Designing and testing a network of passive seismic surveying and monitoring in Dehdasht (South Western Iran)

From August 2016 to July 2017, a passive seismic survey was conducted in South Western Iran as a part of a pilot project aimed to improve the imaging in geologically complex areas. Passive seismic methods have shown to be a useful tool to infer the physical properties of the underground geological structures where traditional hydrocarbon exploration methods are challenging. For this purpose, a dense passive seismic network consisting of 119 three-component borehole seismic stations was deployed over an area of 400 km² around the city of Dehdasht. This paper focuses on the details of the network design, which was devoted to high-resolution seismological applications, including local earthquake tomography and seismic attenuation imaging. In this regard, we describe the instrument types and the station installation procedures used to obtain high-quality data that were used to retrieve three-dimensional models of P- and S-wave velocity and P-wave attenuation in the area using tomographic inversion techniques. We also assess the network performance in terms of the seismic ambient noise levels recorded at each station site, and we revise the horizontal orientation of the sensors using surface waves from teleseismic earthquakes.     

Micromorphological evidences of climatic change in Yazd region, Iran

The fact of, present is the key of the past, will help us to use paleosols properties as indicators of the ecological characteristics of past .time, particularly the paleoclimate. In this respect the micro- morphological properties showed to be a very good indicator. Therefore, for investigating of climate change in Ardakan-Yazd plain, Central Iran 9 pedons were digged and described. Yazd has an arid climate with less than 100 mm annual precipitation and more than 22℃ mean annual temperature （Aridic-hyper thermic soil moisture and temperature regions, respectively）. Based on the morphological and physicochemical analysis Arglic, Calcic and Gypsic diagnostic horizons have been distinguished in these soils. Thin section studied showed that the illuviated form of clay includes, infillings on channel, coating on pendant, on nodules and on grains, at lower depths and also juxtaposed calcite needles on void argillan at upper part of the profiles. Mineralogical result showed fine clay in arglic horizon, too. Considering depth and forms of these pedofeatures, we concluded that, the observed illuviated clays at lower depth must be the result of the more humid climate of the past, where the carbonates have been removed completely as pendant, nodules or coating to considerable depth, following processes, clay has been dispersed and also trans located to these depths. In contrast to these features, the juxtaposed needle calcite at the shallower depth is probably the result of drier climate of today.     

The genesis of Mo-Cu deposits and mafic igneous rocks in the Senj area,Alborz magmatic belt,Iran

Mineralogy and Petrology - The geochemical and isotopic investigations were provided on the Upper Eocene Senj mafic intrusion and Mo-Cu mineralization to better understand the tectono-magmatic...     

An integrated data-mining and multi-criteria decision-making approach for hazard-based object ranking with a focus on landslides and floods

This study is aimed at conducting a hazard-based sustainability gap analysis considering spatial threats driven by floods and landslides, that is, a multi-hazard-based prioritization of the most important cities in Gorganrood Basin, Iran. Two data-mining models were used to assess the spatial probability of flood inundation and landslide occurrence, namely, support vector machine with the radial basis function kernel (SVM-RBF) and maximum entropy (ME). As inputs, a total of 124 flooded locations and 346 landslides with ten flood/landslide predisposing factors were mapped using geoinformatics and organizational data. The random selection method was used to split the flood and landslide inventories into two sets of train and test data. Tolerance index was used to test the multicollinearity among predictors. Validation of the models was carried out using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). Finally, TOPSIS was used, as a multi-criteria decision-making model, to make an internal sustainability gap analysis to prioritize the threatened and safe cities. For flood inundation, the AUC values obtained from the test set revealed that the SVM-RBF outperformed ME in terms of predictive power and generalization capacity with the respective areas of 0.831 and 0.796 under the curve. For landslide susceptibility assessment, SVM-RBF again excelled ME in predictive power with the respective values of 0.887 and 0.84. Therefore, the susceptibility maps derived from SVM-RBF, as the premier model, were used for the next stage. Extracting the flood and landslide spatial probability values to 14 city points, the TOPSIS-Solver software made a prioritization using the similarity function to the ideal solution. Accordingly, Aliabad, Minoodasht, and Azadshahr cities, with having the smallest similarity coefficients, were found to be the top three spatially threatened cities in Gorganrood Basin, while Aq Qala, Gomishan, and Gonbad-e Kavus cities were placed at the bottom as the safest cities. This study can be a pivotal point in regional risk-based planning, implementation of further pragmatic measures, and allocation of resources for improving sustainable development most wisely.     

The study of the hydrogeological setting of the Chamshir Dam site with special emphasis on the cause of water salinity in the Zohreh River downstream from the Chamshir Dam (southwest of Iran)

Dissolution of evaporite formations, emergence of salty water springs, and intrusion of deep saline waters are important causes in changing the quality of surface water. The study area is part of the reservoir and downstream of Chamshir Dam, which is located in watershed of the Zohreh River 20?km southeast of Gachsaran City (southwest Iran). To construct powerhouse and related structures for supplying water to agricultural lands located in downstream of dam, water quality of Zohreh River was studied by eight sampling stations in the study area. Early studies showed that water quality of the Zohreh River decreases severely downstream of the Chamshir Dam. Spatial variations diagram of major ions, Piper and composition diagrams of water samples in selected stations mark the presence of two slight and major contaminating zones at sampling station R₄ and R₅. In these zones, concentration of Ca, SO₄ and Na, Cl ions increase suddenly. Results of hydrogeological, hydrochemical, lithological and tectonics studies showed that even though there are several low discharges springs in the contaminated zone they cannot be related to surface dissolution of evaporate layers by Zohreh River. There is an important fault zone including Chamshir faults I and II in the contamination zones through which intrusion of sulfate brackish and chloride brine waters occur along the fault zone and then enter Zohreh River below its base level. In the absence of any surface evidence, the fault zone is the main cause of salinity. Evaluation of water balance salinity in contaminated zones shows that the discharge rate of saline waters to the river is not low and cannot be separated. These findings show that there are serious restrictions upon the purposes of the project.     

Stochastic finite-fault simulation of ground motion from the August 11, 2012, <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">w</Emphasis></Subscript> 6.4 Ahar earthquake,northwestern Iran

In this study, the 11 August 2012 M _w 6.4 Ahar earthquake is investigated using the ground motion simulation based on the stochastic finite-fault model. The earthquake occurred in northwestern Iran and causing extensive damage in the city of Ahar and surrounding areas. A network consisting of 58 acceleration stations recorded the earthquake within 8–217 km of the epicenter. Strong ground motion records from six significant well-recorded stations close to the epicenter have been simulated. These stations are installed in areas which experienced significant structural damage and humanity loss during the earthquake. The simulation is carried out using the dynamic corner frequency model of rupture propagation by extended fault simulation program (EXSIM). For this purpose, the propagation features of shear-wave including \( {Q}_s \) value, kappa value \( {k}_0 \), and soil amplification coefficients at each site are required. The kappa values are obtained from the slope of smoothed amplitude of Fourier spectra of acceleration at higher frequencies. The determined kappa values for vertical and horizontal components are 0.02 and 0.05 s, respectively. Furthermore, an anelastic attenuation parameter is derived from energy decay of a seismic wave by using continuous wavelet transform (CWT) for each station. The average frequency-dependent relation estimated for the region is \( Q=\left(122\pm 38\right){f}^{\left(1.40\pm 0.16\right)}. \) Moreover, the horizontal to vertical spectral ratio \( H/V \) is applied to estimate the site effects at stations. Spectral analysis of the data indicates that the best match between the observed and simulated spectra occurs for an average stress drop of 70 bars. Finally, the simulated and observed results are compared with pseudo acceleration spectra and peak ground motions. The comparison of time series spectra shows good agreement between the observed and the simulated waveforms at frequencies of engineering interest.     

Spatial and temporal variations in the incidence of dust events over Iran

Large near-field tsunamis pose a significant threat to the Canadian West Coast due to its proximity to the circum-Pacific belt where a significant tsunami-inducing earthquake event from the Cascadia subduction zone is expected. This study investigated the risks associated with such an event in terms of pedestrian evacuation needs and plans for the Town of Tofino, a small community located on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The population-at-risk within the hazard zone and its ability to evacuate to safety is evaluated using anisotropic path-distance modelling. Mitigation measures, such as vertical evacuation buildings, are quantitatively evaluated. Site-specific inundation modelling was not performed as part of this study; tsunami hazard and safe zones were computed using a range of run-ups varying between 3 and 25 m. It was established that up to 80% of the population is within the maximum hazard zone considered. This evacuation modelling exercise indicates that a maximum of 13% of the population would have insufficient time to reach safety when using a mobility-impaired ambulatory speed. The use of three vertical evacuation buildings can reduce the risk of losing population in this category by 99%. Although some conservative assumptions were used (vertical datum at higher high water, reductions in safe zones by generalization process and mobility-impaired evacuation speeds), the evacuation potential is likely overestimated due to the coarseness of the topographic data used in the evacuation modelling and from an overestimated first wave arrival time. This is the first Canadian study which used anisotropic evacuation modelling to evaluate the vulnerability of a Canadian community to tsunami inundation.

     

Assessment of the Effects of Freeze–Thaw and Salt Crystallization Ageing Tests on Anahita Temple Stone,Kangavar, West of Iran

Building stone of Anahita Temple seriously suffers from weathering due to long term freezing-thawing and salt crystallization processes. This article investigates possible changes of physical and mechanical characteristics of this stone subjected to freeze–thaw and salt crystallization ageing tests. Fresh samples obtained from the Chelmaran quarry (the main quarry supplying for Anahita Temple stone) were tested under freeze–thaw and salt crystallization experiments. The freeze–thaw and sodium sulfate salt crystallization are suggested to be the most effective factors affecting in apparent deterioration of the stone in compare to the magnesium sulfate salt crystallization test. Significant decreases in mechanical properties of the stone were observed after freeze–thaw and salt crystallization tests. However, more mechanical losses were recorded after the salt crystallization cycles than the freeze–thaw cycles. This is probably due to crystallization pressure of salt crystals in compare to ice wedging force, which promoted more development of micro-fractures in the specimens. Probably, intrinsic factors of the stone such as frequent calcite veins and stylolites, are the main factors that control the durability of Anahita Temple stone. Preferential weakening along these features during freeze–thaw and salt crystallization cycles led to physical destruction and strength loss of the stone. Based on comparison between experimentally induced damages and field observations, reasonably freeze–thaw process is major factor in weathering of Anahita Temple stone. It should be noted that recorded 102 frozen days for the region imply high destruction potential of the stone during freeze–thaw cycles.     

A simplified stress analysis of rising salt domes

We use a simple analytical model to estimate the stress field in density‐driven, rising salt domes and adjacent sediments, and to describe the evolution of these domes. We show that the pressure exerted by the salt pushing out against its wall rocks (the salt pressure) decreases linearly up the flank of the dome, but is always greater than the overburden stress. In fact, the salt pressure normal to the dome boundary is everywhere the maximum principal stress, whereas the hoop stress parallel to the circumference of the dome is the minimum stress. In addition, we quantitatively describe the critical stages of salt dome evolution (initiation, upbuilding, and downbuilding), relating these stages to sedimentation rate and basin thickness. This analysis also shows that even the highest sedimentation rates are unlikely to accumulate enough sediments to bury downbuilding domes as long as the salt supply is unrestricted. Despite the simplicity of the model, its predictions are in good agreement with field observations near salt domes. Overall, our analytical model can provide critical insight into the stress field perturbation in and near rising salt domes and can be used to assess the accuracy of numerical models and field measurements near these domes.