An infant grave excavated in Lang, Styria, Austria, had a small axe as a grave gift in addition to a ceramic urn. Another grave from the cemetery of Dobova (Slovenia), where also a child was buried, ...contained small objects in the form of an axe and a spearhead as well as a set of four vessels. In addition to these two graves, there are more graves known in the southeastern Alps, where small objects were given as grave goods. These graves are discussed in terms of the function and symbolism of these small objects and compared in a broader context with the northeastern Austrian region and the graves from the Dürrnberg.
The study of seismic source parameters is crucial for understanding the origin of seismicity and retrieving information on the energy balance and the stress involved in earthquake rupture processes. ...In active tectonic areas, where underground industrial activities are carried out, such parameters may help to understand whether earthquakes are induced, triggered, or natural. The Montello-Collalto area (Southeastern Alps) is located in an active tectonic environment and hosts a depleted natural reservoir used to store gas. Since 2012, a high-quality seismic network monitors the microseismicity occurring around the underground gas storage reservoir to understand if the storage activity might induce seismicity. In this paper, we estimate the source parameters of low magnitude events representative of the seismicity occurring in the area surrounding the reservoir. The analysis includes a preliminary removal of the site effects, specifically computed within this study, from all the records. Then, using a parametric multistep inversion scheme, we estimate the seismic moment, the corner frequency and the static stress drop, that can be set as reference for the microseismicity occurring in the study area. All the investigated earthquakes show low seismic efficiency compatible with overshoot processes, which is typical of natural (i.e., tectonic) earthquakes. Our procedure can be implemented in other tectonic regions hosting underground industrial activities to support the decisional processes related to real-time monitoring.
•Local high-quality seismic monitoring reveals some details of SE Alps seismicity.•Source parameters are estimated for 30 microearthquakes representative of this area.•M0 is well constrained while other parameters may have larger uncertainties.•The low seismic efficiency values found are compatible with overshoot processes.•Approach suitable for tectonically active areas hosting underground activities.
The paper presents various collective instruments used in the labelling, certification and branding of cheeses in the southeastern Alps of Slovenia and Italy. Based on long term ethnography it ...discusses four case studies of Montasio, Bovec, Tolminc, and Mohant cheeses, that were awarded protected designation of origin at European Union level. The impact of geographical indications on the local dairy chains is compared to other instruments, ranging from top-down European and national quality schemes and inventories of traditional agricultural products and heritage, to grass-root initiatives such as Slow Food instruments and local brands. The study finds substantial difference in the use and impact of geographical indications in Italy and Slovenia, as well as several ambiguous and dissonant effects in all the identified instruments.
Global warming is causing an enrichment of summit flora worldwide. This article presents the case of a peak in the southeastern Alps (Lobbia Alta, 3,196 m a.s.l., Adamello, Trento, Italy), for which ...a complete list of tracheophytes dating back to 1935 was available. As this peak is well delimited by glaciers and vertical cliffs, it has been possible to faithfully repeat this floristic inventory. We made three surveys, in 1991, 2006 and 2021, exploring the whole area. It resulted that in 86 years the species present on this peak have tripled, increasing from 17 to 51, with an acceleration in recent years. The biological forms have increased from two to six. The average temperature and the nutritional indexes according to Ellenberg have increased as well. We found that as many as six species reach their elevation record in the Alps on the Lobbia Alta, suggesting that this area is particularly prone to species ascension. Particularly interesting is the discovery of a 35 cm-tall specimen of
Larix decidua
at 3,130 m a.s.l., which seems to be the elevational record of the species.
A close relationship between glacial and periglacial landforms is frequently observed in alpine environments, where a transition from glacial to periglacial processes often took place after the end ...of the Little Ice Age (LIA). Understanding the origin of these landforms is challenging, and assessing the current spatial domain of glacial and periglacial processes may be a difficult task in high-relief areas, where thick and widespread debris cover often characterize rapidly decaying glaciers. Here we present a comprehensive study of a composite landform located in the Dolomites (South-Eastern Alps), combining geomorphological, geophysical and topographic surveys with ground surface temperature measurements. Results indicate that a debris-covered glacier persists in the upper part, rather large compared to the LIA extent, but currently inactive and rapidly losing mass. An active rock glacier exists in the lower part, surrounded by discontinuous permafrost. A frozen body about 10m thick was detected in the rock glacier and geomorphological evidence suggests that this ice mass is completely detached from the debris-covered glacier. Our findings suggest that the lower part of the composite landform is probably a remnant of the ancient glacier tongue and is currently evolving under periglacial conditions. Periglacial processes are therefore replacing glacial processes which dominated in this site during the LIA.
•We investigated the geomorphology and the evolution of an alpine composite landform.•Geomorphological surveys were combined with various techniques and methods.•The lower part of the landform is an active rock glacier containing a frozen body.•The upper part is a Little Ice Age glacial remnant now inactive and debris-covered.•A change from glacial to periglacial processes occurred in this area since the LIA.
To investigate the potential of Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst) as a palaeoclimate archive in the southeastern European Alps, tree ring chronologies were developed from trees growing at two ...sites in Slovenia which differed in their ecological and climatological characteristics. Ring width, maximum latewood density, annual height increment and latewood cellulose carbon isotope composition were determined at both sites and the resulting time-series compared with and verified against instrumental climate data for their common period (AD 1960-AD 2002). Results indicate that ring width sensitivity to summer temperature is very site-dependent, with opposing responses at alpine and lowland sites. Maximum density responds to September temperatures, indicating lignification after cell division has ceased. Stable carbon isotopes have most potential, responding strongly to summer temperature in both alpine and lowland stands. Height increment appears relatively insensitive to climate, and is likely to be dominated by local stand dynamics.
SUMMARY
We investigated the high frequency attenuation of S waves in the southeastern Alps and northern External Dinarides using waveforms from 331 earthquakes (3.0 < Mw < 6.5). The spectral decay ...parameter, k, was computed using 1345 three component high quality records, collected by the Italian Strong Motion Network (RAN) and by the Short‐Period Seismometric Network of northeastern Italy (NEI) in the period 1976–2007. Weak motion data from 11 stations of the NEI network and strong motion data collected by five accelerometers of the RAN were analysed. The k parameter was estimated in the 0–250 km distance range, in a frequency band extending from the corner frequency of the event up to 25 or 45 Hz, using the amplitude acceleration Fourier spectra of S waves. The observed record‐to‐record variability of k was modelled by applying a generalized inversion procedure, using both parametric and non‐parametric approaches. Our results evidence that k is independent on earthquake size, while it shows both site and distance dependence. Stations of the NEI network present the same increase of k with epicentral distance, RE, and show values of the zero‐distance k parameter, k0(S), between 0.017 and 0.053 s. For the whole region, the k increase with distance can be described through a linear model with slope dk/dRE= (1.4 ± 0.1) × 10−4 s km–1. Assuming an average S‐wave velocity, km s–1 between 5 and 15 km depth, we estimate an average frequency independent quality factor, , for the corresponding crustal layer. The non‐parametric approach evidences a weak positive concavity of the curve that describes the k increase with RE at about 90 km distance. This result can be approximated through a piecewise linear function with slopes of 1.0 × 10−4 and 1.7 × 10−4 s km–1, in accordance with a three layers model where moving from the intermediate to the bottom layer both and decrease. Two regional dependences were found: data from earthquakes located westward to the NEI network evidence weaker attenuation properties, probably because of S‐wave reflections from different parts of the Moho discontinuity under the eastern Po Plain, at about 25–30 km depth, while earthquakes located eastward (in western Slovenia), where the Moho deepens up to 45–50 km, evidence a higher attenuation. Moreover, the k estimates obtained with data from earthquakes located in the area of the 1998 (Mw= 5.7) and 2004 (Mw= 5.2) Kobarid events are 0.017 s higher than the values predicted for the whole region, probably because of the high level of fracturing that characterizes fault zones. The comparison between measured and theoretical values of k, computed at a few stations with available S‐wave velocity profiles, reveals that the major contribution to the total k0(S) is due to the sedimentary column (from surface to 800 m depth). The hard rock section contribution is limited to 0.005 s, in accordance with a maximum contribution of 0.010 s predicted by the non‐parametric inversion.
The smelting copper slags from the archaeological sites of Transacqua and Segonzano in Trentino (Italy) were fully analysed to study the extraction of copper from copper and iron sulphide minerals ...that were carried out in the southeastern Alps during the Late Bronze Age. A combined approach involving physical, chemical, mineralogical and petrographic analyses was applied on over 130 copper slags from Transacqua and Segonzano. Three different types of slags were distinguished from the mineralogical and chemical points of view, differing in the size and relative amount of the unreacted sulphides and matte, the size of metallic copper prills, the ratio between unreacted quartz and newly formed silicate phases and viscosity. By combining all the observations, it is suggested that the three types of slags are the product of a Cu-smelting process formed by three main operations: slagging, matting and refining, which were standardised in the southeast Alps between the fourteenth and the eleventh century BC.
The geochemical properties of the South-Eastern Alps volcanics (SEAV, Eocene age) call for a within-plate origin of the most primitive basalts, in contrast to the widespread calc-alkaline magmatism ...which developed some million years later northwestwards along the Periadriatic Lineament. The two contrasting magmatic suites that coexist in the Alpine area define binary mixing relationships in the Sr–Nd and Sr–Pb isotopic space, the end members of which being a crustal component (e.g. lower continental crust) and a HIMU-DMM component (e.g. the SEAV). The occurrence of a HIMU (high
μ
=
high
238U/
204Pb) component, which normally traces mantle plumes of deep mantle origin, in a tectonic regime dominated by collision tectonics (the tertiary convergence of European and Adriatic plates) can be explained by slab detachment and ensuing upwelling of mantle material through the lithospheric gap. We combine geochemical data and geophysical modelling to unravel the evolution of the Alpine slab after interaction with plume material and the genesis of the Alpine magmatism. The combination of changes in negative buoyancy caused by continental subduction and softening of a part of the slab caused by slab–plume interaction may act as a regulator for the time of slab breakoff and, consequently, for the variations of magmatism in the overriding lithosphere above a subduction zone. The thermal evolution of a subducting slab is modified by contact with the plume material which decreases significantly the total strength of the slab and favours slab detachment. Interactions between the HIMU component and the shallower depleted mantle can account for the geochemical characteristics of the SEAV. Counterflows of plume material towards the top of the subducting slab may also increase heating and partial melting of the overriding mantle wedge, giving rise to the calc-alkaline suite outcropping in the proximity of the Periadriatic Lineament.
In this article crossbow fibulae with a firm catch plate and with a knob bow of the 5th and 6th centuries found in Slovenia are presented. We have also added new finds to their ...distribution in the southeastern Alps and tried to show that they were used by the Romanized population. Also, we discuss the rare finds of Balkan crossbow fibulae with an inverted foot in Slovenia, which reflect the less well-known Byzantine presence in the 6th century.
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