The Mw 6.4 Albania Earthquake of the 26th November 2019

The 26th of November earthquake in northwest Albania affected at least 10 of the country’s 61 municipalities, including the two most populous, urbanized and developed cities Tirana and Durrës. This was the strongest earthquake in Albania for the last 40 years and the worldwide deadliest earthquake for 2019. The Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) sent a team to the affected region during the immediate aftermath of the event (13th to 18th December). The mission objectives were to observe the characteristic damage patterns in the main structural typologies of the Albanian residential building stock and to assess possible links between the observed damage patterns with code and construction practice deficiencies

Chemometrics based on the mineral content as a tool for the assessment of the pollution of top soils

This is the first research of this type which includes the wider area of Kosovo taking into account the mineral wealth. The concentrations of 20 elements: Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Se, Si, V, and Zn were determined using ICP-OES. The ranges of concentrations of toxic elements are lead (Pb) 0.044-14.98 g/kg, arsenic (As) 0.007-0.33 g/kg, cadmium (Cd) 0.004-0.044 g/kg, and chromium (Cr) 0.053-0.245 g/kg. The spatial distribution of toxic elements was described using distribution maps. Principal component and cluster analyses were performed to reveal grouping of samples