Volcanology, geology, and vegetation of Italy and Sicily

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

A simulation model of temperature transitory on rocks having different thermal inertia. Analysis of the theoretical capacity of rock discrimination by remote sensing data

The possibility of identifying ground surface material by measuring the surface temperature at two different and significant times of the day was investigated for the case of hypothetical island whose rocky surface contained no vegetation and consisted of dolomite, clay, and granite. The thermal dynamics of the soil surface during a day in which atmospheric conditions were average for a latitude of about 40 deg to 50 deg were numerically simulated. The line of separation between zones of different materials was delineated by the range of temperature variation. Results show that the difference between maximum and minimum value of the temperature of ground surface during the day is linked to the thermal inertia value of the material of which the rock is formed

A preliminary evaluation of ERTS-1 images on the volcanic areas of Southern Italy

The test site selected for the investigation covers nearly all the regions of active and quiescent volcanism in southern Italy, i.e. the eastern part of the island of Sicily, the Aeolian Islands and the area of Naples. The three active European volcanoes (Etna, Stromboli and Vesuvius) are included. The investigation is in the frame of a program for the surveillance of active volcanoes by geophysical (including remote sensing thermal methods) and geochemical methods. By the multispectral analysis of ERTS-1 data it is intended to study the spectral behavior of the volcanic materials as well as the major geological lineaments with special reference to those associated with the volcanic region. Secondary objectives are also the determination of the hydrographic network seasonal behavior and the relationship between the vegetation cover and the different type of soils and rocks

Fractures and lineaments of Sicily Island: Preliminary results on analog optical techniques

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Skylab multispectral photography of Italian volcanology, geology, rice fields, and Paleo river beds

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Results of Skylab investigation over Italy

The author has identified the following significant results. Multispectral high resolution photography of S190A was successfully applied to the detection of paleoriverbeds in flat lands. Results of SL-3 mission were compared to those of LANDSAT for two regional geological surveys (linear structures) on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. On Sicily, the seasonal conditions were unfavorable for Skylab while LANDSAT played a major role in discovering long, unknown lineaments of great interest for the geodynamics of the area. On Sardinia, owing to the vegetation type and to the geomorphic conditions, the Skylab imagery was successfully employed to describe the network of linears, both regional and local. Results can be used to study the relationship between linears, actual fracturing and the occurrence of mineral deposits

Contribution of Skylab multispectral imagery to the remote sensing studies of Mount Etna volcano

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Seismicity of the upper lithosphere and its relationships with the crust in the italian region

In a recent paper we compared the earthquake hypocenters, plotted according to updated catalogs, with the structure of the earth’s Crust interpreted after the results of seismic exploration (mainly the Deep Seismic Soundings – DSS). The comparison was made along several cross sections in the Alpine range, the Italian Peninsula and the surrounding seas. The main conclusions of this analysis were that 1) the majority of the events is positioned in the upper, rigid crust and 2) the earthquakes tend to concentrate above the discontinuities unveiled by the seismic exploration in the deep crust and at the Moho boundary. With the goal to shed some light on the continuation of these structures with depth, in this paper a similar analysis is conducted even in volumes where DSS information are not available. It is apparent that the upper mantle seismicity is very unevenly distributed; therefore we only focus on the areas where a sub-crustal seismicity is recorded, adding to the seismic models of the crust some information, if available, on the physical characters of the upper Lithosphere. Four areas are examined: the well known Calabrian (Aeolian) Arc where the Ionian plate is subducted beneath the Tyrrhenian, thin crust of oceanic type, the active subduction of the slab being witnessed by deep and very deep earthquakes; the north-central Apennines where the continental crust of the Adria microplate seems also subducted beneath the transitional, peri-Tyrrhenian type of crust but where the observed hypocenters are limited to the depth of about 100 km; the northern Apennines, where the same type of subduction seems to occur beneath the north-eastern slope of the mountain range, though evidenced by an even smaller number of events; finally, the western Alps: also here a small group of foci are recorded in the upper Mantle beneath the southern end of the “Ivrea body”. The different behavior of deep seismicity in the four areas confirms that the Italian peninsula is formed of sectors deriving from different geodynamical processes

Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) program: Study of geological structure of Sicily and other Italian areas

The usefulness of thermal inertia mapping in discriminating geolithological units was investigated using Sardinia and the Gulf of Orosei as test sites. Software designed for LANDSAT data were modified and improved for HCMM tapes. A first attempt was made to compare the geological cross section, the topography, the IR radiance, and the thermal inertia along selected profiles of the test site. Thermal inertia profiles appear smoothed in comparison with the thermal radiance. The lowest apparent thermal inertia (ATI) was found on granitic and basaltic outcrops where their image is of sufficient extent, while ATI is higher on carbonatic and dolomitic or moist deposits. Almost every fault is marked by a jump of ATI, the interval being sometimes of the order of one pixel. This seems to demonstrate the ability of ATI to detect contacts or tectonically disturbed zones with a good resolution. It seems more difficult to measure the differences in ATI between homogeneous materials having different lithology. Ground surveys conducted and a simulation model of diurnal temperatures of rocks having different thermal inertia are discussed

Struttura crostale e subcrostale della penisola italiana dalla interpretazione congiunta di immagini tomografiche e profile DSS

Questo studio rappresenta la conclusione di una serie di analisi precedentemente proposte e volte alla migliore comprensione della struttura profonda della penisola italiana. Tale serie, iniziata con il confronto tra la sismicità crostale e le interpretazioni dei profili DSS (Cassinis e Solarino, 2004; Cassinis e Solarino, 2006), si era successivamente estesa alla struttura litosferica (Solarino e Cassinis, 2005; Solarino e Cassinis, 2007). In ambedue le occasioni lo studio era stato condotto avendo cura di utilizzare le più recenti elaborazioni dei profili e selezionando gli ipocentri con criteri molto restrittivi. Nello spirito dei precedenti lavori, anche in questo caso si è eseguita una analisi congiunta di dati ottenuti con diverse tecniche sovrapponendo alle interpretazioni già esistenti le informazioni ricavate da un recente studio tomografico (Scafidi et al., 2008) effettuato con la tecnica della inversione di terremoti locali (Thurber, 1983)