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Borzì AM, Minio V, De Plaen R, Lecocq T, Cannavò F, Ciraolo G, D'Amico S, Re CL, Monaco C, Picone M, Scardino G, Scicchitano G, Cannata A. Long-term analysis of microseism during extreme weather events: Medicanes and common storms in the Mediterranean Sea. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 915:169989. [PMID: 38220010 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.169989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2023] [Revised: 01/05/2024] [Accepted: 01/05/2024] [Indexed: 01/16/2024]
Abstract
In this work, we analyze 12 meteorological events that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea during the period November 2011-November 2021 from a seismic point of view. In particular, we consider 8 Medicanes and 4 more common storms. Each of these events, in spite of the marked differences between them, caused heavy rainfall, strong wind gusts and violent storm surge with significant wave heights usually >3 m. We deal with the relationships between these meteorological events and the features of microseism (the most continuous and widespread seismic signal on Earth) in terms of spectral content, space-time variation of the amplitude and source locations tracked employing two different methods (amplitude decay-based grid search and array techniques). By comparing the positions of the microseism sources with the areas of significant storm surges, we observe that the microseism locations align with the actual locations of the storm surges for 10 out of 12 events analyzed (two Medicanes present very low intensity in terms of meteorological parameters and the microseism amplitude does not show significant variations during these two events). We also perform two analyses that allowed us to obtain both the seismic signature of these events, by using a method that exploits the coherence of continuous seismic noise, and their strength from a seismic point of view, called Microseism Reduced Amplitude. In addition, by integrating the results obtained from these two methods, we are able to "seismically" distinguish Medicanes and common storms. Consequently, we demonstrate the possibility of creating a novel monitoring system for Mediterranean meteorological events by incorporating microseism information alongside with other commonly employed techniques for studying meteorological phenomena. The integration of microseism with the data provided by routinely used techniques in sea state monitoring (e.g., wave buoy and HF radar) has the potential to offer valuable insights into the examination of historical extreme weather events within the context of climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alfio Marco Borzì
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche ed Ambientali - Sezione di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Catania, 95127 Catania, Italy.
| | - Vittorio Minio
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Osservatorio Etneo, 95125 Catania, Italy
| | - Raphael De Plaen
- Seismology-Gravimetry, Royal Observatory of Belgium, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Thomas Lecocq
- Seismology-Gravimetry, Royal Observatory of Belgium, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Flavio Cannavò
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Osservatorio Etneo, 95125 Catania, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Ciraolo
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Bd. 8, 90128 Palermo, Italy
| | | | - Carlo Lo Re
- Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), 00144 Rome, Italy
| | - Carmelo Monaco
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche ed Ambientali - Sezione di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Catania, 95127 Catania, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Osservatorio Etneo, 95125 Catania, Italy; CRUST-Interuniversity Center for 3D Seismotectonics with Territorial Applications, 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy
| | - Marco Picone
- Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), 00144 Rome, Italy
| | - Giovanni Scardino
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy
| | - Giovanni Scicchitano
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy
| | - Andrea Cannata
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche ed Ambientali - Sezione di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Catania, 95127 Catania, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Osservatorio Etneo, 95125 Catania, Italy
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Scardino G, Martella R, Mastronuzzi G, Rizzo A, Borracesi Q, Musolino F, Romanelli N, Zarcone S, Cipriano G, Retucci A. The nauticAttiva project: A mobile phone-based tool for the citizen science plastic monitoring in the marine and coastal environment. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2022; 185:114282. [PMID: 36327931 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2022] [Revised: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 10/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Plastic pollution is involving large coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Innovative methods of plastic monitoring can be addressed through the citizen science approaches integrated with mobile phones. On the other hand, the availability of mobile phones is increasing among several users. Mobile phones can be integrated with a web mobile app, which allows to collect a lot of data for extended areas and in a short temporal range. In this study, the web service of iNaturalist was applied to implement a mobile phone-based tool to collect pictures of plastic items. At present, the web mobile app has been used to collect pictures of plastic debris in the Mediterranean Sea. Results were compared with the Mediterranean hydrodynamic regime, to highlight the pathways and densities of the plastic items. The proposed mobile phone-based tool represented a citizen science approach useful for the acquisition of plastic observations in the marine and coastal environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giovanni Scardino
- Department of Earth and Geo-environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy; Interdepartmental Research Center for Coastal Dynamics, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy
| | | | - Giuseppe Mastronuzzi
- Department of Earth and Geo-environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy; Interdepartmental Research Center for Coastal Dynamics, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy
| | - Angela Rizzo
- Department of Earth and Geo-environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy; Interdepartmental Research Center for Coastal Dynamics, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy.
| | | | | | | | | | - Giulia Cipriano
- Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Environment, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy
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