Search results for "Environmental Science"

Active tectonics along the south east offshore margin of Mt. Etna: New insights from high-resolution seismic profiles

2018

The offshore margin of Mt. Etna has been shaped by Middle Pleistocene to Holocene shortening and extension and, more recently, by gravity-related sliding of the volcanic edifice. These processes have acted contemporaneously although the gravitational component largely prevails over the tectonic one. In order to investigate this issue, we focused on the main role of active tectonics along the south-eastern offshore of Mt. Etna by means of marine high-resolution seismic data. Seismic profiles revealed post-220 ka sedimentary deposits unconformably overlaying the Lower-Middle Pleistocene Etnean clayey substratum and volcanics of the Basal Tholeiitic phase and the Timpe phase. Offshore Aci Trez…

Plio-Pleistocene Dust Traps on Paleokarst Surfaces: A Case Study From the Carpathian Basin

2020

Plio-Pleistocene silt/clay-rich deposits and paleo-karst fissure sediments from sites of the northern and southern parts of the Carpathian Basin were investigated. These materials were supposed to be mixed during transport before being captured in karstified fissures. Evidence that the eolian fissure sediments of Plio-Pleistocene age in the older Triassic–Cretaceous limestones are derived from eolian silt and clay includes compositional and textural matches, especially decreasing grain-size trends observed downwards from the paleo-surface of the former landscape. Various environmental factors could be recognized by the statistical evaluation of grain-size distribution curves of fissure fill…

The ~2730 Ma onset of the Neoarchean Yilgarn Orogeny

2017

The timing of the onset of an orogeny is commonly constrained indirectly, because early orogenic structures are rarely exposed, or are overprinted. Establishing the onset of an Archean orogeny is considerably more challenging, because of the more fragmented geological record and the general lack of consensus about Archean geodynamics. We combine existing tectono-stratigraphic data with new structural and geophysical datasets to establish the onset of the Neoarchean Yilgarn Orogeny (Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia). We show that the surface of the c. 2960–2750 Ma deep-marine Yilgarn greenstone sequence was uplifted, eroded and unconformably overlain by a c. 2730 Ma, syntectonic clastic seq…

Approach to a water safety plan for recreational waters: disinfection of a drainage pumping station as an unconventional point source of fecal contam…

2020

Abstract In the context of the management of bathing water quality, the intermittent contamination of rainwater drainage pumps (unconventional point sources) could be controlled by peracetic acid disinfection. Thus, a field experimental study was carried out to set up a water safety plan, determining the monitoring parameters and the critical limit for corrective actions. With a 0.5 mg/l dosage, the average logarithmic microbial reduction was 0.50 ± 0.48 for Escherichia coli (EC) and 0.43 ± 0.54 for intestinal enterococci. Among the chemical and physical parameters that could be monitored in real time, the oxidation–reduction potential was the only one able to predict the microbial concentr…

A Search for IceCube Events in the Direction of ANITA Neutrino Candidates

2020

During the first three flights of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, the collaboration detected several neutrino candidates. Two of these candidate events were consistent with an ultra-high-energy up-going air shower and compatible with a tau neutrino interpretation. A third neutrino candidate event was detected in a search for Askaryan radiation in the Antarctic ice, although it is also consistent with the background expectation. The inferred emergence angle of the first two events is in tension with IceCube and ANITA limits on isotropic cosmogenic neutrino fluxes. Here, we test the hypothesis that these events are astrophysical in origin, possibly caused by a po…

Spectropolarimetric evidence for a siphon flow along an emerging magnetic flux tube

2016

©2017 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We study the dynamics and topology of an emerging magnetic flux concentration using high spatial resolution spectropolarimetric data acquired with the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment on board the sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory. We obtain the full vector magnetic field and the line of sight (LOS) velocity through inversions of the Fe i line at 525.02 nm with the SPINOR code. The derived vector magnetic field is used to trace magnetic field lines. Two magnetic flux concentrations with different polarities and LOS velocities are found to be connected by a group of arch-shaped magnetic field lines. The positive polarity footp…

Plastic ingestion by pelagic and demersal fish from the North Sea and Baltic Sea

2015

Plastic ingestion by marine biota has been reported for a variety of different taxa. In this study, we investigated 290 gastrointestinal tracts of demersal (cod, dab and flounder) and pelagic fish species (herring and mackerel) from the North and Baltic Sea for the occurrence of plastic ingestion. In 5.5% of all investigated fishes, plastic particles were detected, with 74% of all particles being in the microplastic (<5mm) size range. The polymer types of all found particles were analysed by means of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Almost 40% of the particles consisted of polyethylene (PE). In 3.4% of the demersal and 10.7% of the pelagic individuals, plastic ingestion was …

Strategies for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Urban Areas: The Erice 50 Charter

2018

Climate change policies and agendas: facing implementation challenges and guiding responses

2020

Climate policies are essential to mitigate climate change and to develop successful adaptation processes. However, there is a paucity of international studies that analyse the status of climate change policies. This paper reports on research undertaken in a sample of 13 highly diverse countries, in regards to their geography, socioeconomic development, vulnerability elements, adaptation, and climate-risks. The results draw attention to the global spread and standardisation of climate change policies, namely through the adoption of comprehensive National Adaptation Plans/Strategies (NAPs/NASs) that include mitigation measures and evaluation mechanisms. Although NAPs tend to take into account…

Secondary minerals from salt caves in the Atacama Desert (Chile): a hyperarid and hypersaline environment with potential analogies to the Martian sub…

2017

Over the past 15 years several expeditions by French, American and especially Italian cavers have unveiled over 50 caves in the Cordillera de la Sal (Atacama Desert, Northern Chile). Many of these caves contain a variety of speleothems and minerals, some of which have rarely been observed within karst systems. Most of the secondary deposits in these caves are composed of halite, but also other halide, carbonate, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate, and silicate minerals have been found. Among the sixteen cave mineral species recognized, atacamite, darapskite, blödite, leonite, anhydrite, and especially antarcticite are worth mentioning. In one of the samples an unknown Ca-Sr-bearing chloride miner…