Search results for "Sicily Channel"

HF radar for wind waves measurements in the Malta-Sicily Channel

2018

Abstract The CALYPSO HF radar network is a permanent and fully operational observing system currently composed of four CODAR SeaSonde stations. The system is providing real-time hourly maps of sea surface currents and waves data in the Malta-Sicily Channel. The present work aims to compare significant wave height measurements by HF Radar to wave data from numerical models and satellite altimeter. This is the first time that this set of wave data are analysed since the four HF radars were installed between 2012 and 2015. Results suggest that CODAR HF Radar wave data are a reliable source of wave information even in the case of extreme events, providing an avenue to improve and complete the o…

Evidence of active fluid seepage (AFS) in the southern region of the central Mediterranean Sea

2018

Abstract Active fluid seepage (AFS) at the seafloor is a global phenomenon associated with seafloor morphologies in different geodynamic contexts. Advanced geophysical techniques have allowed geoscientists to characterise pockmarks, mounds and flares associated with AFS. We present a range of new marine geological data acquired in the southern region of the central Mediterranean Sea (northern Sicily continental margin, northwestern Sicily Channel and offshore of the Maltese Islands), which allow us to identify AFSs. AFSs are spatially distributed as clusters, aligned or isolated at different depths, ranging from few decametres offshore of the Maltese Islands; up to 400 m offshore of norther…

Planktonic stages of small pelagic fishes (Sardinella aurita and Engraulis encrasicolus) in the central Mediterranean Sea: The key role of physical f…

2018

Abstract Multidisciplinary studies are recently aiming to define diagnostic tools for fishery sustainability by coupling ichthyoplanktonic datasets, physical and bio-geochemical oceanographic measurements, and ocean modelling. The main goal of these efforts is to understand those processes that control the dispersion and fate of fish larvae and eggs, and thus tuning the inter-annual variability of the biomass of small pelagic fish species. In this paper we analyse the distribution of eggs and larvae as well as the biological features of the two species of pelagic fish, Engraulis encrasicolus and Sardinella aurita in the north-eastern sector of the Sicily Channel (Mediterranean Sea) from ich…

Evidence of positive tectonic inversion in the north-central sector of the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean)

2016

In order to unravel the tectonic evolution of the north-central sector of the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean), a seismo-stratigraphic analysis of single- and multi-channel seismic reflection profiles has been carried out. This allowed to identify, between 20 and 50 km offshore the central-southern coast of Sicily, a ~80-km-long deformation belt, characterized by a set of WNW–ESE to NW–SE fault segments showing a poly-phasic activity. Within this belt, we observed: i) Miocene normal faults reactivated during Zanclean–Piacenzian time by dextral strike-slip motion, as a consequence of the Africa–Europe convergence; ii) releasing and restraining bend geometries forming well-developed pul…

Petrology and geochemistry of submarine volcanism in the Sicily Channel Rift

2006

Submarine magmatism in the Sicily Channel Rift began in the early Pliocene and lasted until almost 200 yr ago. We present here petrological and geochemical data on volcanic rocks dredged from Graham and Nameless banks and Pantelleria seamounts in the Pelagian sector of the Sicily Channel Rift. Petrological evidence suggests that the ascent of magmas to the surface was relatively rapid, probably through channels superimposed over the major tectonic discontinuities of the Rift. Major and trace element data indicate an ocean island basalt affinity for Graham and Nameless bank alkaline lavas and a depleted tholeiitic signature for one Pantelleria seamount, which had a shallower mantle source. S…

A SMALL INVADER CONQUERS SICILY: AMPHISTEGINA LOBIFERA (FORAMINIFERA: AMPHISTEGINIDAE)

2018

The highly invasive Amphistegina lobifera (Larsen, 1976), a benthic foraminiferal species native to the Red Sea, has colonized the Eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and altered the native community structure. More recently, it has been reported from Malta and the Pelagian Islands within the Sicily channel. Here, we report new records from the southern coasts of Sicily, where we found it abundant both in the soft-bottom sediment and as epiphyt on algae. The occurrence of A. lobifera in Pantelleria and Favignana islands represents the Mediterranean westernmost record of this non-indigenous species.

RESTOCKING TRIAL OF MELICERTUS KERATHURUS (DECAPODA, PENAEIDAE) IN THE SHALLOW COASTAL WATERS OF SOUTHWESTERN SICILY (MEDITERRANEAN SEA)

2013

Sea Surface Temperatures and Paleoenvironmental Variability in the Central Mediterranean During Historical Times Reconstructed Using Planktonic Foram…

2019

The ongoing anthropogenic‐induced warming assessment requires a robust background from regional sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions. Planktonic foraminifera have yielded valuable insights into late Quaternary SST dynamics, but the techniques to estimate SST from fossil assemblages have only rarely been used in very recent sedimentary records (the last 2,000 years). Here we use two transfer function methods, modern analog technique and artificial neural networks, to reconstruct SST variability in two cores from the Central Mediterranean Sea that span the last five centuries. Both cores show similar and considerable changes in the planktonic foraminifera assemblages. However, the in…

Calcareous nannofossil assemblages from the Central Mediterranean Sea over the last four centuries: the impact of the Little Ice Age

2010

Abstract. We present decadal-scale calcareous nannofossil data from four short cores (Station 272, 37° 17' N, 12° 48' E, 226 m depth; St 342, 36° 42' N, 13° 55' E, 858.2 m depth; St 407, 36° 23' N, 14° 27' E, 345.4 m depth; C90-1M, 40° 36' N, 14° 42' E, 103.4 m depth) recovered in the central Mediterranean Sea (northern Sicily Channel and Tyrrhenian Sea), which, on the basis of 210Pb activity span the last 200–350 years. Assemblages are dominated by placoliths, mostly Emiliania huxleyi, while, at least in the Sicily Channel sediments, Florisphaera profunda was an important part of the coccolithophore community. The paleoenvironmental reconstruction, based on ecological preference of species…

Centennial- to millennial-scale climate oscillations in the Central-Eastern Mediterranean Sea between 20,000 and 70,000 years ago: Evidence from a hi…

2012

Abstract Here we present a high-resolution faunal, floral and geochemical (stable isotopes and trace elements) record from the sediments of Ocean Drilling Program Site 963 (central Mediterranean basin), which shows centennial/millennial-scale resemblance to the high-northern latitude rapid temperature fluctuations documented in the Greenland ice cores between 20 and 70 kyr BP. Oxygen and carbon isotopes, planktic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossil distributions suggest that Dansgaard–Oeschger (D/O) and Heinrich events (HE) are distinctly expressed in the Mediterranean climate record. Moreover, recurrent though subdued oscillations not previously identified in the Lateglacial Mediterran…