Equations for the Estimation of Strong Ground Motions from Shallow Crustal Earthquakes Using Data from Europe and the Middle East: Vertical Peak Ground Acceleration and Spectral Acceleration

This article presents equations for the estimation of vertical strong ground motions caused by shallow crustal earthquakes with magnitudes M_w 5 and distance to the surface projection of the fault less than 100km. These equations were derived by weighted regression analysis, used to remove observed magnitude-dependent variance, on a set of 595 strong-motion records recorded in Europe and the Middle East. Coefficients are included to model the effect of local site effects and faulting mechanism on the observed ground motions. The equations include coefficients to model the observed magnitude-dependent decay rate. The main findings of this study are that: short-period ground motions from small and moderate magnitude earthquakes decay faster than the commonly assumed 1/r, the average effect of differing faulting mechanisms is similar to that observed for horizontal motions and is not large and corresponds to factors between 0.7 (normal and odd) and 1.4 (thrust) with respect to strike-slip motions and that the average long-period amplification caused by soft soil deposits is about 2.1 over those on rock sites.     

Satellite and In Situ Observations of a Phytoplankton Bloom from Coastal Bay of Bengal: Role in pCO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Modulation

A phytoplankton bloom was monitored in coastal waters of Bay of Bengal and its influence in water column properties was investigated. Significant draw down of CO₂ was noted within the vicinity of the bloom associated with high chlorophyll biomass. Microscopic analysis revealed diatoms as the dominant population. Skeletonema costatum a diatom, reached cell density of 36,898 cells l^?1 within the bloom. The lowest surface pCO₂ observed was 287 µatm at the southern end of the transect covarying with surface chlorophyll of 1.090 µg l^?1. At the northern end the surface pCO₂ went as low as 313 µatm. The pCO₂ levels below the mixed layer increased twice of that of surface value (~600 µatm). The chlorophyll values observed by Ocean Colour Monitor-2 were modestly related with the in situ measurements. The primary productivity derived from growth rate, assimilation number and maximum surface chlorophyll was 160.6 mg C m^?2 day^?1 leading to a modest sequestration ~of 0.08 Gg of carbon per day by the surface waters. Our observations reflects the potential role of diatom blooms on coastal carbon dynamics therefore should be carefully monitored in realm of anthropogenic changes.     

Analysis of the change in temperature trends in Subansiri River basin for RCP scenarios using CMIP5 datasets

This study focuses on changes in the maximum and minimum temperature over the Subansiri River basin for different climate change scenarios. For the study, dataset from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report (AR5) (i.e., coupled model intercomparison project phase five (CMIP5) dataset with representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios) were utilized. Long-term (2011–2100) maximum temperature (T _max) and minimum temperature (T_min) time series were generated using the statistical downscaling technique for low emission scenario (RCP2.6), moderate emission scenario (RCP6.0), and extreme emission scenario (RCP8.5). Trends and change of magnitude in T _max, T _min, and diurnal temperature range (DTR) were analyzed for different interdecadal time scales (2011–2100, 2011–2040, 2041–2070, 2070–2100) using Mann-Kendall non-parametric test and Sen’s slope estimator, respectively. The temperature data series for the observed duration (1981–2000) has been found to show increasing trends in T _max and T _min at both annual and monthly scale. Trend analysis of downscaled temperature for the period 2011–2100 shows increase in annual maximum temperature and annual minimum temperature for all the selected RCP scenarios; however, on the monthly scale, T _max and T _min have been seen to have decreasing trends in some months.

     

Orbital elements and evolutionary nature of the long period RS CVn type eclipsing binary RZ eridani

Light curves of the long period RS CVn type eclipsing binary RZ Eri, obtained during the period 1976–1979 with the 1.2 m telescope of the Japal-Rangapur Observatory are analysed, using Wilson-Devinney method, by fixing the two parametersT _h (7400°K) andq(0.963), resulting in the following absolute elements:A = 72.5 ± 1.4R _⊙,R _h = 2.84 ± 0.12R _⊙,R _c = 6.94 ± 0.20R _⊙,M _bol,_h = 1.35 ± 0.28,M _bol ,_c= 1.41 ± 0.28,m _h = 1.69 ± 0.6m _⊙ andmc= 1.63 ± 0.13m _⊙. The presence of humps and dips of varying amplitudes at a few phases in the normal UBV light curves is explained as due to residual distortion wave. The derived (B-V) and (U-B) colours of both the components appear to have been reddened to an extent of 0 ^m .20 in (B-V) and 0 ^m .16 in (U-B) colours. This reddening is attributed to the presence of an envelope around the system, the material of which might have come from the loss of mass experienced by the evolving cooler component. Taking into consideration the dereddened colours and temperatures of the components, spectral types ofF0 IV for the primary and G 5–8 III–IV for the secondary component were derived. The fractional radii of 0.039 and 0.096 of the two components, when compared with the radii of their critical Roche lobes of 0.378 and 0.372 suggest that these components are well within their critical sizes. From the position of the components on the. isochrones and the evolutionary tracks of stars of Pop I composition computed by Maeder & Meynet, it is concluded that the evolution of the components of RZ Eri is abnormal. This system is found to be situated at a distance of 185 pc, with an age of about 2.5 × 10⁹ yrs.     

Current and projected water demand and water availability estimates under climate change scenarios in the Weyib River basin in Bale mountainous area of Southeastern Ethiopia

ENSO has been known to influence the trends of summer warming over Southern Africa. In this work, we used observational and reanalysis data to analyze the relationship between ENSO and maximum surface air temperature (SAT_max) trends during the three epochs created by the ENSO phase shifts around 1977 and 1997 for the period 1960 to 2014. We observed that while ENSO and cloud cover remains the dominant factor controlling SAT_max variability, the first two epochs had the predominant La Niña (El Niño)-like events connected to robust positive (negative) trends in cloud fraction. However, this established relationship reversed in the post-1997 La Niña-like dominated epoch which coincided with a falling cloud cover trend. It is established that this deviation from the previously established link within the previous epochs could be due to the post-1998 era in which SAT_min was suppressed while SAT_max was enhanced. The resulting increase in diurnal temperature range (DTR) could have discouraged the formation of low-level clouds which have relatively more extensive areal coverage and hence allowing more solar energy to reach the surface to boost daytime SAT_max. It is noted that these relationships are more pronounced from December to March.     

Photometry of the RS CVn type eclipsing binary UV piscium

The analysis of the UBV photoelectric study of the short period RS CVn eclipsing binary, UV Psc, has suggested that the primary is a transit with _e=27°,i=88 _. ^o 5, andk=0.75. The spectral type and luminosity of the hotter component is estimated to be G4-6V and that of the cooler component to be K0-2V. Absolute dimensions for the components of UV Psc were derived by combining the present analysis with that of the spectroscopic analysis given by Popper.The out-of-eclipse observations have showed large amount of scatter and an investigation of this showed that hotter component could be an intrinscic variable. No periodicity for this variation has been fixed due to lack of sufficient data.Paper presented at the Lembang-Bamberg IAU Colloquium No.80 on Double Stars: Physical Properties and Generic Relations, held at Bandung, Indonesia, 3–7 June, 1983.     

Photometric and spectroscopic study of R CMa

UBV light curves and spectrograms of R CMa obtained with the 48-inch telescope of Japal-Rangapur Observatory during 1980–82 have been used for deriving the eclipse and orbital elements as well as the absolute dimensions of the components. The primary is found to be a Main-Sequence F2V star of mass 1.52M and the secondary a subgiant star of spectral type G8 and mass 0.20M which fills its Roche lobe, in agreement with Kopal and Shapley (1956) results, Kopal (1959), or Sahade's (1963) results. From a consideration of the possible evolution of this system it is concluded that a large fraction of the original mass of the secondary is lost from the system. A study of the period changes indicates the possible presence of a third component of mass of about 0.5M which is most likely to be anM dwarf.Paper presented at the Lembang-Bamberg IAU Colloquium No. 80 on Double Stars: Physical Properties and Generic Relations, held at Bandung, Indonesia, 3–7 June, 1983.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Nummulites solitarius — Nummulites burdigalensis</Emphasis> lineage in Kutch with remarks on the age of Naredi Formation

Three successive subspecies of Nummulites burdigalensis evolved from N. solitarius. These include N. burdigalensis keupperi, N. burdigalensis burdigalensis and N. burdigalensis cantabricus. The evolving lineage is traced in a borehole drilled through the Naredi Formation of Kutch. The associated taxa include N. solitarius and N. fraasi in the lower part and Assilina laxispira and A. spinosa in the upper part of the formation. The better stratigraphic resolution achieved by subspecies identification and the lately redefined Ilerdien Stage in the background of Early Eocene carbon isotope excursion marker, lead to constrain the age of Naredi Formation as Early Eocene, ranging from shallow-benthic zones SBZ6 to SBZ11.     

Multicomponent diffusion in garnets I: general theoretical considerations and experimental data for Fe–Mg systems

We have carried out a combined theoretical and experimental study of multicomponent diffusion in garnets to address some unresolved issues and to better constrain the diffusion behavior of Fe and Mg in almandine–pyrope-rich garnets. We have (1) improved the convolution correction of concentration profiles measured using electron microprobes, (2) studied the effect of thermodynamic non-ideality on diffusion and (3) explored the use of a mathematical error minimization routine (the Nelder-Mead downhill simplex method) compared to the visual fitting of concentration profiles used in earlier studies. We conclude that incorporation of thermodynamic non-ideality alters the shapes of calculated profiles, resulting in better fits to measured shapes, but retrieved diffusion coefficients do not differ from those retrieved using ideal models by more than a factor of 1.2 for most natural garnet compositions. Diffusion coefficients retrieved using the two kinds of models differ only significantly for some unusual Mg–Mn–Ca-rich garnets. We found that when one of the diffusion coefficients becomes much faster or slower than the rest, or when the diffusion couple has a composition that is dominated by one component (>75 %), then profile shapes become insensitive to one or more tracer diffusion coefficients. Visual fitting and numerical fitting using the Nelder-Mead algorithm give identical results for idealized profile shapes, but for data with strong analytical noise or asymmetric profile shapes, visual fitting returns values closer to the known inputs. Finally, we have carried out four additional diffusion couple experiments (25–35 kbar, 1,260–1,400 °C) in a piston-cylinder apparatus using natural pyrope- and almandine-rich garnets. We have combined our results with a reanalysis of the profiles from Ganguly et al. (1998) using the tools developed in this work to obtain the following Arrhenius parameters in D = D ₀ exp{–[Q _1bar + (P–1)ΔV ⁺]/RT} for D _Mg^* and D _Fe^*: Mg: Q _1bar = 228.3 ± 20.3 kJ/mol, D ₀ = 2.72 (±4.52) × 10⁻¹⁰ m²/s, Fe: Q _1bar = 226.9 ± 18.6 kJ/mol, D ₀ = 1.64 (±2.54) × 10⁻¹⁰ m²/s. ΔV ⁺ values were assumed to be the same as those obtained by Chakraborty and Ganguly (1992).