Drones as tools for monitoring beach topography changes in the Ligurian Sea (NW Mediterranean)     

Elisa Casella  Alessio Rovere  Andrea Pedroncini  Colin P. Stark  Marco Casella  Marco Ferrari  Marco Firpo 《Geo-Marine Letters》2016,36(2):151-163

The aim of this study was to evaluate topographic changes along a stretch of coastline in the Municipality of Borghetto Santo Spirito (Region of Liguria, Italy, north-western Mediterranean) by means of a remotely piloted aircraft system coupled with structure from motion and multi-view stereo techniques. This sector was surveyed three times over 5 months in the fall–winter of 2013–2014 (1 November 2013, 4 December 2013, 17 March 2014) to obtain digital elevation models and orthophotos of the beach. Changes in beach topography associated with storm action and human activities were assessed in terms of gain/loss of sediments and shifting of the wet–dry boundary defining the shoreline. Between the first and second surveys, the study area was hit by two storms (10–11 November 2013 and 21–22 November 2013) with waves approaching from the E–NNE, causing a shoreline retreat which, in some sectors, reached 7 m. Between the second and third surveys, by contrast, four storms (25–27 December 2013, 5–6 January 2014, 17–18 January 2014 and 6–10 February 2014) with waves propagating from the SE produced a general advancement of the shoreline (up to ~5 m) by deposition of sediments along some parts of the beach. The data also reflect changes in beach topography due to human activity during the 2013 fall season, when private beach managers quarried ~178 m³ of sediments on the emerged beach near the shoreline to accumulate them landwards. The results show that drones can be used for regular beach monitoring activities, and that they can provide new insights into the processes related to natural and/or human-related topographic beach changes.  相似文献   

Calcretes and travertines from the Palaeocene Itaboraí Basin as evidence of the early evolution of the Southeastern Brazil Continental Rift     

Paula Braga Adler  Luiz Fernando De Ros  Ktia Leite Mansur  Andr Luiz Ferrari  Luiz Alberto Fernandes  Alcides Nbrega Sial 《Sedimentology》2021,68(1):477-511

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Springtime changes in snow chemistry lead to new insights into mercury methylation in the Arctic     

Catherine Larose  Aurélien Dommergue  Martine De Angelis  Bernard Averty  Nicolas Soumis  Christophe Ferrari 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2010,74(22):6263-6275

Seasonal snow is an active media and an important climate factor that governs nutrient transfer in Arctic ecosystems. Since the snow stores and transforms nutrients and contaminants, it is of crucial importance to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of contaminant cycling within the snowpack and its subsequent release to catchments via meltwater. Over the course of a two-month field study in the spring of 2008, we collected snow and meltwater samples from a seasonal snowpack in Ny-Ålesund, Norway (78°56′N, 11°52′E), which were analyzed for major inorganic ions and some organic acids, as well as total, dissolved, bioavailable mercury (THg, DHg, BioHg, respectively) and monomethylmercury (MMHg) species. We observe a seasonal gradient for ion concentrations, with surface samples becoming less concentrated as the season progressed. A significant negative correlation between BioHg and MMHg was observed in the snowpack. MMHg was positively and significantly correlated to methanesulfonate concentrations. Based on these results, we propose a new model for aerobic methylation of mercury involving species in the dimethylsulfoniopropionate cycle.  相似文献   

Launching mechanisms of astrophysical jets     

Attilio Ferrari  Petros Tzeferacos  Claudio Zanni 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2009,322(1-4):3-9

The combination of accretion disks and supersonic jets is used to model many active astrophysical objects, viz., young stars, relativistic stars, and active galactic nuclei. However, existing theories on the physical processes by which these structures transfer angular momentum and energy from disks to jets through viscous or magnetic torques are still relatively approximate. Global stationary solutions do not permit understanding the formation and stability of these structures; and global numerical simulations that include both the disk and jet physics are often limited to relatively short time scales and astrophysically out-of-range values of viscosity and resistivity parameters that are instead crucial to defining the coupling of the inflow/outflow dynamics. Along these lines we discuss self-consistent time-dependent simulations of the launching of supersonic jets by magnetized accretion disks, using high resolution numerical techniques. We shall concentrate on the effects of the disk physical parameters, and discuss under which conditions steady state solutions of the type proposed in the self-similar models of Blandford and Payne can be reached and maintained in a self-consistent nonlinear stationary state.  相似文献   

Origin and emplacement of ultramafic–mafic intrusions in the Erro-Tobbio mantle peridotite (Ligurian Alps, Italy)     

Giulio Borghini  Elisabetta Rampone  Laura Crispini  Roberto De Ferrari  Marguerite Godard 《Lithos》2007,94(1-4):210-229

The Erro-Tobbio peridotites (Voltri Massif, Ligurian Alps) represent subcontinental lithospheric mantle tectonically exhumed during Permo–Mesozoic extension of the Europe–Adria lithosphere. Previous studies have shown that exhumation started during Permian times, and occurred along kilometer-scale lithospheric shear zones which enhanced progressive deformation and recrystallization from spinel- to plagioclase-facies conditions. Ongoing field and petrologic investigations have revealed that the peridotites experienced, during uplift, a composite history of diffuse melt migration and multiple episodes of ultramafic–mafic intrusions. In this paper we present the results of field, structural and petrologic–geochemical investigations into a sector of the Erro-Tobbio peridotite unit that preserves well this multiple intrusion history. Melt impregnation in the peridotites is evidenced by significant plagioclase enrichment and crystallization of unstrained orthopyroxene replacing kinked mantle olivine and clinopyroxene; impregnating melts were thus opx-saturated. Melt–rock interaction caused chemical changes in mantle minerals (e.g. Al decrease and REE increase in cpx; Ti and Cr# enrichment in spinel). Nevertheless, clinopyroxenes still exhibit LREE depletion (Ce_N/Sm_N = 0.006–0.011), indicating a depleted signature for the percolating melts. Melt impregnation was thus related to diffuse porous flow migration of depleted MORB-type melt fractions that modified their compositions towards opx saturation by mantle–melt interaction during ascent. The impregnated peridotites are intruded by a hectometer-scale stratified cumulate body, mostly consisting of troctolites and plagioclase wehrlites, showing gradational, interfingered contacts with the host mantle rocks. Subsequent intrusion events are revealed by the occurrence of olivine gabbros as decameter-wide lenses, variably thick (centimeter- to meter-scale) dykes and thin dykelets, which crosscut both the peridotite foliation and the magmatic layering in the cumulates. Overall, major and trace element compositions of minerals in the intrusives indicate that they represent variably differentiated cumulus products crystallized from rather primitive N-MORB-type aggregated melts. Slightly more evolved compositions are shown by olivine gabbros, relative to the troctolites and plagioclase wehrlites of the cumulate body. Mineral chemistry features (e.g. the Fo–An correlation and high Na, Ti, Mg# in cpx) indicate that the studied intrusive rocks crystallized at moderate pressure conditions (3–5 kbar, i.e. 9–15 km depth). Our study thus points to a progressive transition from porous flow melt migration to emplacement of magmas in fractures, presumably related to progressive change of lithospheric mantle rheology during extension-related uplift and cooling.  相似文献   

Monte Carlo study of the arrival time distribution of particles in extensive air showers in the energy range 1–100 TeV     

G. Battistoni  A. Ferrari  M. Carboni  V. Patera 《Astroparticle Physics》1998,9(4):277-295

A detailed simulation of vertical showers in atmosphere produced by primary gammas and protons, in the energy range 1–100 TeV, has been performed by means of the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, with the aim of studying the time structure of the shower front at different detector heights. It turns out that the time delay distribution can be fitted using few parameters coincident with the distribution central moments. Such parameters exhibit a smooth behaviour as a function of energy. These results can be used both for detector design and for the interpretation of the existing measurements. Differences in the time structure between gamma and proton induced showers are found and explained in terms of the nonrelativistic comonent of extensive air showers.  相似文献   

A harmonic analysis of lunar topography     

Bruce G. Bills  Alfred J. Ferrari 《Icarus》1977,31(2):244-259

A global lunar topographic map has been derived from existing Earth-based and orbital observations supplemented in areas without data by a linear autocovariance predictor. Of 2592 bins, each 5° square, 1380 (64.7% by area) contain at least one measurement. A spherical harmonic analysis to degree 12 yields a mean radius of 1737.53 ± 0.03 km (formal standard error) and an offset of the center of figure of 1.98±0.06 km toward (19±2)°S, (194±1)°E. A Bouguer gravity map, derived from a 12-degree free-air gravity model and the present topography data, is presented for an elevation of 100 km above the mean surface. It is confirmed that the low-degree gravity harmonics are determined primarily by surface height variations and only secondarily by lateral density variations.  相似文献   

    

S. Falsaperla  S. Alparone  S. D'Amico  G. Di Grazia  F. Ferrari  H. Langer  T. Sgroi  S. Spampinato 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》2005,162(12):2583

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Dynamics and driving factors of late Holocene gullying in the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER)   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Stefano Carnicelli  Marco Benvenuti  Giovanni Ferrari  Mario Sagri   《Geomorphology》2009,103(4):541-554

The issue of determining the driving factors in gullying, apart from land use, is somewhat lagging in comparison with the study of their physical modelling and control technology. Available information focuses on the basic ideas of climatic control, anthropic determinism and internal “authigenic” dynamics. High resolution chronology of cyclic systems, common in extensively gullied areas, can provide a clue to the weight of each factor. This paper reports a study of this kind, focusing on two gully catchments in the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), but backed by an extensive regional survey. By integrating tracing and correlation of unconformity-bounded stratigraphic units and soils with radiocarbon dating, a detailed chronology was obtained for the last 5000 years. This could be compared with proxy climate reconstructions of similar detail. Clear evidence of climatic control emerged; gully filling is triggered by decreased stream transport capacity and increased sediment supply during transitions towards drier climate phases, while gully entrenchment appears to take place at the start of moist intervals, for the reverse reasons. A broader consideration of geological setting, however, puts forward a more general interpretation. These gullies actually formed, in the beginning, as part of the land surface response to sudden, very recent tectonic events, which created accommodation space for temporary sediment stores. They should then be seen in the frame of the Discontinuous Ephemeral Stream (DES) concept; as such, they are intrinsically non-linear and complex phenomena, whose response is linearized by a strong climatic–vegetational forcing, acting on both channel flow and sediment supply.  相似文献   

Relationship between sediment distribution and Posidonia oceanica seagrass     

G. De Falco  S. Ferrari  G. Cancemi  M. Baroli 《Geo-Marine Letters》2000,20(1):50-57

Relationships between sedimentary features and the distribution and structure of Posidonia oceanica meadows were investigated in the Gulf of Oristano (Sardinia) in a study site stretching from the mouth of the Tirso River in a more sheltered, inner sector of the gulf to an outer, more exposed sector near the rocky Cape San Marco. The results demonstrate that gradients in sediment texture and composition can be related to meadow distribution and areal coverage. We suggest that this involves the mechanical trapping of fine particles by the plants, enhanced mud deposition due to dampening of wave action in the meadows, and the admixture of bioclastic sediments linked to increased production by epiphytes and invertebrates. Independent evidence of seagrass erosion was recorded in an unvegetated breach in the meadow. The mass of fine sediment which would be resuspended in the wake of meadow destruction was estimated at 30–90 × 10³ tonnes km⁻², an amount which could substantially influence water quality and ecosystem stability in the gulf. Received: 27 May 1999 / Revision accepted: 2 February 2000  相似文献