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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.

Nel laboratorio di geofisica ambientale dell'Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia è stato progettato e realizzato il prototipo di una ionosonda a bassa potenza a compressione di impulsi secondo i dettami della moderna tecnica radaristica. Si è puntato sulla realizzazione di una macchina a bassa potenza e dal costo contenuto con possibilità di costituire una rete di ionosonde per scopi di sorveglianza ionosferica. Il sistema con una potenza di 200W consente di investigare la ionosfera da 90 a 700km con una risoluzione verticale di 5km in un range di frequenza da 1 a 20MHz.

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.

This study presents magnetic anomaly data from a new high-resolution, low-altitude helicopter-borne magnetic survey recently collected on and offshore Tenerife in the Canary Archipelago. The Italian Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales of the CSIC of Spain conducted the survey in 2006. The data for Tenerife and surrounding marine areas were processed into digital total intensity magnetic anomalies for geomagnetic epoch 2006.4. Relative to previously available higher altitude magnetic survey data, the new survey mapped higher resolution anomalies with significantly improved spatial details, especially over the Las Cañadas caldera and Teide-Pico Viejo complex in the central part of the island. A good correlation is evident between known structural geology and the magnetic anomalies, where the new shorter wavelength anomalies facilitate more detailed and comprehensive geologic interpretations.

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.

Tectonically active areas of Central Italy are marked by intense CO 2 degassing, whose origin and role in earthquake processes are fundamental questions in geoscience. This study investigates the origin and geological controls on the geochemistry of light hydrocarbons from CO 2-dominated gas emissions located in the inner sector of the Umbria-Marche Apennines (Central Italy), aiming to better understand the sources and migration pathways of geogenic fluids in the region. Our findings indicate that light hydrocarbons are predominantly thermogenic, with negligible abiotic contributions. We demonstrate that Mesozoic carbonate rocks are the primary source across the study area, though conditions of hydrocarbon formation and migration vary. Specifically, higher temperatures and open-system conditions prevail in the southern regions, likely due to thermal stress associated with Quaternary magmatism. We propose that light hydrocarbons form at crustal depths (≤5-6 km) and are transported to the surface by ascending CO 2 from deeper sources. Finally, this work highlights that hydrocarbon geochemistry, combined with helium isotopes, can provide insights for reconstructing the circulation and origin of fluids in crustal reservoirs and assessing the thermal regime in tectonically active areas.

Airborne CO2 has played a pivotal role in maintaining the Earth's atmospheric temperature at reasonable levels throughout its history. Since the onset of the industrial revolution, the level of airborne CO2 has surged due to the combustion of hydrocarbons, leading to global warming. Hydrocarbon consumption is predominantly concentrated in metropolitan areas, driven by various human activities. Estimations of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere rely on the growth of electrical power generation through hydrocarbon combustion. This study presents the outcomes of direct measurements of stable isotope concentrations in airborne CO2 in the urban area of Rome, Italy. We focused on Rome capital city, because i) it is the most populous municipality in Italy (2.8 millions inhabitants), ii) it is the European municipality with the largest surface of green areas and iii) in its south-east sector it borders the Colli Albani quiescent volcano. The dataset encompasses stable isotope compositions and airborne CO2 concentrations gathered to investigate variations in CO2 emissions across space and time. The spatial survey conducted throughout Rome's urbanized area, on a 250 km long path, aims to pinpoint the relevant sources of CO2 based on the stable isotope signature. Results reveal that the combustion of fossil fuels, stemming from urban mobility and household heating, constitutes the predominant source for the excess of airborne CO2 across a wide area of Rome centre. On the contrary, within the Rome south-east sector, including Colli Albani periphery, the carbon isotopic signature of airborne CO2 discloses the endogenous origin of the gas emissions. Continuous monitoring was carried out by the installation of an isotope analyser in three specific points of interest throughout Rome: the busiest area of the city centre, the woodland urban park of Villa Ada and the endogenous gas emission of Cava dei Selci. Findings unveil cyclic variations in human-related CO2 emissions in the city centre. The highest concentrations of airborne CO2 coincide with rush hours during morning and evening. The urban park is not affected by anthropic CO2 and its trend displays the typical day-night cycle. At Cava dei Selci we found high CO2 concentrations by a volcanic source and variations in the urban area correlate with changes in environmental conditions, such as wind speed and direction.

This study focuses on generating a shear-wave velocity averaged within the uppermost 30 m ofthe ground surface (Vs30) map for the Marche region (central Italy) using two commonlyacknowledged proxies: topographic slope and lithological classification. The analysis isbased on a comprehensive dataset of geophysical tests from the Italian seismicmicrozonation dataset, employed as a training set. Through regression analysis, Vs30 valuesare modelled as a function of lithology and topographic slope, with a random effectaccounting for the combination of these variables. The resulting Vs30 raster map illustratesthe spatial distribution of shear-wave velocities across the region, offering a representationof the subsurface seismic characteristics essential for various applications, including localseismic hazard assessment, prediction of seismic ground motion parameters, microzonationmapping, real-time shakemap generation, and seismic design of engineering structures.

We propose a multi-phase, multi-resolution SPH method for fluid/solid interaction with multi-GPU implementation and dynamic load balancing following the movement of the refinement regions. The primary design goal of this framework is to maintain the efficiency of the single-resolution SPH model running on a single GPU. To this end, a multi-background mesh is introduced, and the domain is regarded as a nested multi-domain with different resolutions. Validation using both a δ-SPH and Riemann SPH model is shown, and applications to the simulation of the water entry of a projectile with a high Froude number are considered, with comparisons to experimental data from three challenging test cases, showing the proposed model's ability to correctly reproduce the free surface evolution on water entry, the motion of the projectile, and the formation and evolution of multiple cavities depending on entry angle and velocity. An analysis of the computational performance and resolutions achieved (up to 120 million particles) is also provided across several test cases.

Macroseismic intensity data continue to be fundamental for the assessment of seismic hazard and risk, despite the progress achieved in the last century by instrumental seismology. This study aims at comparing a new macroseismic intensity attenuation model and relationships between Ground Motion Parameters (GMPs) and macroseismic intensity for Italy. The considered macroseismic intensity attenuation model for Italy was calibrated in Mw: a selected set of 119 Italian shallow tectonic earthquakes, that occurred between 1908-2013 with instrumentally recorded magnitude (Mw) and 16.260 Intensity Data Points (IDPs), were used to calibrate its coefficients. This set of data was selected on the basis of magnitude range, spatial distribution, quality of instrumental moment magnitude [3.8-7.1], epicentral locations, and intensity range. The calibrated model was tested on an independent set of 15 post-1900 earthquakes. From the set of empirical relationships between macroseismic intensity and GMPs published by Gomez-Capera et al. (2020) for the Italian territory, in the present study we considered the relationship in PGA. This non-linear model was calibrated using 240 macroseismic intensity-GMP pairs from 67 Italian earthquakes occurred in the time window 1972-2016, with Mw ranging from 4.2 to 6.8 and macroseismic intensity in the range [2, 10-11]. Ninety percent of the interdistance between macroseismic observations and strong-motion stations is within 2 km. The results of the comparison show that both models provide useful insights into macroseismic intensity attenuation models for Italy, offering different levels of sensitivity to physical parameters. By combining the two models, it is possible to make more accurate predictions of macroseismic intensity, as well as to compare macroseismic intensity with GMP estimates of seismic hazard, highlighting the fundamental contribution of the macroseismic intensity data to the seismic hazard and risk assessment.