The tsumani detector prototype installed on board of SN1-cabled abyssal station.

The new stand-alone tsunami detector prototype designed to operate in tsunami generation areas, already tested in the Gulf of Cadiz (SW Iberia) on board of GEOSTAR abyssal station, has been re-designed to be hosted on the cabled SN1 abyssal station. A new control software has been implemented to manage, in real time, from the land-based control room the basic component of the tsunameter. The tsunami detection software which perform the real time analysis of the parent tsunami signals, differently form the Gulf of Cadiz stand-alone prototype, runs on a land-based PC. Moreover, the cabled tsunameter is equipped with a new low-frequency hydrophone to detect the hydro-acoustic noise and signals that may be related to tsunami generation

The tsumani detector prototype deployed in the Gulf of Cadiz: data collection and functionality evaluation

A new tsunami detector prototype designed to operate in tsunami generation areas has been tested offshore SW Iberia, in the Gulf of Cadiz. The prototype, hosted on board of GEOSTAR has been deployed, at to 3200 meters depth, in August 2007 and recovered one year later by R/V Urania. After refurbishment and a partial upgrade, the tsunameter has been re-deployed in the same location on November 2009 by R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa.We report samples of the data collected by the pressure sensors and the critical analysis of the achievements and problems faced during these test periods

Tsunami Early Warning System: Deep Sea Measurements in the Source Area

In the framework of the EU project NEAREST, a new Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS), able to operate in tsunami generation areas, was developed and installed in the Gulf of Cadiz. The TEWS is based on the abyssal station GEOSTAR, placed above a major tsunamigenic structure, and on three seismic centres of Portugal, Spain and Morocco. The core of the system is a tsunami detector installed onboard of GEOSTAR. The tsunami detector communicates with a surface buoy through a dual acoustic link. The buoy is connected to land stations via satellite link. The system was designed for near-field conditions and successfully operated from August 2007 to August 2008, 100 km SW of Cabo de Sao Vincente (Portugal). A new mission started on November 11th, 2009 in the same location. The tsunami detection is based either on pressure events either on seismic events. The bottom pressure data are analysed in real-time at the seafloor by a new tsunami detection algorithm, which can recognize tsunami waves as small as one centimetre. At the same time it was developed a new theoretical approach to account for tsunami generation in compressible water and in presence of a porous sediment. This model showed that hydro-acoustic waves, travelling much faster than the tsunami, are caused by the seafloor motion. These waves can propagate outside the generation area and are characterised by a modulation carrying valuable information on the seafloor motion, which can be recovered from their first arrival

Environmental impact of early palaeometallurgy: pollen and geochemical analysis

International audienceInterdisciplinary research was carried out in mid-level mountain areas in France with the aim of documenting historical mining and smelting activities by means of pollen and geochemical analyses. These investigations were made on cores collected in French peatlands in the Morvan (northern Massif Central), at Mont Lozère (southern Massif Central) and in the Basque Country (Pyrénées). Different periods of mining were recognised from Prehistory to modern times through the presence of anthropogenic lead in peat. Some of these were already known from archaeological dates or historical archives, especially for mediaeval and modern periods. However prehistoric ancient mining activities, as early as the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1700 b.c.), were also discovered. They had all led to modifications in plant cover, probably related in part to forest clearance necessary to supply energy for mining and smelting

An innovative tsunami detector operating in tsunami generation environment

On August 25th 2007 a tsunami detector installed onboard the multi-parameter observatory GEOSTAR was successfully deployed at 3200 b. s. l. in the Gulf of Cadiz, Portugal. This activity is within the NEAREST EC Project (http://nearest.bo.ismar.cnr.it/ ). Among other deliverables, the NEAREST project will produce and test the basic parts of an operational prototype of a near field tsunami warning system. This system includes an onshore warning centre, based on the geophysical monitoring networks which are already operating, and a tsunami detector deployed on board GEOSTAR at the sea bottom. On land the warning centre is in charge of collecting, integrating, and evaluating data recorded at sea. At the sea bottom data is recorded and processed by an advanced type of tsunami detector which includes: a pressure sensor, a seismometer and two accelerometers. The detector communicates acoustically with a surface buoy in two-way mode. The buoy is equipped with meteo station, GPS and tiltmeter and is connected to a shore station via satellite link. The prototype is designed to operate in tsunami generation areas for detection-warning purpose as well as for scientific measurements. The tsunami detector sends a near real time automatic alert message when a seismic or pressure threshold are exceeded. Pressure signals are processed by the tsunami detection algorithm and the water pressure perturbation caused by the seafloor motion is taken into account. The algorithm is designed to detect small tsunami waves, less than one centimetre, in a very noisy environment. Our objective is to combine a novel approach to the tsunami warning problem, with a study of the coupling between the water column perturbations and sea floor motion, together with the long term monitoring of geophysical, geochemical and oceanographic parameters

NEMO-SN1 (Western Ionian Sea, off Eastern Sicily): A Cabled Abyssal Observatory with Tsunami Early Warning Capability

The NEMO-SN1 (NEutrino Mediterranean Observatory - Submarine Network 1) seafloor observatory is located in the central Mediterranean, Western Ionian Sea, off Eastern Sicily Island (Southern Italy) at 2100 m water depth, 25 km from the harbour of the city of Catania. It is a prototype of cabled deep-sea multiparameter observatory, and the first operating with real-time data transmission in Europe since 2005. NEMO-SN1 is also the first-established node of EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory, http://emso-eu.org), one of the European large-scale research infrastructures. EMSO will address long-term monitoring of environmental processes related to marine ecosystems, climate change and geo-hazards. NEMO-SN1 will perform geophysical and environmental long-term monitoring by acquiring seismological, geomagnetic, gravimetric, accelerometric, physico-oceanographic, hydro-acoustic, bio-acoustic measurements to study earthquake and tsunami generation, and to characterize ambient noise which includes marine mammal sounds, and environmental and anthropogenic sources. NEMO-SN1 is also equipped with a prototype tsunami detector, based on the simultaneous measurement of the seismic and bottom pressure signals and a new high performance tsunami detection algorithm. NEMO-SN1 will be a permanent tsunami early warning node in Western Ionian Sea, an area where very destructive earthquakes have occurred in the past, some of them tsunamigenic (e.g., 1693, M=7.5; 1908, M=7.4). Another important feature of NEMO-SN1 is the installation of a low frequency-high sensibility hydrophone and two (scalar and vector, respectively) magnetometers. The objective is to improve the tsunami detection capability of SN1 through the recognition of tsunami-induced hydro-acoustic and electro-magnetic precursors.SubmittedRhodes, Greece3A. Ambiente Marinorestricte

Environmental impact of early Basque mining and smelting recorded in a high ash minerogenic peat deposit

International audienceMore than four metres of core, covering almost 5000 years of deposition, were collected in a high ash minerogenic peat deposit located in the High Aldudes valley (Basque country), an area well known for its mineral abundance, exploited from Roman Times at least.Although minerogenic peatlands are not generally considered as the best archives to reconstruct past atmospheric metal deposition history, lead isotopic geochemistry demonstrates the integrity of the Pb record at least within the three upper meters; that is to say over the last four millennia.Zn, Cd and Cumay have been widely redistributed either by biological cycling, advective groundwater movements, or diffusional processes.Anthr opogenic lead input phases are clearly pinpointed by positive shifts in PbySc ratios with concomitant sharp drops in 206Pby207Pb ratios.They are often accompanied by significant declines in tree taxa, interpreted as increasing demand for wood to supply energy for local mining andyor metallurgical operations.Periods of mining andyor smelting activity are identified during Antiquity and Modern Times, and are also confirmed by textual and field evidence.Inputs from the Rio Tinto (Southern Spain), often invoked as a major lead contributor to the European atmosphere during Roman Times, were not detected here.This remote source was probably masked by local inputs. Other mining andyor smelting phases, only suspected by archaeologists, are here identified as early as the Bronze Age.Although the durations of these phases are possibly overestimated because of detrital inputs consequent to the release of lead from polluted soils over a long period of time after major pollutant inputs, the periods at which pollution peaks occur are in good agreement with archaeological knowledge and palaeo-botanical data.Thecombination of geochemical and palaeo-botanical techniques with field archaeology, therefore provides a powerful tool in studying the interaction of early human societies with their environment, as regards early mining and smelting

Tsunami Warning prototype in the frame of the EC NEAREST project.

Nell' ambito del progetto NEAREST finanziato dalla EC sono stati sviluppati alcuni elementi di un sistema di allerta per tsunami, fra i quali un prototipo di detector di onde anomale istallato a bordo dell' osservatorio abissale GEOSTAR: l' osservatorio con il detector di onde anomale ha operato per un anno nel Golfo di Cadice, a 3200m di profonditàPublishedSassari1.8. Osservazioni di geofisica ambientaleope

Phase transitions for PP-adic Potts model on the Cayley tree of order three

In the present paper, we study a phase transition problem for the $q$-state $p$-adic Potts model over the Cayley tree of order three. We consider a more general notion of $p$-adic Gibbs measure which depends on parameter \rho\in\bq_p. Such a measure is called {\it generalized $p$-adic quasi Gibbs measure}. When $\rho$ equals to $p$-adic exponent, then it coincides with the $p$-adic Gibbs measure. When $\rho=p$, then it coincides with $p$-adic quasi Gibbs measure. Therefore, we investigate two regimes with respect to the value of $|\rho|_p$. Namely, in the first regime, one takes $\rho=\exp_p(J)$ for some J\in\bq_p, in the second one $|\rho|_p<1$. In each regime, we first find conditions for the existence of generalized $p$-adic quasi Gibbs measures. Furthermore, in the first regime, we establish the existence of the phase transition under some conditions. In the second regime, when $|\r|_p,|q|_p\leq p^{-2}$ we prove the existence of a quasi phase transition. It turns out that if $|\r|_p<|q-1|_p^2<1$ and \sqrt{-3}\in\bq_p, then one finds the existence of the strong phase transition.Comment: 27 page