Gianfranco Cianchini

Mechanisms and relationship to soil moisture of surface latent heat flux anomaly before Inland earthquakes

The anomaly of SLHF, which is a key component of the Earths energy balance and represents the heat flux from the Earths surface to the atmosphere associated with evaporation or transpiration of water on the surface and subsequent condensation of water vapor in the troposphere, has been widely reported as a possible earthquake precursor. The causes are generally attributed to the increase in infrared thermal (IR) temperature and the air ionization produced by increased emanation of radon from the Earths crust. In this paper, the theoretical analysis and case study show that there is close relationship between soil moisture and SLHF anomalies. For inland earthquakes, the increase of soil moisture due to the rising of groundwater level will bring with higher potential evaporation, leading to the increase of latent heat flux. Further study with more accurate soil moisture product after the new satellite mission will help us to better understand the influence of soil moisture on SLHF variation and their relations with seismogenic process.

A first insight into the Marsili volcanic seamount (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy): Results from ORION-GEOSTAR3 experiment

The Marsili Seamount is the largest European underwater volcano. It is Plio-Pleistocenic in age, rising up to more than 3000m from the seafloor in the SE Tyrrhenian basin (Central Mediterranean), a back arc basin which began progressively opening 10 Ma ago (Kastens et al., 1988). The seamount lies in a key area for understanding the evolution of the Tyrrhenian region, characterized by high values of heat flow (Della Vedova et al., 2001) and low values of Moho isobaths (Locardi and Nicolich, 1988). In spite of the large dimensions of the Marsili seamount, we still have limited knowledge of its present activity. Ocean explorationis dependent on available technology and infrastructure, which started to develop strongly only after the 1980s.