Description: The 23 km long Sulmona normal fault flanks the southwestern slope of the Mount Morrone range in the central Apennines. To date, the recent activity of this structure is uncertain, as the faulting evidence concerns only undated deposits and the fault cannot be associated with any of the strong historical earthquakes ( M w 〉6.5) of the region. Our observation from ~1 Ma offset slope breccias, coupled with new tephrochronological data on faulted early Last Glacial lacustrine infilling of the Sulmona basin, implies a vertical slip rate of ~0.5 mm/yr over both the long term and middle term. Moreover, at the apex of a Late Pleistocene alluvial fan, radiocarbon dating of offset stratigraphy uncovered in four paleoseismological trenches shows that repeated earthquakes resulted in more than 4 m of vertical offset since ~9 ka, providing again a minimum Holocene vertical slip rate of ~0.5 mm/yr. In combination with the results of the trench exposure, we define four faulting events in the past ~9 ky B.P., and at least one before then. The most recent is constrained by robust radiocarbon dates as the middle of the second century A.D. The penultimate event was around the middle of the fifth millennium B.P. , whereas the other two events are dated in a time between 8.5 ky to 6.5 ky B.P. and around 9 ky cal B.P. The oldest occurred before 9.5 ky B.P. As well as revealing the unexpected paleoseismic history of the Sulmona silent fault, our data provide a recurrence time for M w ≥6.5 earthquakes of ~2.4 ky versus an elapsed time of ~1.85 ky since the last event. The latter matches with an earthquake previously hypothesized through archaeoseismic clues collected from several Roman settlements of the Sulmona Plain, all of which were dated to halfway through the second century A.D. Online Material: Table of major-element compositions, field photos, and Harker diagrams.

Description: Background Administrative databases have become an important tool to monitor diseases. Patients with epilepsy could be traced using disease-specific codes and prescriptions, but formal validation is required to obtain an accurate case definition. The aim of the study was to correlate administrative data on epilepsy with an independent source of patients with epilepsy in a district of Lombardy, Northern Italy, from 2000 to 2008. Methods Data of nearly 320 600 inhabitants in the district of Lecco collected from the Drug Administrative Database of the Lombardy Region were analysed. Among them were included patients who fulfilled the International Classification of Diseases 9 (ICD-9) codes and/or the disease-specific exemption code for epilepsy and those who had at least one EEG record and took antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) as monotherapy or in variable combinations. To ascertain epilepsy cases, 11 general practitioners (GPs) with 15 728 affiliates were contacted. Multiple versions of the diagnostic algorithm were developed using different logistic regression models and all combinations of the four independent variables. Results Among the GP affiliates, 71 (4.5/1000) had a gold standard diagnosis of epilepsy. The best and most conservative algorithm included EEG and selected treatment schedules and identified 61/71 patients with epilepsy (sensitivity 85.9%, CI 76.0% to 92.2%) and 15 623/15 657 patients without epilepsy (specificity 99.8%,CI 99.7% to 99.8%). The positive and negative predictive values were 64.2% and 99.9%. Sensitivity (86.7%) and the positive predictive value (68.4%) increased only slightly when patients with single seizures were included. Conclusions A diagnostic algorithm including EEG and selected treatment schedules is only moderately sensitive for the detection of epilepsy and seizures. These findings apply only to the Northern Italian scenario.

Description: Past orbital analogues to the current interglacial, such as Marine Isotope Stage 19c (MIS 19c, ca. 800 ka), can provide reliable reference intervals for evaluating the timing and the duration of the Holocene and factors inherent in its climatic progression. Here we present the first high-resolution paleoclimatic record for MIS 19 anchored to a high-precision 40 Ar/ 39 Ar chronology, thus fully independent of any a priori assumptions on the orbital mechanisms underlying the climatic changes. It is based on the oxygen isotope compositions of Italian lake sediments showing orbital- to millennial-scale hydrological variability over the Mediterranean between 810 and 750 ka. Our record indicates that the MIS 19c interglacial lasted 10.8 ± 3.7 k.y., comparable to the time elapsed since the onset of the Holocene, and that the orbital configuration at the time of the following glacial inception was very similar to the present one. By analogy, the current interglacial should be close to its end. However, greenhouse gas concentrations at the time of the MIS 19 glacial inception were significantly lower than those of the late Holocene, suggesting that the current interglacial could have already been prolonged by the progressive increase of the greenhouse gases since 8–6 ka, possibly due to early anthropogenic disturbance of vegetation.

Description: Author(s): N. Sandberg, Z. Chang, L. Messina, P. Olsson, and P. Korzhavyi A first-principles based approach to calculating self-diffusion rates in bcc Fe is discussed with particular focus on the magnetic free energy associated with diffusion activation. First, the enthalpies and entropies of vacancy formation and migration in ferromagnetic bcc Fe are calculated from stan… [Phys. Rev. B 92, 184102] Published Fri Nov 06, 2015

Description: Oxidized Silicon nanomaterials produced by 1064 nm pulsed laser ablation in deionized water are investigated. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy allows to characterize the structural and chemical properties at a sub-nanometric scale. This analysis clarifies that laser ablation induces both self-limiting and complete oxidation processes which produce polycrystalline Si surrounded by a layer of SiO 2 and amorphous fully oxidized SiO 2 , respectively. These nanostructures exhibit a composite luminescence spectrum which is investigated by time-resolved spectroscopy with a tunable laser excitation. The origin of the observed luminescence bands agrees with the two structural typologies: Si nanocrystals emit a μ s-decaying red band; defects of SiO 2 give rise to a ns-decaying UV band and two overlapping blue bands with lifetime in the ns and ms timescale.

Description: We present new tephrostratigraphic records from the late MIS 5 (ca 110–80 ka) terrestrial sediments from southern and central Italy. On the one hand, the central Italy record consists of an outcropping lacustrine sequence from the Sulmona intermountain basin that contains four trachytic–phonolitic tephra layers (POP3, POP2a, POP2b, POP1), all of which show a K-alkaline affinity that is typical for the Roman co-magmatic Province. The POP3 and POP1 layers were dated by 40Ar/39Ar method at 106.2 ± 1.3 ka (2σ) and 92.4 ± 4.6 ka (2σ), respectively. The sequence in southern Italy, on the other hand, is represented by post-Tyrrhenian coastal deposits of the Cilento area, Campania, which contain two trachytic layers (CIL2, CIL1) that show the same K-alkaline affinity. Based on their chemical compositions and radiometric ages, POP3 and POP1 are firmly correlated with the marine tephra layers X-5 (105 ± 2 ka) and C-22 (ca 90 ka), which, in turn, match tephras TM-25 and TM-23-11, respectively, in the lacustrine sequence of Lago Grande di Monticchio (southern Italy). Of note, the POP1 layer also matches the Adriatic Sea tephra PRAD 2517 that was previously correlated with the older X-5 layer. The tephra couplet POP2a and POP2b (ca 103 and 103.5 ka, extrapolated ages) are compatible with the TM-24b and TM-24-3 tephras in Monticchio, which match both the stratigraphic positions and the chemical compositions. In the Cilento area, as well as the already described X-6 layer (ca 108 ka) (CIL2), we recognise a new stratigraphic superimposed layer (CIL1) that matches the POP3/TM-25/C-27/X-5 Mediterranean marker(s). In summary, the data presented here provide new chemical and 40Ar/39Ar chronological constraints towards a robust late MIS 5 tephrostratigraphy of the central Mediterranean, although at the same time, they also reveal how the tephrostratigraphy itself might be flawed when dealing with tephra markers that are not adequately constrained and characterised.

Description: La definizione dell’attività di strutture tettoniche è un pre-requisito fondamentale per la comprensione delle caratteristiche sismotettoniche di un settore del territorio italiano che, come l’Appennino centrale, è stato interessato in tempi storici da eventi sismici di elevata magnitudo. Dunque, l’individuazione e la caratterizzazione dell’attività tardopleistocenica-olocenica di faglie potenzialmente responsabili di forti terremoti è di cruciale importanza in un’ottica di valutazione della pericolosità sismica. Nel presente lavoro vengono analizzate due faglie normali che interessano l’Appennino centrale, la faglia normale che delimita ad ovest la Montagna dei Fiori, uno dei rilievi più esterni della catena, e quella che borda a sud-ovest il bacino di Leonessa, con l’obiettivo di dare un contributo per una migliore definizione delle caratteristiche sismotettoniche di questo settore del territorio nazionale. La faglia normale della Montagna dei Fiori è una struttura lunga almeno 15 km la cui attività è stata responsabile della dislocazione di circa 900 m del substrato carbonatico. Il piano di faglia e la scarpata ad esso associata sono visibili in modo discontinuo lungo il versante. I rilevamenti geologici e geomorfologici effettuati chiariscono come l’esposizione del piano di faglia sia esclusivamente legata a fenomeni gravitativi, anche di grandi dimensioni, che interessano le formazioni calcareo-marnose (Scaglia Cinerea, Marne con Bisciaro, Marne con Cerrogna) affioranti al tetto della struttura, e a fenomeni di erosione selettiva fra le formazione della successione umbro-marchigiana affioranti al letto ed al tetto. La faglia, inoltre, è sigillata da una paleosuperficie di origine erosiva sospesa varie centinaia di metri al di sopra del fondovalle attuale del fiume Salinello (in località Colle Osso Caprino) e da brecce di versante (in località Pozzoranno) associabili a quelle riconosciute in modo ubiquitario in Appennino entrale ed attribuite al Pleistocene inferiore. Come per il caso della Montagna dei Fiori, il piano della faglia bordiera del bacino di Leonessa è visibile in modo discontinuo lungo i versanti che delimitano il settore meridionale della depressione. I nostri rilevamenti di terreno ci consentono di attribuire l’esposizione del piano i) a fenomeni gravitativi che interessano la fascia detritica depostasi alla base della scarpata di faglia e ii) a fenomeni di erosione selettiva fra i detriti ed il substrato carbonatico affiorante al letto della struttura tettonica, ad opera di corsi d’acqua perpendicolari al versante. Depositi di conoide alluvionale (“conoide alluvionale di Leonessa”) attribuiti da alcuni autori ad un contesto cronologico compreso fra la fine del Pleistocene inferiore ed il Pleistocene medio e che determinano una superficie terrazzata chiaramente visibile in tutto il bacino, non sembrano essere stati interessati (né dislocati né basculati) dall’attività di tale faglia. Inoltre, ulteriori due ordini di conoide alluvionale depostisi al di sopra di quello sopra citato ed attribuibili tentativamente al Pleistocene superiore, sigillano chiaramente la struttura tettonica. Dunque, dalle nostre osservazioni si evince che, per quello che riguarda la faglia normale della Montagna dei Fiori, tale struttura tettonica non risulta essere attiva almeno a partire dal Pleistocene inferiore e che l’esposizione del piano di faglia è esclusivamente legata a fenomeni gravitativi e di morfoselezione. Ciò corroborerebbe quanto proposto da altri autori che attribuiscono a questa struttura tettonica esclusivamente un’attività pre- e sin- fase tettonica compressiva. Per quello che riguarda il bacino di Leonessa, è possibile ipotizzare che la faglia bordiera sia stata attiva fino al Pleistocene inferiore, creando lo spazio per l’accumulo dei depositi del conoide alluvionale di Leonessa. L’attività sarebbe poi terminata, o quantomeno si sarebbe ridotta ad un tasso decisamente inferiore a quello degli agenti morfodinamici, a partire dal Pleistocene medio.

Description: Unpublished

Description: Camerino (MC), Italia

Description: 3.2. Tettonica attiva

Description: open