Problems of the Duration of the Eemian Interglacial in Europe North of the Alps

2002 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Turner
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Laminated Sediment ◽  
Annually Laminated Sediment ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Eemian Interglacial

AbstractSuggestions that the duration of the Eemian interglacial was about 11,000 yr, based on annually laminated sediment sequences in Germany, have been challenged in favor of a much longer interval. However, biostratigraphic evidence demonstrates why the Eemian sequences at Grande Pile and Ribains cannot be reliably used for alignment with the marine sequence, as applied by Kukla et al. (2002, this issue) to estimate the duration of this interglacial. The long chronology they propose would imply not just coniferous but, for up to 5000 yr, fully temperate forest in central France coexisting with treeless heath and steppe tundra conditions in northwestern Europe, an unlikely climatic and ecological scenario. The proposal that the Eemian Interglacial in western Europe lasted for 17,000 or even 23,000 yr is rejected. A duration of no more than 13,000 yr is preferred, at least for sites north of the Alps and Pyrenees. The duration of temperate conditions in the Mediterranean region is less certain.

Centers of Power, Weapons of Iron

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Douglas Price
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Iron Artifacts ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
City States

The introduction of iron after 1000 BC brought new tools and weapons to Europe. Smelting technology and higher furnace temperatures were likely the key to iron production, which is generally thought to have originated in Anatolia around 1400 BC among the Hittites, but there are a few earlier examples of iron artifacts as old as 2300 BC in Turkey. Iron produced sharper, more readily available implements and was in great demand. In contrast to copper and tin, whose sources were limited, iron was found in a variety of forms in many places across the continent. Veins of iron ore were exploited in Iberia, Britain, the Alps, the Carpathian Mountains, and elsewhere. Bog iron was exploited in northern Europe. Carbonate sources of iron in other areas enabled local groups to obtain the raw materials necessary for producing this important material. At the same time, the collapse of the dominant Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean changed the flow of raw materials and finished products across Europe. Greece fell into a Dark Age following the demise of the Mycenaean city-states. The Etruscans were on the rise in Italy. Rome was a small town at the border of the Etruscan region. Soon, however, new centers of power in classic Greece and Rome emerged, bringing writing and, with it, history to Europe. Again, we can observe important and dramatic differences between the “classic” areas of the Mediterranean and the northern parts of “barbarian” Europe. The chronology for the Iron Age in much of Europe is portrayed in Figure 6.2. The Iron Age begins earlier in the Mediterranean area, ca. 900 BC, where the Classical civilizations of Greece, the Etruscans, and eventually Rome emerge in the first millennium BC. Rome and its empire expanded rapidly, conquering much of western Europe in a few decades before the beginning of the Common Era and Britain around ad 43, effectively ending the prehistoric Iron Age in these parts of the continent. The Iron Age begins somewhat later in Scandinavia, around 500 BC.

Formal Status and Vegetational Development of the Eemian Interglacial in Northwestern and Southern Europe

2002 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Turner
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The North ◽  
Vegetational Succession ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Formal Status ◽  
Eemian Interglacial

AbstractThe terms Eem and Eemian have been applied to lithostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic, and biostratigraphic aspects of the last interglacial in western Europe. Eemian vegetational successions show strong uniformity at sites from western France across the North European Plain to Poland, suggesting, by comparison with the Holocene, that major pollen zones are broadly synchronous. South of the Alps and Pyrenees, a different vegetational succession is observed with no evidence for a substage of post-temperate cooling.

scholarly journals Did Adria rotate relative to Africa?

Solid Earth ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 611-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. J. van Hinsbergen ◽  
M. Mensink ◽  
C. G. Langereis ◽  
M. Maffione ◽  
L. Spalluto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Motion ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Oceanic Lithosphere ◽  
Western Alps ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
African Plate ◽  
Continental Block ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Mediterranean

Abstract. The first and foremost boundary condition for kinematic reconstructions of the Mediterranean region is the relative motion between Africa and Eurasia, constrained through reconstructions of the Atlantic Ocean. The Adria continental block is in a downgoing plate position relative to the strongly curved central Mediterranean subduction-related orogens, and forms the foreland of the Apennines, Alps, Dinarides, and Albanides–Hellenides. It is connected to the African plate through the Ionian Basin, likely with Lower Mesozoic oceanic lithosphere. If the relative motion of Adria versus Africa is known, its position relative to Eurasia can be constrained through a plate circuit, thus allowing robust boundary conditions for the reconstruction of the complex kinematic history of the Mediterranean region. Based on kinematic reconstructions for the Neogene motion of Adria versus Africa, as interpreted from the Alps and from Ionian Basin and its surrounding areas, it has been suggested that Adria underwent counterclockwise (ccw) vertical axis rotations ranging from ~ 0 to 20°. Here, we provide six new paleomagnetic poles from Adria, derived from the Lower Cretaceous to Upper Miocene carbonatic units of the Apulian peninsula (southern Italy). These, in combination with published poles from the Po Plain (Italy), the Istrian peninsula (Croatia), and the Gargano promontory (Italy), document a post-Eocene 9.8 ± 9.5° counterclockwise vertical axis rotation of Adria. Our results do not show evidence of significant Africa–Adria rotation between the Early Cretaceous and Eocene. Models based on reconstructions of the Alps, invoking 17° ccw rotation, and based on the Ionian Basin, invoking 2° ccw rotation, are both permitted within the documented rotation range, yet are mutually exclusive. This apparent enigma could possibly be solved only if one or more of the following conditions are satisfied: (i) Neogene shortening in the western Alps has been significantly underestimated (by as much as 150 km); (ii) Neogene extension in the Ionian Basin has been significantly underestimated (by as much as 420 km); and/or (iii) a major sinistral strike-slip zone has decoupled northern and southern Adria in Neogene time. Here we present five alternative reconstructions of Adria at 20 Ma, highlighting the kinematic uncertainties, and satisfying the inferred rotation pattern from this study and/or from previously proposed kinematic reconstructions.

scholarly journals Considerazioni sugli incendi boschivi causati da fulmini | Some considerations on fires caused by lightning

2005 ◽  
Vol 156 (9) ◽  
pp. 353-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Cesti ◽  
Marco Conedera ◽  
Fosco Spinedi
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Fire Behaviour ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Fire Extinction

Lightning fires are not considered an important problem in Europe, especially in the Mediterranean region, where lightning is a minor cause of fire. On the southern slopes of the Alps,however, lighting fires are common enough during the summer months to cause relevant costs for their control. In this contribution, we discuss some general features concerning the lighting-generating thunderstorms, starting of the fire, fire behaviour and fire extinction, especially in the valley Aosta(Italy) and in the Canton Ticino (Switzerland).

scholarly journals Orientations of dolmens in Western Europe

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S260) ◽  
pp. 116-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hoskin
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Time Of Year

AbstractThe communal tombs (‘dolmens’) constructed through Europe and the Mediterranean region in the late Neolithic nearly always had an entrance to permit the introduction of further bodies, and hence an orientation. Extensive fieldwork shows that the builders always felt constrained to observe a custom of orientation, and in most of Western Europe the custom may well have been to face the rising Sun at some time of year, or the Sun after it had risen. But at Fontvieille near Arles the local custom was quite different, with tombs facing sunset or the Sun when descending. In southwest France and neighbouring parts of Cataluña the two customs are in conflict.

Catalogue of the type specimens of Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera) in the Jacques F. Aubert collection at the Musée de Zoologie, Lausanne, Switzerland

Zootaxa ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 3081 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
SERAINA KLOPFSTEIN ◽  
HANNES BAUR
Keyword(s):  
New Taxa ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
International Code ◽  
Large Collection ◽  
Type Specimens ◽  
Original Label ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Mediterranean

Jacques F. Aubert described more than 600 ichneumonid taxa, mainly from the Alps and the Mediterranean region. His large collection was furthermore used by other ichneumonid taxonomists, who described additional new taxa. The namebearing types of 501 of these taxa are deposited at the Musée de Zoologie in Lausanne. In order to make information about these types accessible to future ichneumonid researchers, we here list all taxa and report the original label contents of the name-bearing types. Additionally, we clarify the status of the type specimens and discuss the availability of names in cases where Aubert’s descriptions do not conform to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.key words: Ichneumonoidea, holotype, lectotype, neotype, nomenclature, syntype, type catalogue

scholarly journals Lagrangian matches between observations from aircraft, lidar and radar in a warm conveyor belt crossing orography

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 5477-5498
Author(s):  
Maxi Boettcher ◽  
Andreas Schäfler ◽  
Michael Sprenger ◽  
Harald Sodemann ◽  
Stefan Kaufmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Baltic

Abstract. Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) are important airstreams in extratropical cyclones, often leading to the formation of intense precipitation and the amplification of upper-level ridges. This study presents a case study that involves aircraft, lidar and radar observations in a WCB ascending from western Europe towards the Baltic Sea during the Hydrological Cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX) and T-NAWDEX-Falcon in October 2012, a preparatory campaign for the THORPEX North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment (T-NAWDEX). Trajectories were used to link different observations along the WCB, that is, to establish so-called Lagrangian matches between observations. To this aim, an ensemble of wind fields from the global analyses produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Ensemble of Data Assimilations (EDA) system were used, which allowed for a probabilistic quantification of the WCB occurrence and the Lagrangian matches. Despite severe air traffic limitations for performing research flights over Europe, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Falcon successfully sampled WCB air masses during different phases of the WCB ascent. The WCB trajectories revealed measurements in two distinct WCB branches: one branch ascended from the eastern North Atlantic over southwestern France, while the other had its inflow in the western Mediterranean. Both branches passed across the Alps, and for both branches Lagrangian matches coincidentally occurred between lidar water vapour measurements in the inflow of the WCB south of the Alps, radar measurements during the ascent at the Alps and in situ aircraft measurements by Falcon in the WCB outflow north of the Alps. An airborne release experiment with an inert tracer could confirm the long pathway of the WCB from the inflow in the Mediterranean boundary layer to the outflow in the upper troposphere near the Baltic Sea several hours later. The comparison of observations and ensemble analyses reveals a moist bias in the analyses in parts of the WCB inflow but a good agreement of cloud water species in the WCB during ascent. In between these two observations, a precipitation radar measured strongly precipitating WCB air located directly above the melting layer while ascending at the southern slopes of the Alps. The trajectories illustrate the complexity of a continental and orographically influenced WCB, which leads to (i) WCB moisture sources from both the Atlantic and Mediterranean, (ii) different pathways of WCB ascent affected by orography, and (iii) locally steep WCB ascent with high radar reflectivity values that might result in enhanced precipitation where the WCB flows over the Alps. The linkage of observational data by ensemble-based WCB trajectory calculations, the confirmation of the WCB transport by an inert tracer and the model evaluation using the multi-platform observations are the central elements of this study and reveal important aspects of orographically modified WCBs.

Caloplaca squamuloisidiata, a new lichen species from Portugal and Spain

2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 529-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter P. G. van den BOOM ◽  
Víctor J. RICO
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Lichen Species ◽  
Acid Rock ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Western Half ◽  
Pale Green ◽  
Rock Faces

Caloplaca squamuloisidiata van den Boom & V. J. Rico is described as new to science. It is a saxicolous species, pale green to grey, with olivaceous patches, with a rimose-areolate, squamulose, lobulate and isidiate thallus, growing on inland exposed acid rock faces in the western half of the Iberian Peninsula in the Mediterranean region. Its ecology and distribution, and the lichen communities in which it was found are presented. A key to the isidiate and granular-isidiate Caloplaca species in Western Europe is also included.

Taxonomic structure and variability of Selenocephalus obsoletus (Germar, 1817) (Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Selenocephalini)

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4638 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-124
Author(s):  
DMITRI YU. TISHECHKIN
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Comparative Investigation ◽  
Taxonomic Structure ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Mediterranean

Comparative investigation of morphology and calling signals of Selenocephalus obsoletus (Germar, 1817) from different localities in Western Europe, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Russia showed that this species includes two subspecies. S. obsoletus obsoletus occurs in the Mediterranean, S. obsoletus rossicus Zachvatkin, 1945, stat. n. is distributed from the steppes of Eastern Europe up to Bulgaria; the boundary between two subspecies in the Balkans coincides with the boundary of the Mediterranean Region. Lectotypes of Selenocephalus rossicus Zachvatkin, 1945 and Selenocephalus rossicus tesquicola Zachvatkin, 1945 are designated; the synonymy S. obsoletus rossicus = S. rossicus tesquicola syn. n. is established. 

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