ABSTRACTS / RESUMES - Comitato Glaciologico Italiano

HANS W. SCHENKE 1 & GLEB B. UDINTSEV 2
Geomorphology of the western continuation
of the Norh Weddell Rift
1 Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Researche,
D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany
2 Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian
Academy of Sciences, 19 Kosygin st., Moscow 117975, Russia
The North Weddell Rift correspond to the axial zone of
the American-Antarctic Ridge, the south-west branch of
the mid-oceanic ridge system of the Atlantic Ocean. The
western continuation of the rift have been studied during
the 21 cruise of R/V «Akademik Boris Petrov» in 1995.
The multi-beam echosounding were made in three areas of
the rift: to the south of the southern end of the South
Sandvich Island Arc, on the South Scotia Ridge between
South Orkney Islands and South Shetland Islands and in
the western tip of the Bransfild Strait between South Shetland
Islands and Antarctic Peninsula. The data obtained
demonstrate a chain of rifted valleys, correspoinding to
punctiform propagation of the rift into the body of the
continental massive of the West Antarctic. The propagation
of the rift is accompanied with emergence of the crustral
blocks near the western tip of it (up to 2 km) in the
Bransfild Strait and with submergence of blocks in the eastern
part of the rift (down to 2 km), and with development
of volcanic cones in the western part of the rift along
the Bransfild Strait.
ASHER P. SCHICK, JUDITH LEKACH & TAMIR GRODEK
The Nahal Yael research catchment, Negev desert, Israel:
a third of a century of observations on floods
Department of Geography, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Nahal Yael, a small arid catchment located in the mountains
near Eilat, has been instrumented for research purposes
in 1965; its full operation programme started in 1967
and has continued, with varying immediate goals, to date.
It represents the oldest and most complete hydrological record
in the hyperarid (mean annual rainfall