ALBERT

Beschreibung: Red Pompeian paintings, very famous for their deep intensity, are currently suffering from darkening. The origins of this darkening degradation are not clearly identified yet and remain a major issue for curators. In the specific case of cinnabar (HgS)-based red pigment, a photoinduced conversion into black metacinnabar is usually suspected. This work is focused on the blackening of red cinnabar paintings coated on a sparry calcite mortar. Different samples exhibiting different levels of degradation were selected upon visual observations and analyzed by synchrotron-based microanalytical techniques. Atomic and molecular compositions of the different debased regions revealed two possible degradation mechanisms. On one hand, micro X-ray fluorescence elemental maps show peculiar distributions of chlorine and sulfur. On the other hand, X-ray absorption spectroscopy performed at both Cl and S K-edges confirms the presence of characteristic degradation products: (i) Hg- Cl compounds (e.g., corderoite, calomel, and terlinguaite), which may result from the reaction with exogenous NaCl, in gray areas; (ii) gypsum, produced by the calcite sulfation, in black coatings. Metacinnabar is never detected. Finally, a cross section was analyzed to map the in-depth alteration gradient. Reduced and oxidized sulfur distributions reveal that the sulfated black coating consists of a 5-ím-thick layer covering intact cinnabar.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 7484-7492

Beschreibung: reserved

Beschreibung: The abstracts herein – collected for the 34th Course of the International School of Geophysics, held in Erice, Italy (“Ettore Majorana” Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, 25-30 September, 2010) – focus on geophysical, geological and geochemical methods applied to the planning of the soundest energy mix in densely populated countries, where the coexistence of different technologies requires unique underground facilities and resources. In the framework of IEA and EU programmes, where the concepts of “smart grids” and “smart cities” are prevailing, we rather propose the concept of “smart region” planning the use of both underground and surface areas in a new social-energetic paradigm of “zero kilometer” life. The coexistence of geological storage of CO2 and natural gas, geothermics and, possibly, nuclear waste temporary storage (near surface or geological) is today necessary owing to the progressive decrease of space and resources. In this context, the following technologies turn out to be very important: renewables (geothermal energy), nuclear power, clean coal technologies via CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS), Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), Enhanced Coal Bed Methane (ECBM), non-conventional gas exploitation, and seasonal storage of natural gas (also for strategic reserves). These technologies have been recently emphasized in Italy by the Ministry of Economic Development and by the Ministry of the Environment and Territory, as well as by research institutions such as INGV and CNR. Key topics addressed during the Course were: • Geological storage and disposal: assessment of available volume and structures. • Subsurface geological resources: management of potential conflicts among various technologies. • Geological site characterization and risk assessment for policy makers and regulators: the role of the energy industry. • New high tech frontiers for geothermal power production. • New concepts in nuclear waste disposal. • Numerical simulation software for geothermal exploration, geological storage and nuclear waste disposal. • Sharing subsurface data coming from oil & gas and geothermal exploration. • High resolution characterization of shallow aquifers and reservoirs: multi-strata exploitation by different energy technologies. • Case histories and natural analogues: “learning by doing” and “acceptable risk” concepts. The 34th Course of the International School of Geophysics is dedicated to students and young contract researchers starting their carreers in a period of energetic-environmental global crisis. Although their scientific contribution is of high quality, they are usually underpaid in public research institutions with respect to volatile staff of some international organizations who, making use of the results of governmentfunded research, make final decisions on low-carbon energy technologies.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 1-102

Beschreibung: 1.8. Osservazioni di geofisica ambientale

Beschreibung: N/A or not JCR

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: The last century was dominated by the creation of scientific theories: the newborn Relativistic, Quantum and Cosmological Theories are proper examples. The Earth Sciences followed this trend by proposing the principles of Plate tectonics. On the contrary, the concept of the Expanding Earth was not developed as a commonly accepted paradigm, but was an open field of original investigations, interpretations, and results. This innovative attitude is evident in the di erent interpretations of the Pacific and Indian oceans paleogeographical evolution; in the cosmological or incidental motor of expansion (still to be identified); in the different estimates of the Earth’s radial expansion. This is a positive sign of vitality: we cannot crystallize these ideas in a few postulates from which we may deduce all the answers, and to which we may constrain all data. The Expanding Planet scheme provides a common explanation of several complex and debated issues relating to Paleontology, Paleomagnetism, Geology and Climatology. The Workshop, through oral and poster contributions, will cover a wide range of issues in a field that, although supported by compelling evidence, is still in search of a definite and commonly accepted cause for the expansion. Our final goal is to explore the Expanding Earth concept from di erent scientific perspectives. Some important new entries come from Physics and these can suitably be linked to clues derived from Paleogeography, Paleontology, Life Evolution, Climatology, ... etc. It is perhaps of particular significance that these progresses in Physics, towards a material physical space, will be presented at the Ettore Majorana Centre, considering that the uncle and mentor of Ettore Majorana was Quirino Majorana, a physicist who performed several experiments with a view to revealing the material essence of gravity. A group of non-expansionist researchers in the fields of Geodesy, Oceanography and Seismology, have accepted our invitation to deliver lectures to our community to clarify the limits and show up the new ways that expansionists should consider while building their new interpretations. The Poster session is going to be full of high quality presentations and also of papers by outstanding scientists in absentia, who will not be able to come to Erice. The Workshop should be a forum for sharing ideas and for promoting the convergence of aims, but also given that we are the so-called heretics in Geosciences the birthplace of new and original ideas, possibly destined to become the accepted conceptions in the future. Acknowledgements. The Directors of the Workshop, Stefan Cwojdzi´nski and Giancarlo Scalera, wish to heartily thank Prof. Antonino Zichichi and Prof. Enzo Boschi for their great far-sightedness in accepting and making possible the realization of this Conference at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture. They have been confident of a project whose success was not guaranteed in advance. The followers of the expansion tectonics are just a few today and do not have a central and o cial position in academic institutions, but are animated by the inner certainty of being on the right track. This Workshop represents a further encouragement to continue our work on the several di erent aspects of the Expanding Earth concept. The General Director of INGV, Tullio Pepe and the Head of the Cultural Services Fabio Florindo have greatly facilitated the administrative aspects of the event. The organization of the Earth Expansion Evidence meeting would not have been possible without the invaluable collaboration of Silvia Nardi who sometimes with firm hand has assumed the role of vice-directors , and without the important contribution of all the sta of the EMFCSC, supervised by Mrs. Fiorella Ruggiu. We thanks Barbara Angioni, Daniela Riposati, Luigi Innocenzi , Stefano Bucci, Davide Di Luigi, and Alessandro Bannoni, who have kindly and creatively collaborated to the colourful graphics and aesthetic look of the Erices Meeting.

Beschreibung: INGV, Regione Sicilia, Ministero Sviluppo Economico

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice, Sicily

Beschreibung: 3.3. Geodinamica e struttura dell'interno della Terra

Beschreibung: 5.9. Formazione e informazione

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: A wideband HF simulator has been constructed that is based on a detailed physical model. It can generate an output giving a time realization of the HF wideband channel for any HF carrier frequency and bandwidth and for any given transmitter receiver path, time of day, month and year and for any solar activity/geomagnetic conditions. To accomplish this, a comprehensive solution has been obtained to the problem of HF wave propagation for the most general case of a 3D inhomogeneous ionosphere with time-varying electron density fluctuations. The solution is based on the complex phase method (Rytov s method), which has been extended to the case of an inhomogeneous medium and a point source of the field. Results of simulation obtained according to the technique developed have been presented, calculated for a single-hop path 1000 km long oriented to the south from St. Petersburg and including a horizontal electron density gradient present in the IRI model used as the basis of the ionosphere model. The fluctuations of the ionospheric electron density were characterized by an inverse power law anisotropic spatial spectrum. For this model, the random walk of the phasor at the receiver is determined and shown both for paths reflected in the E- and Fregions, being significantly larger for the latter. The oblique sounding ionogram is constructed and reveals three propagation modes: the E-mode and low and high angle F-mode paths. The time-varying field due to each of these paths is then summed at the receiving location enabling the calculation of the scattering function and also the time realization of the received signal shown as a function of both fast and slow time. This is performed both with and without the presence of the geomagnetic field; in the former case the splitting of the F2-mode into both e- and o-modes is seen. It is also shown how the scattering function can be obtained from the time realization of the channel in a way akin to experimental determination of the scattering function from channel measurements. Results from the simulations show the very significant effect of irregularities of even modest magnitude and the comparative effects due to background ionosphere dispersion and the fluctuating irregularities as well as geomagnetic mode splitting. Since the simulator is based on a physical model, it should be possible by comparison of experimental results and simulation to identify the correspondence between physical parameters (e.g., the variance and anisotropy of the electron density fluctuations, orientation of the propagation path to the magnetic meridian, bulk ionosphere motions) with observed channel parameters (e.g., Doppler spread and shift, time delay spread).

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: (extended abstract)

Beschreibung: INGV, Regione Sicilia, Ministero Sviluppo Economico

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice, Sicily

Beschreibung: 5.9. Formazione e informazione

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: This paper reviews the history of the study of historical British earthquakes. The publication of compendia of British earthquakes goes back as early as the late 16th Century. A boost to the study of earthquakes in Britain was given in the mid 18th Century as a result of two events occurring in London in 1750 (analogous to the general increase in earthquakes in Europe five years later after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake). The 19th Century saw a number of significant studies, culminating in the work of Davison, whose book-length catalogue was published finally in 1924. After that appears a gap, until interest in the subject was renewed in the mid 1970s. The expansion of the U.K. nuclear programme in the 1980s led to a series of large-scale investigations of historical British earthquakes, all based almost completely on primary historical data and conducted to high standards. The catalogue published by BGS in 1994 is a synthesis of these studies, and presents a parametric catalogue in which historical earthquakes are assessed from intensity data points based on primary source material. Since 1994, revisions to parameters have been minor and new events discovered have been restricted to a few small events.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: In this work, some results of a GPR survey carried out in a 10000 m2 large archaeological site, located in Lecce (Italy) near to a necropolis dating from the Messapian to the Roman imperial age, are reported. After a preliminary survey, performed on the entire area along parallel 1 m spaced profiles using a 200 MHz and a 500 MHz antenna in single-fold continuous mode, some smaller areas were selected, where the survey was repeated decreasing the profile spacing down to 0.50 m for the lower frequency antenna and to 0.25 m for the higher one. For two selected zones (D and B) the processed data were visualized in 3D space not only by the standard time slice technique, but also by two recently proposed approaches, namely by iso-amplitude surfaces of the complex trace amplitude and by 3D projection of energy and envelope stacks. The immediacy in revealing the spatial positioning of highly reflecting bodies, such as the anomaly interpreted as an old refilled cistern in zone D, makes 3D visualization techniques very attractive in archaeological applications of GPR. Their sensitivity to the signal/noise ratio is, on the other hand, highlighted by the quite poor performance in zone B, where the only reliable result provided by all the techniques was the soil/bedrock reflection, whereas none of them could effectively enhance the visibility of weak dipping reflections noted on 2D sections and probably related to fractures or bedding planes in the calcarenitic basement. The performance of the various techniques in these two different situations allowed insights into their main advantages and drawbacks to be gained.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: Approximately 20 km north-east of Rome, along the modern trace of the Tiburtina road, recent archaeological diggings have brought to light a system of aqueduct galleries constructed by Roman engineers. This site falls inside the Acque Albule Basin, a travertine plateau Upper Pleistocene in age, that has been interpreted as a rhombshaped pull-apart basin created by strike-slip faulting within a N-S shear zone. This study provides evidence that two narrow water channels of this aqueduct system were significantly deformed by tectonic movement that occurred subsequent to their construction (II-III century A.D.). The geometry of the deformation pattern is compatible with that expected for a shear zone bounded by N-S oriented, right-lateral faults. The palaeomagnetic study of the volcanic formation («Pozzolane Rosse» Formation, 457± 4 kyr) containing the Roman aqueduct system evidences significant clockwise rotation around sub-vertical axis, consistent with the above-mentioned tectonic style.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: The Romans built the ancient town of Grumentum during the 3rd century B.C. in the southern part of the Agri high Valley (Basilicata Region, Southern Italy) near the confluence of the Sciaura stream in the Agri River. Now it is one of the most important archaeological sites of Southern Italy. In fact, after a period of wars in this area between Romans and Carthaginians, a great deal of restoration was started in 57 B.C. These works affected the city walls, public buildings and finally endowed the Roman colony with important infrastructures, such as the new aqueduct. In this work, we attempt to reconstruct the ancient layout of the Roman aqueduct of Grumentum. As a starting point, we followed some descriptions from the 19th century, when the structure was still well preserved. Then, we performed a multidisciplinary geophysical approach to the best preserved remains of the aqueduct. In particular, the geophysical investigation started with the use of a portable GPS allowing us to acquire the co-ordinates of the outcropping rests of the ancient structure. Then, we used an optical pumping magnetometer to perform seven gradiometric maps over a broad area of about 8000 m2. From the literature descriptions, dating to the first part of the 19th century, we can deduce that the state of preservation of the Roman aqueduct was much better than the present one. Thus we can hypothesise as the cause of its fast involution the fact that it was located in the epicentral area of the large destructive earthquake which occurred in the Basilicata Region in 1857 (Mallet, 1862). To this aim, we performed a first attempt to correlate the state of preservation of the aqueduct remains with the local seismic amplification by means of the HVSR (Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio) technique. This survey allowed us to obtain the site amplification spectra along the aqueduct layout and assess the fundamental vibration frequency of the investigated structure. The possibility of landslides was ruled out by a careful geological survey. The relationship between aqueduct path and damage should then be attributed to closeness to earthquake seismogenic fault.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open