The dependence of response spectrum on the tectonic ambient shear stress field

Introduction The acceleration response spectrum and peak ground acceleration are the necessary and im-portant parameters in earthquake-resistant design at present. They are still active research field. With the increase of digital high accurate strong motion observation data, especially the earth-quakes of Loma Prieta (M=7.0) in 1989; Landers (M=7.3) in 1992; Big Bear (M=6.4) in 1994 and Northridge (M=6.7) in 1994 in USA; Kozani (M=6.6) earthquake and afteshocks in 1995 in Greece; Dinar…     

Long-range dependence in the time series of Taiţa River discharges

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to offer an insight into the hydrology of southeast Romanian catchments, which have not been studied systematically. The complex behaviour of the Tai?a, one of the most important rivers situated in the northern part of Dobrogea, is demonstrated. Long-range dependence (LRD) in the time series of its streamflow, including the presence of trends, is supported by an estimated Hurst exponent of approximately 0.8, as well as statistical tests.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; GUEST editor S. Weijs     

Grid-size dependence of Cauchy boundary conditions used to simulate stream–aquifer interactions

This work examines the simulation of stream–aquifer interactions as grids are refined vertically and horizontally and suggests that traditional methods for calculating conductance can produce inappropriate values when the grid size is changed. Instead, different grid resolutions require different estimated values. Grid refinement strategies considered include global refinement of the entire model and local refinement of part of the stream. Three methods of calculating the conductance of the Cauchy boundary conditions are investigated. Single- and multi-layer models with narrow and wide streams produced stream leakages that differ by as much as 122% as the grid is refined. Similar results occur for globally and locally refined grids, but the latter required as little as one-quarter the computer execution time and memory and thus are useful for addressing some scale issues of stream–aquifer interactions. Results suggest that existing grid-size criteria for simulating stream–aquifer interactions are useful for one-layer models, but inadequate for three-dimensional models. The grid dependence of the conductance terms suggests that values for refined models using, for example, finite difference or finite-element methods, cannot be determined from previous coarse-grid models or field measurements. Our examples demonstrate the need for a method of obtaining conductances that can be translated to different grid resolutions and provide definitive test cases for investigating alternative conductance formulations.     

Statistical property of candidate earthquake precursors and its apparent focal mecha- nism dependence

Introduction Increasing evidences show that the properties of candidate earthquake precursors seem to befocal mechanism dependent (Tsuruoka, et al, 1995; Reasenberg, 1999; Wan, et al, 2002). Test ofearthquake precursors without the classification of earthquakes could be misleading (Wu, 1999,Nature debates, http://helix.nature.com/debates/). In this paper we use the reported earthquakeprecursors for some earthquakes in China (ZHANG, 1988; 1990a, b; 1999; 2000; CHEN, 2002a, b;2003) to…     

Which catchment characteristics control the temporal dependence structure of daily river flows?

Hydrological classification systems seek to provide information about the dominant processes in the catchment to enable information to be transferred between catchments. Currently, there is no widely agreed‐upon system for classifying river catchments. This paper develops a novel approach to classifying catchments based on the temporal dependence structure of daily mean river flow time series, applied to 116 near‐natural ‘benchmark’ catchments in the UK. The classification system is validated using 49 independent catchments. Temporal dependence in river flow data is driven by the flow pathways, connectivity and storage within the catchment and can thus be used to assess the influence catchment characteristics have on moderating the precipitation‐to‐flow relationship. Semi‐variograms were computed for the 116 benchmark catchments to provide a robust and efficient way of characterising temporal dependence. Cluster analysis was performed on the semi‐variograms, resulting in four distinct clusters. The influence of a wide range of catchment characteristics on the semi‐variogram shape was investigated, including: elevation, land cover, physiographic characteristics, soil type and geology. Geology, depth to gleyed layer in soils, slope of the catchment and the percentage of arable land were significantly different between the clusters. These characteristics drive the temporal dependence structure by influencing the rate at which water moves through the catchment and/or the storage in the catchment. Quadratic discriminant analysis was used to show that a model with five catchment characteristics is able to predict the temporal dependence structure for un‐gauged catchments. This method could form the basis for future regionalisation strategies, as a way of transferring information on the precipitation‐to‐flow relationship between gauged and un‐gauged catchments. © 2014 The Authors. Hydrological Processes by published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Collisionless electrons in a thin high Mach number shock: dependence on angle and β

It is widely believed that electron dynamics in the shock front is essentially collisionless and determined by the quasistationary magnetic and electric fields in the shock. In thick shocks the electron motion is adiabatic: the magnetic moment is conserved throughout the shock and v²₁ ∝ B. In very thin shocks with large cross-shock potential (the last feature is typical for shocks with strong electron heating), electrons may become demagnetized (the magnetic moment is no longer conserved) and their motion may become nonadiabatic. We consider the case of substantial demagnetization in the shock profile with the small-scale internal structure. The dependence of electron dynamics and downstream distributions on the angle between the shock normal and upstream magnetic field and on the upstream electron temperature is analyzed. We show that demagnetization becomes significantly stronger with the increase of obliquity (decrease of the angle) which is related to the more substantial influence of the inhomogeneous parallel electric field. We also show that the demagnetization is stronger for lower upstream electron temperatures and becomes less noticeable for higher temperatures, in agreement with observations. We also show that demagnetization results, in general, in non-gyrotropic down-stream distributions.     

Observations of pre-midnight 5-m irregularities in the equatorial F region over São Luís,Brazil: Solar-flux dependence and seasonal variations

The statistics of pre-midnight 5-m irregularities in the equatorial F region over São Luís is presented. The data set ranges from October 2001 to December 2008 and covers maximum solar-flux-to-minimum solar flux epoch. The variabilities in irregularity parameters, namely, height and time of their appearance in the radar echoes, with solar-flux variation are presented. The seasonal variations (combined over all years, irrespective of solar-flux) of occurrence of irregularities, occurrence of bottom-type layer (or bottom-side irregularities without plume) and bottom-side/topside plume (or bottom-side irregularities with plume) are presented. The largest occurrences of bottom-side irregularities without plume and with plume are found on April (equinox) and December (summer) months respectively. The ambient ionospheric conditions namely prereversal evening vertical drift, bottom-side density gradient and off-equatorial E region conductivity are inferred using digisonde measurements during April 2002 and December 2002. Based on these conditions and recent studies on gravity wave climatology over Brazil, it is suggested that shear in zonal plasma drift and low gravity wave activity may account for less occurrence of plume during April as compared to December months. This suggestion is quantified using numerical simulation model of collisional-interchange instability (CII) and plasma bubble.     

Ab initio study of the composition dependence of the pressure-induced spin crossover in perovskite (Mg1 − x,Fex)SiO3

We present ab initio calculations of the zero-temperature iron high- to low-spin crossover in (Mg_1 ? xFe_x)SiO₃ perovskite at pressures relevant to Earth's lower mantle. Equations of state are fit for a range of compositions and used to predict the Fe spin transition pressure and associated changes in volume and bulk modulus. We predict a dramatic decrease in transition pressure as Fe concentration increases. This trend is contrary to that seen in ferropericlase, and suggests the energetics for spin crossover is highly dependent on the structural environment of Fe. Both Local Density Approximation (LDA) and Generalized Gradient Approximation (GGA) exchange-correlation methods are used, and both methods reproduce the same compositional trends. However, GGA gives a significantly higher transition pressure than LDA. The spin transition is made easier by the decreasing spin-flip energy with pressure but is also driven by the change in volume from high to low spin. Volume trends show that high-spin Fe²⁺ is larger than Mg²⁺ even under pressure, but low-spin Fe²⁺ is smaller at ambient conditions and approximately the same size as Mg²⁺ under high pressure, indicating that low-spin Fe²⁺ is less compressible than high-spin Fe²⁺. We find large changes between high- and low-spin in the slope of volume with Fe concentration. Although these changes are small in absolute magnitude for small Fe content, they are still important when measured per Fe and could be relevant for calculating partitioning coefficients in the lower mantle.     

Sensitivity of the Earth’s middle atmosphere to short-term solar variability and its dependence on the choice of solar irradiance data set

We simulate the time evolution of the neutral and charged species in the terrestrial middle atmosphere using a 1-D radiative-convective model with interactive neutral and ion chemistry driven by four different sets of daily spectral solar irradiance (SSI) available in the literature for the year 2000. Obtained daily time series of ozone, hydroxyl and electron densities are used to calculate their sensitivity to the short-term SSI variability at 205 nm. All applied SSI data sets possess 27-day solar rotation cycle; however, its amplitude and phase as well as the correlation between considered SSI time series differ among data sets leading to the different behavior of the atmospheric response. Contrary, the ozone and hydroxyl sensitivities to the SSI changes during solar rotation cycle are almost identical for all applied SSI data sets in the stratosphere. In the mesosphere, the difference in correlation between SSI in Herzberg continuum and Lyman-α line in considered SSI data sets leads to substantial scatter of the sensitivity estimates based on 205 nm. Our results show that for the sensitivity analysis in the stratosphere based on the SSI at 205 nm any considered SSI data sets can be applied. For the mesosphere, where the sensitivity strongly varies among applied SSI data sets more robust results can be obtained using the sensitivity calculations based on the SSI in Lyman-α line.     

认清形势,明确任务,抓住机制,依法行政,努力提高江苏防震减灾工作水平

总结回顾了江苏二十多年来的防震减灾工作,分析了当前搞好防震减灾工作的形势,从７个方面阐述了要抓住机遇,依法行政提高全省防震减灾工作水平的有关问题。     

梅岭,梅关,古道与梅花

梅岭,又名大庾岭,为南岭山系五岭之首。梅关是粤赣交界的险关要塞,素有“岭南第一关”之誉,秦汉以前已存在。梅岭以梅花著称。古道与关同时出现,到唐初张九龄扩展岭路成坦途。     

The fault plane of the 1991,Datong-Yang-gao,Shanxi,China,Ms=5.8 earthquake

Ｔｈｅｆａｕｌｔｐｌａｎｅｏｆｔｈｅ１９９１，Ｄａｔｏｎｇ－Ｙａｎｇ－ｇａｏ，Ｓｈａｎｘｉ，Ｃｈｉｎａ，Ｍｓ＝５．８ｅａｒｔｈｑｕａｋｅＭｉｎｇＷＡＮＧ（王鸣），Ｌｉａｎ－ＱｉａｎｇＺＨＡＮＧ（张廉强）ａｎｄＰｅｉ－ＤｅＷＡＮＧ（王培德）（Ｉｎｓｔｉ...