Relationships between moment magnitude and fault parameters: theoretical and semi-empirical relationships

Fault parameters are important in earthquake hazard analysis. In this paper, theoretical relationships between moment magnitude and fault parameters including subsurface rupture length, downdip rupture width, rupture area, and average slip over the fault surface are deduced based on seismological theory. These theoretical relationships are further simplified by applying similarity conditions and an unique form is established. Then, combining thc simplified theoretical relationships between moment magnitude and fault parameters with seismic source data selected in this study, a practical semi-empirical relationship is established. The seismic source data selected is also to used to derive empirical relationships between moment magnitude and fault parameters by the ordinary least square regression method. Comparisons between semi-empirical relationships and empirical relationships show that the former depict distribution trends of data better than the latter. It is also observed that downdip rupture widths of strike slip faults are saturated when moment magnitude is more than 7.0, but downdip rupture widths of dip slip faults are not saturated in the moment magnitude ranges of this study.     

Lateral load pattern in pushover analysis

The seismic capacity curves of three types of buildings including frame, frame-shear wall and shear wall obtained by pushover analysis under different lateral load patterns are compared with those from nonlinear time history analysis. Based on the numerical results obtained a two-phase load pattern; an inverted triangle (first mode) load pattern until the base shear force reachesβ times its maximum value, V_max, followed by a (x/H)^α form, hereβ and α being some coefficients depending on the type of the structures considered, is proposed in the paper, which can provide excellent approximation of the seismic capacity curve for low-to-mid-rise shear type buildings. Furthermore, it is shown both the two-phase load pattern proposed and the invariant uniform pattern can be used for low-to-mid-rise shear-bending type and low-rise bending type of buildings. No suitable load patterns have been found for high-rise buildings.     

Structural physical parameter identification based on evolutionary-simplex algorithm and structural dynamic response

Evolutionary computation based on the idea of biologic evolution is one type of global optimization algorithm that uses self-adaptation, self-organization and random searching to solve optimization problems. The evolutionary-simplex algorithm is introduced in this paper. It contains floating encoding which combines the evolutionary computation and the simplex algorithm to ovcrcomc the problems encountered in the genetic algorithm and evolutionary strategy methods.Numerical cxpcrimcnts arc performed using seven typical functions to verify the algorithm. An inverse analysis method to identify structural physical parameters based on incomplete dynamic responses obtained from the analysis in the time domain is prcscntcd by using the evolutionary-simplex algorithm. The modal evolutionary-simplex algorithm converted from the time domain to the modal domain is proposed to improve the inverse efficiency. Numerical calculations for a 50-DOF system show that whcn compared with other methods, the evolutionary-simplex algorithm offers advantages of high precision,cfficient searching ability, strong ability to resist noise, independence of initial value, and good adaptation to incomplete information conditions.     

An evaluation of the role played by remote sensing technology following the World Trade Center attack

Remote sensing technology has been widely recognized for contributing to emergency response efforts after the World Trade Center attack on September 11th, 2001. The need to coordinate activities in the midst of a dense, yet relatively small area, made the combination of imagery and mapped data strategically useful. This paper reviews the role played by aerial photography, satellite imagery, and LIDAR data at Ground Zero. It examines how emergency managers utilized these datasets, and identifies significant problems that were encountered. It goes on to explore additional ways in which imagery could have been used, while presenting recommendations for more effective use in future disasters and Homeland Security applications. To plan adequately for future events, it was important to capture knowledge from individuals who responded to the World Trade Center attack. In recognition, interviews with key emergency management and geographic information system (GIS) personnel provide the basis of this paper. Successful techniques should not be forgotten, or serious problems dismissed. Although widely used after September 11th, it is important to recognize that with better planning, remote sensing and GIS could have played an even greater role. Together with a data acquisition timeline, an expanded discussion of these issues is available in the MCEER/NSF report “Emergency Response in the Wake of the World Trade Center Attack; The Remote Sensing Perspective” (Huyck and Adams, 2002)     

Studies on seismic waves

The development of seismic wave study in China in the past four years is reviewed. The discussion is divided into several aspects, including seismic wave propagation in laterally homogeneous media, laterally heterogeneous media, anisotropic and porous media, surface wave and seismic wave inversion, and seismic wave study in prospecting and logging problems. Important projects in the current studies on seismic wave is suggested as the development of high efficient numerical methods, and applying them to the studies of excitation and propagation of seismic waves in complex media and strong ground motion, which will form a foundation for refined earthquake hazard analysis and prediction.     

Hornblende-dehydration melting in mafic rocks and the link between massif-type charnockite and associated granulites,Eastern Ghats Granulite Belt,India

A massif-type (intrusive) charnockite body in the Eastern Ghats granulite belt, India, is associated with hornblende-bearing mafic granulite, two-pyroxene granulite and enderbitic granulite. The charnockite is characterised by pervasive gneissic foliation (S₁). This is axial planar to the folded layers of hornblende-bearing mafic granulite (F₁ folds), indicating that the granulite protoliths were present before the development of S₁. Two-pyroxene granulite and enderbitic granulite occur as lenticular patches disposed along the foliation and hence could be syngenetic to S₁. The tonalitic to granodioritic, metaluminous to weakly peraluminous compositions and relatively high Sr/Rb of the charnockite are consistent with its derivation by partial melting of a mafic protolith. Strong Y depletion, lack of Sr depletion and strongly fractionated REE patterns with high (La/Yb)_N ratio, but relatively lower HREE (Gd/Lu) fractionation with marked positive Eu anomalies, suggest major residual hornblende (as well as garnet), but not plagioclase, consistent with the hornblende dehydration melting in the source rocks. Such a residual mineralogy is broadly similar to those of some of the hornblende-bearing mafic granulite inclusions, which have compositional features indicative of a restitic nature. Quantitative modelling supports an origin for the charnockite melts by partial melting of a hornblende-rich mafic granulite source, although source heterogeneity is very likely given the rather variable trace element contents of the charnockite. The whole-rock and mineral compositions of the two-pyroxene granulites and enderbitic granulites are consistent with them representing peritectic phase segregations of hornblende-dehydration melting. A clockwise P-T path implies that melting could have occurred in thickened continental crust undergoing decompression.Editorial responsibility: T.L. Grove     

The effect of chlorite interlayering on <Superscript>40</Superscript>Ar–<Superscript>39</Superscript>Ar biotite dating: an <Superscript>40</Superscript>Ar–<Superscript>39</Superscript>Ar laser-probe and TEM investigations of variably chloritised biotites

Biotite is one of the most common minerals dated by the ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar method. It frequently shows K contents below the expected stoichiometric value, suggesting the presence of low-K impurities. The most common low-K alteration product of biotite is chlorite. Therefore, it is important to understand the effects of chlorite interlayering on ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar ages in order to correctly interpret ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar data. This study examines the outcome of ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar dating analyses on variably chloritised biotites from Ordovician intrusive rocks. The infrared (IR) laser-probe technique and different gas extraction methods were adopted. Incremental laser-heating data on bulk samples yielded hump-shaped age profiles with meaningless young and old age steps. Both the extent of anomalous old age steps and the degree of discordance of the age spectra were much more pronounced in the more chloritised biotite samples. In contrast, in situ data on rock chips and total-fusion ages on single biotite flakes yielded ages concordant with, or younger than, the inferred emplacement ages. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to texturally characterise biotite samples at the nanometre scale. It was also used to document the complex decomposition-transformation process affecting interlayered biotite–chlorite during in-vacuo IR-laser heating to temperatures ranging from ~600 to >1,000 °C. TEM results suggest that hump-shaped age profiles result from an interplay between ³⁹Ar_K redistribution by recoil during sample irradiation and differential release of argon isotopes hosted in three main reservoirs. These reservoirs are (from least to most retentive): extended defects, chlorite and biotite. The final descending age segment is attributed to the progressive release of argon with increasing temperature from large biotite domains for which ³⁹Ar_K recoil loss was less important. ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar data support previous findings, which suggest that ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar ages when recoil effects are minimised, provide minimum estimates that approach the true biotite age, when the pristine domains are analysed. The most effective approach for obtaining meaningful ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar ages was using individual total-fusion analyses on carefully selected, single flakes previously split along the basal cleavage by wet-grinding and corresponding to a sample mass of a few micrograms.Editorial responsibility: I Parsons     

Composite synvolcanic intrusions associated with Precambrian VMS-related hydrothermal systems

Large subvolcanic intrusions are recognized within most Precambrian VMS camps. Of these, 80% are quartz diorite–tonalite–trondhjemite composite intrusions. The VMS camps spatially associated with composite intrusions account for >90% of the aggregate sulfide tonnage of all the Precambrian, intrusion-related VMS camps. These low-alumina, low-K, and high-Na composite intrusions contain early phases of quartz diorite and tonalite, followed by more voluminous trondhjemite. They have a high proportion of high silica (>74% SiO ₂) trondhjemite which is compositionally similar to the VMS-hosting rhyolites within the volcanic host-rock successions. The quartz-diorite and possibly tonalite phases follow tholeiitic fractionation trends whereas the trondhjemites fall within the composition field for primitive crustal melts. These transitional M-I-type primitive intrusive suites are associated with extensional regimes within oceanic-arc environments. Subvolcanic composite intrusions related to the Archean Sturgeon Lake and Noranda, and Paleoproterozoic Snow Lake VMS camps range in volume from 300 to 1,000 km ³. Three have a sill morphology with strike lengths between 15 and 22 km and an average thickness between 1,500 and 2,000 m. The fourth has a gross stock-like shape. The VMS deposits are principally restricted to the volcanic strata above the strike length of the intrusions, as are areally extensive, thin exhalite units. The composite intrusions contain numerous internal phases which are commonly clustered within certain parts of the composite intrusion. These clusters underlie eruptive centers surrounded by areas of hydrothermal alteration and which contain most of the VMS deposits. Early quartz-diorite and tonalite phases appear to have intruded in rapid succession. Evidence includes gradational contacts, magma mixing and disequilibrium textures. They appear to have been emplaced as sill-dike swarms. These early phases are present as pendants and xenoliths within later trondhjemite phases. The trondhjemite phases contain numerous internal contacts indicating emplacement as composite sills. Common structural features of the composite intrusions include early xenolith phases, abundant small comagmatic dikes, fractures and veins and, in places, columnar jointing. Internal phases may differ greatly in texture from fine- to coarse-grained, aphyric and granophyric through seriate to porphyritic. Mineralogical and isotopic evidence indicates that early phases of each composite intrusion are affected by pervasive to fracture-controlled high-temperature (350–450 °C) alteration reflecting seawater-rock interaction. Trondhjemite phases contain hydrothermal-magmatic alteration assemblages within miarolitic cavities, hydrothermal breccias and veins. This hydrothermal-magmatic alteration may, in part, be inherited from previously altered wall rocks. Two of the four intrusions are host to Cu-Mo-rich intrusive breccias and porphyry-type mineralization which formed as much as 14 Ma after the main subvolcanic magmatic activity. The recognition of these Precambrian, subvolcanic composite intrusions is important for greenfields VMS exploration, as they define the location of thermal corridors within extensional oceanic-arc regimes which have the greatest potential for significant VMS mineralization. The VMS mineralization may occur for 2,000 m above the intrusions. In some cases, VMS mineralization has been truncated or enveloped by late trondhjemite phases of the composite intrusions. Evidence that much of the trondhjemitic magmatism postdates the principal VMS activity is a critical factor when developing heat and fluid flow models for these subseafloor magmatic-hydrothermal systems.     

Regional-scale hydrothermal alteration in the Central Blake River Group,western Abitibi subprovince,Canada: implications for VMS prospectivity

The Late Archean Blake River Group is a thick succession of predominantly mafic volcanic rocks within the southern zone of the Abitibi greenstone belt. It contains a number of silicic volcanic centers of different size, including the large Noranda volcanic complex, which is host to 17 past-producing volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. The Noranda complex consists of a 7- to 9-km-thick succession of bimodal mafic and felsic volcanic rocks erupted during five major cycles of volcanism. Massive sulfide formation coincided with a period of intense magmatic activity (cycle III) and the formation of the Noranda cauldron. Hydrothermal alteration in these rocks is interpreted to reflect large-scale hydrothermal fluid flow associated with rapid crustal extension and rifting of the volcanic complex. The alteration includes abundant albite, chlorite, epidote and quartz (silicification), which exhibit broad stratigraphic and structural control and correlate with previously mapped whole-rock oxygen isotope zonation. The Mine Sequence volcanic rocks are characterized by abundant iron-rich chlorite (Fe/Fe+Mg >0.5), hydrothermal amphibole (ferroactinolite) and coarse-grained epidote of clinozoisite composition (<10 wt% Fe ₂O ₃). Volcanic rocks of the pre-cauldron sequences, which contain only subeconomic stringer mineralization, are characterized by less abundant chlorite and mainly fine-grained epidote (>10 wt% Fe ₂O ₃) lacking the clinozoisite solid solution. Alteration in the Mine Sequence volcanic rocks persists along strike well beyond the limits of the main ore deposits (as far as several tens of kilometers) and can be readily distinguished from greenschist facies metamorphic assemblages at a regional scale. The lack of similar alteration in the pre-cauldron sequences is consistent with limited ¹⁸O-depletion and suggests that the early history of the volcanic complex did not support large-scale, high-temperature fluid flow in these rocks. Comparisons with a much smaller, barren volcanic complex in nearby Ben Nevis township reveal important differences in the alteration mineralogy between volcanoes of different size, with implications for area selection during regional-scale mineral exploration. The Ben Nevis Complex consists of a 3- to 4-km-thick succession of mafic, intermediate and felsic volcanic rocks centered on a small subvolcanic intrusion. Alteration of the volcanic rocks comprises mainly low-temperature assemblages of prehnite, pumpellyite, magnesium-rich chlorite (Fe/Fe+Mg <0.5), iron-rich epidote (>10 wt% Fe ₂O ₃) and calcite. Actinolite ± magnetite alteration occurs proximal to the intrusive core of the complex, but the limited extent of this alteration indicates only local high-temperature fluid circulation adjacent to the intrusion. A distal zone of carbonate alteration is located 4–6 km from the center of the volcano. Although iron-bearing carbonates are present locally within this zone, the absence of siderite argues against a high-temperature origin for this alteration. These observations do not offer positive encouragement for the existence of a fossil geothermal system of sufficient size or intensity to have produced a large massive sulfide deposit.     

Geochemistry and mineralogy of Platinum-group elements in the Ransko gabbro–peridotite massif,Bohemian Massif (Czech Republic)

The Ransko gabbro-peridotite massif in Eastern Bohemia is a strongly differentiated intrusive complex of Lower Cambrian age. The complex hosts low grade Ni-Cu ores mainly developed close to the contact of olivine-rich rocks with gabbros, in troctolites and, to a much lesser extent, in both pyroxene and olivine gabbros and plagioclase-rich peridotites. The ore zone is characterized by strong serpentinization and uralitization. The total Ni + Cu locally reaches up to 4 wt%. Anomalous concentrations of platinum-group elements (PGE's) (maximum 532 ppb Pd, 182 ppb Pt, 53 ppb Rh, 15 ppb Ru, 41 ppb Ir) were detected in samples of Cu-Ni and Ni-Cu ores (maximum 2.63 wt% Ni and 2.31 wt% Cu) from the Jezírka orebody. The main ore paragenesis includes pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite, cubanite, pyrite, magnetite, mackinawite, valleriite, ilmenite and sphalerite. During this work, michenerite, froodite, sperrylite, gold, native bismuth, altaite, tsumoite, hessite, an unnamed Bi-Ni telluride, cobaltite-gersdorffite and galena were newly identified. The host rocks originated through partial melting of a slightly depleted mantle source with noble metals scavenged from this primitive magma prior to the development of these rocks.