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.

Volcano monitoring is essential, especially in densely populated areas like Mt. Etna. This study investigates insoil radona naturally occurring noble gas-as a novel parameter for tracking magma dynamics and crustal/subcrustal fluid movements along active volcano-tectonic structures. We present and analyse continuous radon data from a station on Mt. Etna's southeastern flank, part of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica-Osservatorio Etneo network, spanning 2015-2023. This dataset represents the longest radon time series on Mt. Etna and among the most extended globally for active volcanoes, covering a wide range of eruptive styles from effusive to highly explosive events. To isolate volcanic signals from environmental noise, we applied innovative mathematical algorithms to the long-term radon series. The filtered data revealed both long-and short-term variations correlated with volcanic activity. Notably, significant anomalies coincided with paroxysmal eruptions (e.g., Voragine 2015-2016, the 2020-2022 sequence at the South East Crater) and seismic swarms linked to shallow magma intrusions. To validate these findings, we integrated the radon record with a petrological dataset documenting major recharge phases during the same period. This multidisciplinary approach provided new insights into magmatic storage, transfer, and interaction within the Etnean plumbing system. While further investigation is needed, our results highlight the promising role of in-soil radon as a complementary tool for volcano monitoring. By demonstrating its effectiveness in detecting precursory magma movements, this study contributes to advancing geochemical surveillance methods and reinforces the role of integrated approaches in Earth science research and volcanic hazard mitigation.

Urban groundwater studies are gaining importance, especially with the increasing impact of climate change, which intensifies droughts, floods, and water demand, while also threatening water quality and its interaction with urban infrastructure. In Rome (Italy), although drinking water is traditionally sourced from distant aqueducts, local groundwater is used for various purposes, including irrigation and farming. However, contamination by anthropogenic origin pollutants has been already documented, making it essential to define a clear hydrogeological model for resource protection. This study aims to enhance the understanding of groundwater recharge, flowpaths, and mixing processes at the municipal scale in Rome, using hydrogeological reconstruction and geochemical characterization. The city's stratigraphy, shaped by eroded fluvial paleo-valleys and Quaternary volcanism, creates complex recharge areas and flowpaths, resulting in diverse water-rock interaction patterns. Eleven wells were bimonthly sampled for geochemical and isotopic analysis. The samples show a bicarbonate - alkaline-earth hydrochemical facies. Stable isotope compositions of oxygen range from 7.30‰ to 4.56‰ V- SMOW, whereas strontium isotope ratios vary between 0.707957 and 0.710567. Stable isotopes helped identify recharge areas, while the Sr/ Sr isotopic ratio provided insights into flowpaths, water-rock interaction inf luence on water chemistry, and mixing processes. The study emphasizes the critical importance of stratigraphic contacts, tectonic boundaries, and the depth of the basal aquiclude in shaping the composition of sampled groundwater. Findings support a preliminary hydrogeological-geochemical conceptual model; in particular: (i) potential recharge areas, which can be local or distant (close to the Apennine range), were linked to the hydrogeological complexes, (ii) deep and shallow aquifers are strongly hydrogeologically interconnected, indicating a high vulnerability of Rome's regional aquifer system. Anthropogenic pollution is indicated by nitrate levels derived from agricultural practices and sewage effluents.

Purpose-This study looks at the growing trend of higher temperatures in cities during the summer months. This rise in temperature leads to various environmental and health issues. This research aims to identify the major risks posed by extreme heat, especially for vulnerable communities. It also evaluates how well the current measures in different cities around the world address this increasing problem.

In the present era, environmental challenges are becoming increasingly prominent, necessitating innovative solutions that facilitate air quality monitoring and mitigation strategies aimed at safeguarding human health, the climate, and ecosystems. This study demonstrates how combining low-cost and high-tech stations (through integrated fixed and mobile monitoring) offers an effective and complementary approach. The strategy was applied in diverse environments (volcanic-hydrothermal areas, a wetland, and a CO2 production plant), providing high spatial and temporal resolution data. Fixed low-cost stations, calibrated using machine-learning techniques, enabled continuous monitoring of key pollutants (CO2, CH4, PM2.5, PM10), depicting temporal variability linked to atmospheric dynamics, meteorological conditions, and emission strength. Their affordability allowed denser monitoring networks, enhancing spatial resolution and identifying critical areas that require long-term observation. This was especially effective in the wetland, where eutrophic zones emitting higher CH4 levels were clearly identified. Mobile high-tech monitoring complemented fixed data by extending spatial coverage, with repeated transects allowing partial temporal tracking. An integrated analysis of pollutant concentrations, wind patterns, and isotopic ratios (δ13C of CO2 and CH4) enabled source apportionment, distinguishing between geogenic-hydrothermal and anthropogenic emissions, particularly in volcanic and industrial contexts. Despite its strengths, some limitations persist in the combination of the two approaches: (i) the drift over time and aging of low-cost sensors were not addressed, despite the necessity of their evaluation to ensure their proper use over longer monitoring periods; (ii) mobile monitoring lacks continuous temporal data and measurements are not simultaneous, limiting its effectiveness for tracking long-term trends and comparing pollutant levels across different areas.