Bedload transport measurements at the Erlenbach stream with geophones and automated basket samplers

In the Erlenbach stream, a pre‐alpine steep channel in Switzerland, sediment transport has been monitored for more than 25 years. Near the confluence with the main valley river, stream flow is monitored and sediment is collected in a retention basin with a capacity of about 2000 m³. The basin is surveyed at regular intervals and after large flood events. In addition, sediment transport has been continuously monitored with piezoelectric bedload impact and geophone sensors since 1986. In 2008–2009, the measuring system in the Erlenbach stream was enhanced by installing an automatic system to obtain bedload samples. Movable metal baskets are mounted on a rail at the downstream wall of the large check dam above the retention basin, and they can be moved automatically into the flow to take bedload transport samples. The wire mesh of the baskets has a spacing of 10 mm to sample all sediment particles coarser than this size (which is about the limiting grain size detected by the geophones). The upgraded measuring system permits to obtain bedload samples over short sampling periods and to measure the grain size distribution of the transported material and its variation over time and with discharge. The analysis of calibration relationships for the geophone measuring system confirms findings from very similar measurements which were performed until 1999 with piezoelectric bedload impact sensors; there is a linear relationship between impulse counts and bedload mass passing over the sensors. Findings from flume experiments are used to discuss the most important factors which affect the calibration of the geophone signal. The bedload transport rates as measured by the moving baskets are among the highest measured in natural streams, with values of the order of several kilograms per meter per second. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal spherical spline filters for the analysis and comparison of regional-scale tomographic models

Advances in seismic tomography lead to increasingly detailed models of the Earth that are often represented on irregular and resolution-adaptive grids. To take full advantage of such models, their assessment must progress beyond a purely visual analysis, and tools must become available for their quantitative comparison.We present a method for the spectral analysis and comparison of multi-scale tomographic models. The method is applicable to irregular grids on the sphere, and is more efficient that filters based on spherical-harmonic expansions or convolution integrals. The combination of a spherical spline representation of tomographic information with Abel-Poisson scaling enables the construction of targetted spatial filters by solving a nonlinear inverse problem for appropriate weighting coefficients. This can be readily achieved with a simulated annealing approach for the limited number of weights. Once suitable filters have been generated they can be employed to address issues such as the patterns of small-scale heterogeneity, transitional structures and comparison of independent models from a region.We illustrate our method in a series of applications where we use different bandpass filters to detect differences in the distribution of small-scale heterogeneity beneath central and eastern Europe, and to compare several recent tomographic models of the Australian region.     

Magnetic signature of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils and sediments at the former oil field H?nigsen, Germany

Magnetic properties of hydrocarbon (HC) containing soils and sediments from two sites (Site A and B) of the former oil-field H?nigsen were analyzed in order to determine whether magnetic methods can be employed to delineate HC contamination of soils and sediments. Magnetic parameters such as magnetic susceptibility and induced isothermal remanent magnetizations, as well as soil and sediment properties such as pH, iron content and water content, HC content and most probable number counts of iron-metabolizing microorganisms were determined. The magnetic concentration-dependent parameters for HC contaminated samples were 25 times higher in soils from Site A than in sediment samples from Site B. However, at Site B the magnetic susceptibility was still four times higher in comparison to lithologically similar non-contaminated sediment samples from a third Site C. Newly formed magnetite containing mainly single domain particles was responsible for the magnetic enhancement, whereas superparamagnetic grains represented only a minor component. Site A had an acidic pH compared to neutral pH at Site B, and a higher crystalline and bioavailable total iron content. Nevertheless, Site B samples contained significant numbers of both iron(II)-oxidizing and iron(III)-reducing microorganisms indicating that microbial iron cycling might have taken place at this site and potentially played a role for iron mineral transformation, including magnetite (trans)formation. The content of total non-polar hydrocarbons (TNPH) at Site A was one order of magnitude higher than at Site B. Only at Site A magnetic susceptibility correlated well with TNPH. Our results demonstrate that HC contaminated samples had an enhanced magnetite content compared to non-contaminated soils and sediments. Therefore, magnetic methods may provide a quick and cost-effective way to assess HC contamination in soils and sediments. However, more field sites and laboratory investigations are needed to reveal the complex nature of the processes involved.     

Hybrid testing and modeling of a suspended zipper steel frame

An analytical and experimental study has been conducted to evaluate the seismic performance of a three‐story suspended zipper steel frame. The frame was concentrically braced and had zipper struts to transfer the unbalanced forces induced on the beams due to the buckling of the lower‐story braces. The experimental study was conducted with the hybrid test technique, in which only the bottom‐story braces of the three‐story frame were physically tested, while the behavior of the rest of the frame was modeled using a general structural analysis software. The paper discusses issues pertinent to the calibration of the computer model for the analytical substructure as well as for the entire frame, including the selection of an appropriate damping matrix, and the modeling of the buckling behavior of the braces and bracing connections. The analytical model of the entire frame was validated with the hybrid tests and was able to accurately capture the material and geometric nonlinearities that developed when the braces yielded and buckled. This study has demonstrated the usefulness of hybrid testing in improving analytical models and modeling assumptions and providing information that cannot be obtained from an analytical study alone. The results have shown that the suspended zipper frame can distribute the brace nonlinearity over the first two stories as intended in the design and will not have catastrophic failure under the design‐level earthquakes considered in this study, despite the significant inelastic deformations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A strategy for automated analysis of passive microseismic data to image seismic anisotropy and fracture characteristics

Monitoring of induced seismicity is gaining importance in a broad range of industrial operations from hydrocarbon reservoirs to mining to geothermal fields. Such passive seismic monitoring mainly aims at identifying fractures, which is of special interest for safety and productivity reasons. By analysing shear‐wave splitting it is possible to determine the anisotropy of the rock, which may be caused by sedimentary layering and/or aligned fractures, which in turn offers insight into the state of stress in the reservoir. We present a workflow strategy for automatic and effective processing of passive microseismic data sets, which are ever increasing in size. The automation provides an objective quality control of the shear‐wave splitting measurements and is based on characteristic differences between the two independent eigenvalue and cross‐correlation splitting techniques. These differences are summarized in a quality index for each measurement, allowing identification of an appropriate quality threshold. Measurements above this threshold are considered to be of good quality and are used in further interpretation. We suggest an automated inversion scheme using rock physics theory to test for best correlation of the data with various combinations of fracture density, its strike and the background anisotropy. This fully automatic workflow is then tested on a synthetic and a real microseismic data set.     

First health and pollution study on harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) living in the German Elbe estuary

The Elbe is one of the major rivers releasing pollutants into the coastal areas of the German North Sea. Its estuary represents the habitat of a small population of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). Only little is known about the health status and contamination levels of these seals. Therefore, a first-ever seal catch was organized next to the islands of Neuwerk and Scharhörn in the region of the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park. The investigations included a broad set of health parameters and the analysis of metals and organic pollutants in blood samples. Compared to animals of other Wadden Sea areas, the seals showed higher γ-globulin levels, suggesting higher concentrations of pathogens in this near-urban area, elevated concentrations for several metals in particular for V, Sn, Pb, and Sr, and comparable ranges for chlorinated organic contaminants, except for elevated levels of hexachlorobenzene, which indicates characteristic inputs from the Elbe.     

A contribution to risk analysis for leakage through abandoned wells in geological CO2 storage

The selection and the subsequent design of a subsurface CO₂ storage system are subject to considerable uncertainty. It is therefore important to assess the potential risks for health, safety and environment. This study contributes to the development of methods for quantitative risk assessment of CO₂ leakage from subsurface reservoirs. The amounts of leaking CO₂ are estimated by evaluating the extent of CO₂ plumes after numerically simulating a large number of reservoir realizations with a radially symmetric, homogeneous model. To conduct the computationally very expensive simulations, the ‘CO₂ Community Grid’ was used, which allows the execution of many parallel simulations simultaneously. The individual realizations are set up by randomly choosing reservoir properties from statistical distributions. The statistical characteristics of these distributions have been calculated from a large reservoir database, holding data from over 1200 reservoirs. An analytical risk equation is given, allowing the calculation of average risk due to multiple leaky wells with varying distance in the surrounding of the injection well. The reservoir parameters most affecting risk are identified. Using these results, the placement of an injection well can be optimized with respect to risk and uncertainty of leakage. The risk and uncertainty assessment can be used to determine whether a site, compared to others, should be considered for further investigations or rejected for CO₂ storage.     

Automatic detection and tracking of pedestrians from a moving stereo rig

We report on a stereo system for 3D detection and tracking of pedestrians in urban traffic scenes. The system is built around a probabilistic environment model which fuses evidence from dense 3D reconstruction and image-based pedestrian detection into a consistent interpretation of the observed scene, and a multi-hypothesis tracker to reconstruct the pedestrians’ trajectories in 3D coordinates over time. Experiments on real stereo sequences recorded in busy inner-city scenarios are presented, in which the system achieves promising results.     

Field evidence for the control of grain size and sediment supply on steady‐state bedrock river channel slopes in a tectonically active setting

We exploit a natural experiment in Boulder Creek, a ~ 30 km² drainage in the Santa Cruz mountains, CA, USA to explore how an abrupt increase in the caliber of bedload sediment along a bedrock channel influences channel morphology in an actively uplifting landscape. Boulder Creek's bedrock channel, which is entirely developed on weak sedimentary rock, has a high flow shear stress that is about 3.5 times greater where it transports coarse (~ 22 cm D₅₀) diorite in the lower reaches in comparison with the upstream section of the creek that transports only relatively finer bedload (~2 cm D₅₀) derived from weak sedimentary rocks. In addition, Boulder Creek's channel abruptly widens and shallows downstream and transitions from partial to nearly continuous alluvial cover where it begins transporting coarse diorite. Boulder Creek's tributary channels are also about three times steeper where they transport diorite bedload, and within the Santa Cruz mountains channels in sedimentary bedrock are systematically steeper when >50% of their catchment area is within crystalline basement rocks. Despite this clear control of coarse sediment size on channel slopes, the threshold of motion stress for bedload, alone, does not appear to control channel profile slopes here. Upper Boulder Creek, which is starved of coarse sediment, maintains high flow shear stresses well in excess of the threshold for motion. In contrast, lower Boulder Creek, with a greater coarse sediment supply, exerts high flow stresses much closer to the threshold for motion. We speculate that upper Boulder Creek has evolved to sustain partial alluvial cover and transfer greater energy to the bed via bedload impacts to compensate for its low coarse sediment supply. Thus bedload supply, bedrock erosion efficiency, and grain size all appear to influence channel slopes here. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.