Seismic hazard studies for Gaziantep city in South Anatolia of Turkey

Seismic hazard studies were conducted for Gaziantep city in the South Anatolia of Turkey. For this purpose, a new attenuation relationship was developed using the data of Zaré and Bard and accelerations were predicted employing this new equation. Deterministic approach, total probability theorem and GIS methodology were all together utilized for the seismic assessments. Seismic hazard maps with 0.25° grid intervals considering the site conditions were produced by the GIS technique. The results indicated that the acceleration values by the GIS hazard modelings were matched with the ones from the deterministic approach, however, they were underestimated comparing with the total probability theorem. In addition, the GIS based seismic hazard maps showed that the current seismic map of Turkey fairly yields conservative acceleration values for the Gaziantep region. Therefore, the constructed GIS hazard models are offered as a base map for a further modification of the current seismic hazard map.     

Biodegradation effects over different types of coastal rocks

Modern coastal areas have natural and transported rocks (armourstone) on which various types of organisms live. Burrowing, boring and feeding by these organisms can destroy or modify the coastal rocks and hence change the coastal morphology. Two rock types and three dominant types of organisms have been studied in Mersin Bay, Eastern Mediterranean of southern Turkey. In this study area, Plio-Quaternary conglomerates and variously aged limestone armourplates have been affected by Phoronida worms, bivalve Brachidontes pharaonis (Fischer P. 1870) and the limpet Patella sp. Phoronida colonies were found covering the hard substratum as a mat and form tubular endolithes of 35.0 mm depth and 1.5 mm diameter, whilst Brachidontes pharaonis (Fischer P. 1870) form 44 mm deep vase-shaped gastrochaenolites. The bioerosive activity of Limpet Patella sp., found intertidal and within the spray zone, cannot be significantly observed on the rocks over short time periods. The soft sandy matrix of the conglomerates present were found to disintegrate by bioerosional processes, with the released gravels being transported and deposited onto the beach. Within the armourstone limestone blocks, a maximum of 44.0 mm deep holes developed after 50–60 years. However, these biological activities do not threaten the stability of the blocks due to their hard and homogeneous internal structure. Furthermore, the organism colonies that cover these rocks as a strong mat (maximum 29.0 mm) act to protect their surfaces from further biological attack and wave action.     

Spectral determination of source parameters in the Marmara Region

Ever since the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake, in which the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) was not able to correctly reflect the magnitude size in its preliminary report because of the saturation effect, a rapid and accurate determination of the earthquake becomes a very important issue. Therefore, in the framework of this study, an automatic determination of the moment magnitude was performed by using the displacement spectra of selected earthquakes in the Marmara Region. For this purpose, 39 three-component broadband stations from KOERI seismic network which recorded 174 earthquakes with magnitudes 2.5?≤?M?≤?5.0 in between 2006–2009 were used. Due to the importance of quality factor in determination of the moment magnitude with spectral analysis method, the quality factor was calculated for the whole region in the beginning. Source spectrum which was obtained by converting the velocity records to displacement spectra and moment magnitudes of earthquakes were determined by fitting this spectrum to classical Brune model. For this aim, an automatic procedure was utilized which based on minimizing the differences between observed and synthetic source spectra identified by the S waves. Besides moment magnitude and location parameters, some source parameters such as seismic moment, spectral level, corner frequency and stress drop were also calculated. Application of the method proves that determining the seismic moment from the source spectra is applicable not only for earthquakes with small magnitude but also moderate earthquakes as well.     

Fidelity and repeatability of wave fields reconstructed from multicomponent streamer data

Wave field reconstruction – the estimation of a three‐dimensional (3D) wave field representing upgoing, downgoing or the combined total pressure at an arbitrary point within a marine streamer array – is enabled by simultaneous measurements of the crossline and vertical components of particle acceleration in addition to pressure in a multicomponent marine streamer. We examine a repeated sail line of North Sea data acquired by a prototype multicomponent towed‐streamer array for both wave field reconstruction fidelity (or accuracy) and reconstruction repeatability. Data from six cables, finely sampled in‐line but spaced at 75 m crossline, are reconstructed and placed on a rectangular data grid uniformly spaced at 6.25 m in‐line and crossline. Benchmarks are generated using recorded pressure data and compared with wave fields reconstructed from pressure alone, and from combinations of pressure, crossline acceleration and vertical acceleration. We find that reconstruction using pressure and both crossline and vertical acceleration has excellent fidelity, recapturing highly aliased diffractions that are lost by interpolation of pressure‐only data. We model wave field reconstruction error as a linear function of distance from the nearest physical sensor and find, for this data set with some mismatched shot positions, that the reconstructed wave field error sensitivity to sensor mispositioning is one‐third that of the recorded wave field sensitivity. Multicomponent reconstruction is also more repeatable, outperforming single‐component reconstruction in which wave field mismatch correlates with geometry mismatch. We find that adequate repeatability may mask poor reconstruction fidelity and that aliased reconstructions will repeat if the survey geometry repeats. Although the multicomponent 3D data have only 500 m in‐line aperture, limiting the attenuation of non‐repeating multiples, the level of repeatability achieved is extremely encouraging compared to full‐aperture, pressure‐only, time‐lapse data sets at an equivalent stage of processing.     

Helium loss from Martian meteorites mainly induced by shock metamorphism: Evidence from new data and a literature compilation

Abstract— Noble gas data from Martian meteorites have provided key constraints about their origin and evolution, and their parent body. These meteorites have witnessed varying shock metamorphic overprinting (at least 5 to 14 GPa for the nakhlites and up to 45–55 GPa (e.g., the lherzolitic shergottite Allan Hills [ALH] A77005), solar heating, cosmic‐ray exposure, and weathering both on Mars and Earth. Influences on the helium budgets of Martian meteorites were evaluated by using a new data set and literature data. Concentrations of ³He, ⁴He, U, and Th are measured and shock pressures for same sample aliquots of 13 Martian meteorites were determined to asses a possible relationship between shock pressure and helium concentration. Partitioning of ⁴He into cosmogenic and radiogenic components was performed using the lowest ⁴He/³He ratio we measured on mineral separates (⁴He/³He = 4.1, pyroxene of ALHA77005). Our study revealed significant losses of radiogenic ⁴He. Systematics of cosmogenic ³He and neon led to the conclusion that solar radiation heating during transfer from Mars to Earth and terrestrial weathering can be ruled out as major causes of the observed losses of radiogenic helium in bulk meteorites. For bulk rock we observed a correlation of shock pressure and radiogenic ⁴He loss, ranging between ?20% for Chassigny and other moderately shocked Martian meteorites up to total loss for meteorites shocked above 40 GPa. A steep increase of loss occurs around 30 GPa, the pressure at which plagioclase transforms to maskelynite. This correlation suggests significant ⁴He loss induced by shock metamorphism. Noble gas loss in rocks is seen as diffusion due to (1) the temperature increase during shock loading (shock temperature) and (2) the remaining waste heat after adiabatic unloading (post shock temperature). Modeling of ⁴He diffusion in the main U, Th carrier phase apatite showed that post‐shock temperatures of ?300 °C are necessary to explain observed losses. This temperature corresponds to the post‐shock temperature calculated for bulk rocks shocked at about 40 GPa. From our investigation, data survey, and modeling, we conclude that the shock event during launch of the meteorites is the principal cause for ⁴He loss.     

Istanbul natural gas network rapid response and risk mitigation system

This paper describes a rapid response and risk mitigation system Istanbul Natural Gas Distribution Network Seismic Risk Reduction Project (IGRAS) for the Istanbul Natural Gas Network (IGDA?). Upon the trigger signal received from the earthquake early warning system in Istanbul, the real-time algorithm at IGRAS system district regulators checks the threshold levels of ground-motion parameters and interrupts the gas flow if any exceedance is detected. Then the system: (1) produces almost real-time earthquake hazard maps by using on-line strong-motion data from the strong-motion network in Istanbul: (2) estimates the distribution of damage to the natural gas network; and (3) transfers these damage distribution maps to stakeholders to enable dispatching rapid response teams to high damage areas.     

Modeling River Stage‐Discharge Relationships Using Different Neural Network Computing Techniques

One of the most important problems in hydrology is the establishment of rating curves. The statistical tools that are commonly used for river stage‐discharge relationships are regression and curve fitting. However, these techniques are not adequate in view of the complexity of the problems involved. Three different neural network techniques, i. e., multi‐layer perceptron neural network with Levenberg‐Marquardt and quasi‐Newton algorithms and radial basis neural networks, are used for the development of river stage‐discharge relationships by constructing nonlinear relationships between stage and discharge. Daily stage and flow data from three stations, Yamula, Tuzkoy and Sogutluhan, on the Kizilirmak River in Turkey were used. Regression techniques are also applied to the same data. Different input combinations including the previous stages and discharges are used. The models' results are compared using three criteria, i. e., root mean square errors, mean absolute error and the determination coefficient. The results of the comparison reveal that the neural network techniques are much more suitable for setting up stage‐discharge relationships than the regression techniques. Among the neural network methods, the radial basis neural network is found to be slightly better than the others.     

Climate change and modelling of extreme temperatures in Switzerland

This study models maximum temperatures in Switzerland monitored in twelve locations using the generalised extreme value (GEV) distribution. The parameters of the GEV distribution are determined within a Bayesian framework. We find that the parameters of the underlying distribution underwent a substantial change in the beginning of the 1980s. This change is characterised by an increase both in the level and the variability. We assess the likelihood of the heat wave of the summer 2003 using the fitted GEV distribution by accounting for the presence of a structural break. The estimation results do suggest that the heat wave of 2003 is not that statistically improbable if an appropriate methodology is used for dealing with nonstationarity.