Search results for "Aeolian"
showing 10 items of 102 documents
Dust mobilization and transport in the northern Sahara during SAMUM 2006 – a meteorological overview
2009
The SAMUM field campaign in southern Morocco in May/June 2006 provides valuable data to study the emission, and the horizontal and vertical transports of mineral dust in the Northern Sahara. Radiosonde and lidar observations show differential advection of air masses with different characteristics during stable nighttime conditions and up to 5-km deep vertical mixing in the strongly convective boundary layer during the day. Lagrangian and synoptic analyses of selected dust periods point to a topographic channel from western Tunisia to central Algeria as a dust source region. Significant emission events are related to cold surges from the Mediterranean in association with eastward passing upp…
Long-term survival and outcome after first stroke in the Sicilian Aeolian Island Archipelago population.
2007
Background: Only a restricted number of population studies based on long-term prognosis after a stroke have been published. We analyzed long-term survival and outcome in insular first-ever stroke population from the Aeolian Archipelago. Subjects and methods: From 1 July, 1999 to 30 June 2002, 62 patients with first-ever stroke were recruited to evaluate short-term incidence and outcome. Information for every patient was collected by phone interviews after 3 months, 1 year, and 4 years. Results: 30 days case fatality rate was 24.2% (95% C.I. 14.22 to 36.75). Fifty-one percent (95% C.I. 35.8 to 66.3) of patients died before last survey and 39.1% died during the first year of follow-up. Annual…
Sea wave energy to supply the Aeolian Islands in sustainable way
2018
The diffusion of technologies supplied by Renewable Energy Sources is contributing in the challenge of reduction of energy dependence from fossil fuels, avoiding the emission of several polluting substances and greenhouse gases. Despite the technological development and important results around the world, in several remote areas or small islands the electrical energy production is based on obsolete technologies, supplied by fossil fuels. This solution is not sustainable for the environment, as the emissions of several pollutants. Focusing the attention on small islands, these areas usually have a standalone grid, as the high cost to build an electrical connection to the mainland, in compari…
Physiography of the Sicilian region (1:250,000 scale)
2015
Physiographic maps summarize and group the landforms of a territory into homogeneous areas in terms of kind and intensity of the main geomorphological process. These maps are often produced at semi-detailed scales, while examples at the regional scale are much less common. However, because the region is the main administrative level in Europe, physiographic maps can be very useful for land planning in many fields, such as ecological studies, risk maps, and soil mapping. This work presents a methodological example of a regional physiographic map, compiled at a 1:250,000 scale, representing the whole Sicilian region, the largest of the Mediterranean islands. The physiographic units were class…
Provenance Analyses of the Volcanic Rock Grinding Stones from the Greek Colony of Selinunte, Sicily (Italy)-Constraints and Possibilities
2014
The petrography as well as the major and trace element compositions of the Selinunte grinding stones, made of grey vesicular lava, were analysed. By comparison with geochemical data from volcanic rocks in the Mediterranean, we were able to determine that only a minor number of the tools were extracted from the nearest volcanics of Mount Etna and the Hyblean Mountains, while the majority of the grinding stones were most probably imported from the Aeolian Islands, although an origin from the Aegean cannot be excluded entirely. The results are important in order to scrutinize trading connections, especially for the earlier times of settlement during the sixth century bc.
The chemical composition of the flowers essential oil of Inula crithmoides (Asteraceae) growing in aeolian islands, Sicily (Italy) and its biocide pr…
2021
Essential oils have been used for a long time in several fields of interest. Recently, they have also been applied in the conservation of Cultural Heritage to contrast biodeterioration replacing the most current biocides toxic for humans and environment. Inula crithmoides L. (syn. Limbarda crithmoides (L.) Dumort) is a halophyte species distributed along the Mediterranean coasts and it is used as an edible vegetable since the young leaves or shoots are eaten raw or cooked. Several biological properties have been determined for this plant including antimicrobial activities. In this study the volatile composition of the aerial part of an accession from the Aeolian Islands, Sicily (Italy) is d…
Overview of the Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover Mission to Meridiani Planum: Eagle Crater to Purgatory Ripple
2006
The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity touched down at Meridiani Planum in January 2004 and since then has been conducting observations with the Athena science payload. The rover has traversed more than 5 km, carrying out the first outcrop-scale investigation of sedimentary rocks on Mars. The rocks of Meridiani Planum are sandstones formed by eolian and aqueous reworking of sand grains that are composed of mixed fine-grained siliciclastics and sulfates. The siliciclastic fraction was produced by chemical alteration of a precursor basalt. The sulfates are dominantly Mg-sulfates and also include Ca-sulfates and jarosite. The stratigraphic section observed to date is dominated by eolian bedfor…
Nature and origin of the hematite-bearing plains of Terra Meridiani based on analyses of orbital and Mars Exploration rover data sets
2006
The ~5 km of traverses and observations completed by the Opportunity rover from Endurance crater to the Fruitbasket outcrop show that the Meridiani plains consist of sulfate-rich sedimentary rocks that are largely covered by poorly-sorted basaltic aeolian sands and a lag of granule-sized hematitic concretions. Orbital reflectance spectra obtained by Mars Express OMEGA over this region are dominated by pyroxene, plagioclase feldspar, crystalline hematite (i.e., concretions), and nano-phase iron oxide dust signatures, consistent with Pancam and Mini-TES observations. Mossbauer Spectrometer observations indicate more olivine than observed with the other instruments, consistent with preferentia…
Soils of Eagle crater and Meridiani Planum at the Opportunity Rover landing site.
2004
The soils at the Opportunity site are fine-grained basaltic sands mixed with dust and sulfate-rich outcrop debris. Hematite is concentrated in spherules eroded from the strata. Ongoing saltation exhumes the spherules and their fragments, concentrating them at the surface. Spherules emerge from soils coated, perhaps from subsurface cementation, by salts. Two types of vesicular clasts may represent basaltic sand sources. Eolian ripples, armored by well-sorted hematite-rich grains, pervade Meridiani Planum. The thickness of the soil on the plain is estimated to be about a meter. The flatness and thin cover suggest that the plain may represent the original sedimentary surface.
An astrobiological perspective on Meridiani Planum
2005
Sedimentary rocks exposed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars record aqueous and eolian deposition in ancient dune and interdune playa-like environments that were arid, acidic, and oxidizing. On Earth, microbial populations have repeatedly adapted to low pH and both episodic and chronic water limitation, suggesting that, to a first approximation, the Meridiani plain may have been habitable during at least part of the interval when deposition and early diagenesis took place. On the other hand, the environmental conditions inferred for Meridiani deposition would have posed a challenge for prebiotic chemical reactions thought to have played a role in the origin of life on Earth. Orbital obs…