft, which would act as the primary communication point for the whole constellation, would be targeted to pass outside the hazardous inner coma, making remote and in situ observations on the comet’s sunward side. Planned measurements of the target include its surface composition, shape, and structure, its dust environment, and the gas coma’s composition. A unique, multi-point ‘snapshot’ of the comet- solar wind interaction region will be obtained, complementing single spacecraft observations at other comets. We shall describe the science drivers, planned observations, and the mission’s instrument complement, to be provided by consortia of institutions in Europe and Japan.
Landslide susceptibility mapping by using various selection strategies of landslide conditioning factors and XGBoost 
Authors: Lewandowski Tymon , Pawluszek-Filipiak Kamila
Published: March 2022

Landslides are one of the most common and dangerous natural hazards that occur worldwide. Their occurrence may cause material losses and even death. Therefore, it is important to incorporate any mitigation action to ensure safety. One of the first steps can be generation of the landslide susceptibility maps which portrays the terrain probability to landsliding. There are numerous methods for creating landslide susceptibility maps, and machine learning methods are recently widely used. Therefore, in this study, the XGBoost machine learning algorithm was also implemented.

However, many scientists reported that the most critical step in any prediction model is the selection of the most appropriate features. In the case of landslide susceptibility modelling, they are called landslide conditioning factors (LCFs). LCFs are selected based on expert knowledge, literature review, or based on various statistical approaches for feature selection. Among statistical approaches, Symmetrical Uncertainty (SU), Analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Pearson correlation index (PI) can be applied.

Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of the feature selection method on the accuracy of the maps of susceptibility to landslides. For the experiment, two various areas of interest have been evaluated in the area of Polish Flysch Carpathians. Also, various accuracy measures were used to evaluate model performance among them Area Under the Curve (AUC), precision, Recall, and F1-score.

Accuracy measures indicated that the best method for feature selection is  Pearson correlation (F1 score on the level of 77.2 % and 79.4 %) for both study cases, however, the difference between these feature selection methods are not significant.
Variability of active deformation of the Cordillera de la Sal fold-and-thrust belt, Salar de Atacama, Central Andes, Chile. Preliminary data on deformed fluvial features.
Authors: Guzmán-Marín Pedro , Picotti Vincenzo , Schmidt Christoph , King Georgina
Published: March 2022

The Salar de Atacama (SdA) endorheic basin is a low topographic anomaly located in the Central Andes forearc, and it has been suggested as an independent block that subsides with respect to their neighbouring morpho-structures: Cordillera de Domeyko at the west, and the Altiplano and Puna volcanic plateaus to the east. Within the SdA depression, we focus on the Cordillera de la Sal (CdS), a ridge that emerges at its western margin and extends to the northeast for more than 100 km towards the volcanic arc, where the SdA basin closes. The core of the CdS ridge is formed by a fold-and-thrust belt affecting the Oligocene-Miocene continental sedimentary sequences of the San Pedro Formation. Unconformably overlaying this sequence, Upper Miocene-Pliocene tuffs and clastics with varying intensities of deformation are recognised along the northern segment of CdS, where it ends covered by the volcanic arc.

The deformation of CdS and the western border of the SdA have been suggested as a consequence of the inversion of a normal fault that delimits the basin or as an eastward propagation of the thrusting of Cordillera de Domeyko. Moreover, the presence of salt intervals and domes within the San Pedro Formation made some authors propose the existence of halokinesis. In the present work, we aim to investigate the actual tectonic regime of the CdS fold-and-thrust belt. Our objective is to determine spatial and temporal strain variability of CdS to contribute to the understanding of how this mountain belt evolved and how deformation is partitioned at its northern prolongation under the volcanic edifices.

Detailed geological mapping and the construction of seriated cross-sections will allow us to determine variable spatial patterns of deformation affecting the tuff-rich succession, spanning from 9 to 1 Ma. In addition, we will obtain temporal patterns of deformation at the scale of 103 to 105 yr using tectonic geomorphology indicators, such as deformed strath terraces and Holocene salt cave conduits.

Our preliminary results suggest that a compressional tectonic regime is progressively deforming the Upper Miocene-Pleistocene succession of CdS. Moreover, the evolution of drainages from the south-facing slope of the volcanic arc towards the SdA competed with the folds and thrusts, and the major channels developed along thrusts and synclines. This competition is going on also in the Middle to Late Pleistocene as documented by deformed fluvial strath terraces, which we are currently dating with Infra-Red Stimulated Luminescence. The age assessment of deformed terraces and cave conduits will allow us to model the slip rates of the thrust structures at different time scales.
Analyzing The Seismic Behavior of Central Himalayan Region Using Frequency Magnitude Distribution and Fractal Dimension
Authors: Kumar Saurav , Sengupta Aniruddha
Published: March 2022

The Himalayan region is a seismically active belt of arc length 2400 km extends spatially from Indus river valley (western region) to Brahmaputra river valley (eastern region) India. The Central Himalayan region, along with its neighboring area is known to be the part of the `Alpine-Himalayan global seismic belt', a seismically active area of the world. In the past (1897, 1905, 1934, and 1950) four great earthquakes have triggered in this region with a magnitude higher than M =8.0. The 2015 (M = 7.8) Gorkha Nepal earthquakes call attention to the need for a more accurate understanding of seismic characteristics in the Central Himalayan region. In the present study, analysis of spatial variation of seismic activity in the Central Himalayas covering the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Western part of Nepal is done by analyzing the variation of seismic parameters and fractal dimension (Dc) using the updated and homogeneous earthquake catalogue of the study area. Considering the earthquake distribution and tectonic features, the central Himalayas is divided into 12 seismic source zones. For the comparison of the seismicity between each seismic source zone, seismic parameters such as seismic activity rate (λ), maximum possible earthquake magnitude (Mmax), and `b-value' are calculated. The b value varies from 0.7 to 1.05 in the study area and clustering of seismic event is prominent in western part of Nepal The seismotectonic stress variations in Central Himalayas are indicated by the estimated values of b and Dc. The calculated seismic parameters can be used directly for seismic hazard analysis of the study area.

Keywords: Seismicity; Himalayas; Fractal Dimension; Frequency Magnitude Distribution
Subglacial water flow routing v2.0: taking uncertainties and supercooling effects into account
Authors: Werder Mauro
Published: March 2022

Subglacial flow routing, which simply routs water down the Shreve potential (i.e. the hydraulic potential assuming that water pressure equals a fraction of ice overburden pressure), is probably the most widely used subglacial drainage model.  It is easy to use via many ready-to-use implementations, does not suffer from numerical issues, such as non-convergence, and is fast.

Here I present two improvements to this venerable model: (1) the spatial uncertainties in the input fields (surface and bed topography, water input) and the model parameter (fraction between water pressure and floation pressure) are taken into account by representing them as Gaussian random fields. This a allows to assess the impact of these uncertainties by running Monte Carlo simulations.  (2) the dependence of the ice melting point on the pressure (leading to the so-called supercooling effects) can lead to deflections in the flow directions where descending flow-paths are favoured over ascending ones.  I present a framework on how this effect can be taken into account in subglacial flow routing.

To showcase the improved model, I present results from applying it to catchments of Antarctica which show that the sizes of sub-catchments can have uncertainties of several order of magnitudes.  This demonstrates the need of using such an improved model to make predictions of fluxes, including their uncertainties, into subglacial lakes or at the grounding line.