Phosphatic microspherules and their geobiological implications from the Frasnian-Famennian transition at the Yangdi section,Guilin, South China

Abundant perfectly-preserved phosphatic microspherules have been discovered across the Frasnian-Famennian(F-F)transition from the Yangdi section in Guilin,Guangxi,South China.They are mostly spherical or elliptical in shape and about 150μm in diameter with smooth exterior surfaces.Each microspherule consistently possesses a small dimple on the surface.The internal texture of microspherules consists of concentric light-colored apatite and dark-colored organic matter bands alternating around a central core.Conodonts have also been found preserved together with phosphatic microspherules in the same horizon,and the abundance of the former is obviously higher than that of the latter.Laser Raman spectral studies show close similarities in spectral patterns between the outer shells of phosphatic microspherules and the blade of the conodont genus Palmatolepis sp.,as well as between the microspherule nucleus and the platform of the same conodont genus.Furthermore,the statistical results and geochemical data demonstrate that the elevated abundance of phosphatic microspherules roughly coincides with the blooms of bacteria and algae,but is later than the sharp increase of oceanic nutrients.The phosphatic microspherules are interpreted here to be the‘otoliths’secreted by conodont animals based on the compositional similarities between phosphatic microspherules and conodonts and their interrelated abundances.In addition,an analogous study reveals morphological and textural similarities between fish otoliths and phosphatic microspherules.The formation of phosphatic microspherules is probably related to seawater eutrophication.We speculate that the explosive growth of bacteria and algae is probably caused by the enrichment of nutrients that is most likely associated with the increase of terrestrial inputs,submarine hydrothermal activities or the upwelling anoxic bottom waters in the late Devonian,which would stimulate the conodont animals to secrete phosphatic microspherules—the‘otoliths’of conodont animals.This study reveals the coupling relationship between organisms and environments from the perspective of phosphatic microspherules and provides new evidence for the cause of faunal crisis during the Late Devonian F-F transition.     

Analytical investigations of seismic responses for reinforced concrete bridge columns subjected to strong near-fault ground motion

Strong near-fault ground motion, usually caused by the fault-rupture and characterized by a pulse-like velocity- wave form, often causes dramatic instantaneous seismic energy (Jadhav and Jangid 2006). Some reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns, even those built according to ductile design principles, were damaged in the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. Thus, it is very important to evaluate the seismic response of a RC bridge column to improve its seismic design and prevent future damage. Nonlinear time history analysis using step-by-step integration is capable of tracing the dynamic response of a structure during the entire vibration period and is able to accommodate the pulsing wave form. However, the accuracy of the numerical results is very sensitive to the modeling of the nonlinear load-deformation relationship of the structural member. FEMA 273 and ATC-40 provide the modeling parameters for structural nonlinear analyses of RC beams and RC columns. They use three parameters to define the plastic rotation angles and a residual strength ratio to describe the nonlinear load- deformation relationship of an RC member. Structural nonlinear analyses are performed based on these parameters. This method provides a convenient way to obtain the nonlinear seismic responses of RC structures. However, the accuracy of the numerical solutions might be further improved. For this purpose, results from a previous study on modeling of the static pushover analyses for RC bridge columns (Sung et al. 2005) is adopted for the nonlinear time history analysis presented herein to evaluate the structural responses excited by a near-fault ground motion. To ensure the reliability of this approach, the numerical results were compared to experimental results. The results confirm that the proposed approach is valid.     

滆湖磷迁移过程的研究(一)——磷迁移模型的建立

通过滆湖磷的来源途径(入湖河道、湖区径流、湖面沉降、养殖技饵、底泥释放)和湖体各要素(水体、浮游植物、大型水生植物、鱼类等)中磷迁移过程调查资料的分析,建立了描述磷在上述各要素中迁移过程的数学模型.经实测资料验证,模型的计算值与实测值的平均相对误差在9.9%-18.6%.基本反映了磷的迁移过程及动态变化规律,对该湖磷浓度预测及磷资源合理利用具有重要的意义.     

1997年9月三水3.7和4.4级地震特征初析

对１９９７年９月２３日和２６日两次三水有感地震的特征进行了初步分析,认为这两次地震具有震前和震后地震活动水平低、面波发育和低震级高烈度等特性;震区的主压应力为北北西方向,两震的受力方向基本一致,但断层面解明显不同。     

Relationship between faults and generation of inland shallow earthquakes: enlightenment of the M=7.2 southern Hyogo prefecture earthquake

The M=7.2 southern Hyogo prefecture earthquake, which occurred on January 17, 1995, destroyed the region severely. Further researches are necessary to explain the problems obtained from this earthquake. We have discussed some characteristics correlating with this earthquake, such as distribution of aftershocks and disaster, relationship between fault and generation of inland shallow earthquakes, strong motion and so on. The tectonic movements of surface faults may be different from those of deep faults. Earthquakes may not be restricted directly by the tectonic movements of surface faults. The strong motion zone is often appeared in the region a little away from the both ends or from the single side of a fault instead of the region of a focal fault. Some mechanisms of strong motion have also been discussed.     

Characteristics of coseismic water level changes at Tangshan well for the Wenchuan MS_8.0 earthquake and its larger aftershocks

Coseismic water level changes which may have been induced by the Wenchuan MS8.0 earthquake and its 15 larger aftershocks(MS≥5.4) have been observed at Tangshan well.We analyze the correlation between coseismic parameters(maximum amplitude, duration, coseismic step and the time when the coseismic reach its maximum amplitude) and earth-quake parameters(magnitude, well-epicenter distance and depth), and then compare the time when the coseismic oscillation reaches its maximum amplitude with the seismogram from ...     

用准周期（PP）方法预测地震序列中早期强余震

研究了地震序列的准周期性,提出了预测早期强余震发生时间的准周期方法及其定量预报指标,同时进行了回溯性预报检验,Ｒ值评分为０．４５。表明该方法具有一定的预报效能。     

Regional Stress Field and Seismic Dynamics Along the Border Zone Between Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi Provinces

The regional stress field and seismic dynamics along the border zone between Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi Provinces are studied based on the seismo-geological data, GPS measurement, and seismicity. The results show that: (1) the principal compressional stress of the stress field is oriented in NW-SE direction and the principal extensional stress is in NE-SW direction; (2) the WNW-ward compression and collision of the Philippine Sea Plate to the eastern coast of Taiwan Island are the most direct and most important dynamic source for preparation and occurrence of strong earthquakes in the Taiwan area and along the border zone between Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi Provinces.     

Effective typhoon characteristics and their effects on hourly reservoir inflow forecasting

This paper describes the identification of effective typhoon characteristics and the development of a new type of hourly reservoir inflow forecasting model with the effective typhoon characteristics. Firstly, a comparison of support vector machines (SVMs), which is a novel kind of neural networks (NNs), and back-propagation networks (BPNs) is made to select an appropriate NN-based model. The results show that SVM-based models are more appropriate than BPN-based models because of their higher accuracy and much higher efficiency. In addition, effective typhoon characteristics for improving forecasting performance are identified from all the collected typhoon information. Then the effective typhoon characteristics (the position of the typhoon and the distance between the typhoon center and the reservoir) are added to the proposed SVM-based models. Next, a performance comparison of models with and without effective typhoon characteristics is conducted to clearly highlight the effects of effective typhoon characteristics on hourly reservoir inflow forecasting. To reach a just conclusion, the performance is evaluated by cross validation, and the improvement in performance due to the addition of effective typhoon characteristics is tested by paired comparison t-tests at the 5% significance level. The results confirm that effective typhoon characteristics do improve the forecasting performance and the improvement increases with increasing lead-time, especially when the rainfall data are not available. For four- to six-hour ahead forecasts, the improvement due to the addition of effective typhoon characteristics increases from 3% to 18% and from 10% to 113% for Categories I (rainfall data are available) and II (rainfall data are not available), respectively. In conclusion, effective typhoon characteristics are recommended as key inputs for reservoir inflow forecasting during typhoons. The proposed SVM-based models with effective typhoon characteristics are expected to provide more accurate forecasts than BPN-based models. The proposed modeling technique is also expected to be useful to support reservoir operation systems and other disaster warning systems.     

安徽地区地震波衰减、场地响应及震源新参数的测定

根据安徽数字地震台网7个地震台的143条波形资料,研究了安徽地区的衰减模型和各台站的场地响应。采用三段几何衰减模型拟合,得到了安徽及邻近地区的几何衰减函数,得到安徽地区非弹性衰减Q值随频率f的关系为Q(f)=235.3×f0.616;7个台站的场地响应均无明显的放大效应,这与它们均处于岩石地基相符;并在本地区地震预测研究中尝试使用新参数,进行了初步的应用。