Evaluation of the impacts of climate changes on the coastal Chaouia aquifer, Morocco, using numerical modeling

The aquifer of the Chaouia Coast, Morocco constitutes an example of groundwater resources subjected to intensive and uncontrolled withdrawals in a semi-arid region. The analysis of the trends of precipitation and piezometric levels of the Chaouia coastal aquifer, with the use of moving averages, emphasized the impact of the climate on the groundwater resources of the system. The results showed that the periods 1977–1993 and 1996–2000 are characterized by a deficit in precipitation, although the precipitation increased slightly during the periods 1973–1977 and 1993–1996. Numerical modeling of the Chaouia aquifer showed that the groundwater resources of this system are less sensitive to the variations in precipitation. Severe degradation of the resource is related to intensive pumping during the periods of drought, which has forced abandonment of wells due to seawater intrusion.     

Comparisons among the five ground-motion models developed using RESORCE for the prediction of response spectral accelerations due to earthquakes in Europe and the Middle East

This article presents comparisons among the five ground-motion models described in other articles within this special issue, in terms of data selection criteria, characteristics of the models and predicted peak ground and response spectral accelerations. Comparisons are also made with predictions from the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) models to which the models presented here have similarities (e.g. a common master database has been used) but also differences (e.g. some models in this issue are nonparametric). As a result of the differing data selection criteria and derivation techniques the predicted median ground motions show considerable differences (up to a factor of two for certain scenarios), particularly for magnitudes and distances close to or beyond the range of the available observations. The predicted influence of style-of-faulting shows much variation among models whereas site amplification factors are more similar, with peak amplification at around 1s. These differences are greater than those among predictions from the NGA models. The models for aleatory variability (sigma), however, are similar and suggest that ground-motion variability from this region is slightly higher than that predicted by the NGA models, based primarily on data from California and Taiwan.     

Preliminary chemical and micromorphological observations on Urartu (800–600 B.C.) ceramics,eastern Turkey

Anatolia has long been a major pottery production center of the ancient world, dating back 7000 cal yr B.P. The Early Iron Age Urartu Kingdom (800–600 B.C.) of eastern Anatolia is known for the production of high‐quality pottery, but little is known regarding firing technology and manufacture of these ceramics. Here we present a preliminary study of Urartu ceramic micromorphology and chemistry and suggest that the Urartus had good knowledge of local geology and intentionally used chemical fluxes (Pb, Rb, and Li) to attain desired firing temperatures. The sophisticated production of Urartu ceramics is comparable to later high‐quality Roman pottery (terra sigillata) procured from the same area. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Investigation of Chemical Compositions of Urban,Industrial, Agricultural,and Rural Top‐soils in Izmir,Turkey

The top‐soil samples were collected from urban, industrial, agricultural, and rural sites to investigate the modification in the elemental composition due to anthropogenic influence in one of the biggest city of Turkey, namely Izmir. The elemental profiles were dominated by lithophilic elements such as Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, K, and sea salt element, Na, which is typical for Mediterranean region. The trace elemental concentrations showed significant variation with higher concentrations in the industrial sites, particularly in the vicinity of iron‐steel producers from scrap materials (EAF‐Steels). Lead, Zn, and Cd around EAF‐Steels were found to be higher than other sites. Comparison to universal upper crusts and local reference soil has shown that Izmir top‐soils were contaminated in terms of many trace elements, most probably due to anthropogenic activities. Correlation matrix, crustal enrichment factors, and factor analysis were applied to investigate the extent of soil modification and possible sources. The results indicated that the elemental profiles of top‐soils were mainly determined by parent materials; however, anthropogenic activities were found to be factor effective on the profile.     

New measures for analysis and comparison of shape distortion in world map projections

ABSTRACT

World maps can have quite different depictions of reality depending on the projection adopted, and this can influence our perception of the world. In this respect, shape is a significant property that needs to be considered, especially when representing large regions in general-purpose world maps. A map projection distorts most geometric properties (area, distance, direction/angle, shape, and specific curves) and usually preserves a single property or provides a compromise between different properties when transforming terrestrial features from globe to plane. The distortions are mainly classified based on area, distance and direction/angle and analyzed with Tissot’s theorem. However, this theorem offers a local (pointwise) solution, so the distortion assessment is valid at infinitesimal scale (i.e. for very small regions). For this reason, different approaches are required to analyze the distortions at finite scale (i.e. for larger regions). However, there are very few attempts at analyzing and comparing shape distortion of landmasses in world map projections owing to the fact that shape measurement is difficult and usually involves measuring different characteristics. Seeking to fill this gap, in this study, compactness and elongation distortion measures are introduced. In this regard, 16 world map projections are analyzed and compared with these distortion measures in a GIS environment, based on map datasets of continents and countries. An analysis of the effect of the levels of detail of the datasets is also presented.     

The recently compiled Turkish strong motion database: preliminary investigation for seismological parameters

Strong motion data recorded by the Turkish national strong motion network has been compiled and processed systematically for the first time, together with detailed geophysical and geotechnical site measurements for all of its stations. The catalog information of 18 seismological agencies and other sources were examined to obtain reliable source, geometry, and distance parameters for each event. The high quality digital and analog strong motion data was processed by a uniform methodology to remove the high- and low-frequency noise. Currently, the seismological and spectral information of 4,607 strong motion records are available for use by earth scientists and earthquake engineers. In this article, we present the fundamental features of this database and explain our methodology in their calculation. We present several comparisons of our database with other related studies to verify our approach during the computational stage of the seismological parameters. The results confirm the reliability of our calculations. The database has also enabled us to derive empirical magnitude conversion relationships to estimate moment magnitude in terms of different magnitude scales. The article ends with a discussion of the likely improvements in the European accelerometric data through contributions from this strong motion database applicable for seismically active shallow-crust regions. The findings of this article emphasize the necessity of global strong motion databases in Europe for better estimation of seismic hazard in regions of similar seismotectonic environment.     

Current empirical ground-motion prediction equations for Europe and their application to Eurocode 8

The first ground-motion prediction equation derived from European and Middle Eastern strong-motion data was published more than 30 years ago; since then strong-motion networks and the resulting databank of accelerograms in the region have expanded significantly. Many equations for the prediction of peak ground-motion parameters and response spectral ordinates have been published in recent years both for the entire Euro-Mediterranean and Middle Eastern region as well as for individual countries within this region. Comparisons among empirical ground-motion models for these parameters, developed using large regional datasets, do not support the hypothesis of there being significant differences in earthquake ground-motions from one area of crustal seismicity to another. However, there are certain regions within Europe—affected by different tectonic regimes—for which the existing pan-European equations may not be applicable. The most recent European equations make it possible to now implement overdue modifications to the presentation of seismic design actions in Eurocode 8 that allow an improved approximation to the target uniform hazard spectrum (UHS). Using these recent equations, this study outlines a new approach via which an approximation to the UHS may be constructed using hazard maps calculated for peak ground velocity and the corner period T _D in addition to the maps for peak ground acceleration that underpin the current stipulations of Eurocode 8.     

Structural and geotechnical investigations on Sivrice earthquake (Mw = 6.8), January 24, 2020

Natural Hazards - The earthquake in Sivrice, the district of Elaz??, took place at 20:55 (with local time, GMT+3) on January 24, 2020, with a magnitude of 6.8 in Turkey. This earthquake...     

Direct use of PGV for estimating peak nonlinear oscillator displacements

A predictive model is presented for estimating the peak inelastic oscillator displacements (S_d,ie) from peak ground velocity (PGV). The proposed model accounts for the variation of S_d,ie for bilinear hysteretic behavior under constant ductility (µ) and normalized lateral strength ratio (R) associated with postyield stiffness ratios of α=0 and 5%. The regression coefficients are based on a ground‐motion database that contains dense‐to‐stiff soil site recordings at distances of up to 30 km from the causative fault. The moment magnitude ( M ) range of the database is 5.2? M ?7.6 and the ground motions do not exhibit pulse‐dominant signals. Confined to the limitations imposed by the ground‐motion database, the model can estimate S_d,ie by employing the PGV predictions obtained from the attenuation relationships (ground‐motion prediction equations). In this way, the influence of important seismological parameters can be incorporated to the variation of S_d,ie in a fairly rationale manner. This feature of the predictive model advocates its implementation in the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis that employs scalar ground‐motion intensity indices. Various case studies are presented to show the consistent estimations of S_d,ie by the proposed model. The error propagation in the S_d,ie estimations is also discussed when the proposed model is associated with attenuation relationships. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.