Determination of earthquake early warning parameters, τc and Pd, for southern California

We explore a practical approach to earthquake early warning in southern California by determining a ground-motion period parameter  τ _c   and a high-pass filtered displacement amplitude parameter Pd from the initial 3 s of the P waveforms recorded at the Southern California Seismic Network stations for earthquakes with M > 4.0. At a given site, we estimate the magnitude of an event from  τ _c   and the peak ground-motion velocity ( PGV ) from Pd . The incoming three-component signals are recursively converted to ground acceleration, velocity and displacement. The displacements are recursively filtered with a one-way Butterworth high-pass filter with a cut-off frequency of 0.075 Hz, and a P -wave trigger is constantly monitored. When a trigger occurs,  τ _c   and Pd are computed. We found the relationship between  τ _c   and magnitude ( M ) for southern California, and between Pd and PGV for both southern California and Taiwan. These two relationships can be used to detect the occurrence of a major earthquake and provide onsite warning in the area around the station where onset of strong ground motion is expected within seconds after the arrival of the P wave. When the station density is high, the methods can be applied to multistation data to increase the robustness of onsite early warning and to add the regional warning approach. In an ideal situation, such warnings would be available within 10 s of the origin time of a large earthquake whose subsequent ground motion may last for tens of seconds.     

New seismogenic source and deep structures revealed by the 1999 Chia-yi earthquake sequence in southwestern Taiwan

In a tectonically active setting large earthquakes are always threats; however, they may also be useful in elucidating the subsurface geology. Instrumentally recorded seismicity is, therefore, widely utilized to extend our knowledge into the deeper crust, especially where basement is involved. It is because the earthquakes are triggered by underground stress changes that usually corresponding to the framework of geological structures. Hidden faults, therefore, can be recognized and their extension as well as orientation can be estimated. Both above are of relevance for assessment on seismic hazard of a region, since the active faults are supposed to be re-activated and cause large earthquakes. In this study, we analysed the 1999 October 22 earthquake sequence that occurred in southwestern Taiwan. Two major seismicity clusters were identified with spatial distribution between depths of 10 and 16 km. One cluster is nearly vertical and striking 032°, corresponding to the strike-slip Meishan fault (MSF) that generated the 1906 surface rupture. Another cluster strikes 190° and dips 64° to the west, which is interpreted as west-vergent reverse fault, in contrast to previous expectation of east vergence. Our analysis of the focal solutions of all the larger earthquakes in the 1999 sequence with the 3-D distribution of all the earthquakes over the period 1990–2004 allows us reinterpret the structural framework and suggest previously unreognized seismogenic sources in this area. We accordingly suggest: (1) multiple detachment faults are present in southwestern Taiwan coastal plain and (2) additional seismogenic sources consist of tear faults and backthrust faults in addition to sources associated with west-vergent fold-and-thrust belt.     

The first peak ground motion attenuation relationships for North of Vietnam

The first attenuation relationships of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and peak ground velocity (PGV) for northern Vietnam are obtained in this study. Ground motion data are collected by a portable broadband seismic network in northern Vietnam as a part of cooperation between the Institute of Geophysics, Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, Vietnam and Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. The database comprises a total of 330 amplitude records by 14 broadband stations from 53 shallow earthquakes, which were occurred in and around northern Vietnam in the period between 01/2006 and 12/2009. These earthquakes are of local magnitudes between 1.6 and 4.6, focal depths less than 30 km, and epicentral distances less than 500 km. The new attenuation relationships for PGA and PGV are:

log₁₀(PGA)=-0.987+0.7521M_L-log₁₀(R)-0.00475R,     

Assessment of long-term variation in displacement for a GPS site adjacent to a transition zone between collision and subduction

A transition and subduction zone adjacent to the Ryukyu Arc, Ryukyu Trench, and Okinawa Trough, extends between southern Japan and northeastern Taiwan. It is generated during the northwestward subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate, which lies the Eurasian Plate along the Ryukyu Trench. The movement of the Philippine Sea Plate is hindered at the northeastern corner of Taiwan, which causes complicated structure of the Philippine Sea Plate at the western end of the Ryukyu subduction zone. Development of the active subduction and transition boundary near the western Ryukyu Arc is evaluated statistically by using displacements derived from GPS site data. The statistical model shows that the absolute displacement derived from GPS measurements of nearly 8 years indicates a maximum spatial variation of 0.625 m. Three trends are observed for such long-term progress, and use of linear regression also reveals quite good consistency between the data and statistic models. Such rate is also elevated following the trend development. Southeastern and nearly horizontal movement is suggested to the main development of for the site movements, it is likely related to the tensional activity adjacent to this boundary.     

Uncertainty propagation of hydrodispersive transfer in an aquifer: an illustration of one-dimensional contaminant transport with slug injection

It is evident that the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient and linear flow velocity dominate solute transport in aquifers. Both of them play important roles characterizing contaminant transport. However, by definition, the parameter of contaminant transport cannot be measured directly. For most problems of contaminant transport, a conceptual model for solute transport generally is established to fit the breakthrough curve obtained from field testing, and then suitable curve matching or the inverse solution of a theoretical model is used to determine the parameter. This study presents a one-dimensional solute transport problem for slug injection. Differential analysis is used to analyze uncertainty propagation, which is described by the variance and mean. The uncertainties of linear velocity and hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient are, respectively, characterized by the second-power and fourth-power of the length scale multiplied by a lumped relationship of variance and covariance of system parameters, i.e. the Peclet number and arrival time of maximum concentration. To validate the applicability for evaluating variance propagation in one-dimensional solute transport, two cases using field data are presented to demonstrate how parametric uncertainty can be caught depending on the manner of sampling.     

Approximate recovery of coseismic deformation from Taiwan strong-motion records

Since 1990, digital strong-motion accelerographs and global positioning system (GPS) instruments have been widely deployed in the Taiwan region (Shin et al. 2003; Yu et al. 2001). The 1999 Chi-Chi, Mw 7.6 earthquake and the 2003 Chengkung, Mw 6.8 earthquake were well recorded by both digital accelerographs and GPS instruments. These data offer a good opportunity to determine coseismic displacements from strong-motion records and to compare the results with those derived from GPS measurements. As noted by Boore (2001), a double integration of the acceleration data often leads to unreasonable results, and baseline corrections are therefore required in most cases before the integration. Based on the works of Iwan et al. (1985) and Boore (2001), we developed an improved method for baseline correction and validated it using an extensive set of data from shake-table tests of a known “step” displacement on 249 accelerographs. Our baseline correction method recovered about 97% of the actual displacement from the shake-table data. We then applied this baseline correction method to compute coseismic displacements from the strong-motion data of the Chi-Chi and Chengkung earthquakes. Our results agree favorably with the coseismic displacements determined by the GPS measurements at nearby sites. The ratio of seismic to geodetic displacement varies from 0.78 to 1.41, with an average of about 1.05.     

An automatic scheme for baseline correction of strong-motion records in coseismic deformation determination

Coseismic deformation can be determined from strong-motion records of large earthquakes. Iwan et al. (Bull Seismol Soc Am 75:1225–1246, 1985) showed that baseline corrections are often required to obtain reliable coseismic deformation because baseline offsets lead to unrealistic permanent displacements. Boore (Bull Seismol Soc Am 91:1199–1211, 2001) demonstrated that different choices of time points for baseline correction can yield realistically looking displacements, but with variable amplitudes. The baseline correction procedure of Wu and Wu (J Seismol 11:159–170, 2007) improved upon Iwan et al. (Bull Seismol Soc Am 75:1225–1246, 1985) and achieved stable results. However, their time points for baseline correction were chosen by a recursive process with an artificial criterion. In this study, we follow the procedure of Wu and Wu (J Seismol 11:159–170, 2007) but use the ratio of energy distribution in accelerograms as the criterion to determine the time points of baseline correction automatically, thus avoiding the manual choice of time points and speeding up the estimation of coseismic deformation. We use the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in central Taiwan and the 2003 Chengkung and 2006 Taitung earthquakes in eastern Taiwan to illustrate this new approach. Comparison between the results from this and previous studies shows that our new procedure is suitable for quick and reliable determination of coseismic deformation from strong-motion records.     

Sea level fluctuations on the east coast of Taiwan that overlie continental shelf break

Captured CO₂ could be deliberately injected into the ocean at great depth, where most of it would remain isolated from the atmosphere for centuries. CO₂ can be transported via pipeline or ship for release in the ocean or on the sea floor. No matter what for medium depth or deep sea, it appears that a potential area exists between 122–122.5°E and 21.8–22.3°N for CO₂ sequestration. The east coast of Taiwan can be a candidate for CO₂ temporary storage or transmitted plant. To have whole picture of assessment of sea level fluctuation, a completed statistical summary of seasonal sea level at six tidal gauge stations along the east coast of Taiwan is provided herein. Seasonal sea level time series is analyzed using spectral analysis in frequency domain to identify periodic component and phase propagation, especially for the astronomical-driven tidal effects. It identifies that the semi-diurnal and diurnal components in the resultant time series are related to astronomical tides M₂, and K₁ and O₁, respectively. It demonstrates a full analysis of sea level variations, and results can be useful when construction of testing or operating facilities on sea surface becomes desirable in the future.