Igreja da Ordem Terceira dos Mínimos de São Francisco de Paula

A rica fachada em cantaria apresenta frontão curvilíneo e torres com coroamento bulboso ainda com traços barrocos persistindo o acúmulo formal do eclétismo com elementos tanto europeus como coloniais. As imensas pilastras externas são duplas nas laterais e torres e a modenatura se adensa no corpo da igreja que exibe um pórtico clássico ladeado de portas com arcos plenos e acima no coro, janelas com vergas coloniais.. Internamente a pompa toma conta do ambiente sacro. A grandiosidade da nave única retangular é conseguida pela profundidade e verticalidade das dez colunas neoclássicas de ordem coríntia, dispostas par a par, tão colossais quanto aquelas da capela-mor que serviu de inspiração e por onde se iniciou a ornamentação. Os festões e guirlandas no meio do fuste das colunas da capela-mor são acréscimos posteriores a 1855. A ornamentação do arco-cruzeiro é mais contida e apresenta-se como elemento construtivo. A decoração interior mesmo sendo realizada no século XIX tem a grandiosidade barroca. Assim como a construção teve vários construtores também a talha contou com vários artífices que ornamentaram a nave. Foram eles: os entalhadores Pádua e Castro (1855-1865), Cláudio Manoel dos Reis e pelos escultores Chaves Pinheiro que executou as esculturas dos doze apóstolos em madeira e Almeida Reis modelou os baixos-relevos referentes a vida do santo protetor na nave. A ornamentação da capela-mor é atribuída também ao mestre Valentim, auxiliado pelo mestre carpinteiro Florêncio Machado. Esta foi sua última obra iniciada em 1801, terminada em 1813 e reformulada por Pádua Castro em 1855. Nesta ocasião se abriu o zimbório e ampliou-se as colunas do altar-mor, aumentando o trono na nova tribuna. Uma visita à pinacoteca da ordem terceira é surpreendente pois alí se encontram obras dos pintores Manuel da Cunha, José de Oliveira Rosa, Rafael Mendes Carvalho, Claude-Joseph Barandier, Auguste Petit, Vitor Meireles Carlos Oswald entre outros.

Climate simulation for 125 kyr BP with a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model

The ECHAM-1 T21/LSG coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model (GCM) is used to simulate climatic conditions at the last interglacial maximum (Eemian. 125 kyr BP). The results reflect thc expected surface temperature changes (with respect to the control run) due to the amplification (reduction) of the seasonal cycle of insolation in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere. A number of simulated features agree with previous results from atmospheric GCM simulations e.g. intensified summer southwest monsoons) except in the Northern Hemisphere poleward of 30 degrees N. where dynamical feedback, in the North Atlantic and North Pacific increase zonal temperatures about 1 degrees C above what would be predicted from simple energy balance considerations. As this is the same area where most of the terrestrial geological data originate, this result suggests that previous estimates of Eemian global average temperature might have been biased by sample distribution. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the estimated global temperature increase of only 0.3 degrees C greater than the control run ha, been previously shown to be consistent a with CLIMAP sea surface temperature estimates. Although the Northern Hemisphere summer monsoon is intensified. globally averaged precipitation over land is within about 1% of the present, contravening some geological inferences bur not the deep-sea delta(13)C estimates of terrestrial carbon storage changes. Winter circulation changes in the northern Arabian Sea. driven by strong cooling on land, are as large as summer circulation changes that are the usual focus of interest, suggesting that interpreting variations in the Arabian Sea. sedimentary record solely in terms of the summer monsoon response could sometimes lead to errors. A small monsoonal response over northern South America suggests that interglacial paleotrends in this region were not just due to El Nino variations.

Proposta di traduzione commentata del libro per bambini “Senza occhiali rosa” della scrittrice portoghese Ana Paula Figueira

Il presente elaborato presenta una proposta di traduzione del libro intitolato ''Sem óculos cor-de-rosa'' della scrittrice portoghese Ana Paula Figueira, di cui ho cercato di proporre un adattamento in lingua italiana che fosse di semplice consultazione, per una lettura indirizzata a un pubblico giovane o giovanissimo. Dopo una breve introduzione e una veloce presentazione dell'autrice e dell'opera sono passata alla traduzione vera e propria del testo portoghese. Nei capitoli successivi ho poi aggiunto un commento sulle scelte traduttive da me operate, evidenziando quali ostacoli ho incontrato nella traduzione e come li ho risolti, al fine di produrre un testo fruibile nella lingua di arrivo, ovvero quella italiana.

Benthic foraminiferal assemblages and paleoproductivity reconstructions for the last 550 kyr of the Ontong Java Plateau, western equatorial Pacific

We analyzed foraminiferal and nannofossil assemblages and stable isotopes in samples from ODP Hole 807A on the Ontong Java Plateau in order to evaluate productivity and carbonate dissolution cycles over the last 550 kyr (kilo year) in the western equatorial Pacific. Our results indicate that productivity was generally higher in glacials than during interglacials, and gradually increased since MIS 13. Carbonate dissolution was weak in deglacial intervals, but often reached a maximum during interglacial to glacial transitions. Carbonate cycles in the western equatorial Pacific were mainly influenced by changes of deep-water properties rather than by local primary productivity. Fluctuations of the estimated thermocline depth were not related to glacial to interglacial alternations, but changed distinctly at ~280 kyr. Before that time the thermocline was relatively shallow and its depth fluctuated at a comparatively high amplitude and low frequency. After 280 kyr, the thermocline was deeper, and its fluctuations were at lower amplitude and higher frequency. These different patterns in productivity and thermocline variability suggest that thermocline dynamics probably were not a controlling factor of biological productivity in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean. In this region, upwelling, the influx of cool, nutrient-rich waters from the eastern equatorial Pacific or of fresh waters from rivers have probably never been important, and their influence on productivity has been negligible over the studied period. Variations in the inferred productivity in general are well correlated with fluctuations in the eolian flux as recorded in the northwestern Pacific, a proxy for the late Quaternary history of the central East Asian dust flux into the Pacific. Therefore, we suggest that the dust flux from the central East Asian continent may have been an important driver of productivity in the western Pacific.

A 300 kyr record of upwelling off Oman during the Late Quaternary: evidence of the Asian southwest monsoon

In the northwest Arabian Sea upwelling occurs each summer, driven by the strong SW monsoon winds. Upwelling results in high biological productivity and a distinctive assemblage of plankton species in the surface waters off Oman that are preserved in the sediments along the Oman continental margin, creating a geologic record of monsoon-driven upwelling. Sediments recovered from the Oman continental margin during Ocean Drilling Program leg 117 provide an opportunity to examine how upwelling has varied during the late Quaternary, spanning a longer interval than piston cores recovered prior to the ODP cruise. Variations in foraminifer shell accumulation and in the relative abundance of Globigerina bulloides indicate dominant cycles of variation at 1/100 kyr, the dominant frequency of glacial-interglacial variations, and at 1/23 kyr, the frequency of precessionally driven cycles in seasonal insolation. The strongest monsoon winds (indicated by increased upwelling) occurred during interglacial times when perihelion was aligned with the summer solstice, an orbital change that increased the insolation received during summer in the northern hemisphere. During glacial times upwelling was reduced, and although the precessional cycles were still present their amplitude was smaller. At both frequencies the upwelling cycles are in phase with minimum ice volume, evidence that glacial-interglacial climate changes also include changes to the climate system that influence the low-latitude monsoon. We attribute the decrease in the monsoon winds observed during glacial times to changes in bare land albedo over Asia and/or to changes in the areal extent and seasonal cycle in Asian snow cover that decrease the summer land-sea temperature contrast. Other mechanisms may also be involved. These new upwelling time series differ substantially from previous results, however the previous work relied on cores located farther offshore where upwelling is less intense and other physical mechanisms become important. Our results support the observations derived from atmospheric general circulation models of the atmosphere that indicate that both glacial boundary conditions, and the strength of summer insolation are important variables contributing to cycles in the monsoon winds during the late Quaternary.

Parameters of the Earths orbit for the last 5 Million years in 1 kyr resolution

New values for the astronomical parameters of the Earth's orbit and rotation (eccentricity, obliquity and precession) are proposed for paleoclimatic research related to the Late Miocene, the Pliocene and the Quaternary. They have been obtained from a numerical solution of the Lagrangian system of the planetary point masses and from an analytical solution of the Poisson equations of the Earth-Moon system. The analytical expansion developed in this paper allows the direct determination of the main frequencies with their phase and amplitude. Numerical and analytical comparisons with the former astronomical solution BER78 are performed so that the accuracy and the interval of time over which the new solution is valid can be estimated. The corresponding insolation values have also been computed and compared to the former ones. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the new values are expected to be reliable over the last 5 Ma in the time domain and at least over the last 10 Ma in the frequency domain.