Recovering relative locations of the 2005–2006 Mukacheve earthquakes from similarity of their waveforms at a single station

An algorithm was designed for inverting the set of cross-correlation coefficients between the records of recurrent earthquakes by a single station for their relative locations based on an assumption of Menke (1999) that the cross-correlation is only a function of separation between the sources and decays exponentially with it. Tested on synthetic data sets, the algorithm easily recovered the true relative locations, the initial ones seeded randomly. Inversion of the cross-correlation coefficients between the records of the two groups of the Mukacheve 2005–2006 recurrent earthquakes by the station Mukacheve steadily produced an almost flat shape of hypocenter cloud for each of the groups, final relative locations of hypocenters being almost the same for different initial seedlings. The combined set of cross-correlation coefficients for both groups was also inverted, and the shape of the combined hypocenter cloud was almost flat again. These results compare well with ones obtained earlier (Gnyp 2010) by relocating the Mukacheve earthquakes with the use of differential arrivals and source specific station terms.     

Investigation of mining-induced earthquakes in Iran within a time window of 2006–2013

Iran is one of the most seismically active areas of the world and frequently suffers from destructive earthquakes. Rare studies on anthropogenic-induced seismicity in Iran may be related to less attention to triggered events and more concern to natural origin of earthquakes. Hence, the present study as a frontier research aims to investigate the mining-induced earthquakes in Iran. For this purpose, distribution of ~?76,000 seismic events was investigated between the years 2006 and 2013. This study considered a correlation test to investigate the possible mining triggering of the seismic events based on a network of 194 geographical pixels (1°?×?1°) in ArcGIS. Results conveniently confirmed a positive meaningful relation between all earthquake events with magnitudes M?>?0.5 and mining activities in Iran (R?=?0.42). Detailed results confirmed that the most of earthquake swarms (at least ~?60%) had mining-induced origin, which were spatially located in same pixels of metallic mineral mining sites. The correlation test between earthquake swarms and mining activities indicated positive and meaningful relationships in four regions of Alborz, Kopet Dag, Kerman, and Zagros, respectively (R?=?0.61, 0.54, 0.51, and 0.50). Hence, aforementioned seismic regions exposed sensitive seismic responses toward mining triggering effects in Iran.     

Lateral spreading: Evidence and interpretation from the 2010–2011 Christchurch earthquakes

In the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes widespread liquefaction occurred over nearly half of the urban area of Christchurch. The most severe damage to buildings and infrastructure was often associated with lateral spreading and consequent large ground distortion and permanent ground displacements. This paper presents analysis, results and interpretation of lateral spreads using measurements from detailed ground surveying at a large number of locations along the Avon River. Classification of lateral spreads based on the magnitude and spatial distribution of permanent ground displacements is first presented, and then key characteristics of soil layers and ground conditions associated with different classes of lateral spreads are identified and discussed. Evidence of both global effects from topographic features and local effects related to density, thickness and continuity of critical layers is presented highlighting the need for a systematic approach in the engineering evaluation of lateral spreading in which particular attention is given to key factors governing lateral spreading.     

Site-specific and spatially-distributed ground-motion intensity estimation in the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes

This paper presents site-specific and spatially-distributed ground-motion intensity estimates which have been utilized in the aftermath of the 2010–2011 Canterbury, New Zealand earthquakes. The methodology underpinning the ground motion intensity estimation makes use of both prediction models for ground motion intensity and its within-event spatial correlation. A key benefit of the methodology is that the estimated ground motion intensity at a given location is not a single value but a distribution of values. The distribution is comprised of both a mean and standard deviation, with the standard deviation being a function of the distance to nearby observations at strong motion stations.The methodology is illustrated for two applications. Firstly, maps of conditional peak ground acceleration (PGA) have been developed for the major events in the Canterbury earthquake sequence, which among other things, have been utilized for assessing liquefaction triggering susceptibility of land in residential areas. Secondly, the conditional distribution of response spectral ordinates is obtained at the location of the Canterbury Television building (CTV), which catastrophically collapsed in the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The conditional response spectra provide insight for the selection of ground motion records for use in forensic seismic response analyses of important structures at locations where direct recordings are absent.     

Refining locations of the 2005–2006 recurrent earthquakes in Mukacheve,West Ukraine,and implications for their source mechanism and the local tectonics

Three groups of recurrent events have been identified within the 2005–2006 Mukacheve series of about forty M _SH 0.3–1.8 near-surface earthquakes. After a cross-correlation analysis of their waveforms and subsequent relocation with application of the adjusted arrivals and station terms it turned out that they most likely belong to at least two distinct crustal layers separated by an interface at about 4 km; the seismic activation started deeper and progressed upwards. As concerns polarities of first arrivals, the same source mechanism was inferred within individual groups, indicating a normal faulting along the Az ≈ 120° with a slight component of right lateral slip; this finding is consistent with data available on some other local sources, as well as with an ambient field of extensional stresses in the local crust and a significant horizontal gradient of vertical movements across the epicenter area of the Mukacheve series.     

Time–frequency analysis of the 2012 double earthquakes records in North-West of Iran

On August 11, 2012, East-Azerbuijan province experienced moderate-size double earthquakes, approximately 60 km northeast of the city of Tabriz. The time–frequency characteristics of ground motion records during these events which caused widespread damage to the structures are investigated in detail. Wavelet transform were applied in this study as a powerful technique to detect the transient and non-stationary features associated in amplitude and frequency of ground motions. The top four PGA ground-motion records from the first and second events were used in the analysis. As a preliminary estimates, the energy contents of horizontal and vertical components of ground-motion records related to building damages were critically evaluated and discussed at different frequency level. Results of energy distribution on pseudo-period corresponding to each decomposition level show good consistency with the level of damage in the stricken area. The focus of this study on the causes of damage considering the energy content of ground motion records is helping to improve the engineering insight in design process of earthquake-resistant buildings.     

Triggered and tectonic driven earthquakes in the Koyna–Warna region,western India

Two strong M?>?5.0 earthquakes within a span of six months occurred in a triggered seismicity environment in the Koyna–Warna region in western India in 2000. The region is experiencing continued seismicity since the last five decades indicating that this region is close to critical stresses and minor perturbations in the stresses due to reservoir loading and unloading can trigger earthquakes. In the present study we applied the technique developed for identification of prognostic anomalies for tectonic earthquakes to the Koyna–Warna catalogue prior to these two earthquakes with an aim to study the process of source preparation for triggered earthquakes. In case of tectonic earthquakes, unstable conditions in a source zone develop gradually leading to a metastable zone which shows variations in certain seismicity parameters known as prognostic anomalies. Our results indicate that the variations in seismicity parameters before the two strong earthquakes in the Koyna region have a pattern of prognostic anomalies typical of tectonic earthquakes. We conclude that initiation of failure in a metastable zone can be caused both, by external impacts, reservoir loading and unloading in our case, and internal processes of avalanche-like failure development.     

Seismogenic mechanism of the Lancang and Gengma earthquakes

Ｓｅｉｓｍｏｇｅｎｉｃ　ｍｅｃｈａｎｉｓｍ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　Ｌａｎｃａｎｇ　ａｎｄ　Ｇｅｎｇｍａ　ｅａｒｔｈｑｕａｋｅｓ（俞维贤）（周瑞琦）（候学英）（周光全）ＳｅｉｓｍｏｇｅｎｉｃｍｅｃｈａｎｉｓｍｏｆｔｈｅＬａｎｃａｎｇａｎｄＧｅｎｇｍａｅａｒｔｈ...     

Magnitudes and time distribution of the swarm earthquakes August–November 2000 in NW Bohemia

During the earthquake swarm in the north-western part of the Czech Republic which happened between August and November 2000 more than 10 500 single events have been recorded at the station Wernitzgruen (WERN), located in the Vogtland (Germany) at about 13 km hypocentral distance. Most of the events were weak and followed each other so closely in time that they could not be identified at more distant stations in Middle Europe. A procedure to determine magnitudes of very small events from recordings in short distances is realized and discussed. The development over time of the seismic activity shows the typical pattern of previous earthquake swarms in this region consisting of multiple swarm episodes. For the first time, however, it is analysed using the time intervals between successive events. However, no new and reproducible patterns were found which could be useful for prognostics of future swarm activities.     

Measurement of aerosol optical thickness over the Atlantic Ocean and in West Antarctica, 2006–2007

In this paper, optical measurements of aerosol properties made during a ship cruise from Poland to Antarctic Station in September and October 2006, and during the cruise back to Gdynia in April and May 2007 are described. A large gradient of pollution between the clear South Atlantic and the dusty North Atlantic was observed. The maximum of aerosol optical thickness at a wavelength of 500 nm reached 0.4 at 20°N in September 2006 and 0.3 at 40°N in May 2007, respectively. Strong Saharan dust transport is suggested as an explanation for the small values of Ångström exponent observed (values of 0.2 and 0.4 on these respective dates). On the Southern Hemisphere the aerosol optical thickness at 500 nm ranged from 0.05 to 0.2. Significant increases of the aerosol optical thickness were associated with strong wind and sea salt production. Good agreement was found when the in situ measurements of aerosol optical thickness were compared to satellite retrievals and modelling results.     

Study on the variation characteristics of the geoelectric field preceding earthquakes

Introduction Geoelectric field is one of the proper physical fields of the Earth. It is controlled by the vari-ous current systems originating outside of the Earth and the internal electrical structure of the Earth as well as the underground current origin. It carries a great amount of information coming from the Earths interior. At present, a lot of observations and studies about the geoelectric field have been made in the world. Many applications and studies of the geoelectric field in the…     

Plumb line variation at Tangshan during 1987–1998 and its relation with the earthquakes around

Plumb line variations (PLV) at Tangshan during the years of 1987–1998 are determined by using the 46 batch repeated gravity observations of the Beijing-Tangshan network. It has been found that PLV at Tangshan are related with the 38 earthquakes in this period. It appears that the time of an earthquake around Tangshan is usually quite the same when PLV at Tangshan begins moving in opposite direction. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10633030)     

Investigation of historical earthquakes in the northeastern Fujian area

Taking the northeastern Fujian area as an example, we provide some new technological ideas and contents for the historical earthquake investigation of significant engineering construction sites. ① Make sure the integrity of earthquake materials with reference to the regional histories of culture and disasters; ② Evaluate the influence of historical earthquakes on the basis of actual records, review and identify the epicenter location and magnitude of destructive earthquakes. The research by the new technological ideas will endue the investigation of historical earthquakes with new meanings in the cultural phylogeny and credible time domain, so as to make the results of historical earthquake research more scientific. The aim of the paper is to improve the level of historical earthquake investigation for a better service to the engineering construction.     

Evidence of earthquakes triggered by the tidal force of the sun and the moon——On the temporal characteristics of the earthquakes in Xingtai,Hejian and Tangshan

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＵｎｔｉｌｎｏｗ,ｍａｎｙｏｂｓｅｒｖａｔｉｏｎｓａｎｄｓｔｕｄｉｅｓｓｈｏｗｔｈａｔｉｎａｃｅｒｔａｉｎａｒｅａｓａｎｄｄｕｒｉｎｇａｃｅｒｔａｉｎｐｅｒｉｏｄｍａｊｏｒｅａｒｔｈｑｕａｋｅｓｆｒｅｑｕｅｎｔｌｙｏｃｕｒｅｄ...     

Study on the correlativity of earthquakes impact on cities

Introduction With rapid development and advancement of economy and society, lots of city groups or city belts with ex-tra-large cities as their centers have been formed in China. The regions these city groups lie in usually have well-developed economy, dense population, and are regional politics and culture centers. Some groups lie in the regions with high level of earthquake activity, such as the Surrounding Capital City Group with the centers of Bei-jing and Tianjin. Once a large earthqua…     

Study on determination of stress level by seismic stress drops and the stress axis deflections before and after large earthquakes

Introduction The study of tectonic stress field, a major branch of the Earth science, plays an important role in geodynamics. The world stress map plan started from 1980s and was leaded by Zoback. Lots of scientists from many countries participated this plan. The plan collected global tectonic stress measurements and research results and established global stress database. The world stress map was edited based on the global stress database. The world stress map reflected feature of global li…     

An example of earthquake nucleation of the strong continental earthquakes

IntroductionThe study on earthquake nucleation is widely concerned by seismologists in the world. The experimental and theoretical studies indicate that earthquakes should be preceded by quasi-static slip within a nucleation zone (Ohnaka, 1992; Dodge, Beroza, 1995; Dodge, et al, 1996; Ohnaka, Kuwahara, 1990; Yamashita, Ohnaka, 1991). The earthquake nucleation process means a transition from quasi-static to quasi-dynamic rupture process, and it itself is a short-term precursor. Immediate fo…     

Grouping occurrences being the fundamental feature of the strong earthquakes in Chinese mainland

ＧｒｏｕｐｉｎｇｏｃｃｕｒｒｅｎｃｅｓｂｅｉｎｇｔｈｅｆｕｎｄａｍｅｎｔａｌｆｅａｔｕｒｅｏｆｔｈｅｓｔｒｏｎｇｅａｒｔｈｑｕａｋｅｓｉｎＣｈｉｎｅｓｅｍａｉｎｌａｎｄＱｉｎ－ＺｕＬＩ（李钦祖）；Ｌｉ－ＭｉｎＹＵ（于利民）；Ｊｉ－ＹｉＷＡＮＧ（王吉易...