Correction: Guidelines and pitfalls of refraction microtremor surveys

Journal of Seismology -     

On Geoseismic Noise and Helioseismic Oscillations

Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth - Abstract—In their paper published in Izvestiya, Physics of the Solid Earth, G.A. Sobolev et al. (2020) discussed the results of their study. Firstly,...     

Ambient Changes in Tracer Concentrations from a Multilevel Monitoring System in Basalt

Starting in 2008, a 4‐year tracer study was conducted to evaluate ambient changes in groundwater concentrations of a 1,3,6‐naphthalene trisulfonate tracer that was added to drill water. Samples were collected under open borehole conditions and after installing a multilevel groundwater monitoring system completed with 11 discrete monitoring zones within dense and fractured basalt and sediment layers in the eastern Snake River aquifer. The study was done in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy to test whether ambient fracture flow conditions were sufficient to remove the effects of injected drill water prior to sample collection. Results from thief samples indicated that the tracer was present in minor concentrations 28 days after coring, but was not present 6 months after coring or 7 days after reaming the borehole. Results from sampling the multilevel monitoring system indicated that small concentrations of the tracer remained in 5 of 10 zones during some period after installation. All concentrations were several orders of magnitude lower than the initial concentrations in the drill water. The ports that had remnant concentrations of the tracer were either located near sediment layers or were located in dense basalt, which suggests limited groundwater flow near these ports. The ports completed in well‐fractured and vesicular basalt had no detectable concentrations.     

An evaluation of CM patterns for grain-size studies of fine grained sediments

Grain-size data of Boom clay (Belgium) are represented on CM, AM, LM diagrams as suggested by Passega. They show a typical ‘uniform suspension’ pattern. It is argued that a ‘uniform suspension’ pattern can be due simply to the clay-rich nature of the sediments. As these sediments are not deposited by a single transport mechanism, the ‘uniform suspension’pattern does not necessarily indicate a specific transport mechanism.     

Trace element distributions in aquatic sediments of Danang – Hoian area, Vietnam

 Distribution of the trace elements Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in surficial sediments of the river/sea environment in Danang – Hoian area (Vietnam) was investigated to examine the degree of metal pollution caused by anthropogenic activities. Point sources from domestic and industrial wastes are identified as dominant contributors of trace element accumulation. Surficial sediments of Hoian River show extremely high total concentrations of Cu (Average Concentration 295 μg/g), Ni (AC 112 μg/g), Pb (AC 396 μg/g) and Zn (AC 429 μg/g) that exceed assigned safety levels ER-M. Similarly, the sediments of Han River show high Pb (AC 188 μg/g) and Zn (AC 282 μg/g) contents. In marine sediments of Thanhbinh beach Pb is also enriched (138 μg/g) above guideline levels. In contrast the sediments of the Cude River are dominated by trace element concentrations close to background values. Received: 17 December 1998 · Accepted: 6 May 1999     

Rock Mass Deformation Characteristics in High-Steep Slopes Influenced by Open-Pit to Underground Mining

In Daye Iron Mine, the open-pit mining has ended and the underground mining started in 2003. The present pit slopes are as high as 430 m and the slope angle is up to 43°. During the process of open-pit to underground mining, the high-steep pit slopes would be affected by both open-pit mining and underground mining, and its deformation characteristics would become more complex. So in this paper, the trinity method of numerical simulation, model experiment and field test was adopted to analyze the displacement and stress fields systematically. The results show that: (1) Prominent rebound deformation occurs near the slope foot, which is induced by the unloading in open-pit mining. When it is backfilled to 0 m level, the rebound deformation decreases, which indicate that backfilling mass can restrict the deformation and improve the slope stability; (2) Subsidence dominates the slope deformation in open-pit to underground mining and it increases with an increasing elevation of monitoring point; the maximum horizontal displacement occurs in the lower part of the slopes, because the backfilled part is squeezed by both the north slope and the south slope, and it has a lower elastic modulus than the previous orebody; (3) The stress and its variability near the slope foot are much larger than other places, indicating that the slope foot is most affected by stress redistribution and stress concentration may occur here; the stress at other stress monitoring points changes little, indicating that the influence of open-pit to underground mining is local; (4) The effect of underground mining on the deformation of the faults is not prominent; (5) Mining operations in near-ground part affect more on the variation of deformation and stress of pit slopes than that in deeper part.     

Developing a large‐scale water‐balance approach to seasonal forecasting: application to the 2012 drought in Britain

Seasonal hydrological forecasts, or outlooks, can potentially provide water managers with estimates of river flows and water resources for a lead time of several months ahead. An experimental modelling tool for national hydrological outlooks has been developed which combines a hydrological model estimate of sub‐surface water storage across Britain with a range of seasonal rainfall forecasts to provide estimates of area‐wide hydrological conditions up to a few months ahead. The link is made between a deficit in sub‐surface water storage and a requirement for additional rainfall over subsequent months to enable sub‐surface water storage and river flow to return to mean monthly values. The new scheme is assessed over a recent period which includes the termination of the drought that affected much of Britain in the first few months of 2012. An illustration is provided of its use to obtain return‐period estimates of the ‘rainfall required’ to ease drought conditions; these are well in excess of 200 years for several regions of the country, for termination within a month of 1 April 2012, and still exceed 40 years for termination within three months. National maps of sub‐surface water storage anomaly show for the first time the current spatial variability of drought severity. They can also be used to provide an indication of how a drought situation might develop in the next few months given a range of possible future rainfall scenarios. © 2013 CEH/Crown and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.