Kathleen Nicoll

From the paleoseismological and seismotectonic point of view, the intermountain basins of the Central Apennines of Italy are one of the most studied areas worldwide. Within this context, however, the Rieti Basin, bounded at its sides by active normal faults and with its peculiar rhombohedral shape, is a relatively overlooked area, and its most recent paleoseismological studies date back to the 90s. This is a key area both for completing the paleoseismological history of this sector of the chain and for understanding how the present-day extensional regime is accommodated through time by the faults bounding the basin. With this aim in mind, we excavated 17 paleoseismological trenches along the normal faults bordering the Rieti Basin (Central Apennines, Italy) and unveiled at least 6 paleoearthquakes that ruptured the faults during the last ca. 20 kyr. Our analysis of the paleoearthquake succession along the basin-bounding faults suggests that a spatial pattern is followed during sequences of rupturing events, with a maximum credible earthquake of M_w 6.5, consistently within this sector of the Central Apennines.

From the paleoseismological and seismotectonic point of view, the intermountain basins of the Central Apennines of Italy are one of the most studied areas worldwide. Within this context, however, the Rieti Basin, bounded at its sides by active faults and with its peculiar rhombohedral shape, is a relatively overlooked area, and its most recent paleoseismological studies date back to the ‘90s. This is a key area both for completing the paleoseismological history of this sector of the chain and for understanding how the present-day extensional regime is accommodated, through time by the faults bounding the basin. With this aim in mind, we excavated 17 paleoseismological trenches along the normal faults bordering the Rieti Basin (Central Apennines, Italy) and unveiled 15 paleoearthquakes that ruptured the faults during the last ca. 20 kyr. Our analysis of the paleoearthquake succession along the basin-bounding faults suggests that a temporal clustering of rupturing events characterizes the basin with a maximum credible earthquake of Mw 6.5, consistently within this sector of the Central Apennines. These results suggest that for the Rieti Basin, stress transfer among surrounding faults can be ascribed as one of the processes behind the temporal clustering of earthquakes.

From the paleoseismological and seismotectonic point of view, the intermountain basins of the Central Apennines of Italy are one of the most studied areas worldwide. Within this context, however, the Rieti Basin, bounded at its sides by active faults and with its peculiar rhombohedral shape, is a relatively overlooked area, and its most recent paleoseismological studies date back to the ‘90s. This is a key area both for completing the paleoseismological history of this sector of the chain and for understanding how the present-day extensional regime is accommodated, through time by the faults bounding the basin. With this aim in mind, we excavated 17 paleoseismological trenches along the normal faults bordering the Rieti Basin (Central Apennines, Italy) and unveiled 15 paleoearthquakes that ruptured the faults during the last ca. 20 kyr. Our analysis of the paleoearthquake succession along the basin-bounding faults suggests that a temporal clustering of rupturing events characterizes the basin with a maximum credible earthquake of Mw 6.5, consistently within this sector of the Central Apennines. These results suggest that for the Rieti Basin, stress transfer among surrounding faults can be ascribed as one of the processes behind the temporal clustering of earthquakes.

The Archaeology of an African Desert is an extraordinary contribution. Readers will enjoy that the lengthy text-some 500 pages-is written in an engaging manner. Scholars, especially Africanists, will appreciate it as the first synthesis of the archaeology from this under-documented desert region. Its publication is notable, given that the cultural and environmental records of the Namib are not as well studied as those of the nearby Kalahari. The author John Kinahan is a seasoned archaeologist with years of experience in the field, and his work is a page-turner that many will enjoy. He uses a contemplative narrative approach that weaves ideas from a wide corpus of surveys, ethnographic studies, scientific investigations, and reports. Kinahan recounts the deep history of the Namib since the Lower Stone Age (LSA) or Palaeolithic and details how humans have been able to survive and even thrive over the past million years. The introduction sketches the basic geography, climate, hydrology, and landscape setting of the Namib, which sprawls 2,000 kilometers along the west coast of southern Africa between the city of Namibe in Angola and the Olifants River in South Africa. Also known as the Skeleton Coast, this arid environment is close to the southeast Atlantic Ocean, but its barren gravel plains and dunes receive only minute amounts of moisture as fog and dew. The limited available freshwater cannot sustain many plant foods or animals, delimiting cultural activity since antiquity. Kinahan describes how this expansive desert can instantaneously transform when a storm flash flood causes the ephemeral drainages to flow. Later, he links such rainfall events to important rituals recorded in rock art, which can be ethnographically reconstructed to contextualize ceremonies and deep traditions. In the Namib, traveling rainmakers were among the complex social networks that accessed and controlled resources, kinships, and power. Kinahan makes such connected

In the southwestern coast of Sardinia coastal sediments preserve evidence of geomorphic processes such as slope, colluviation and pedogenesis, as well as human activities. We present the preliminary results of an integrated approach focused on descriptive and analytical soil investigation together with micromorphological data, geoarchaeological investigations and landscape survey as part of a larger project aimed to characterise the geoheritage of the region. We describe palaeosol sequences related to stratal architectures that date back to the Late Pleistocene. Our goal is to gain information on landscape evolution in the area and the effect of human agency on the larger environment, as well as document hydroclimatic change.At the current coastline level, the last marine transgression exposed marine sequences dated to the MIS5, later covered by fluvial and slope deposits throughout the last portion of the Late Quaternary. Several soil sequences show traces of recent colluvial events of anthropogenic origin. Such deposits contain pottery and other human made materials related to the Iron/roman age. These initial findings seem to suggest a strong control of human activity on environmental change in the area, not related to a single location but widespread in the landscape. This control was such to cover and take precedence over the natural pre-existing surface dynamics, thereby complicating the definition of Anthropocene in Sardinia. Further investigations would bring more light on the ways palaeosols can inform on the shifts in human land use and occupation. How has land use accelerated since the Bronze age? How can these palaeosequences inform us about anthropogenic processes overstepping natural ongoing surface dynamics?

Elinor Wight Gardner (1892–1981) was the first female geologist who worked and published as a geoarcheologist. During her career, she worked in arid lands of North Africa, Mediterranean and the Near East, and was regarded as a pioneering geoscientist who made important contributions in multiple fields, including archeology, geomorphology, paleontology and Quaternary science. Despite her ground-breaking work at many archeological sites, Gardner’s impact has been largely unrecognized. Few details are known about her personal life; she was a private and reserved person who left limited first-hand accounts of her opinions and motivations. Gardner worked with charismatic figures such as her life-long friend and primary collaborator, the archeologist Gertrude Caton Thompson (1888–1985). This biography synthesizes primary sources and draws insights about Gardner’s character from her bibliography, publications and notebooks, and mentions by contemporary peers. Much attention has focused on the historical “ancestral passions” of characters working in the fields of geology and archeology, with much emphasis on the ‘founding fathers’ and significantly less recognition of its ‘grandmothers’. We bring attention to the full scope of Gardner’s insightful contributions through analysis of her important collaborative research projects linking archeology and landscape studies during the early twentieth century.