Welcome to the OA Earth-prints Repository!

A digital low power pulse compressed ionosonde was developed at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, Italy. The aim of this Advanced Ionospheric Sounder, AIS-INGV, is to reduce the transmitted power and, consequently, weight, size, power consumption and hardware complexity. To compensate the power reduction the most advanced HF radar techniques such as the pulse compression and a phase coherent integration are used. The ionosonde is completely programmable and a PC supports the data acquisition, control, storage and on-line processing. The first prototype was installed at Gibilmanna Ionospheric Observatory (Sicily), an interesting location in the center of Mediterranean area. The new ionosonde will contribute to ionospheric database and real time knowledge of South European ionospheric conditions for space weather applications. In this work the first results (ionograms and autoscaled characteristics) are presented and briefly discussed.

A new digital ionosonde called AIS-INGV (Advanced Ionospheric Sounder) was designed both for research and for routine service of HF radio wave propagation forecast. Nearly the entire system was developed in the Laboratorio di Geofisica Ambientale at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome. It exploits advanced techniques for signal analysis, recent technological devices and PC resources. This paper describes design concepts and performance of the new ionosonde.

The Italian Ionospheric Antarctic Observatory of Terra Nova Bay (74.70S, 164.11E) was recently equipped with the AIS-INGV ionosonde developed at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, (Italy). This paper aims to describe briefly which are the main characteristics of the instrument and show the good quality and reliability of the recorded ionograms.

The ionosonde is a system which exploits the radar technique: it applies electromagnetic waves with variable frequency in the HF band to measure the ionospheric layers electron density, height and other parameters. This paper is a technical report on the new digital ionosonde (AIS-INGV), which was designed both for research purposes and for the routine service of the HF radiowave propagation forecast. It has been developed almost completely within the Laboratorio di Geofisica Ambientale (LGA) at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). It exploits advanced techniques for the signal analysis, recent technological devices and PC resources. The report is divided into two parts; the first is a general description of the design development, the second is a more detailed description of the blocks and circuits actually built and tested, directed to a specialist reader.

www.earth-prints.org aims to satisfy the increasing demand of fast, up-to-date, easy-accessible, and free-of-charge sources of information in all branches of Geosciences. It allows earth scientists to deposit electronic documents into its collections and to index them by subjects and keywords. Earth-prints provides a time-stamp to all deposited materials to insure precedence rights to original ideas and scientific results. It deals with copyright issues through Creative Common standards that offer a wide variety of licenses. All deposited material is made immediately available to the public. Subscribers will be sent a daily newsletter according to the topics they have signed in. The archive has a three-level hierarchical structure. The top level includes Atmosphere, Cryosphere, Hydrosphere, Solid Earth, and General. It then branches into several disciplines within the other two levels. Different collections take in different kinds of material, such as pre-prints, oral presentations, extended abstracts, published papers, conference papers, books and book chapters, posters, and Web products and databases. Earth-Prints main language is English but it accepts documents in other languages also, giving visibility to data and studies at local scale that are indeed of general interests. An abstract in English is always required. We will present a virtual tour into the many features of Earth-prints to provide all its potential users with an easy acquaintance of the system and make them explore its capabilities. Although the archive is based on latest information technology it requires no specific knowledge to be used because it manages all procedures for access, navigation, upload of documents and information retrieval through a user-friendly interface. What is the limit of open archive development? We think that the one and only limit of open archives is the eagerness of its users to share information and knowledge.

We set up a computational tool to numerically model static and quasi-static deformation generated by faulting sources embedded in plane or spherical domains. We use a Finite Element (FE) approach to automatically implement arbitrary faulting sources and calculate displacement and stress fields induced by slip on the fault. The package makes use of the capabilities of CalculiX, a non commercial FE software designed to solve field problems (see for details), and is freely distributed by request.

This book contains the proceedings of the 1st WSEAS International Conference on Environmental and Geological Science and Engineering (EG'08) which was held in Malta, September 11-13, 2008. This conference aims to disseminate the latest research and applications in Renewable Energy, Mineral Resources, Natural Hazards and Risks, Environmental Impact Assessment, Urban and Regional Planning Issues, Remote Sensing and GIS, and other relevant topics and applications. The friendliness and openness of the WSEAS conferences, adds to their ability to grow by constantly attracting young researchers. The WSEAS Conferences attract a large number of well-established and leading researchers in various areas of Science and Engineering as you can see from http://www.wseas.org/reports. Your feedback encourages the society to go ahead as you can see in http://www.worldses.org/feedback.htm The contents of this Book are also published in the CD-ROM Proceedings of the Conference. Both will be sent to the WSEAS collaborating indices after the conference: www.worldses.org/indexes In addition, papers of this book are permanently available to all the scientific community via the WSEAS E-Library. Expanded and enhanced versions of papers published in this conference proceedings are also going to be considered for possible publication in one of the WSEAS journals that participate in the major International Scientific Indices (Elsevier, Scopus, EI, ACM, Compendex, INSPEC, CSA .... see: www.worldses.org/indexes) these papers must be of high-quality (break-through work) and a new round of a very strict review will follow. (No additional fee will be required for the publication of the extended version in a journal). WSEAS has also collaboration with several other international publishers and all these excellent papers of this volume could be further improved, could be extended and could be enhanced for possible additional evaluation in one of the editions of these international publishers. Finally, we cordially thank all the people of WSEAS for their efforts to maintain the high scientific level of conferences, proceedings and journals.

The historical sources of large and moderate earthquakes, earthquake catalogues and monographs exist in many depositories in Syria and European centers. They have been studied, and the detailed review and analysis resulted in a catalogue with 181 historical earthquakes from 1365 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Numerous original documents in Arabic, Latin, Byzantine and Assyrian allowed us to identify seismic events not mentioned in previous works. In particular, detailed descriptions of damage in Arabic sources provided quantitative information necessary to re-evaluate past seismic events. These large earthquakes (I0>VIII) caused considerable damage in cities, towns and villages located along the northern section of the Dead Sea fault system. Fewer large events also occurred along the Palmyra, Ar-Rassafeh and the Euphrates faults in Eastern Syria. Descriptions in original sources document foreshocks, aftershocks, fault ruptures, liquefaction, landslides, tsunamis, fires and other damages. We present here an updated historical catalogue of 181 historical earthquakes distributed in 4 categories regarding the originality and other considerations, we also present a table of the parametric catalogue of 36 historical earthquakes (table I) and a table of the complete list of all historical earthquakes (181 events) with the affected locality names and parameters of information quality and completeness (table II) using methods already applied in other regions (Italy, England, Iran, Russia) with a completeness test using EMS-92. This test suggests that the catalogue is relatively complete for magnitudes >6.5. This catalogue may contribute to a comprehensive and unified parametric earthquake catalogue and to a realistic assessment of seismic hazards in Syria and surrounding regions.

This study presents an updated version of TISER-GCN, a graph neural network (GCN) designed to predict maximum intensity measurements (IMs) from 10-second seismic waveforms starting at the earthquake origin time, without prior knowledge of location, distance, and magnitude. The improved model was applied to nearly 600 seismic stations from the INSTANCE benchmark dataset, significantly expanding the original TISER-GCN setup, which was limited to 39 stations in a smaller area of central Italy. Input data consist of three-component waveforms selected to ensure high quality and minimize saturation. Results show that masking stations where the P-wave arrives within the first 10 seconds , combined with the integration of additional information, reduces the mean squared error (MSE) by up to 6% for peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 5.5% for peak ground velocity (PGV), compared to the unmasked baseline. Moreover, the proposed approach yields near-zero median residuals across all IMs, mitigating the systematic underestimation observed when using a ground motion model specifically developed for Italy. These findings indicate that the model provides accurate predictions of ground motions, comparable to those obtained with the original TISER-GCN, which, however, requires a fixed seismic network geometry.

This study presents an integrated geophysical–geomatic approach for the investigation of archaeological sites, combining low-frequency Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) and close-range photogrammetry at the Archaeological Park of Abellinum (southern Italy). Unlike conventional applications using high-frequency antennas, the low-frequency GPR system employed in this study enabled deep subsurface imaging, allowing reconstruction of buried stratigraphic and architectural features to depths of several metres. This enhanced penetration capacity facilitated a more comprehensive understanding of the investigated environments, by complementing rather than replacing high-frequency surveys and expanding the interpretable volume in complex urban and peri-urban contexts. GPR reflection data were integrated with high-resolution photogrammetric surface models, enabling direct comparison between visible structures and subsurface geometries. The combined dataset provided precise correlations between surface features and subsurface anomalies, demonstrating the potential of this integrated methodology for detailed archaeological interpretation. Overall, this approach offers a scalable, non-invasive framework applicable to other complex archaeological landscapes, supporting both research objectives and long-term heritage management. By systematically combining low-frequency GPR with high-resolution photogrammetry, the study introduces a methodological contribution that extends interpretative depth well beyond the limits of conventional surveys.

Etna’s eastern flank is crossed by numerous seismogenic faults which cause surface faulting, resulting in the destruction of buildings and exposing the local population to risk. Rebuilding damaged buildings in earthquake-prone areas raises ethical and economic concerns. The Mw 4.9 earthquake on 26 December 2018 damaged over 3,000 buildings in an area of 205 km² inhabited by ~140,000 people on the Etna’s eastern flank. The earthquake caused ground rupture of over ten kilometres, including some urban areas. It was thus imperative to undertake a preliminary geostructural study to identify the most vulnerable tectonic zones and upgrade targeted the buildings. The study identified the homogeneous microzones in seismic prospection, namely the Zones of Attention (ZAACF), Susceptibility (ZSACF) and Respect (ZRACF) of the faults activated during the 2018 earthquake. Buildings in the ZRACF were not allowed to be repaired because they were at serious risk of future damage. Owners were offered financial compensation to rebuild in seismically safer areas. Some people initially demonstrated reluctance to accept the proposed relocation. These issues were addressed through empathetic engagement with the affected population and through the provision of clear explanations regarding the rationale for the relocation. This case study highlights the necessity of providing comprehensive support to people, taking into account the significant psychological challenges they are facing. This approach is currently being implemented in the reconstruction of other seismic areas in Italy. It has the potential to become a common and sustainable model for the reconstruction of areas affected by natural disasters.

We present the first paleoseismological results along the Fiandaca Fault, source of the 26 December 2018, Mw 5.0 Fleri earthquake. This earthquake caused extensive damage and 8 km of surface faulting. We excavated two exploratory trenches close to the Fiandaca village, in the central segment of the 2018 coseismic rupture. Analysis of trench walls allows identifying, besides the 2018 event, two additional historical surface faulting events. Based on amount of displacement of dated stratigraphic units, including tephra from the 122 BCE eruption, these historical events were similar to the 2018 earthquake. The most recent one occurred in the period 1281–1926 CE, most likely during the1894 earthquake. The oldest one, previously unknown, occurred in the Early Middle Ages (757–894 CE). When compared with the available seismic catalogue for Mt. Etna volcano, this paleoseismic evidence might suggest increased seismic activity along the Fiandaca Fault in the last centuries. In order to test this hypothesis, we conducted detailed morphotectonic analyses and throw rate measurements across offset historical lava flows. In addition, we developed a trishear kinematic model that describes the fault zone and the morphological features of the scarps. Throw rates mean values show an increase from 3.3mmyr􀀀1 since the Greek-Roman period reaching 7.8mmyr􀀀1 since the Late Middle Ages. These findings highlight the needs of further investigations to evaluate the slip rates variations of other faults accommodating the flank instability. Our findings confirm that paleoseismological and morphotectonic studies are of critical value for defining surface faulting and seismic hazard in volcanic settings.