http://www.hindawi.com The latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation © 2013 , Hindawi Publishing Corporation . All rights reserved. Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:11:45 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/202763/ We have obtained a solution for the velocity of westward drift from the induction equation in which an approach for main geomagnetic field was built. Distribution functions B(r, t) entered into the induction equation have been built by the observatories' data in North America and the Europe from 1991 to 2006. The longitudinal −0.123 degree/year and latitudinal 0.068 degree/year drifts were defined in North America. And the longitudinal −0.257 degree/year drift was defined in Europe from 1991 to 2006. These drifts are similar to results of other studies. G. Bayanjargal Copyright © 2013 G. Bayanjargal. All rights reserved. Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:58:05 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/825276/ This paper presents use of semiempirical method for seismic hazard zonation. The seismotectonically important region of Uttarakhand Himalaya has been considered in this work. Ruptures along the lineaments in the area identified from tectonic map are modeled deterministically using semi empirical approach given by Midorikawa (1993). This approach makes use of attenuation relation of peak ground acceleration for simulating strong ground motion at any site. Strong motion data collected over a span of three years in this region have been used to develop attenuation relation of peak ground acceleration of limited magnitude and distance applicability. The developed attenuation relation is used in the semi empirical method to predict peak ground acceleration from the modeled rupture planes in the area. A set of values of peak ground acceleration from possible ruptures in the area at the point of investigation is further used to compute probability of exceedance of peak ground acceleration of values 100 and 200 gals. The prepared map shows that regions like Tehri, Chamoli, Almora, Srinagar, Devprayag, Bageshwar, and Pauri fall in a zone of 10% probability of exceedence of peak ground acceleration of value 200 gals. Anand Joshi, Ashvini Kumar, Heriberta Castanos, and Cinna Lomnitz Copyright © 2013 Anand Joshi et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:33:20 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/387175/ 3D realistic sea surface imaging from 3D dual-sensor towed streamer data is presented. The technique is based on separating data acquired by collocated dual-sensors into up-going and down-going wavefields. Subsequently, these wavefields are extrapolated upwards in order to image the sea surface. This approach has previously been demonstrated using 2D data examples. Here, the focus is on 3D data. Controlled 3D data based on the Kirchhoff-Helmholtz algorithm is generated, and the 3D sea surface imaging technique is applied. For coarsely spaced streamers from 3D field data, the technique is applied streamerwise (i.e., 2D wavefield separation, extrapolation, and imaging). In the latter case, the resulting sea surface profiles corresponding to each time frame are interpolated to demonstrate that the main sea surface characteristics are preserved, and artefacts due to 2D processing of 3D data are mainly limited to areas corresponding to large angles of incidence. Time-varying sea surfaces from two different 3D field data are imaged. The data examples were acquired under different weather conditions. The imaged sea surfaces show realistic wave heights, and their spectra suggest plausible speeds and directions. Okwudili C. Orji, Walter Söllner, and Leiv-J. Gelius Copyright © 2013 Okwudili C. Orji et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:31:51 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/916541/ This study aims at evaluating the feasibility of an installation for space heating and cooling the building of the university in the center of the city Aachen, Germany, with a 2500 m deep coaxial borehole heat exchanger (BHE). Direct heating the building in winter requires temperatures of 40°C. In summer, cooling the university building uses a climatic control adsorption unit, which requires a temperature of minimum 55°C. The drilled rocks of the 2500 m deep borehole have extremely low permeabilities and porosities less than 1%. Their thermal conductivity varies between 2.2 W/(m·K) and 8.9 W/(m·K). The high values are related to the quartzite sandstones. The maximum temperature in the borehole is 85°C at 2500 m depth, which corresponds to a mean specific heat flow of 85 mW/m2–90 mW/m2. Results indicate that for a short period, the borehole may deliver the required temperature. But after a 20-year period of operation, temperatures are too low to drive the adsorption unit for cooling. In winter, however, the borehole heat exchanger may still supply the building with sufficient heat, with temperatures varying between 25 and 55°C and a circulation flow rate of 10 m3/h at maximum. Lydia Dijkshoorn, Simon Speer, and Renate Pechnig Copyright © 2013 Lydia Dijkshoorn et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:24:36 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/341797/ Microgravity investigations are now recognized as a powerful tool for subsurface imaging and especially for the localization of underground karsts. However numerous natural (geological), technical, and environmental factors interfere with microgravity survey processing and interpretation. One of natural factors that causes the most disturbance in complex geological environments is the influence of regional trends. In the Dead Sea coastal areas the influence of regional trends can exceed residual gravity effects by some tenfold. Many widely applied methods are unable to remove regional trends with sufficient accuracy. We tested number of transformation methods (including computing gravity field derivatives, self-adjusting and adaptive filtering, Fourier series, wavelet, and other procedures) on a 3D model (complicated by randomly distributed noise), and field investigations were carried out in Ghor Al-Haditha (the eastern side of the Dead Sea in Jordan). We show that the most effective methods for regional trend removal (at least for the theoretical and field cases here) are the bilinear saddle and local polynomial regressions. Application of these methods made it possible to detect the anomalous gravity effect from buried targets in the theoretical model and to extract the local gravity anomaly at the Ghor Al-Haditha site. The local anomaly was utilized for 3D gravity modeling to construct a physical-geological model (PGM). A. Al-Zoubi, L. Eppelbaum, A. Abueladas, M. Ezersky, and E. Akkawi Copyright © 2013 A. Al-Zoubi et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:07:31 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/692452/ The formation of sinkholes along the Dead Sea is caused by the rapid decline of the Dead Sea level, as a possible result of human extensive activity. According to one of the geological models, the sinkholes in several sites are clustered along a narrow coastal strip developing along lineaments representing faults in NNW direction. In order to understand the relationship between a developing sinkhole and its tectonic environment, a high-resolution (HR) three-dimensional (3D) seismic reflection survey was carried out at the western shoreline of the Dead Sea. A recently developed 3D imaging approach was applied to this 3D dataset. Imaging of subsurface is performed by a spatial summation of seismic waves along time surfaces using recently proposed multipath summation with proper weights. The multipath summation is performed by stacking the target waves along all possible time surfaces having a common apex at the given point. This approach does not require any explicit information on parameters since the involved multipath summation is performed for all possible parameters values within a wide specified range. The results from processed 3D time volume show subhorizontal coherent reflectors at approximate depth of 50–80 m which incline on closer location to the exposed sinkhole and suggest a possible linkage between revealed fault and the sinkholes. Shemer Keydar, Benjamin Medvedev, Abdallah Al-Zoubi, Michael Ezersky, and Emad Akkawi Copyright © 2013 Shemer Keydar et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:44:37 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/845646/ In order to predict the fluid in thin layer precisely, this paper proposed a high-resolution method for fluid prediction. The method used geostatistical inversion with lithology masks to calculate water saturation. We applied this method to theoretical model and real data. The result was compared with that of prestack AVA simultaneous inversion for fluid prediction. It showed that this method had high resolution both in vertical and lateral directions for fluid prediction and could also predict the fluid in thin layer efficiently. Zhen Yu and Jing He Copyright © 2013 Zhen Yu and Jing He. All rights reserved. Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:26:51 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/160915/ We present an experiment conducted in Kola Bay off the Barents Sea in which new, six-component electromagnetic seafloor receivers were tested. Signals from a powerful, remote super-long wave (SLW) transmitter at several frequencies on the order of tens Hz were recorded at the six sites along a profile across Kola Bay. In spite of the fact that, for technical reasons, not all the components were successfully recorded at every site, the quality of the experimental data was quite satisfactory. The experiment resulted in the successful simulation of an electromagnetic field by the integral equation method. An initial geoelectric model reflecting the main features of the regional geology produced field values that differed greatly from the experimental ones. However, step-by-step modification of the original model considerably improved the fit of the fields. Thereby specific features of the regional geology, in particular the fault tectonics, were able to be corrected. These preliminary results open the possibility of inverse problem solving with more reliable geological conclusions. Valery Grigoryev, Sergey Korotaev, Mikhail Kruglyakov, Darya Orekhova, Yury Scshors, Evgeniy Tereshchenko, Pavel Tereshchenko, and Igor Trofimov Copyright © 2013 Valery Grigoryev et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:37:30 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2013/419854/ Laurence Jouniaux and Tsuneo Ishido Copyright © 2013 Laurence Jouniaux and Tsuneo Ishido. All rights reserved. Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:06:01 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/567293/ The LURR theory is a new approach for earthquake prediction, which achieves a good result within China mainland and some regions in America, Japan, and Australia. However, the expansion of the prediction region leads to the refinement of its longitude and latitude and the increase of the time period. This requires more and more computations and volume of data reaching the order of GB, which will be very difficult for a single CPU. In this paper, adopting the technology of domain decomposition and parallelizing using MPI, we developed a new parallel tempospatial scanning program. Yangde Feng, Guoliang Ji, and Wenkai Cui Copyright © 2012 Yangde Feng et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:49:54 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/863792/ Using ray theory, we explore the effect an envelope function has on high-frequency, small-scale internal wave propagation through a low-frequency, large-scale inertia wave. Two principal interactions, internal waves propagating through an infinite inertia wavetrain and through an enveloped inertia wave, are investigated. For the first interaction, the total frequency of the high-frequency wave is conserved but is not for the latter. This deviance is measured and results of waves propagating in the same direction show the interaction with an inertia wave envelope results in a higher probability of reaching that Jones' critical level and a reduced probability of turning points, which is a better approximation of outcomes experienced by expected real atmospheric interactions. In addition, an increase in wave action density and wave steepness is observed, relative to an interaction with an infinite wavetrain, possibly leading to enhanced wave breaking. B. Casaday and J. Crockett Copyright © 2012 B. Casaday and J. Crockett. All rights reserved. Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:27:35 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/318301/ The tectonic lineaments and thermal structure of Lake Magadi, southern Kenyan rift system, were investigated using ASTER data and geophysical methods. Five N-S faults close to known hot springs were identified for geoelectric ground investigation. Aeromagnetic data were employed to further probe faults at greater depths and determine the Curie-point depth. Results indicate a funnel-shaped fluid-filled (mostly saline hydrothermal) zone with relatively low resistivity values of less than 1 Ω-m, separated by resistive structures to the west and east, to a depth of 75 m along the resistivity profiles. There was evidence of saline hydrothermal fluid flow toward the surface through the fault splays. The observed faults extend from the surface to a depth of 7.5 km and are probably the ones that bound the graben laterally. They serve as major conduits for the upward heat flux in the study area. The aeromagnetics spectral analysis also revealed heat source emplacement at a depth of about 12 km. The relative shallowness implies a high geothermal gradient evidenced in the surface manifestations of hot springs along the lake margins. Correlation of the heat source with the hypocenters showed that the seismogenetic zone exists directly above the magmatic intrusion, forming the commencement of geodynamic activities. Akinola Adesuji Komolafe, Zacharia Njuguna Kuria, Tsehaie Woldai, Marleen Noomen, and Adeleye Yekini Biodun Anifowose Copyright © 2012 Akinola Adesuji Komolafe et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:34:58 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/329827/ Geophysical investigations comprising electrical resistivity and electromagnetic conductivities methods were deployed in a 350 m2 sector, strewn with 11 wells. Within the framework of an environmental study on a small scale in the south of Benin, the water conductivity of these wells was measured to determine in a direct way mineralization of the coastal water table in the littoral zone. This environmental study aimed to prospect by the geophysical methods the space extension of the water table mineralization obtained by direct measurements of water conductivity in the well and the depth of the fresh water/salted water interface in the coastal aquifer. Electromagnetic measurements of conductivities made it possible to chart a gradient of mineralization in the northwest direction. The logs of vertical electric soundings showed a deepening of the fresh water/salted water interface in the southern part and its rupture in the northern part. The electrical resistivities of the interface are sensitive to the degree of its mineralization. It has been observed that the geophysical methods in electrical and electromagnetic prospection are a great contribution to the environmental study of the water table mineralization in the littoral zone for a sustainable management of the water resource. Yalo Nicaise, Descloitres Marc, Alassane Abdoukarim, Mama Daouda, and Boukari Moussa Copyright © 2012 Yalo Nicaise et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:24:46 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/389297/ Several kinds of natural source signals are recorded by seismic exploration stations on the continental ice sheet in Eastern Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, during 2002 austral summer. They include not only tectonic earthquakes, but also ice-related phenomena possibly involving recent global climate change. The recorded signals are classified into (1) teleseismic events, (2) local ice quakes, and (3) unidentified events (X-phases). The teleseismic waves show the high signal-to-noise ratio in spite of the small magnitude of the event; this indicates that it is highly feasible to study not only the local shallow structure but also the deep structure of the earth by using teleseismic events. Frequency spectra of the all waveforms represent discordances along the observation seismic profile. The abrupt change of topography in the valley along the seismic profile might cause both the anomalous frequency content and travel times. Finally, an origin of the X-phases is speculated as the intraplate earthquakes or possibly large ice-quakes (glacial earthquakes) around Antarctica, involving global warming appeared in polar region. Masaki Kanao, Akira Yamada, and Mikiya Yamashita Copyright © 2012 Masaki Kanao et al. All rights reserved. Sun, 11 Nov 2012 08:36:02 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/371059/ Purísima-Rumicruz district consists of several polymetallic veins, rich in copper and lead. The veins have a breccia texture and are located in shear bands, with locally high concentrations of sulfides in a carbonatic gangue. The host rock of the veins consists of a black shale sequence with thin levels of fine sands, with a low degree of metamorphism, and corresponds to the Acoite formation (Lower Ordovician). The depositional environment was an open clastic platform where storm processes prevailed. An exploratory program using induced polarization and resistivity with the dipole-dipole method was carried out with the objective of establishing geoelectric anomalies in depth, which would permit the identification of exploratory targets. The group of veins was divided into three sectors: Purísima, El Brechón, and La Nueva. Low-resistivity values correspond to faulty zones, some of which are related to surface veins. The presence of diagenetic pyrite in the shales of Acoite formation considerably increases background chargeability (induced polarization) values. However, small chargeability anomalies associated to low-resistivity values represent exploratory targets for the Purísima-Rumicruz district. Luciano López, Horacio Echeveste, Mario Tessone, Marta Alperín, and Ricardo Etcheverry Copyright © 2012 Luciano López et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 08 Nov 2012 08:22:10 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/461863/ A scenario seismic hazard analysis was performed for the city of Tianshui. The scenario hazard analysis utilized the best available geologic and seismological information as well as composite source model (i.e., ground motion simulation) to derive ground motion hazards in terms of acceleration time histories, peak values (e.g., peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity), and response spectra. This study confirms that Tianshui is facing significant seismic hazard, and certain mitigation measures, such as better seismic design for buildings and other structures, should be developed and implemented. This study shows that PGA of 0.3 g (equivalent to Chinese intensity VIII) should be considered for seismic design of general building and PGA of 0.4 g (equivalent to Chinese intensity IX) for seismic design of critical facility in Tianshui. Zhenming Wang, David T. Butler III, Edward W. Woolery, and Lanmin Wang Copyright © 2012 Zhenming Wang et al. All rights reserved. Sun, 04 Nov 2012 12:11:40 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/231256/ Morrow sandstones constitute important oil-producing reservoirs in the Anadarko Basin in the Mid-Continent Region of the USA. Characterization of the Morrow A sandstone reservoir in Postle Field, Texas County, Oklahoma, is challenging due to its small thickness, low acoustic impedance contrast with the surrounding Morrow shale, and lithological heterogeneity. Shear wave data have been documented as a promising solution for imaging the Morrow A sandstone. Vertical seismic profiling (VSP) offers the potential to enhance shear wave imaging of the thin heterogeneous Morrow A sandstone at Postle Field. The zero-offset VSP results confirm the advantages of shear wave over compressional wave in imaging the Morrow A sandstone. Also, the final shear wave VSP image shows that, applying the proposed processing flow, we are able to image the Morrow A sandstone where the thickness is as thin as 8.5 m. Naser Tamimi and Thomas L. Davis Copyright © 2012 Naser Tamimi and Thomas L. Davis. All rights reserved. Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:06:39 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/505286/ During the 1982–1984 bradyseismic crises in the Campi Flegrei area (Italy), the University of Wisconsin deployed a network of seismological stations to record local earthquakes. In order to analyse the potential of the recorded data in terms of tomographic imaging, a blind test was recently set up and carried out in the framework of a research project. A model representing a hypothetical 3D structure of the area containing the Campi Flegrei caldera was also set up, and a synthetic dataset of time arrivals was in turn computed. The synthetic dataset consists of several thousand P- and S-time arrivals, computed at about fourteen stations. The tomographic inversion was performed by four independent teams using different methods. The teams had no knowledge of either the input velocity model or the earthquake hypocenters used to create the synthetic dataset. The results obtained by the different groups were compared and analysed in light of the true model. This work provides a thorough analysis of the earthquake tomography potential of the dataset recording the seismic activity at Campi Flegrei in the 1982–1984 period. It shows that all the tested earthquake tomography methods provide reliable low-resolution images of the background velocity field of the Campi Flegrei area, but with some differences. However, none of them succeeds in detecting the hypothetical structure details (i.e. with a size smaller than about 1.5–2 km), such as a magmatic chamber 4 km deep and especially the smaller, isolated bodies, which represent possible magmatic chimneys and intrusions. E. Priolo, L. Lovisa, A. Zollo, G. Böhm, L. D'Auria, S. Gautier, F. Gentile, P. Klin, D. Latorre, A. Michelini, T. Vanorio, and J. Virieux Copyright © 2012 E. Priolo et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:31:05 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/419143/ In 1992 seismogenic nodes prone for earthquakes have been recognized for the Himalayan arc using the pattern recognition approach. Since then four earthquakes of the target magnitudes occurred in the region. The paper discusses the correlation of the events occurred in the region after 1992 with nodes previously defined as having potential for the occurrence of earthquakes . The analysis performed has shown that three out of four earthquakes occurred at recognized seismogenic nodes capable of . A. Gorshkov, I. A. Parvez, and O. Novikova Copyright © 2012 A. Gorshkov et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:25:29 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/817357/ Francesco Soldovieri, Jean Dumoulin, Nicola Masini, Raffaele Solimene, and Erica Utsi Copyright © 2012 Francesco Soldovieri et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:28:13 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/659612/ In recent years, a lot of studies on built heritage emphasize the need to use appropriate techniques to evaluate the current condition of the structure before designing an intervention. The research focuses on the restoration of reinforced concrete buildings that begin to show signs of decay and deterioration. To verify the state of a building, it’s possible to use the “destructive” methods (that require a local removal of material) and “nondestructive” tests. The combined results from different “nondestructive” tests are very interesting instruments to assess the concrete strength. This methodological approach can help to reduce the possible errors when using the sclerometer and ultrasonic tests separately; in this way, the combined method called “SonReb” (SONic + REBound) was developed. This paper would highlight the importance with respect to cultural heritage buildings and on the studied structure and contribute to developed engineering strategies to maintenance and restoration. The above-defined methodology has been tested on a postwar building which is located in Gravina in Puglia (Italy): the “Centrone” theatre; it was built using a mixed structure, that is, reinforced concrete and bearing masonry built of local stone. The building was used until the 1990s and now is abandoned. The analysis and qualification of the masonry structures of built heritage show how this approach is useful for classifying the pathological events on each building and to implement the innovative solutions to improve the durability of a restoration intervention. Antonella Guida, Antonello Pagliuca, and Alessandro Tranquillino Minerva Copyright © 2012 Antonella Guida et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:17:31 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/187938/ Abu Madi/El Qar'a is a giant field located in the north eastern part of Nile Delta and is an important hydrocarbon province in Egypt, but the origin of hydrocarbons and their migration are not fully understood. In this paper, organic matter content, type, and maturity of source rocks have been evaluated and integrated with the results of basin modeling to improve our understanding of burial history and timing of hydrocarbon generation. Modeling of the empirical data of source rock suggests that the Abu Madi formation entered the oil in the middle to upper Miocene, while the Sidi Salem formation entered the oil window in the lower Miocene. Charge risks increase in the deeper basin megasequences in which migration hydrocarbons must traverse the basin updip. The migration pathways were principally lateral ramps and faults which enabled migration into the shallower middle to upper Miocene reservoirs. Basin modeling that incorporated an analysis of the petroleum system in the Abu Madi/El Qar'a field can help guide the next exploration phase, while oil exploration is now focused along post-late Miocene migration paths. These results suggest that deeper sections may have reservoirs charged with significant unrealized gas potential. Said Keshta, Farouk J. Metwalli, and H. S. Al Arabi Copyright © 2012 Said Keshta et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:51:10 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/974763/ The Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake occurred along the Longmenshan Faults in China and was a great disaster. Most of the damage and casualties during the quake were concentrated along surface rupture zones: the 240-km-long Beichuan-Yingxiu Fault and the 70-km-long Jiangyou-Guanxian Fault. Although the Longmenshan Faults are well known and studied, the surface Fault ruptures were not considered in mitigation planning, and the associated ground-motion hazard was therefore underestimated. Not considering Fault rupture and underestimating ground-motion hazard contributed to the disastrous effects of the earthquake. The lesson from the Wenchuan earthquake disaster is that the fault rupture hazard must be assessed and considered in mitigation. Furthermore, the deterministic approach is more appropriate for fault rupture hazard assessment than the probabilistic approach. Yi Du, Furen Xie, and Zhenming Wang Copyright © 2012 Yi Du et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 03 Sep 2012 11:27:32 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/618609/ We propose an easy-to-use procedure of “PSI-based rapid mapping and deformation analysis,” to effectively exploit Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) for multispatial/temporal hazard assessment of cultural heritage and rural sites, update the condition report at the scale of entire site and single building, and address the conservation strategies. Advantages and drawbacks of the methodology are critically discussed based on feasibility tests performed over Pitigliano and Bivigliano, respectively, located in Southern and Northern Tuscany, Italy, and representative of hilltop historic towns and countryside settlements chronically affected by natural hazards. We radar-interpreted ERS-1/2 (1992–2000) and ENVISAT (2003–2010) datasets, already processed, respectively with the Permanent Scatterers (PSs) and Persistent Scatterers Pairs (PSPs) techniques, and assigned the levels of conservation criticality for both the sites. The PSI analysis allowed the zoning of the most unstable sectors of Pitigliano and showed a good agreement with the most updated hazard assessment of the cliff. The reconstruction of past/recent deformation patterns over Bivigliano confirmed the criticality for the Church of San Romolo, supporting the hypothesis of a correlation with local landslide phenomena, as also perceived from the annual motions observed over the entire site, where several landslide bodies are mapped. D. Tapete and F. Cigna Copyright © 2012 D. Tapete and F. Cigna. All rights reserved. Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:30:34 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/432823/ Faynan in Jordan contains the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Levant (Israel, Jordan, Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria, and the Sinai Peninsula). Located 50 km southeast of the Dead Sea, it is home to one of the world’s best-preserved ancient mining and metallurgy districts encompassing an area of ca. 400 km2. During the past three decades, archaeologists have carried out numerous excavations and surveys recording hundreds of mines and sites related to metallurgical activities that span the past 10 millennia. Khirbat Faynan (Biblical Punon), is situated in the main Faynan Valley and is the largest (ca. 15 ha) settlement site in the region and has remained unexcavated until 2011. As Jordan’s most southern mound site with indications of widespread ancient architecture, we employed a suite of noninvasive geophysical survey methods to identify areas suitable for excavation. Earlier geophysical surveys were carried out in the Faynan region by our team in the late 1990s when only EMI (electromagnetic induction) proved successful, but with relatively poor resolution. As reported here, by 2011, improvements in data processing software and 3D ERT (electrical resistivity tomography) sampling protocols made it possible to greatly improve the application of noninvasive geophysical surveying in this hyperarid zone. Alexandre Novo, Matthew L. Vincent, and Thomas E. Levy Copyright © 2012 Alexandre Novo et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:26:24 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/716296/ The paper concerns the use of multitemporal high-resolution satellite images for the study of the ancient city of Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, inaccessible to scholars from 2003. The acquired dataset is composed by two Gambit KH-7 (1966) and one Corona KH-4B (1968) declassified spy space photos and by few images taken by the recent satellites for civilian use QuickBird-2 (2002, 2004, 2007), Ikonos-2 (2008), and WorldView-1 (2008). The processing of all these images and the integration with ASTER and SRTM DEMs allowed the acquisition of new data about the topographical layout of the city and its monuments and ancient roads; the georeferencing of all archaeological remains and traces visible on the images allowed the upgrade of the archaeological map of Ur. The research also provided important data concerning the reconstruction of the surrounding landscape, where a lot of traces of old channels and riverbeds of the Euphrates were identified in areas much modified and altered during the last decades by urbanization and agricultural works. Moreover, the multitemporal images allowed the monitoring of the conservation of the archaeological area, particularly before and after second Gulf War. Giacomo Di Giacomo and Giuseppe Scardozzi Copyright © 2012 Giacomo Di Giacomo and Giuseppe Scardozzi. All rights reserved. Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:17:15 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/954271/ In autumn 2007 the superconducting gravimeter GWR C025 was transferred from Vienna (VI) to the new Conrad observatory (CO) 60 km SW of Vienna. It is one of few instruments which were operated at different stations. This aspect motivated a reanalysis of all calibration experiments at VI and CO, focused on drift and noise effects. Considering the drift even of absolute gravimeters in a common adjustment reduces the root mean square error of the averaged calibration factor essentially. Also spring type gravimeters have some potential to contribute to the SG calibration factor determination. The calibration factor of GWR C025 did not significantly change during the transfer from VI to CO. The final calibration factor is calculated as weighted average over in total 9 JILAg and FG5 experiments with an accuracy of better than ±0.5‰. The calibration factor is temporarily stable with maximum variation less than ±0.1‰. Based on these results the gravity time series of VI and CO have been analyzed. The respective amplitude factors for O1, K1, and M2 agree almost perfectly at both stations after correcting for ocean loading effects. The maximum deviation from the numbers provided by the nonhydrostatic-body-tide models DDW and MAT01 is 0.8‰. Bruno Meurers Copyright © 2012 Bruno Meurers. All rights reserved. Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:13:49 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/512789/ This paper deals with the reconstruction of buried targets exhibiting both dielectric and magnetic characteristics, starting from GPR data collected at the interface air/soil. The problem is tackled under the Born approximation. In particular, two-dimensional migration and linear inversion results will be compared versus experimental data and three-dimensional representations of the reconstructions achieved from both methods will be shown. Raffaele Persico, Sergio Negri, Francesco Soldovieri, and Elena Pettinelli Copyright © 2012 Raffaele Persico et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:32:17 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/687813/ The history of gravity measurements begun in 1604 with Galileo Galilei experiments on the acceleration due to the gravity force of the earth, g, along inclined planes. In his memory, the most used unit to measure g is the gal (10−2 m/s2). The paper takes the interested reader through a walk along some of the most important achievements in gravity measurements and gives some perspectives for future developments in terrestrial gravity. Iginio Marson Copyright © 2012 Iginio Marson. All rights reserved. Sun, 29 Jul 2012 09:05:16 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijgp/2012/138458/ The problem of retrieving the Fresnel reflection coefficients of a half-space medium starting from measurements collected under a reflection mode multistatic configuration is dealt with. According to our previous results, reflection coefficient estimation is cast as the inversion of linear operator. However, here, we take a step ahead towards more realistic scenarios as the role of antennas (both transmitting and receiving) is embodied in the estimation procedure. Numerical results are presented to show the effectiveness of the method for different types of half-space media. A. D'Alterio and R. Solimene Copyright © 2012 A. D'Alterio and R. Solimene. All rights reserved.