ALBERT

Description: Residential assets, comprising buildings and household contents, are a major source of direct flood losses. Existing damage models are mostly deterministic and limited to particular countries or flood types. Here, we compile building-level losses from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands covering a wide range of fluvial and pluvial flood events. Utilizing a Bayesian network (BN) for continuous variables, we find that relative losses (i.e. loss relative to exposure) to building structure and its contents could be estimated with five variables: water depth, flow velocity, event return period, building usable floor space area and regional disposable income per capita. The model’s ability to predict flood losses is validated for the 11 flood events contained in the sample. Predictions for the German and Italian fluvial floods were better than for pluvial floods or the 1993 Meuse river flood. Further, a case study of a 2010 coastal flood in France is used to test the BN model’s performance for a type of flood not included in the survey dataset. Overall, the BN model achieved better results than any of 10 alternative damage models for reproducing average losses for the 2010 flood. An additional case study of a 2013 fluvial flood has also shown good performance of the model. The study shows that data from many flood events can be combined to derive most important factors driving flood losses across regions and time, and that resulting damage models could be applied in an open data framework.

Description: Deutschlands Klimaschutzstrategie baut auf den Einsatz von grünem Wasserstoff aus erneuerbaren Energien. Doch wo soll der Wasserstoff herkommen, aus heimischer Produktion oder importiert aus dem Ausland? Eine Studie des Wuppertal Instituts und DIW Econ schafft einen Überblick über die aktuelle Datenlage und ermittelt Wertschöpfungs- und Beschäftigungseffekte beider Strategien. Das Resümee: Es trifft nicht zu, dass importierter Wasserstoff allgemein günstiger ist, entscheidend sind je nach Herkunftsland die tatsächlich realisierbaren Strom- und Transportkosten. Wird der grüne Wasserstoff stattdessen im eigenen Land produziert, wird dies zudem eine positive Beschäftigungswirkung und Wertschöpfung entfalten. Mit der Erreichung der Klimaziele 2050 betrüge die zusätzliche Wertschöpfung bei einer stark auf die heimische Erzeugung ausgerichtete Strategie bis zu 30 Milliarden Euro im Jahr 2050 und es könnten bis zu 800.000 Arbeitsplätze geschaffen werden.

Description: Das übergeordnete Ziel des Forschungs-Projektes RESTORE 2050 (Regenerative Stromversorgung & Speicherbedarf in 2050; Förderkennzeichen 03SF0439) war es, wissenschaftlich belastbare Handlungsempfehlungen für die Transformation des deutschen Stromsystems im europäischen Kontext zu geben. Dafür wurden auf Basis der zukünftig prognostizierten Entwicklung von Stromangebot und -nachfrage innerhalb des ENTSO-E Netzverbundes für den Zeithorizont des Jahres 2050 sowie mittels örtlich und zeitlich hoch aufgelöster meteorologischer Zeitreihen die Themenkomplexe (1) Nationale Ausbaustrategien für erneuerbare Energien, (2) Übertragungsnetzausbau und (3) Alternativmaßnahmen wie Lastmanagement, (4) Bedeutung des EE-Stromaustauschs mit Drittstaaten und (5) die Rolle von Stromspeichern auf Übertragungsnetzebene analysiert. Die aus den Untersuchungsergebnissen abgeleitenden Handlungsempfehlungen stellen wichtige Beiträge für die weitere Integration von erneuerbaren Energien dar und geben Hinweise für den Aufbau einer leistungsfähigen europäischen Infrastruktur.

Description: © The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Stevens, B., Bony, S., Farrell, D., Ament, F., Blyth, A., Fairall, C., Karstensen, J., Quinn, P. K., Speich, S., Acquistapace, C., Aemisegger, F., Albright, A. L., Bellenger, H., Bodenschatz, E., Caesar, K.-A., Chewitt-Lucas, R., de Boer, G., Delanoë, J., Denby, L., Ewald, F., Fildier, B., Forde, M., George, G., Gross, S., Hagen, M., Hausold, A., Heywood, K. J., Hirsch, L., Jacob, M., Jansen, F., Kinne, S., Klocke, D., Kölling, T., Konow, H., Lothon, M., Mohr, W., Naumann, A. K., Nuijens, L., Olivier, L., Pincus, R., Pöhlker, M., Reverdin, G., Roberts, G., Schnitt, S., Schulz, H., Siebesma, A. P., Stephan, C. C., Sullivan, P., Touzé-Peiffer, L., Vial, J., Vogel, R., Zuidema, P., Alexander, N., Alves, L., Arixi, S., Asmath, H., Bagheri, G., Baier, K., Bailey, A., Baranowski, D., Baron, A., Barrau, S., Barrett, P. A., Batier, F., Behrendt, A., Bendinger, A., Beucher, F., Bigorre, S., Blades, E., Blossey, P., Bock, O., Böing, S., Bosser, P., Bourras, D., Bouruet-Aubertot, P., Bower, K., Branellec, P., Branger, H., Brennek, M., Brewer, A., Brilouet , P.-E., Brügmann, B., Buehler, S. A., Burke, E., Burton, R., Calmer, R., Canonici, J.-C., Carton, X., Cato Jr., G., Charles, J. A., Chazette, P., Chen, Y., Chilinski, M. T., Choularton, T., Chuang, P., Clarke, S., Coe, H., Cornet, C., Coutris, P., Couvreux, F., Crewell, S., Cronin, T., Cui, Z., Cuypers, Y., Daley, A., Damerell, G. M., Dauhut, T., Deneke, H., Desbios, J.-P., Dörner, S., Donner, S., Douet, V., Drushka, K., Dütsch, M., Ehrlich, A., Emanuel, K., Emmanouilidis, A., Etienne, J.-C., Etienne-Leblanc, S., Faure, G., Feingold, G., Ferrero, L., Fix, A., Flamant, C., Flatau, P. J., Foltz, G. R., Forster, L., Furtuna, I., Gadian, A., Galewsky, J., Gallagher, M., Gallimore, P., Gaston, C., Gentemann, C., Geyskens, N., Giez, A., Gollop, J., Gouirand, I., Gourbeyre, C., de Graaf, D., de Groot, G. E., Grosz, R., Güttler, J., Gutleben, M., Hall, K., Harris, G., Helfer, K. C., Henze, D., Herbert, C., Holanda, B., Ibanez-Landeta, A., Intrieri, J., Iyer, S., Julien, F., Kalesse, H., Kazil, J., Kellman, A., Kidane, A. T., Kirchner, U., Klingebiel, M., Körner, M., Kremper, L. A., Kretzschmar, J., Krüger, O., Kumala, W., Kurz, A., L'Hégaret, P., Labaste, M., Lachlan-Cope, T., Laing, A., Landschützer, P., Lang, T., Lange, D., Lange, I., Laplace, C., Lavik, G., Laxenaire, R., Le Bihan, C., Leandro, M., Lefevre, N., Lena, M., Lenschow, D., Li, Q., Lloyd, G., Los, S., Losi, N., Lovell, O., Luneau, C., Makuch, P., Malinowski, S., Manta, G., Marinou, E., Marsden, N., Masson, S., Maury, N., Mayer, B., Mayers-Als, M., Mazel, C., McGeary, W., McWilliams, J. C., Mech, M., Mehlmann, M., Meroni, A. N., Mieslinger, T., Minikin, A., Minnett, P., Möller, G., Morfa Avalos, Y., Muller, C., Musat, I., Napoli, A., Neuberger, A., Noisel, C., Noone, D., Nordsiek, F., Nowak, J. L., Oswald, L., Parker, D. J., Peck, C., Person, R., Philippi, M., Plueddemann, A., Pöhlker, C., Pörtge, V., Pöschl, U., Pologne, L., Posyniak, M., Prange, M., Quiñones Meléndez, E., Radtke, J., Ramage, K., Reimann, J., Renault, L., Reus, K., Reyes, A., Ribbe, J., Ringel, M., Ritschel, M., Rocha, C. B., Rochetin, N., Röttenbacher, J., Rollo, C., Royer, H., Sadoulet, P., Saffin, L., Sandiford, S., Sandu, I., Schäfer, M., Schemann, V., Schirmacher, I., Schlenczek, O., Schmidt, J., Schröder, M., Schwarzenboeck, A., Sealy, A., Senff, C. J., Serikov, I., Shohan, S., Siddle, E., Smirnov, A., Späth, F., Spooner, B., Stolla, M. K., Szkółka, W., de Szoeke, S. P., Tarot, S., Tetoni, E., Thompson, E., Thomson, J., Tomassini, L., Totems, J., Ubele, A. A., Villiger, L., von Arx, J., Wagner, T., Walther, A., Webber, B., Wendisch, M., Whitehall, S., Wiltshire, A., Wing, A. A., Wirth, M., Wiskandt, J., Wolf, K., Worbes, L., Wright, E., Wulfmeyer, V., Young, S., Zhang, C., Zhang, D., Ziemen, F., Zinner, T., and Zöger, M.: EUREC4A. Earth System Science Data, 13(8), (2021): 4067–4119, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021.

Description: The science guiding the EUREC4A campaign and its measurements is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. Through its ability to characterize processes operating across a wide range of scales, EUREC4A marked a turning point in our ability to observationally study factors influencing clouds in the trades, how they will respond to warming, and their link to other components of the earth system, such as upper-ocean processes or the life cycle of particulate matter. This characterization was made possible by thousands (2500) of sondes distributed to measure circulations on meso- (200 km) and larger (500 km) scales, roughly 400 h of flight time by four heavily instrumented research aircraft; four global-class research vessels; an advanced ground-based cloud observatory; scores of autonomous observing platforms operating in the upper ocean (nearly 10 000 profiles), lower atmosphere (continuous profiling), and along the air–sea interface; a network of water stable isotopologue measurements; targeted tasking of satellite remote sensing; and modeling with a new generation of weather and climate models. In addition to providing an outline of the novel measurements and their composition into a unified and coordinated campaign, the six distinct scientific facets that EUREC4A explored – from North Brazil Current rings to turbulence-induced clustering of cloud droplets and its influence on warm-rain formation – are presented along with an overview of EUREC4A's outreach activities, environmental impact, and guidelines for scientific practice. Track data for all platforms are standardized and accessible at https://doi.org/10.25326/165 (Stevens, 2021), and a film documenting the campaign is provided as a video supplement.

Description: This research has been supported by the people and government of Barbados; the Max Planck Society and its supporting members; the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant nos. GPF18-1_69 and GPF18-2_50); the European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant EUREC4A (grant agreement no. 694768) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (H2020), with additional support from CNES (the French National Centre for Space Studies) through the EECLAT proposal, Météo-France, the CONSTRAIN H2020 project (grant agreement no. 820829), and the French AERIS Research Infrastructure; the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/S015868/1, NE/S015752/1, and NE/S015779/1); ERC under the European Union’s H2020 program (COMPASS, advanced grant agreement no. 74110); the French national program LEFE INSU, by IFREMER, the French research fleet, CNES, the French research infrastructures AERIS and ODATIS, IPSL, the Chaire Chanel program of the Geosciences Department at ENS, and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 817578 TRIATLAS; NOAA’s Climate Variability and Prediction Program within the Climate Program Office (grant nos. GC19-305 and GC19-301); NOAA cooperative agreement NA15OAR4320063; NOAA's Climate Program Office and base funds to NOAA/AOML's Physical Oceanography Division; Swiss National Science Foundation grant no. 188731; the UAS Program Office, Climate Program Office, and Physical Sciences Laboratory and by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) through grant AGS-1938108; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2037 “CLICCS – Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” – project no. 390683824; and Poland’s National Science Centre grant no. UMO-2018/30/M/ST10/00674 and Foundation for Polish Science grant no. POIR.04.04.00-00-3FD6/17-02.

Description: Eine erfolgreiche Energiewende setzt nicht nur Innovationen voraus, sondern erfordert auch eine aktive Exnovation der fossilen Energieerzeugung. Die vorliegende Masterarbeit zielt deshalb darauf ab, Herausforderungen und Ansatzpunkte für eine Verständigung zwischen Gewerkschaften und Umweltverbänden zur der Zukunft Kohleenergie zu untersuchen. Leitend sind zwei Fragen: Erstens und empirisch: Welche Argumente vertreten Umweltverbände und Gewerkschaften hinsichtlich eines Kohleausstiegs? Zweitens und verbunden mit der gewählten theoretischen Perspektive der Sozialen Ökologie: Welche Bezogenheiten und Trennungen werden zwischen den jeweiligen Verständnissen von Natur, Gesellschaft und Ökonomie in den Argumenten der Akteure sichtbar? Dafür wurde im theoretischen Teil der Arbeit eine sozial-ökologische Perspektive auf die energetische Kohlenutzung und das sogenannte Jobs versus Environment Dilemma erarbeitet. Im empirischen Teil werden mittels einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse über 100 Veröffentlichungen verschiedener Gewerkschaften und Umweltverbände aus dem Zeitraum von Ende 2014 (erster politischer Vorstoß zur Reduzierung der Kohleverstromung) bis Anfang 2019 (Ende der Kommission "Wachstum, Strukturwandel und Beschäftigung") ausgewertet. Als Ergebnis legt die Arbeit die Argumente der Akteure vergleichend dar, zeigt auf, wie sich diese im Verlauf des Untersuchungszeitraums verändern und welche Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede, Annäherungen und Distanzierungen zwischen den einzelnen Akteuren und Akteursgruppen bestehen. Darauf aufbauend wird der Umgang der Akteure mit dem Jobs versus Environment Dilemma aus der Perspektive der Sozialen Ökologie diskutiert und verglichen. Die Erkenntnisse der Forschungsarbeit legen nahe, dass der gewerkschaftliche Ansatz von Just Transition bzw. "gerechtem" Strukturwandel mit Klima- und Umweltgerechtigkeitskonzepten verknüpft werden muss, um einen umfassenden inter- und intragenerationellen Gerechtigkeitsanspruch zu erfüllen. Damit der Kohleausstieg und weitere Exnovationsprozesse als sozial-ökologische Transformation gestaltet werden können, ist es notwendig, sowohl die aktuelle ökonomische Abhängigkeit von Arbeitenden in betroffenen Branchen zu verstehen als auch den Klimawandel nicht nur als ökologische, sondern auch als soziale und ökonomische Frage anzuerkennen.

Description: In dieser Studie werden detailliert dargestellt: die Verwendung von Kunststoffprodukten und Möglichkeiten des Rezyklateinsatzes im Baubereich, verwendete Kunststoffmengen, Rücknahmesysteme, Verwertungstechniken, aktueller Rezyklateneinsatz und Bauproduktverpackungen aus Kunststoff. Potentiale zur Steigerung des hochwertigen Rezyklateinsatzes wurden identifiziert und bestehende Hürden und Handlungsoptionen für Politik und Wirtschaft dargestellt. Aktueller Rezyklateinsatz sowie technische und mengenmäßige Potentiale sind stark abhängig vom Einsatzbereich der Kunststoffe. Die größten Hürden für einen Rezyklateinsatz sind dabei Produktlebensdauer, Rückbaufähigkeit und technische Anforderungen.

Description: We present observations on a new precursory phase of seismic waves scattered in the deep Earth. This phase arrives prior to the PKPab wave at epicentral distances larger than 155°, and we call it PKPab precursor. We show that the presence of the PKPab precursor is a necessary consequence of scattering in D″, which is the commonly accepted cause of the PKPdf precursor at distances smaller than 145°. PKPdf waves that propagate through the inner core should arrive before the PKPab precursor but those, are strongly attenuated in the inner core at frequencies between 4 Hz and 8 Hz used here, making the PKPab precursor the earliest teleseismic signal at distances larger than 155°. Calculated PKPab precursor sensitivity kernel shows that this phase is mostly sensitive to scattering along the closest PKPbc path between source and receiver. It can thus help to constrain the lateral distribution of heterogeneity along D″.

Description: This brochure is designed for scientists and engineers of upcoming drilling projects and explains the key steps and important challenges in planning and executing continental scientific drilling.

Description: Abstract Major low-latitude volcanic eruptions cool Earth?s climate, and can lead to a positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) during winter. However, the question of the climate and circulation impact of Northern Hemisphere high-latitude eruptions has received less attention. Here we show that, contrary to low-latitude eruptions, the response to high-latitude eruptions can be associated with negative NAO both winter and summer. We furthermore demonstrate that also the response to low-latitude eruptions prevails during summer months, and corroborates previous findings of an extended impact on winter circulation lasting up to 5 years. Our analysis of novel climate field reconstructions supports this extended response, with the addition of showing a positive NAO during summer after low-latitude eruptions. The differences in the effect of high- and low-latitude eruptions on atmospheric circulation and regional temperature provide important insights for the understanding of past and future climate changes in response to volcanic forcing.

Description: © The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Quinn, P. K., Thompson, E. J., Coffman, D. J., Baidar, S., Bariteau, L., Bates, T. S., Bigorre, S., Brewer, A., de Boer, G., de Szoeke, S. P., Drushka, K., Foltz, G. R., Intrieri, J., Iyer, S., Fairall, C. W., Gaston, C. J., Jansen, F., Johnson, J. E., Krueger, O. O., Marchbanks, R. D., Moran, K. P., Noone, D., Pezoa, S., Pincus, R., Plueddemann, A. J., Poehlker, M. L., Poeschl, U., Melendez, E. Q., Royer, H. M., Szczodrak, M., Thomson, J., Upchurch, L. M., Zhang, C., Zhang, D., & Zuidema, P. Measurements from the RV Ronald H. Brown and related platforms as part of the Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC). Earth System Science Data, 13(4), (2021): 1759-1790, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1759-2021.

Description: The Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC) took place from 7 January to 11 July 2020 in the tropical North Atlantic between the eastern edge of Barbados and 51∘ W, the longitude of the Northwest Tropical Atlantic Station (NTAS) mooring. Measurements were made to gather information on shallow atmospheric convection, the effects of aerosols and clouds on the ocean surface energy budget, and mesoscale oceanic processes. Multiple platforms were deployed during ATOMIC including the NOAA RV Ronald H. Brown (RHB) (7 January to 13 February) and WP-3D Orion (P-3) aircraft (17 January to 10 February), the University of Colorado's Robust Autonomous Aerial Vehicle-Endurant Nimble (RAAVEN) uncrewed aerial system (UAS) (24 January to 15 February), NOAA- and NASA-sponsored Saildrones (12 January to 11 July), and Surface Velocity Program Salinity (SVPS) surface ocean drifters (23 January to 29 April). The RV Ronald H. Brown conducted in situ and remote sensing measurements of oceanic and atmospheric properties with an emphasis on mesoscale oceanic–atmospheric coupling and aerosol–cloud interactions. In addition, the ship served as a launching pad for Wave Gliders, Surface Wave Instrument Floats with Tracking (SWIFTs), and radiosondes. Details of measurements made from the RV Ronald H. Brown, ship-deployed assets, and other platforms closely coordinated with the ship during ATOMIC are provided here. These platforms include Saildrone 1064 and the RAAVEN UAS as well as the Barbados Cloud Observatory (BCO) and Barbados Atmospheric Chemistry Observatory (BACO). Inter-platform comparisons are presented to assess consistency in the data sets. Data sets from the RV Ronald H. Brown and deployed assets have been quality controlled and are publicly available at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) data archive (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/ATOMIC-2020, last access: 2 April 2021). Point-of-contact information and links to individual data sets with digital object identifiers (DOIs) are provided herein.

Description: NOAA's Climate Variability and Predictability Program provided funding under NOAA CVP NA19OAR4310379, GC19-301, and GC19-305. The Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) supported this study under NOAA cooperative agreement NA15OAR4320063. Additional support was provided by the NOAA's Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program Office, NOAA's Physical Sciences Laboratory, and NOAA AOML's Physical Oceanography Division. The NTAS project is funded by the NOAA's Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program (CPO FundRef number 100007298), through the Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR) under cooperative agreement NA14OAR4320158.

Description: Various geophysical observations show that seismic and aseismic slip on a fault may occur concurrently. We analyze microseismicity recordings from a temporary near‐fault seismic network and borehole strainmeter data from the eastern Marmara region in northwest Turkey to track seismic and aseismic deformation around the hypocentral region of an Mw 4.5 earthquake in 2018. A slow transient is observed that lasted about 30 days starting at the time of the Mw 4.5 event. We study about 1200 microseismic events that occurred during 417 days after the Mw 4.5 event around the mainshock fault rupture. The seismicity reveals a strong temporal clustering, including four episodic seismic sequences, each containing more than 30 events per day. Seismicity from the first two sequences displayed typical characteristics driven by aseismic slip and/or fluids, such as the activation of a broader region around the mainshock and swarm‐like topology. The third and fourth sequences correspond to typical mainshock–aftershock sequences. These observations suggest that slow slip and potentially fluid diffusion along the fault plane could have controlled the seismicity during the initial 150 days following the Mw 4.5 event. In contrast, stress redistribution and breaking of remaining asperities may have caused the activity after the initial 150 days. Our observation from a newly installed combined dense seismic and borehole strainmeter network follows an earlier observation of a slow transient occurring in conjunction with enhanced local seismic moment release in the same region. This suggests a frequent interaction of seismic and aseismic slip in the Istanbul–Marmara seismic gap.

Description: Die vorangegangenen Analysen im RESTORE2050 Projekt, die im Rahmen dieses Berichts weitergeführt werden, haben gezeigt, dass der Einsatz von Wasserstoffspeichern zur Residuallastglättung nur bedingt geeignet ist. Zwar bietet die Technologie ein hohes technisches Potenzial hinsichtlich der Speicherkapazitäten und der installierbaren elektrischen Leistungen. Jedoch führt ein systemdienlicher Einsatz, bei dem positive Residuallastspitzen u. a. durch Anheben geringer Residuallasten gesenkt werden, wie er in den Modellrechnungen des RESTORE2050 Projektes implementiert ist, zu einer Absenkung der Deckungsraten von erneuerbaren Energien (EE) im europäischen Stromsystem. Dies ist dadurch begründet, dass die Umwandlung und Speicherung von EE-Strom als Wasserstoff (H2) im Vergleich zu anderen Speichertechnologien hohe Wandlungsverluste sowohl bei der H2-Erzeugung als auch bei der Rückverstromung aufweisen. Daher wird im Rahmen dieses Aufstockungsprojektes (RESTORE2050_plus) untersucht, welchen Beitrag alternative Einsatzstrategien der H2-Speicher zur Minimierung der negativen Residuallast, also potenzielle erneuerbaren Stromüberschüssen, und gleichzeitig zur Erhöhung der EE- Versorgungsanteile leisten kann.

Description: In this paper we describe the results of an experimental implementation of the recent guidelines issued by the Italian regulatory body for monitoring hydrocarbon production activities. In particular, we report about the pilot study on seismic, deformation, and pore pressure monitoring of the Mirandola hydrocarbon cultivation facility in Northern Italy. This site hosts the Cavone oil field that was speculated of possibly influencing the 2012 ML 5.8 Mirandola earthquake source. According to the guidelines, the monitoring center should analyse geophysical measurements related to seismicity, crustal deformation and pore pressure in quasi real-time (within 24–48 h). A traffic light system would then be used to regulate underground operations in case of detecting significant earthquakes (i.e., events with size and location included in critical ranges). For these 2-year period of guidelines experimentation, we analysed all different kinds of available data, and we tested the existence of possible relationship between their temporal trends. Despite the short time window and the scarce quantity of data collected, we performed the required analysis and extracted as much meaningful and statistically reliable information from the data. We discuss here the most important observations drawn from the monitoring results, and highlight the lessons learned by describing practical issues and limitations that we have encountered in carrying out the tasks as defined in the guidelines. Our main goal is to contribute to the discussion about how to better monitor the geophysical impact of this kind of anthropogenic activity. We point out the importance of a wider seismic network but, mostly, of borehole sensors to improve microseismic detection capabilities. Moreover, the lack of an assessment of background seismicity in an unperturbed situation -due to long life extraction activities- makes it difficult to get a proper picture of natural background seismic activity, which would be instead an essential reference information for a tectonically-active regions, such as Northern Italy.

Description: “Convenzione tra il comune di San Possidonio e l’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia -I.N.G.V.- per l’attuazione del monitoraggio nella concessione di coltivazione idrocarburi “Mirandola” finalizzata alla messa in opera di attività di monitoraggio di sperimentazione degli indirizzi e linee guida per i monitoraggi ILG ed assunzione funzioni di Struttura Preposta al Monitoraggio di cui all’art. 6 del Protocollo Operativo”

Description: Published

Description: 685300

Description: 3SR TERREMOTI - Attività dei Centri

Description: JCR Journal

Description: Tsunami warning centres face the challenging task of rapidly forecasting tsunami threat immediately after an earthquake, when there is high uncertainty due to data deficiency. Here we introduce Probabilistic Tsunami Forecasting (PTF) for tsunami early warning. PTF explicitly treats data- and forecast-uncertainties, enabling alert level definitions according to any predefined level of conservatism, which is connected to the average balance of missed-vs-false-alarms. Impact forecasts and resulting recommendations become progressively less uncertain as new data become available. Here we report an implementation for near-source early warning and test it systematically by hindcasting the great 2010 M8.8 Maule (Chile) and the well-studied 2003 M6.8 Zemmouri-Boumerdes (Algeria) tsunamis, as well as all the Mediterranean earthquakes that triggered alert messages at the Italian Tsunami Warning Centre since its inception in 2015, demonstrating forecasting accuracy over a wide range of magnitudes and earthquake types.

Description: Published

Description: 5677

Description: 8T. Sismologia in tempo reale e Early Warning Sismico e da Tsunami

Description: JCR Journal

Description: The Alpine mountains in central Europe are characterized by a heterogeneous crust accumulating different tectonic units and blocks in close proximity to sedimentary foreland basins. Centroid moment tensor inversion provides insight into the faulting mechanisms of earthquakes and related tectonic processes but is significantly aggravated in such an environment. Thanks to the dense AlpArray seismic network and our flexible bootstrap-based inversion tool Grond, we are able to test different setups with respect to the uncertainties of the obtained moment tensors and centroid locations. We evaluate the influence of frequency bands, azimuthal gaps, input data types, and distance ranges and study the occurrence and reliability of non-double-couple (DC) components. We infer that for most earthquakes (Mw≥3.3) a combination of time domain full waveforms and frequency domain amplitude spectra in a frequency band of 0.02–0.07 Hz is suitable. Relying on the results of our methodological tests, we perform deviatoric moment tensor (MT) inversions for events with Mw〉3.0. Here, we present 75 solutions for earthquakes between January 2016 and December 2019 and analyze our results in the seismotectonic context of historical earthquakes, seismic activity of the last 3 decades, and GNSS deformation data. We study regions of comparably high seismic activity during the last decades, namely the Western Alps, the region around Lake Garda, and the eastern Southern Alps, as well as clusters further from the study region, i.e., in the northern Dinarides and the Apennines. Seismicity is particularly low in the Eastern Alps and in parts of the Central Alps. We apply a clustering algorithm to focal mechanisms, considering additional mechanisms from existing catalogs. Related to the N–S compressional regime, E–W-to-ENE–WSW-striking thrust faulting is mainly observed in the Friuli area in the eastern Southern Alps. Strike-slip faulting with a similarly oriented pressure axis is observed along the northern margin of the Central Alps and in the northern Dinarides. NW–SE-striking normal faulting is observed in the NW Alps, showing a similar strike direction to normal faulting earthquakes in the Apennines. Both our centroid depths and hypocentral depths in existing catalogs indicate that Alpine seismicity is predominantly very shallow; about 80 % of the studied events have depths shallower than 10 km.

Description: Reservoir-triggered seismicity has been observed near dams during construction, impoundment, and cyclic filling in many parts of the earth. In Turkey, the number of dams has increased substantially over the last decade, with Atatürk Dam being the largest dam in Turkey with a total water capacity of 48.7 billion m3. After the construction of the dam, the monitoring network has improved. Considering earthquakes above the long-term completeness magnitude of MC = 3.5, the local seismicity rate has substantially increased after the filling of the reservoir. Recently, two damaging earthquakes of Mw 5.5 and Mw 5.1 occurred in the town of Samsat near the Atatürk Reservoir in 2017 and 2018, respectively. In this study, we analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of seismicity and its source properties in relation to the temporal water-level variations and the stresses resulting from surface loading and pore-pressure diffusion. We find that water-level and seismicity rate are anti-correlated, which is explained by the stabilization effect of the gravitational induced stress imposed by water loading on the local faults. On the other hand, we find that the overall effective stress in the seismogenic zone increased over decades due to pore-pressure diffusion, explaining the enhanced background seismicity during recent years. Additionally, we observe a progressive decrease of the Gutenberg-Richter b-value. Our results indicate that the stressing rate finally focused on the region where the two damaging earthquakes occurred in 2017 and 2018.

Description: Seismic anisotropy and attenuation make claystone formations difficult to characterize. On the other hand, in many geotechnical environments, precise knowledge of structure and elastic properties of clay formations is needed. In crystalline and rock salt underground structures, high-resolution seismic tomography and reflection imaging have proven a useful tool for structural and mechanical characterization at the scale of underground infrastructure (several deca- to hundreds of meters). This study investigates the applicability of seismic tomography for the characterization of claystone formations from an underground rock laboratory under challenging on-site conditions including anisotropy, strong attenuation and restricted acquisition geometry. The seismic tomographic survey was part of a pilot experiment in the Opalinus Clay of the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory, using 3-component geophones and rock anchors, which are installed 2 m within the rock on two levels, thus suppressing effects caused by the excavation damage zone. As a source, a pneumatic impact source was used. The survey covers two different facies types (shaly and carbonate-rich sandy), for which the elliptical anisotropy is calculated for direct ray paths by fitting an ellipse to the separated data for each facies. The tomographic inversion was done with a code providing a good grid control and enabling to take the seismic anisotropy into account. A-priori anisotropy can be attributed to the grid points, taking various facies types or other heterogeneities into account. Tomographic results, compared to computations using an isotropic velocity model, show that results are significantly enhanced by considering the anisotropy and demonstrate the ability of the approach to characterize heterogeneities of geological structures between the galleries of the rock laboratory.

Description: Mit dem Journal „System Erde“ berichtet das Deutsche GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ über die unterschiedlichen Facetten seiner Forschungsarbeiten. Die Reihe richtet sich vor allem an Entscheidungsträger in Wissenschaft, Gesellschaft und Politik, an interessierte Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler sowie an die fachinteressierte Öffentlichkeit.

Description: Mit dem Ziel, das Kunststoffrecycling weiter zu steigern, wurden in diesem Vorhaben die Verfahren und Prozesse der werkstofflichen Verwertung von Kunststoffabfällen in den Blick genommen - von der Sortierung über die Aufbereitung bis hin zu einem erneuten Einsatz in der Produktion. Ausgehend von der Beschreibung des Standes der Technik wurden mögliche, innovative technische Optimierungspotenziale identifiziert und dargestellt, die zur Verbesserung der Rezyklatqualitäten und ihren Einsatzmöglichkeiten in Neuprodukten beitragen können. Für eine Bewertung der Umweltwirkungen der technischen Innovationen im Vergleich zum Stand wurden ökobilanzielle Berechnungen vorgenommen.

Description: Mit dem Ziel, das Kunststoffrecycling weiter zu steigern, wurden in diesem Vorhaben die Verfahren und Prozesse der werkstofflichen Verwertung von Kunststoffabfällen in den Blick genommen - von der Sortierung über die Aufbereitung bis hin zu einem erneuten Einsatz in der Produktion. Ausgehend von der Beschreibung des Standes der Technik wurden mögliche, innovative technische Optimierungspotenziale identifiziert und dargestellt, die zur Verbesserung der Rezyklatqualitäten und ihren Einsatzmöglichkeiten in Neuprodukten beitragen können. Für eine Bewertung der Umweltwirkungen der technischen Innovationen im Vergleich zum Stand wurden ökobilanzielle Berechnungen vorgenommen.

Description: We investigate the origin of a long-lived earthquake cluster in the Fars arc of the Zagros Simply Folded Belt that is colocated with the major Shanul natural gas field. The cluster emerged in January 2019 and initially comprised small events of Mn ∼ 3–4. It culminated on 9 June 2020 with a pair of Mw 5.4 and 5.7 earthquakes, which was followed by 〉100 aftershocks. We assess the spatiotemporal evolution of the earthquake sequence using multiple event hypocenter relocations, waveform inversions, and Sentinel-1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements and models. We find that the early part of the sequence is spatially distinct from the 9 June 2020 earthquakes and their aftershocks. Moment tensors, centroid depths, and source parameter uncertainties of 15 of the largest (Mn ≥ 4.0) events show that the sequence is dominated by reverse faulting at shallow depths (mostly ≤4 km) within the sedimentary cover. InSAR modeling shows that the Mw 5.7 mainshock occurred at depths of 2–8 km with a rupture length and maximum slip of ∼20 km and ∼0.5 m, respectively. Our results suggest that the 2019–2020 Khalili earthquake sequence was likely influenced by operation of the Shanul field, though elevated natural seismicity in the Zagros makes the association difficult to prove. Understanding how to distinguish man-made from natural seismicity is helpful for hazard and risk assessment, notably in the Zagros, which is both seismically active and rich in oil and gas reserves.

Description: Die kommende Bundesregierung muss aus ambitionierten Zielen eine erfolgreiche Ressourcen- und Klimapolitik machen und dabei alle Bürgerinnen und Bürger mitnehmen - so das Fazit des Zukunftsimpulses des Wuppertal Instituts zur Bundestagswahl 2021. Es zeigt, welche Maßnahmen notwendig sind, um die Transformation in eine klimafreundliche und ressourcenleichte Zukunft jetzt konsequent einzuleiten.