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Abstract. The European Alps stretch over a range of climate zones which affect the spatial distribution of snow. Previous analyses of station observations of snow were confined to regional analyses. Here, we present an Alpine-wide analysis of snow depth from six Alpine countries – Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Switzerland – including altogether more than 2000 stations of which more than 800 were used for the trend assessment. Using a principal component analysis and k-means clustering, we identified five main modes of variability and five regions which match the climatic forcing zones: north and high Alpine, north-east, north-west, south-east, and south and high Alpine. Linear trends of monthly mean snow depth between 1971 and 2019 showed decreases in snow depth for most stations from November to May. The average trend among all stations for seasonal (November to May) mean snow depth was −8.4 % per decade, for seasonal maximum snow depth −5.6 % per decade, and for seasonal snow cover duration −5.6 % per decade. Stronger and more significant trends were observed for periods and elevations where the transition from snow to snow-free occurs, which is consistent with an enhanced albedo feedback. Additionally, regional trends differed substantially at the same elevation, which challenges the notion of generalizing results from one region to another or to the whole Alps. This study presents an analysis of station snow depth series with the most comprehensive spatial coverage in the European Alps to date.

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The morphology of clastic continental margins directly reflects their formative processes. These include interactions between plate movements and isostasy, which establish the characteristic stairstep shape of margins. Other factors are thermal and loading-induced subsidence, compaction and faulting/folding, which create and/or destroy accommodation space for sediment supplied by rivers and glaciers. These processes are primary controls on margin size and shape. Rivers and glaciers can also directly sculpt the margin surface when it is subaerially exposed by sea-level lowstands. Otherwise, they deposit their sediment load at or near the shoreline. Whether this deposition builds a delta depends on sea level and the energy of the ocean waves and currents. Delta formation will be prevented when sea level is rising faster than sediment supply can build the shoreline. Vigorous wave and current activity can slow or even arrest subaerial delta development by moving sediments seaward to form a subaqueous delta. This sediment movement is accomplished in part by wave-supported sediment gravity flows. Over the continental slope, turbidity currents are driven by gravity and, in combination with slides, cut submarine canyons and gullies. However, turbidity currents also deposit sediment across the continental slope. The average angle of continental slopes (~4°) lies near the threshold angle above which turbidity currents will erode the seafloor and below which they will deposit their sediment load. Therefore, turbidity currents may help regulate the dip of the continental slope. Internal waves exert a maximum shear on the continental-slope surface at about the same angle, and may be another controlling factor.

We present the interpretation of 11 radio echo-sounding (RES) missions carried out over the\ud Vostok–Dome Concordia region during the Italian Antarctic expeditions in the period 1995–\ud 2001. The extension and the density of the radar data in the surveyed area allowed to reconstruct\ud a reliable subglacial morphology and to identify four relevant morphological structures namely:\ud the Aurora trench, the Concordia trench, the Concordia ridge and the South Hills. These\ud structures show evidence compatible with the presence of tectonic features. Morphological\ud considerations indicate their development in Cenozoic time. Hybrid cellular automata (HCA)-\ud based numerical modelling allowed to justify a possible role played by the tectonics of the\ud Aurora and Concordia trench evolution. This was accomplished by matching the bed profiles\ud along opportunely projected sections with the modelled surfaces as derived by the activity of\ud normal faults with variable surfaces within the continental crust. The Vostok–Dome C region\ud is characterized by a large number of subglacial lakes. From the analysis of basal reflected\ud power echo, we identified 14 new lakes and obtained information about their physiography as\ud well as their possible relations with tectonics.We propose a grouping of subglacial lakes on the\ud base of their physiography and geological setting, namely relief lakes, basin lakes and trench\ud lakes. Relief lakes located in the Belgica subglacial highlands and are characterized by sharp\ud and steep symmetric edges, suggesting a maximum water depth of the order of 100 m. Their\ud origin may well relate to localized, positive geothermal flux anomalies. Basin lakes located\ud in the Vincennes subglacial basin and are characterized by wider dimension that allow the\ud development of well-defined, flat ice surface anomalies. Trench lakes characterize the Aurora\ud and Concordia trenches as the possible effect of normal fault activity

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Newly collected structural data in Eastern Sardinia (Italy) integrated with numerical techniques led to the reconstruction of a 2-D admissible and balanced model revealing the presence of a widespread Cenozoic fold-and-thrust belt. The model was achieved with the FORC software, obtaining a 3-D (2-D + time) numerical reconstruction of the continuous evolution of the structure through time. The Mesozoic carbonate units of Eastern Sardinia and their basement present a fold-and-thrust tectonic setting, with a westward direction of tectonic transport (referred to the present-day coordinates). The tectonic style of the upper levels is thin skinned, with flat sectors prevailing over ramps and younger-on-older thrusts. Three regional tectonic units are present, bounded by two regional thrusts. Strike-slip faults overprint the fold-and-thrust belt and developed during the Sardinia-Corsica Block rotation along the strike of the preexisting fault ramps, not affecting the numerical section balancing. This fold-and-thrust belt represents the southward prosecution of the Alpine Corsica collisional chain and the missing link between the Alpine Chain and the Calabria-Peloritani Block. Relative ages relate its evolution to the meso-Alpine event (Eocene-Oligocene times), prior to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Tortonian). Results fill a gap of information about the geodynamic evolution of the European margin in Central Mediterranean, between Corsica and the Calabria-Peloritani Block, and imply the presence of remnants of this double-verging belt, missing in the Southern Tyrrhenian basin, within the Southern Apennine chain. The used methodology proved effective for constraining balanced cross sections also for areas lacking exposures of the large-scale structures, as the case of Eastern Sardinia.

A semipermanent Global Positioning System (GPS) network of 30 vertices known as the Victoria Land Network for Deformation Control (VLNDEF) was set up in the Austral summer of 1998 in northern Victoria Land (NVL), including Terra Nova Bay (TNB), Antarctica. The locations were selected according to the known Cenozoic fault framework, which is characterized by a system of NW‐SE regional faults with right‐lateral, strike‐slip kinematics. The TNB1 permanent GPS station is within the VLNDEF, and following its installation on a bedrock monument in October 1998, it has been recording almost continuously. The GPS network has been surveyed routinely every two summers, using high‐quality, dual‐frequency GPS receivers. In this study we present the results of a distributed session approach applied to the processing of the GPS data of the VLNDEF. An improved reference frame definition was implemented, including a new Euler pole, to compute the Antarctic intraplate residual velocities. The projection of the residual velocities on the main faults in NVL show present‐day activities for some faults, including the Tucker, Leap Year, Lanterman, Aviator, and David faults, with right‐lateral strike‐slip kinematics and local extensional and compressional components. This active fault pattern divides NVL into eight rigid blocks, each characterized by its relative movements and rigid rotations. These show velocities of up to several millimeters per year, which are comparable to those predicted by plate tectonic theory at active plate margins.