Morphologic features of juvenile pyroclasts from magmatic and phreatomagmatic deposits of Vesuvius

Three eruptive sequences of historical and recent activity of Vesuvius were carefully studied using scanning electron microscopy analysis techniques. The aim of this study was to characterize and distinguish deposits from magmatic and phreatomagmatic eruption phases.The sample pretreatment methods from previous authors were reviewed and a washing technique was checked, making it possible to obtain easily examinable samples without modifying their morphologic features.In each stratigraphic sequence the single samples were examined and their shape, type of vesiculation, and state of glass (edge modification by abrasion, alteration, presence of aggregates, secondary minerals and coatings) were analyzed and described.Characteristic features were recognized for deposits from different eruptive phases. Samples from phreatomagmatic deposits show the following features:

• - glass alteration;

• - presence of secondary minerals on the external surfaces or inside the cavities;

• - coatings;

• - presence of aggregate formed by juvenile and lithic particles.

Other features, indicated by many authors as resulting from magma-water interaction, can arise from different mechanisms and cannot discriminate between phreatomagmatic and magmatic nature of deposits.The juvenile clasts from the phreatomagmatic phases of these eruptions of Vesuvius always show primary vesiculation; this observation supports the presence of fragmented magma at the time when interaction occurred.The conclusions from SEM observations are in perfect agreement with the results of granulometric and component analysis on the same eruptive sequences.     

Geodetic measurements on the Asal Rift (Djibouti): Twelve years of observations

The resurvey of both a geodetic network and a levelling net was carried out in June 1981, 8 months after the M_s = 7.3 El Asnam earthquake of 10 October 1980. Previous seismological and neotectonic studies indicate that this event results from a north-east-trending overthrust complex fault of about 40-km length, which shows at least three principal segments with slightly different directions.Vertical movements, evaluated by means of a trigonometric levelling method show an uplift of the thrust fault of about 5 m and a depression of the southeastern edge of about 1 m. These movements are progressively attenuated away from the fault trace (see fig. 1). Horizontal movements have been evaluated by a classical first-order triangulation method. (see fig. 2 and table 1).The resulting mean strain tensors, calculated for different triangles of the geodetic network, indicate a shortening of about 2.50 m which is consistent with the SE-NW direction of compression determined from neotectonic evaluations and focal mechanisms (see fig. 3). Dislocation models are used to explain and discuss the observed deformations in the light of the seismological data and the observed ground breakages. Five segments are required to explain both horizontal and vertical deformations. The magnitude of vertical displacement (about 6 m) at the junction between the southwest and the central segments of the fault argues for the breaking of this area during the main shock and for a slip vector of about 8 m, at least in the central segment.In such circumstances where the first field observations show that a strong coseismic movement has taken place, the best methodology to be used seems to be:

• - to resurvey as quickly as possible the widest acceptable zone of the old existing geodetic network, without special attention paid to the precision of these measurements.

• - to set up as soon as possible a small aperture geodetic network of high accuracy in order to monitor the possible postseismic readjustments.

For vertical movements, trigonometric leveling using reciprocal zenith measurements with two high-precision theodolites and EDM appears to be far the best solution. It is much quicker than classical leveling and it can afford the same precision if necessary. In our case, the precision was not critical, so that long ranges (up to 1500 m) between stations were used when necessary.     

Double-difference relocation of earthquakes in central-western China, 1992–1999

The double-difference earthquake location algorithm was applied to the relocation of 10,057 earthquakes that occurred in central-western China (21^∘N to 36^∘N, 98^∘E to 111^∘E) during the period from 1992 to 1999. In total, 79,706 readings for P waves and 72,169 readings for S waves were used in the relocation. The relocated seismicity (6,496 earthquakes) images fault structures at seismogenic depths that are in close correlation with the tectonic structure of major fault systems expressed at the surface. The new focal depths confirm that most earthquakes (91%) in this region occur at depths less than 20 km.     

International standard (ISO) on seismic actions for designing geotechnical works–An overview

The seismic performance of geotechnical works is significantly affected by ground displacement. In particular, soil–structure interaction and effects of liquefaction play major roles and pose difficult problems for engineers. An International Standard, ISO23469, is being developed for addressing these issues in a systematic manner within a consistent framework. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of this International Standard.In this International Standard, the seismic actions are determined through two stages. The first stage determines basic seismic action variables, including the earthquake ground motion at the site, the potential for earthquake-associated phenomena such as liquefaction and induced lateral ground displacement. These basic variables are used, in the second stage, for specifying the seismic actions for designing geotechnical works. In the second stage, the soil–structure interaction plays a major role. Types of analyses are classified based on a combination of static/dynamic analyses and the procedure for soil–structure interaction classified as follows:

– simplified: soil–structure interaction of a global system is modeled as an action on a substructure;

– detailed: soil–structure interaction of a global system is modeled as a coupled system.

The effectiveness of nitrate vulnerable zones for limiting surface water nitrate concentrations

This study considers the surface water concentrations of nitrate in areas designated as nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs) for between 12 and 15 years. The study proposes a range of tests of the effectiveness of nitrate management within the NVZs and in particular the results from within NVZs were compared to a range of controls. The tests show that:

(i) Sixty-nine percent of NVZs showed no significant improvement in surface water concentrations even after 15 years.

(ii) In comparison to a control catchment 29% of NVZs showed a significant improvement but 31% showed a significant worsening.

(iii) The average improvement relative to a control due to NVZ designation was 0.02 ± 0.08 mg N/l/yr.

(iv) Differences between NVZs could not be significantly related to the size of the NVZ, uptake of the scheme, extent of uptake, land use change or geology of the local aquifer.

(v) Land use data suggest that NVZ designation buffered the designated areas against wider changes in arable farming in England and helped maintain a higher proportion of arable within the areas than would be expected.

The lack of objective success for NVZ designation suggests that nitrate pollution control strategies based on input management need to be rethought.     

A new ellipsoidal gravimetric, satellite altimetry and astronomic boundary value problem, a case study: The geoid of Iran

A new gravimetric, satellite altimetry, astronomical ellipsoidal boundary value problem for geoid computations has been developed and successfully tested. This boundary value problem has been constructed for gravity observables of the type (i) gravity potential, (ii) gravity intensity (i.e. modulus of gravity acceleration), (iii) astronomical longitude, (iv) astronomical latitude and (v) satellite altimetry observations. The ellipsoidal coordinates of the observation points have been considered as known quantities in the set-up of the problem in the light of availability of GPS coordinates. The developed boundary value problem is ellipsoidal by nature and as such takes advantage of high precision GPS observations in the set-up. The algorithmic steps of the solution of the boundary value problem are as follows:

- Application of the ellipsoidal harmonic expansion complete up to degree and order 360 and of the ellipsoidal centrifugal field for the removal of the effect of global gravity and the isostasy field from the gravity intensity and the astronomical observations at the surface of the Earth.

- Application of the ellipsoidal Newton integral on the multi-cylindrical equal-area map projection surface for the removal from the gravity intensity and the astronomical observations at the surface of the Earth the effect of the residual masses at the radius of up to 55 km from the computational point.

- Application of the ellipsoidal harmonic expansion complete up to degree and order 360 and ellipsoidal centrifugal field for the removal from the geoidal undulations derived from satellite altimetry the effect of the global gravity and isostasy on the geoidal undulations.

- Application of the ellipsoidal Newton integral on the multi-cylindrical equal-area map projection surface for the removal from the geoidal undulations derived from satellite altimetry the effect of the water masses outside the reference ellipsoid within a radius of 55 km around the computational point.

- Least squares solution of the observation equations of the incremental quantities derived from aforementioned steps in order to obtain the incremental gravity potential at the surface of the reference ellipsoid.

- The removed effects at the application points are restored on the surface of reference ellipsoid.

- Application of the ellipsoidal Bruns’ formula for converting the potential values on the surface of the reference ellipsoid into the geoidal heights with respect to the reference ellipsoid.

- Computation of the geoid of Iran has successfully tested this new methodology.

Nested structure of plankton communities from Chilean freshwaters

1. Nestedness has been recognized as a characteristic pattern of community organization. In a nested metacommunity, species-poor sites are proper subsets of relatively richer sites, implying that the conservation of many poor habitats can be ineffective.

2. Here we compiled the last 30 years of published limnological research on Chilean lakes, in order to determine whether or not species distribution of freshwater plankton communities exhibit a nested structure, and which habitat features best explain the observed biogeographic order.

3. We built presence–absence matrices for diatoms, green algae, blue-green algae, cladocerans, copepods, rotifers, as well as for the grouped phytoplankton and zooplankton. For each matrix, we calculated their degree of nestedness and tested whether or not they differ from matrices assembled according to two alternative null models. From nestedness results, we identified a minimal set of lakes that contain 75% of the regional species pool. After that, we evaluated whether nestedness is maintained when the community structure is organized according to latitude, altitude, area and isolation of lakes.

4. Our analyses reveal that total phytoplankton, total zooplankton, as well as diatom, cladoceran, copepod, and rotifer assemblages of Chilean lakes are not randomly assembled but highly nested. Conversely, green and blue-green algae did not show a clear nested structure. A few sites (3–5) ranked by nestedness for each taxonomic group, covered 75% of the species pool. Finally, we found that surface area and isolation of lakes were the two variables more likely to affect nestedness.

The prediction of large explosions of andesitic volcanoes

During the large explosions of the Bezymianny (1956), Shiveluch (1964) and Mount St. Helens (1980) volcanoes, 4.8·10¹², 3.0·10¹² and 8.2·10¹² kg of resurgent and magmatic material were ejected respectively. The eruptions were preceded and accompanied by significant crustal deformations and by a great number of volcanic earthquakes. In all three cases, earthquakes with an energy of E = 10⁹ J occurred 8–11 days before the eruption; their foci were at a distance of less than 5 km from the floor of the active crater and the power of earthquake swarms increased continuously and monotonously until the beginning of the eruption. The data obtained on deformations, earthquakes and volcanic activity may be used for the prediction of the place, time, energy and hazards of large explosions of andesitic volcanoes.     

The acoustic emission from rock under stress and hydraulic pressure

The essential conditions for effective and ecologically safe exploitation of underground waste storage are maintenance, prevention, and monitoring of tightness of rock masses covering and surrounding the reservoir rock complex. This monitoring can be realized by a especially designed acoustic measurement system.The reservoir rock complexes - without leakage - are supposed to be in physical equilibrium; without changes of rock dynamic properties the acoustic emission vanishes. In contrast, as is shown, the results of the field tests carried out in coal mines proved that there was a correlation between the stresses and the acoustic emission ratio. The laboratory experiments also showed correlation between changes of permeability of coal samples and acoustic emission.the explanation of the observed results is based on the development of inelastic deformation of a rock skeleton. The plastic strains in the porous rock appear after overcoming the yield point. The yield point value can be extended by increase of shear stresses, effective stresses and interstitial pressure.In particular, there are three kinds of dynamic phases which may appear preceding the failure of leak tightness:

1. (1) breaking of the rock masses due to stress (Griffith criterion of stability may be expressed in terms of the acoustic emission parameters),

2. (2) the dilatant corrosion of pressure plasticity resulting from chemical, physical and thermal activities, and

3. (3) the destructive increase of pressure in rock pores.

This paper presents the statistical parameters describing the acoustic emission from the rock mass and the dynamic processes mentioned above are described in terms of seismoacoustic activity.     

Earthquake ground motion in Mexico City: An analysis of data recorded at Roma array

We analysed in detail three earthquakes recorded in a small-aperture accelerometric array in Mexico City, using the correlation of the records as a function of time along the accelerogram and frequency. Ground response is strongly conditioned by the fundamental period of the soft soils at the site of the array (T₀). Energy at periods longer than 2T₀ is guided by the crustal structure (with a thickness of 45 km). The wave field at periods between T₀ and 2T₀ also consists of surface waves but guided by the upper 2–3 km of volcanic sediments in central Mexico. For periods smaller than T₀, ground motion is uncorrelated among the stations. Our results indicate that seismic response of Mexico City, including its very long duration, results from deeply guided surface waves (between 2 and 45 km depth) interacting with the very local response of the soft surficial clay layer.     

Teleseismic body waves extracted from ambient noise cross correlation between F-net and ChinArray phase II

The vertical-vertical noise cross-correlation functions (NCFs) between two seismic arrays, the Japan F-net and ChinArray phase II, are calculated using continuous recordings during 2013–2016. After array interferometry to obtain bin stacked NCFs, clear body waves are retrieved at different period bands. Teleseismic direct P waves for distance 15–40 degrees are observed between short period 3–10 ?s while core reflected PcP/ScS waves are more obvious for longer period 30–60s. The signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) of the short period P waves reaches its highest point with bin widths around 20 ?km while SNRs of PcP and ScS increase slowly with bin width. All those body waves demonstrate clear directivity with strong signals traveling from the east. The time-lapse SNR variations for the PcP and ScS show correlation with the occurrence of major earthquakes, while the P-wave SNR demonstrates seasonal variations with additional contribution from major earthquakes. The present results suggest teleseismic body waves can be retrieved through bin stacking, though further processing is still necessary to obtain finer waveforms such as P wave triplications.     

Potassium-argon dating of igneous activity in the central Chilean Andes — latitude 33°S

Potassium-argon dating of volcanic and plutonic rocks in the Andean region of central Chile has revealed previously unrecognized episodes of igneous activity during Cretaceous and Cenozoic time. These results indicate the need to re-evaluate the classic stratigraphic subdivisions that have evolved on lithologic rather than time-stratigraphic criteria.Four radiometric age groups have been identified in the coast range volcanic belt:

1. (1) Las Chilcas Formation — Early Cretaceous continental volcanic strata (120-110 m.y.).

2. (2) Lo Valle Formation — Late Cretaceous continental volcanic strata (78-65 m.y.).

3. (3) Late Oligocene extrusive volcanics (31-28 m.y.).

4. (4) Early Miocene intrusive volcanics (20.6–19.5 m.y.).

Two radiometric age groups have also been identified in the adjacent Andean Cordillera:

1. (1) Farellones Formation — continental volcanic strata (18.5–17.3 m.y.).

2. (2) Early Pliocene extrusive volcanics (5-4 m.y.).

An older group of continental volcanic strata in the Andes represented by the Abanico Formation remains undated but is intruded by plutons dated at 19.5 and 24 m.y.Available chronologic evidence indicates that volcanic activity moved eastward from the coast range volcanic belt to the Andean Cordillera between 20 and 18 m.y. ago and remained there to the present time.     

River basin management, Bulgarian case study

The master plans for the management of river basins have been elaborated. The territory of Bulgaria is divided into four main hydrological zones - Danube, Black Sea, East and West Mediterranean hydrological zones. The rivers from Danube zone discharged directly to the Danube river, the North boundary of the country. All rivers from the eastern part of Bulgaria discharged directly to the Black Sea. The rivers from East and West Mediterranean hydrological zones discharged to Mediterranean Sea after flowing trough Greece and/or Turkey. The main river basins in Bulgaria were subjects to the evaluation of master plans.During the elaboration of the master plans the following elements have been investigated:

•

Demographical characteristics of the stakeholders in the river basin.

•

Economical overview of the stakeholders.

•

Estimation of surface water availabilities and resources; Water quantity.

•

Groundwater overview and estimation of available groundwater resources.

•

Water quality of surface and ground water; sediment load.

•

Estimation of water use for domestic, irrational, agricultural and industrial water supply.

•

Ecosystems in the river basin; Tundja river basin ecosystems.

•

Master Plans elaboration for 2010.

•

Water balance calculations for 1998 and 2010.

The aim of this paper is to present an overview of Tundja river basin management. Tundja is one of the biggest tributaries of Mariza river and it is join it in the territory of Turkey. The basin belongs to the East Mediterranean hydrological zone. The hydrological investigations and estimations of natural river flow along the main river body and it’s tributaries will be discussed in details. The calculations concern 1961-2004 study period. Long-term assessment has been performed. The characteristics of the monthly, annual, minimum and maximum river discharges have been obtained.     

Body-wave wave-form modelling and source parameters for the indochina border earthquakes

Wave-form modelling of body waves has been done to study the seismic source parameters of three earthquakes which occurred on October 21, 1964 (M _b =5.9), September 26, 1966 (M _b =5.8) and March 14, 1967 (M _b =5.8). These events occurred in the Indochina border region where a low-angle thrust fault accommodates motion between the underthrusting Indian plate and overlying Himalaya. The focal depths of all these earthquakes are between 12–37 km. The total range in dip for the three events is 5°–20°. TheT axes are NE-SW directed whereas the strikes of the northward dipping nodal planes are generally parallel to the local structural trend. The total source durations have been found to vary between 5–6 seconds. The average values of seismic moment, fault radius and dislocation are 1.0–11.0×10²⁵ dyne-cm, 7.7–8.4km and 9.4–47.4 cm, respectively whereas stress drop, apparent stress and strain energy are found to be 16–76 bars, 8.2–37.9 bars and 0.1–1.7×10²¹ ergs, respectively. These earthquakes possibly resulted due to the tension caused by the bending of the lithospheric plate into a region of former subduction which is now a zone of thrusting and crustal shortening.     

Characterizing and quantifying earthquake-induced site nonlinearity

This study proposes a recording-based approach to characterize and quantify earthquake-induced site nonlinearity, exemplified as soil nonlinearity and/or liquefaction. Alternative to Fourier spectral analysis (FSA), the paper introduces time–frequency analysis of earthquake ground motion recordings with the aid of so-called Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), and offers justification for the HHT in addressing the nonlinear features shown in the recordings. With the use of the 2001 Nisqually earthquake recordings, this study shows that the proposed approach is effective in characterizing site nonlinearity and quantifying the influences in seismic ground responses. Major results from this study are listed below.

1. HHT-based site amplification is defined as the ratio of marginal Hilbert amplitude spectra, similar to the Fourier-based one that is the ratio of Fourier amplitude spectra. The HHT-based site amplification can be used in effectively quantifying site nonlinearity in terms of frequency downshift in the low-frequency range and amplification-reduction factor in intermediate-frequency range in comparison with the Fourier-based one.

2. Instantaneous damping, and Hilbert and marginal Hilbert damping spectra are defined in ways similar to instantaneous frequency, and Hilbert and marginal Hilbert amplitude spectra, respectively. Consequently, the HHT-based site damping is found as the difference of marginal Hilbert damping spectra, which can be used as an alternative, complementary index to measure the influences of site nonlinearity in seismic ground responses.

The pattern characteristics of the tendency variations of earth resistivity and its relation to earthquakes

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