Lake Ohrid Basin is a graben structure situated in the Dinarides at the border of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Albania. It hosts one of the oldest lakes in Europe and is characterized by a basin and range-like geological setting together with the halfgraben basins of Korca, Erseka and Debar. The basin is surrounded by Paleozoic metamorphics in the northeast and north and Mesozoic ultramafic, carbonatic and magmatic rocks in the east, northwest, west and south. Paleocene to Pliocene units are present in the southwest. With the basin development, Neogene sediments from Pliocene to recent deposited in the lows. There are three major deformation phases: (A) NW–SE shortening from Late Cretaceous to Miocene; (B) uplift and diminishing compression during Messinian – Pliocene; (C) vertical uplift and (N)E–(S)W extension from Pliocene to recent led to the basin formation. Neotectonic activity of the study area concentrates on N–S trending normal faults that bound the Ohrid Basin eastwards and westwards. Seismic activity with moderate to strong events is documented during the last 2000 yrs; the seismic hazard level is among the highest in Albania and Macedonia. Activity of the youngest faults is evidenced by earthquake data and field observations. Morphotectonic features like fault scarps, a stepped series of active normal faults, deformed paleosols, a wind gap and fault-related hydrothermal activity are preserved around Lake Ohrid and allow delineating the tectonic history. It is shown that the Lake Ohrid Basin can be characterized as a seismogenic landscape. This paper presents a tectonic history of the Lake Ohrid Basin and describes tectonic features that are preserved in the recent landscape. The analysis of morphotectonic features is used to derive the deformation history. The stratigraphy of the area is summarized and concentrates on the main units.

During mechanical tunnel driving, the excavated material often leads to several problems. For example, the sticking of clay in a tunnel boring machine can occur at various surfaces: at the cutting wheel, in the mixing chamber, and in the transport system. Unfortunately, it is presently very difficult to quantify the adhesion by using laboratory tests. Additionally, methods used to address the clogging are still based on empirical attempts without acting on the mineralogical properties of the clays. Atterberg limit determinations and undrained shear tests were performed in order to observe the variation of these simple mechanical properties for smectite-quartz powder mixtures with water and different electrolytes (e.g., NaCl and CaCl₂). Additionally, the clogging potential of pure smectite-quartz powder mixtures with water, NaCl, and CaCl₂ was quantified by the so-called cone pull-out test. NaCl and CaCl₂ solutions reduce the clogging of smectite-quartz mixtures in the laboratory due to a decrease in the liquid limit and plasticity index. This work will help researchers to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that influence clogging during mechanical tunnel driving in clayey soil sediments, as the effects of different electrolytes on the variation of soil sediment properties.

This study focuses on the adoption of a modern, widely-used Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) application to investigate volcanic rock slopes in Ribeira de João Gomes valley (Funchal, Madeira island). The TLS data acquisition in May and December 2008 provided information for a characterization of the volcanic environment, detailed structural analysis and detection of potentially unstable rock masses on a slope. Using this information, it was possible to determine specific parameters for numerical rockfall simulations such as average block size, shape or potential sources. By including additional data, such as surface roughness, the results from numerical rockfall simulations allowed us to classify different hazardous areas based on run-out distances, frequency of impacts and related kinetic energy. Afterwards, a monitoring of hazardous areas can be performed in order to establish a rockfall inventory.