Trees, lateral shrinkage and building damage

This article presents the study conducted and the actions taken to stabilise the foundations of 25 low-rise (two/three-storey) buildings in Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real, central Spain). Owing to the immediate attention required, it was decided that the study would focus on procuring a synthetic model that would be able to provide a satisfactory explanation for the tendency of the movements, overlooking the detailed model of each building. This analysis pointed out that the mobilisation was probably due to both the shrinkage caused by the existing trees during the dry-growing seasons, and to the loss of lateral confinement caused by the excavation of a service trench adjacent to the footings of the buildings. In keeping with this mechanism, stabilization was carried out by transplanting the trees growing near the damaged buildings and installing a line of piles to provide lateral support to the footings. The evolution of the damage was therefore stopped.     

Large-scale distributed deformation controlled topography along the western Africa–Eurasia limit: Tectonic constraints

In the interior of the Iberian Peninsula, the main geomorphic features, mountain ranges and basins, seems to be arranged in several directions whose origin can be related to the N–S plate convergence which occurred along the Cantabro–Pyrenean border during the Eocene–Lower Miocene time span. The Iberian Variscan basement accommodated part of this plate convergence in three E–W trending crustal folds as well as in the reactivation of two left-lateral NNE–SSW strike-slip belts. The rest of the convergence was assumed through the inversion of the Iberian Mesozoic Rift to form the Iberian Chain. This inversion gave rise to a process of oblique crustal shortening involving the development of two right lateral NW–SE shear zones. Crustal folds, strike-slip corridors and one inverted rift compose a tectonic mechanism of pure shear in which the shortening is solved vertically by the development of mountain ranges and related sedimentary basins. This model can be expanded to NW Africa, up to the Atlasic System, where N–S plate convergence seems also to be accommodated in several basement uplifts, Anti-Atlas and Meseta, and through the inversion of two Mesozoic rifts, High and Middle Atlas. In this tectonic situation, the microcontinent Iberia used to be firmly attached to Africa during most part of the Tertiary, in such a way that N–S compressive stresses could be transmitted from the collision of the Pyrenean boundary. This tectonic scenario implies that most part of the Tertiary Eurasia–Africa convergence was not accommodated along the Iberia–Africa interface, but in the Pyrenean plateboundary. A broad zone of distributed deformation resulted from the transmission of compressive stresses from the collision at the Pyrenean border. This distributed, intraplate deformation, can be easily related to the topographic pattern of the Africa–Eurasia interface at the longitude of the Iberian Peninsula.Shortening in the Rif–Betics external zones – and their related topographic features – must be conversely related to more “local” driven mechanisms, the westward displacement of the “exotic” Alboran domain, other than N–S convergence. The remaining NNW–SSE to NW–SE, latest Miocene up to Present convergence is also being accommodated in this zone straddling Iberia and Morocco, at the same time as a new ill-defined plate boundary that is being developed between Europe and Africa.     

Mercury mobility in mine waste from Hg-mining areas in Almería,Andalusia (Se Spain)

Mining wastes and calcines from two abandoned mining areas (Valle del Azogue and Bayarque in Almería) have been characterized. In the mining wastes, the dominant mercury phases are cinnabar and elemental mercury in the matrix. In the calcines, however, the dominant mercury phase is elemental mercury bounded to the matrix. Water-leaching experiments were conducted on low-grade stockpiles and calcines in order to simulate the mobilization of mercury by runoff under environmental conditions. The laboratory column-leaching experiments show a possible mobilization of mercury from Hg⁰ dissolution, colloid transport and a possible dissolution of calomel and other soluble phases in the mine wastes from the Valle del Azogue and Bayarque mines. Equilibrium speciation modeling of Hg, conducted using the numerical code MINTEQ, showed that the theoretical dominant mercury species in the calcine and mining wastes samples are Hg(OH)₂, HgCl₂, HgClOH and Hg⁰. In some leachates obtained from the Valle del Azogue mining wastes (sample A06), the high Hg concentrations may indicate the possible dissolution of mineral phases such as calomel and other soluble phases, which are subsaturated. The environmental results indicate a great environmental mobility of mercury, especially during wet episodes associated with intense precipitation events, when there are significative amounts of secondary soluble minerals.     

Climatic vs. tectonic signals in a continental extensional basin (Teruel,NE Spain) from stable isotope (δ18O) and sequence stratigraphical evolution

Alluvial fans and shallow carbonate lakes interfered in the Teruel half‐graben during the Late Miocene–Pliocene. Tectonic influence is recorded in alluvial and lacustrine–palustrine successions, with long‐term climate changes being recorded in detail in the isotopic signatures of carbonates. Episodes of tectonic activity induced alluvial fan progradation and lake retraction in the whole basin. Three lacustrine stages have been identified, which support the idea that climate also exerted an important control on sedimentation. The transition between stages 1 and 2 occurred during a tectonically calm episode due to an increase in aridity in the Early Turolian; small fans with source areas next to the lake margin prograded, inducing lake‐shore retraction. The transition from stage 2 to 3 was caused by the superimposition of increasing tectonic activity and aridity effects. Our study demonstrates that discrimination of allogenic factors controlling sedimentation in continental closed basins is possible using sequence stratigraphy in combination with other techniques such as geochemistry of carbonates.     

Local site effect microzonation of Lorca town (SE Spain)

Local site effect assessment based on subsurface ground conditions is often the key to evaluate urban seismic hazard. The site effect evaluation in Lorca town (south-eastern Spain) started with a classification of urban geology through the geological mapping at scale 1:10,000 and the use of geotechnical data and geophysical surveys. The 17 geological formations identified were classified into 5 geological/seismic formations according to their seismic amplification capacity obtained from ambient vibration measurements as well as from simultaneous strong motion records. The shear-wave velocity structure of each geological/seismic formation was evaluated by means of inversion of Rayleigh wave dispersion data obtained from vertical-component array records of ambient noise. Nakamura’s method was applied to determine a predominant period distribution map. The spectral amplification factors were fourfold the values recorded in a reference hard-rock site. Finally, the capability of this study for explaining the damage distribution caused by the May 11th, 2011 Lorca destructive earthquake (Mw \(=\) 5.2) was examined. The methods used in this work are of assistance to evaluate ground amplification phenomena in urban areas of complex geology as Lorca town due to future earthquakes with applicability on urban seismic risk management.     

Performance of masonry enclosure walls: lessons learned from recent earthquakes

This paper discusses the issue of performance requirements and construction criteria for masonry enclosure and infill walls.Vertical building enclosures in European countries are very often constituted by non-load-bearing masonry walls, using horizontally perforated clay bricks.These walls are generally supported and confined by a reinforced concrete frame structure of columns and beams/slabs.Since these walls are commonly considered to be nonstructural elements and their influence on the structural response is ignored,their consideration in the design of structures as well as their connection to the adjacent structural elements is frequently negligent or insufficiently detailed.As a consequence,nonstructural elements,as for wall enclosures,are relatively sensitive to drift and acceleration demands when buildings are subjected to seismic actions. Many international standards and technical documents stress the need for design acceptability criteria for nonstructural elements,however they do not specifically indicate how to prevent collapse and severe cracking,and how to enhance the overall stability in the case of moderate to high seismic loading.Furthermore,a review of appropriate measures to improve enclosure wall performance and both in-plane and out-of-plane integrity under seismic actions is addressed.     

Sulfur Determination in Geological Samples Based on Coupled Analytical Techniques: Electric Furnace-IC and TGA-EGA

A study has been undertaken to determine sulfur in geological samples by coupled analytical techniques. Two measurement methods have been developed: one using an electric furnace coupled to an ion chromatograph (electric furnace-IC) and another using infrared (IR) and quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS) for evolved gas analysis (EGA) coupled with a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). In the electric furnace-IC method, measurement was performed without any sample pre-treatment. The measurement conditions were optimised by varying sample quantity, type of catalyst (WO₃, Cu, W and V₂O₅) and sample/catalyst ratio, and the detection limit was 10 μg g⁻¹. Sulfur ores decompose at different temperatures. However, TGA-EGA allowed identification of the different forms of sulfur in the sample, even when they were found in very low concentrations, because the sulfur was continuously analysed. The developed chromatographic method allowed simultaneous analysis of several sample components, such as S, Cl and F, with a low detection limit. The method was much faster and more specific than the methods described in the literature. The results of the sulfur determination had low scatter, possibly because the samples underwent little handling during analysis: the operator only weighed and placed the sample in the furnace, the rest of the measurement process was fully automated. The results obtained by both the developed methods have been validated by using reference materials and comparison with combustion-IR spectroscopy, a standard method for determining total sulfur in a sample.