The accumulation of large boulders related to waves generated by either tsunamis or extreme storm events have been observed in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Along the eastern low-lying ...rocky coasts of Malta, five sites with large boulder deposits have been investigated, measured and mapped. These boulders have been detached and moved from the nearshore and the lowest parts of the coast by sea wave action. In the Sicily–Malta channel, heavy storms are common and originate from the NE and NW winds. Conversely, few tsunamis have been recorded in historical documents to have reached the Maltese archipelago. We present a multi-disciplinary study, which aims to define the characteristics of these boulder accumulations, in order to assess the coastal geo-hazard implications triggered by the sheer ability of extreme waves to detach and move large rocky blocks inland. The wave heights required to transport 77 coastal boulders were calculated using various hydrodynamic equations. Particular attention was given to the quantification of the input parameters required in the workings of these equations, such as size, density and distance from the coast. In addition, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C ages were determined from selected samples of marine organisms encrusted on some of the coastal boulders. The combination of the results obtained both by the hydrodynamic equations, which provided values comparable with those observed and measured during the storms, and radiocarbon dating suggests that the majority of the boulders have been detached and moved by intense storm waves. These boulders testify to the existence of a real hazard for the coasts of Malta, i.e. that of very high storm waves, which, during exceptional storms, are able to detach large blocks of volumes exceeding 10 m3 from the coastal edge and the nearshore bottom, and also to transport them inland. Nevertheless, the occurrence of one or more tsunami events cannot be ruled out, since radiocarbon dating of some marine organisms did reveal ages which may be related to historically known tsunamis in the Mediterranean region, such as the ones in AD 963, 1329, 1693 and 1743.
During World War II, Malta played a key role in the Mediterranean campaign, its submarines, light surface forces, and aircrafts destroying supplies desperately needed by Rommel's forces in North ...Africa. The price the Maltese paid for this effort was the most sustained and intensive bombing campaign in the war, enduring over 130 tons of bombs per square mile. This, compounded by the Axis blockade that attempted to starve Malta into surrender, set the stage for numerous convoy battles, the most dramatic being Operation Pedestal, remembered on Malta to this day as the Santa Marija Convoy. In this book, Dennis Castillo uses published histories as well as interviews and oral histories to explore the experiences of the Maltese and how their faith sustained them through this dark period of Matla's history.
A major reassessment of a key aspect of British strategy and defence policy in the first half of the twentieth century.
The main contribution of this new study is an investigation of the role of ...Malta in British military strategy, as planned and as it actually developed, in the period between the mid 1920s and the end of the war in North Africa in May 1943. It demonstrates that the now widely accepted belief that Malta was 'written off as indefensible' before the war was mistaken, and focuses on Malta's actual wartime role in the Mediterranean war, assessing the numerous advantages, many often ignored, that the British derived from retention of the island. The conclusions made challenge recent assertions that Malta's contribution was of limited value and will be of great interest to both students and professionals in the field.
'Dr Douglas Austin's book is a major contribution ... For everyone interested in Malta's contribution to the Second World War, the book is essential reading, for he provides us with a broad understanding of British defence thinking about Malta.' - Sunday Times of Malta, August 29th 2004
'The well written narrative is accompanied by extensive references, an excellent bibliography and a thorough index. It deserves to be read and carefully studied by all who are interested in the wartime history of the George Cross Island.' - R.A.F. Historical Society Journal
'This is an important read for anyone interested in the European war or British strategic thought.' - The NYMAS Review
1. The Base at Malta in the 1920s 2. The Failure to Strengthen Malta's Defences, 1930-35 3. Malta in the Abyssinian Crisis, 1935-36 4. Prelude to War, 1936-39 5. Final Preparations for War 6. The Threat of Invasion 7. The Initial Onslaught 8. The German Intervention in the Mediterranean 1941 9. Malta's Contribution to 'Crusader' 10. The 1942 Siege of Malta 11. Malta's Contribution to the Recovery of North Africa 12. Conclusion
Douglas Austin was born in Malta and served in the RAF before a career in banking in New York and London. In 2002 he gained a Ph.D at University College, London in military history.
The Tethys Ocean was compartmentalized into the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean during the early Miocene, yet the exact nature and timing of this disconnection are not well understood. Here we ...present two new neodymium isotope records from isolated carbonate platforms on both sides of the closing seaway, Malta (outcrop sampling) and the Maldives (IODP Site U1468), to constrain the evolution of past water mass exchange between the present day Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean via the Mesopotamian Seaway. Combining these data with box modeling results indicates that water mass exchange was reduced by ~90% in a first step at ca. 20 Ma. The terminal closure of the seaway then coincided with the sea level drop caused by the onset of permanent glaciation of Antarctica at ca. 13.8 Ma. The termination of meridional water mass exchange through the Tethyan Seaway resulted in a global reorganization of currents, paved the way to the development of upwelling in the Arabian Sea and possibly led to a strengthening of South Asian Monsoon.
In the spring of 1565, a massive fleet of Ottoman ships descended on Malta, a small island centrally located between North Africa and Sicily, home and headquarters of the crusading Knights of St. ...John and their charismatic Grand Master, Jean de Valette. The Knights had been expelled from Rhodes by the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, and now stood as the last bastion against a Muslim invasion of Sicily, southern Italy, and beyond. The siege force of Turks, Arabs, and Barbary corsairs from across the Muslim world outnumbered the defenders of Malta many times over, and its arrival began a long hot summer of bloody combat, often hand to hand, embroiling knights and mercenaries, civilians and slaves, in a desperate struggle for this pivotal point in the Mediterranean. Bruce Ware Allen's The Great Siege of Malta describes the siege's geopolitical context, explains its strategies and tactics, and reveals how the all-too-human personalities of both Muslim and Christian leaders shaped the course of events. The siege of Malta was the Ottoman empire's high-water mark in the war between the Christian West and the Muslim East for control of the Mediterranean. Drawing on copious research and new source material, Allen stirringly recreates the two factions' heroism and chivalry, while simultaneously tracing the barbarism, severity, and indifference to suffering of sixteenth-century warfare. The Great Siege of Malta is a fresh, vivid retelling of one of the most famous battles of the early modern world-a battle whose echoes are still felt today.
The sale of national and European Union citizenship understandably remains highly controversial. It seems arbitrary, perhaps even abject, to grant nationality in exchange for a monetary investment, ...when most people must wait years and overcome considerable hurdles before they can naturalize. As evidenced by three recent posts on the Verfassungsblog by Joseph H.H. Weiler, Merijn Chamon, and Lorin-Johannes Wagner, this question continues to divide EU law scholars. It is also a question that is still plagued by several myths about how EU law and, relatedly, international law, apply to CBI practices. This post discusses 3½ such myths.
An advanced SAR interferometric analysis has been combined with a methodology for the automatic classification of radar reflectors phase histories to interpret slope-failure kinematics and trend of ...displacements of slow-moving landslides. To accomplish this goal, the large dataset of radar images, acquired in more than 20 years by the two European Space Agency (ESA) missions ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT, was exploited. The analysis was performed over the northern sector of Island of Malta (central Mediterranean Sea), where extensive landslides occur. The study was assisted by field surveys and with the analysis of existing thematic maps and landslide inventories. The outcomes allowed definition of a model capable of describing the geomorphological evolution of slow-moving landslides, providing a key for interpreting such phenomena that, due to their slowness, are usually scarcely investigated.
PDF
