scholarly journals Seismic and sedimentological evidence of an early 6th century AD earthquake at Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania)

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 4333-4355 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Wagner ◽  
A. Francke ◽  
R. Sulpizio ◽  
G. Zanchetta ◽  
K. Lindhorst ◽  
...  

Abstract. Lake Ohrid shared by the Republics of Albania and Macedonia is formed by a tectonically active graben within the South Balkan and suggested to be the oldest lake in Europe. Several studies have shown that the lake provides a valuable record of climatic and environmental changes and a distal tephrostratigraphic record of volcanic eruptions from Italy. Fault structures identified in seismic data demonstrate that sediments have also the potential to record tectonic activity in the region. Here, we provide an example of linking tephrostratigraphic information and environmental changes with tectonic activity and anthropogenic impact. Historical documents indicate that a major earthquake destroyed the city of Ohrid in the early 6th century AD. This earthquake is documented in multichannel seismic profiles, in parametric sediment echosounder profiles, and in a ca. 10 m long sediment record from the western part of the lake. The sediment record exhibits a ca. 2 m thick mass wasting deposit, which is chronologically well constrained by the underlying 472 AD/512 AD tephra and cross correlation with other sediment sequences with similar geochemical characteristics of the Holocene.

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 2069-2078 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Wagner ◽  
A. Francke ◽  
R. Sulpizio ◽  
G. Zanchetta ◽  
K. Lindhorst ◽  
...  

Abstract. Lake Ohrid shared by the Republics of Albania and Macedonia is formed by a tectonically active graben within the south Balkans and suggested to be the oldest lake in Europe. Several studies have shown that the lake provides a valuable record of climatic and environmental changes and a distal tephrostratigraphic record of volcanic eruptions from Italy. Fault structures identified in seismic data demonstrate that sediments have also the potential to record tectonic activity in the region. Here, we provide an example of linking seismic and sedimentological information with tectonic activity and historical documents. Historical documents indicate that a major earthquake destroyed the city of Lychnidus (today: city of Ohrid) in the early 6th century AD. Multichannel seismic profiles, parametric sediment echosounder profiles, and a 10.08 m long sediment record from the western part of the lake indicate a 2 m thick mass wasting deposit, which is tentatively correlated with this earthquake. The mass wasting deposit is chronologically well constrained, as it directly overlays the AD 472/AD 512 tephra. Moreover, radiocarbon dates and cross correlation with other sediment sequences with similar geochemical characteristics of the Holocene indicate that the mass wasting event took place prior to the onset of the Medieval Warm Period, and is attributed it to one of the known earthquakes in the region in the early 6th century AD.


2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeny A. Podolskiy

Abstract A covariation of recent global environmental changes and seismicity on Earth is demonstrated. Presently, rising concern about anthropogenic activities and their consequences on the cryosphere and environment have always overlooked changes related to future tectonic activity. Possible factors affecting an increase in the number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are reviewed and discussed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 3365-3392 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Wagner ◽  
H. Vogel ◽  
G. Zanchetta ◽  
R. Sulpizio

Abstract. Lakes Prespa and Ohrid on the Balkans are considered to be amongst the oldest lakes in Europe. Both lakes are hydraulically connected via karst aquifers. From Lake Ohrid, several up to ca. 15 m long sediment records were studied during the past years. In this study, a first long sediment record from Lake Prespa was studied in order to shed more light on the influence of Lake Prespa on Lake Ohrid and the environmental history of the region. Radiocarbon dating and the occurrence of 3 dated tephra layers provide a good age control and indicate that the 10.5 m long sediment record reaches back to 48 ka. The comparison of the results from this study with those from former studies of the Lake Ohrid cores indicates that Lake Prespa is more susceptible to environmental changes due to its lower volume and water depth. Glacial sedimentation is characterized by low organic matter contents and absence of carbonates in the sediments, which indicate oligotrophic conditions in both lakes. Holocene sedimentation is characterized by particularly high carbonate contents in Lake Ohrid and by particularly high organic matter contents in Lake Prespa, which indicate a shift towards more mesotrophic conditions in the latter. Long-term environmental changes and short-term events, such as the Heinrich events during the Pleistocene or the 8.2 cooling event during the Holocene, are well recorded in both lakes, but partly expressed in different proxies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-392
Author(s):  
Diana Looser

In the closing scene of René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt's melodramaLa Tête de mort; ou, Les Ruines de Pompeïa(1827), audiences at Paris's Théâtre de la Gaîté were presented with the spectacular cataclysm of an erupting Mount Vesuvius that invaded the city and engulfed the hapless characters in its fiery embrace. “The theatre,” Pixérécourt writes, “is completely inundated by this sea of bitumen and lava. A shower of blazing and transparent stones and red ash falls on all sides…. The red color with which everything is struck, the terrible noise of the volcano, the screaming, the agitation and despair of the characters … all combine to form this terrible convulsion of nature, a horrible picture, and altogether worthy of being compared to Hell.” A few years later, in 1830, Daniel Auber's grand operaLa Muette de Portici(1828), which yoked a seventeenth-century eruption of Vesuvius with a popular revolt against Spanish rule in Naples, opened at the Théâtre de Monnaie in Brussels. The Belgian spectators, inspired by the opera's revolutionary sentiments, poured out into the streets and seized their country's independence from the Dutch. These two famous examples, which form part of a long genealogy of representing volcanic eruptions through various artistic means, highlight not only the compelling, immersive spectacle of nature in extremis but also the ability of stage scenery to intervene materially in the narrative action and assimilate affective and political meanings. As these two examples also indicate, however, the body of scholarship in literary studies, art history, and theatre and performance studies that attends to the mechanical strategies and symbolic purchase of volcanic representations has tended to focus mainly on Europe; more research remains to be undertaken into how volcanic spectacles have engaged with non-European topographies and sociopolitical dynamics and how this wider view might illuminate our understanding of theatre's social roles.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgia Camperio ◽  
Caroline Welte ◽  
S. Nemiah Ladd ◽  
Matthew Prebble ◽  
Nathalie Dubois

<p>Espiritu Santo is one of the 82 islands of the archipelago of Vanuatu and is the largest, highest, and most biodiverse of the insular country. Climatic changes linked to El Niño and extreme events such as cyclones and volcanic eruptions are a daily challenge in this remote area. These events can be recorded in sedimentary archives. Here we present a multi-proxy investigation of sediment cores retrieved from two small lakes located on the West coast of Espiritu Santo. Although the records span the last millennium, high-resolution radiocarbon dating of macrofossils reveals a rapid accumulation of sediment in the past 100 years. The high accumulation rate coupled with the high-resolution dating of freshwater sediments allows us to compare the <sup>14</sup>C bomb curve with the biogeochemical proxies of the sedimentary records. The results can then be validated against written and oral historical records linked with the societal perception of recent environmental changes in this vulnerable ecosystem.</p><div> <div title="Translate selected text"></div> <div title="Play"></div> <div title="Copy text to Clipboard"></div> </div>


2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Hoffmann

<p><span style="font-family: CMR10; font-size: medium;">The study area at the Lake Ohrid Basin is located on 693 m a.s.l. at the south-western border of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia with Albania. It is a suitable location for neotectonic studies. It exhibits a large variety of morphological expressions associated with the seismic activity of the region. Linear bedrock fault scarps give the relief on both sides of the lake a staircase-like appearance; other features are wine-glass shaped valleys and triangular facets. These often short living features are used to identify active faults and to parameterise palaeoearthquakes (slip rates, subsidence and erosion). According to the results of fault scarp profiling a halfgraben shape of the basin is proposed with the west coast being dominated by mass wasting processes most likely triggered by seismic events.</span></p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhanjie Qin ◽  
Chunan Tang ◽  
Xiying Zhang ◽  
Tiantian Chen ◽  
Xiangjun Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Large evaporite provinces (LEPs) represent prodigious volumes of evaporites widely developed from the Sinian to Neogene. The reasons why they often quickly develop on a large scale with large areas and thicknesses remain enigmatic. Possible causes range from warming from above to heating from below. The fact that the salt deposits in most salt-bearing basins occur mainly in the Sinian-Cambrian, Permian-Triassic, Jurassic-Cretaceous, and Miocene intervals favours a dominantly tectonic origin rather than a solar driving mechanism. Here, we analysed the spatio-temporal distribution of evaporites based on 138 evaporitic basins and found that throughout the Phanerozoiceon, LEPs occurred across the Earth’s surface in most salt-bearing basins, especially in areas with an evolutionary history of strong tectonic activity. The masses of evaporites, rates of evaporite formation, tectonic movements, and large igneous provinces (LIPs) synergistically developed in the Sinian-Cambrian, Permian, Jurassic-Cretaceous, and Miocene intervals, which are considered to be four of the warmest times since the Sinian. We realize that salt accumulation can proceed without solar energy and can generally be linked to geothermal changes in tectonically active zones. When climatic factors are involved, they may be manifestations of the thermal influence of the crust on the surface.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Nindita Kresna Murti ◽  
Atiek Suprapti ◽  
Agung Budi Sardjono

Abstract: Many informal settlements in Indonesia have been unable to survive, this is due to changes that occur in the neighborhood. This change resulted in the not surviving of informal settlements, but this did not affect the informal settlements in the city of Palangkaraya, settlements on the banks of the Kahayan river were even more developed, and began to develop towards the mainland.As climate change and the global environment increase, there is a tendency for people to conceptualize adaptation in residential buildings as a process of survival and how adaptation is practiced by people who face the negative impacts of climate change, for example in informal settlements on the Kahayan river bank, where residents adapt to building their homes to be able to withstand environmental changes. Where the neighborhood is located there are tides of the river, as well as other environmental factorsThis study is to find out how the Kahayan River settlement communities can survive, with changes that occur in the environment by analyzing using 6 strategies in building adaptation, namely: Adjustable, Versatile, Refitable, Convertible, Scalable, and Movable (Robert Schmid, 2009). Adaptation that occurs in these settlements, namely on building houses that follow climate change, times, and the environment.Keyword: Informal Settlements, Kahayan River Edge, Adaptation, Transformation.Abstrak: Permukiman Informal di Indonesia banyak yang sudah tidak dapat bertahan, hal ini di karenakan adanya perubahan yang terjadi di lingkungan permukiman tersebut. Perubahan ini berakibat tidak bertahannya permukiman informal, namun hal ini tidak mempengaruhi permukiman informal di Kota Palangkaraya, permukiman yang berada di tepi sungai kahayan ini malah semakin berkembang, dan mulai berkembang menuju ke daratan.Seiring dengan meningkatnya perubahan iklim dan lingkungan global, ada kecenderungan masyarakat untuk membuat konsep adaptasi pada bangunan rumah tinggal sebagai proses untuk bertahan dan bagaimana adaptasi dipraktikkan oleh orang-orang yang menghadapi dampak negatif perubahan iklim, sebagai contoh pada permukiman informal yang berada di tepi sungai Kahayan, di mana warga beradaptasi pada bangunan rumah mereka untuk dapat bertahan terhadap perubahan lingkungan. Di mana lingkungan permukiman ini terdapat pasang surut air sungai, serta faktor lingkungan lainnya.Penelitian ini untuk mengetahui cara masyarakat permukiman tepi Sungai Kahayan dapat bertahan, dengan perubahan yang terjadi di lingkungan dengan menganalisa menggunakan 6 strategi dalam adaptasi bangunan, yaitu: Adjustable, Versatile, Refitable, Convertible, Scalable, dan Movable (Robert Schmid, 2009). Adaptasi yang terjadi pada permukiman ini, yaitu pada bangunan rumah yang mengikuti perubahan iklim, jaman, dan lingkungan.Kata Kunci: Permukiman Informal, Tepi  Sungai Kahayan, Adaptasi, Transformasi.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nandi Haerudin ◽  
Rustadi Rustadi ◽  
Helmy Fitriawan ◽  
Deassy Siska ◽  
Muchammad Farid

Kota Baru is the satellite city of Bandar Lampung. The city is prepared for the expansion of the city of Bandar Lampung. Zonation map of earthquake risk is required for Kota Baru due to its location within the reach of earthquake energy of Semangko subduction fault. In this study, we model the earthquake-prone zone map based on the soil characteristics (site effect) combined with the underground layer model to get a detailed description of the horizontal and vertical soil character. The microtremor method is performed to obtain the zonation effect mapping. Whereas, the ground layer modeling is obtained using the geoelectrical method. The modeling results show that the study area is far from tectonic activity based on the history of past earthquake events. However, this area has a large sediment thickness and has a low dominant frequency value, so it is an area that is vulnerable to earthquakes


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frauke Klingelhoefer ◽  
Youssef Biari ◽  
Dieter Franke ◽  
Thomas Funck ◽  
Lies Loncke ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;In order to study opening mechanisms and their variation in the Atlantic ocean basins, we compiled existing wide-angle and deep seismic data along conjugate margins and performed plate tectonic reconstructions of the original opening geometries to define conjugate margin pairs. A total of 23 published wide-angle seismic profiles from the different margins of the Atlantic basin were digitized, and reconstructions at break-up and during early stages of opening were performed. Main objectives were to understand how magma-rich and magma-poor margins develop and to define more precisely the role of geologic inheritance (i.e., preexisting structures) in the break-up phase. At magma-poor margins, a phase of tectonic opening without accretion of a typical oceanic crust often follows initial rupture, leading to exhumation of serpentinized upper mantle material. Along volcanic margins the first oceanic crust can be overthickened, and both over- and underlain by volcanic products. The first proto-oceanic crust is often accreted at slow to very slow rates, and is thus of varied thickness, mantle content and volcanic overprint. Accretion of oceanic crust at slow to very slow spreading rates can also be highly asymmetric, so the proto oceanic crust at each side of conjugate margin pairs can differ. Another major aim of this study was to understand the mechanisms of formation and origins of transform marginal plateaus. These are bathymetric highs located at the border of two ocean basins of different ages and are mostly characterized by one or several volcanic phase during their formation. They often form conjugate pairs along a transform margin as it evolves and might have been the last land bridges during breakup, thereby influencing mammal migration and proto-oceanic currents in very young basins. At these plateaus, volcanic eruptions can lead to deposits of (at least in part subaerial) lava flows several km thick, better known by their geophysical signature as seaward dipping reflectors. Continental crust, if present, is heavily modified by volcanic intrusions. These marginal plateaus might form when rifting stops at barriers introduced by the transform margin, leading to the accumulation of heat in the mantle and increased volcanism directly before or after the cessation of rifting.&lt;/p&gt;


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