Reply to “Discussion 2 on ‘Introspection on improper seismic retrofit of Basilica Santa Maria di Collemaggio after 2009 Italian earthquake' by G.P.Cimellaro, A.M.Reinhorn and A.De Stefano” by Enzo Cartapati

The authors thank the discusser for the additional information,which is provided related to the historical interventions of the church through the centuries.This information was known to the authors,however they decided not to include it in the paper because of lack of space.Additional details regarding the retrofit interventions of the church can also be found in the MCEER report regarding the L'Aquila earthquake (Cimellaro et al.,2010).     

Closure to ＂Discussion on ＇Optimum placement and characteristics of velocity-dependent dampers under seismic excitation＇ by SA Mousavi and AK Ghorbani-Tanha＂ by Izuru Takewaki

The authors would like to thank the discusser for his considerations and comments. The discusser believes that some of the derived formulations need to be referred to his previously published works and also some related studies have not been cited.     

Detection of spheriodal free oscillation excited by Peru 8.2 M_s earthquake with five international superconducting gravimeter data

In this paper, authors obtain the spectral peaks of the earth free oscillation and check all normal modes from 0S0 to 0S48 accurately, with the Fourier analysis and the maximum entropy spectrum method dealing jointly with six groups of the observational residual data from five international superconducting gravimeter stations. By comparing the observational results in this paper with three former groups of observations or models, authors notice an extra discrepancy between two observational 0S2 modes excited separately by Peru earthquake and Alaska earthquake, which probably mirrors the anisotropy of the Earth's inner core. The analysis on the splitting 1S2 mode shows that the asymmetric factor of rotationwise spectral splitting is possible to be different from that of anti-rotationwise spectral splitting.     

Discussion on “Hydraulic parameters in channels with wall vegetation and gravel bed” by Hossein Afzalimehr, Jueyi Sui and Razieh Moghbel [Int. J. Sed. Res., 25 (2010) 81–90]

We discussants appreciate the authors’ investigation on the impacts of the vegetated channel walls and aspect ratio on flow velocity profiles,shear stress distribution and roughness coefficient of channel.The primary aim of this comment is to emphasize some of the points which were not considered by the authors during their study.The discussers would like to mention the following points regarding the paper. The expression of "wall vegetation" is a new term for the current literature.However the researchers have not given enough explanation about wall-vegetation.What is "wall vegetation"?Where can we observe wall-vegetation in nature?What are the characteristic species as "wall-vegetation"?We think that the clarification of this point will significantly improve the benefit of this study.     

Discussion 2 on "Introspection on improper seismic retrofit of Basilica Santa Maria di Collemaggio after 2009 Italian earthquake" by G.P.Cimellaro,A.M.Reinhorn and A.De Stefano

This discussion will address two aspects found in the paper:lack of proper information and some mistakes. Lack of proper information In Section 2 of the paper,a short review of the seismic events suffered by the Basilica and of the interventions of reconstruction which have followcd is presented,but the main effects of these events are not sufficiently highlightcd.In what follows,additional information is provided to allow a better understanding of the most recent retrofit intervention and of the seismic behavior of the Basilica in 2009.     

Study on Active Faults in Quaternary Unconsolidated Sediments by Microstructural Method

Active faults in Quaternary unconsolidated sediments are important indicators to determine paleoearthquake events,They can be studied by macroscopic geological survey,but some problems have been encountered,such as invisible active faults.The authors found an approach to solve these problems by microstructural observation.Firstly,oriented original-state samples of Quaternary Unconsolidated sediments in active fault zones are collected.Secondly,the samples are consolidated in laboratory.Thirdly,microstructureal slides are gound in three-dimension coordinate system.Lastly,microstructures are observed in the microscopic field.By this method,the movement properties of active faults can be determined in lack of the support of macroscopic data.The invisible faults in Quaternary unconsolidated sediments can be found and described.The mechanisms of die-out faults can be also studied.oreover,the boundaries between different unconsolidated sediments in engineering sites can be studied to judge whether they are active faults or not.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Seismotectonics for the Indonesia MS. 7 Earthquake on December 26,2004

The Indonesian region is one of the most seismically active zones on the earth. On December 26, 2004, an Ms 8.7 earthquake （as measured by the China Seismograph Network, or Mw = 9.3 as measured by USGS） struck the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. By its magnitude it is classified as the world＇s fourth largest earthquake since 1900 and the largest one since the 1964 Alaska earthquake. The spatial distribution of the relocation of larger aftershocks （ M 〉 4.5） following the main shock suggests a length and width of the rupture of about 1200km and 200km, respectively. The shock triggered massive tsunamis that affected several countries throughout South and Southeast Asia. It is a shallow interplate event of thrust type in the trench. Its epicenter is located at the northwestern end of the Indonesia-Melanesia plate boundary tectonic zone. In 2004, eight shocks of M≥ 7.0 occurred in this area, showing a migration from east to west. It implies that these shocks represent a correlated and consistent dynamic process along this subduction zone. These interplate events are associated with convergence of several plates and their fast motion in this region, which result in strong and complex structures and deformation. The India-Australia plate is underthrusting toward the Sunda continental block or Burma plate at a low angle, producing a great locked area on the shallow portion of the subduction zone where enormous strain is accumulated. Interseismic uplift recorded by coral growth and horizontal velocities measured by GPS show the geometry of the locked portion of the Sumatra subduction zone. The vertical and horizontal data reasonably match with a model in which the plate interface is fully locked over a significant width. This locked fault zone extends to a horizontal distance of 132km from the trench, which corresponds to a depth of 50km. The sudden ruptures and large-scale slip of this locked area as a release of stress occurred, are the direct cause of the M8.7 earthquake near Indonesia in 2004.     

Multi—scale expression of spatial activity anomalies of earthquakes and its indicative significance on the space and time attributes of strong earthquakes

The noise model based on a trous wavelet algorithm produces a multi-scale expression of image through the combination of wavelet transform and a testing model of statistical significance.This kind of expression not only gives the formation and location of image structure on different scales,but also eliminates the influence of noise Since the algorithm does not need any priori hypotheses,it is suitable for the data with complex structure.The research line is employed in this paper to analyze the spatial activity of earthquake.The method of how to recognize and describe the multi-scale space activity of earthquake is emphatically discussed in this paper.Taking typical sequences in Southwest China as research cases,we systematically study the structure characters of spatial activity of earthquake on different scales.Results show that multi-scale space structure to some extent possesses indicative effect on strong epicenters.And the foreshock anomalies of Songpan seismic sequence also reveal interesting pattem during the spatial-temporal evolvement.     

Influence of seismicity parameter uncertainty on seismic hazard estimation of cities and towns

Introduction In his Doctor thesis, PAN (2000) has roughly studied some about the influence of parameter uncertainty on seismic hazard analysis. The aim of this paper is especially to study the uncertainty influence extent of seismic hazard analysis result in a spot, owing to the uncertainty of seismicity parameters induced by variational statistical time ranges of various statistical regions in the whole country. The authors have inquired into the uncertain extents of influence of seismic p…