Unstructured,anisotropic mesh generation for the Northwestern European continental shelf,the continental slope and the neighbouring ocean

A new mesh refinement strategy for generating high quality unstructured meshes of the Northwestern European continental shelf, the continental slope and the neighbouring ocean is presented. Our objective is to demonstrate the ability of anisotropic unstructured meshes to adequately address the challenge of simulating the hydrodynamics occurring in these three regions within a unique mesh. The refinement criteria blend several hydrodynamic considerations as the tidal wave propagation on the continental shelf and the hydrostatic consistency condition in steep areas. Several meshes illustrate both the validity and the efficiency of the refinement strategy. The selection of the refinement parameters is discussed. Finally, an attempt is made to take into account tidal ellipses, providing another cause for anisotropy in the mesh.     

Heat budget of the surface mixed layer south of Africa

ARGO hydrographic profiles, two hydrographic transects and satellite measurements of air–sea exchange parameters were used to characterize the properties and seasonal heat budget variations of the Surface Mixed Layer (SML) south of Africa. The analysis distinguishes the Subtropical domain (STZ) and the Subantarctic Zone (SAZ), Polar Frontal Zone (PFZ) and Antarctic Zone (AZ) of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. While no Subantarctic Mode Water forms in that region, occurrences of deep SML (up to ∼450 m) are observed in the SAZ in anticyclones detached from the Agulhas Current retroflection or Agulhas Return Current. These are present latitudinally throughout the SAZ, but preferentially at longitudes 10–20° E where, according to previous results, the Subtropical Front is interrupted. Likely owing to this exchange window and to transfers at the Subantarctic Front also enhanced by the anticyclones, the SAZ shows a wide range of properties largely encroaching upon those of the neighbouring domains. Heat budget computations in each zone reveal significant meridional changes of regime. While air–sea heat fluxes dictate the heat budget seasonal variability everywhere, heat is mostly brought through lateral geostrophic advection by the Agulhas Current in the STZ, through lateral diffusion in the SAZ and through air–sea fluxes in the PFZ and AZ. The cooling contributions are by Ekman advection everywhere, lateral diffusion in the STZ (also favoured by the ∼10° breach in the Subtropical Front) and geostrophic advection in the SAZ. The latter likely reflects an eastward draining of water warmed through mixing of the subtropical eddies.     

Rocking strong earthquake accelerations

In this paper, the method presented by Lee and Trifunac (1985) for generating synthetic torsional accelerograms has been extended to the estimation of synthetic rocking accelerograms and of their response spectra. Results from our previous regression analyses for the characterization of strong shaking in terms of (1) earthquake magnitude and epicentral distance, or (2) Modified Mercalli Intensity at the site are utilized here again. The effects of geologic environment, in terms of site parameters or the representative depth of sediments, which influence amplification, and the dispersive properties of ground motion are also included. The synthetic rocking accelerogram is then constructed from the horizontal and vertical acceleration components.     

Petrologic evolution of Krakatau (Indonesia): Implications for a future activity

Krakatau Volcano is located along a N35E volcanic lineament running through the Sunda straits (Indonesia). Its last activity has been characterized by successive phases, each beginning with the construction of a cone, and ending with its destruction and the formation of a caldera. The two last (pre- and post-1883) cycles are well known, but the more ancient ones are not so clearly defined.Lavas of Krakatau belong to an andesitic series, in which fractional crystallization plays the most important role. The petrologic evolution is characterized by a cyclicity in good agreement with the structural evolution: the succession is regular: basalts, basic andesites, acid andesites, dacites. A gap between acid and basic andesites occurs in each cycle. The destructive stages correspond to the occurrence of dacitic terms.The Anak cycle was characterized from 1927 to 1979 by basalts and basic andesites; the 1981 eruption involved a more differentiated magma (close to dacitic). Detailed study of the petrologic evolution since 1883 emphasizes the predominant role of fractional crystallization. This process occurred during a very short period, between 1979 and 1981. Separation of labradorite, augite, olivine and magnetite from parental basic andesite may generate the dacitic descendant, in a shallow reservoir (P_H2O estimated about 0.5 kbar). Implications for a future activity are considered.     

Eruptive history of the Colima volcanic complex (Mexico)

The evolution of the Colima volcanic complex can be divided into successive periods characterized by different dynamic and magmatic processes: emission of andesitic to dacitic lava flows, acid-ash and pumice-flow deposits, fallback nuées ardentes leading to pyroclastic flows with heterogeneous magma, plinian air-fall deposits, scoriae cones of alkaline and calc-alkaline nature. Four caldera-forming events, resulting either from major ignimbrite outbursts or Mount St. Helens-type eruptions, separate the main stages of development of the complex from the building of an ancient shield volcano (25 × 30 km wide) up to two summit cones, Nevado and Fuego.The oldest caldera, C1 (7–8 km wide), related to the pouring out of dacitic ash flows, marks the transition between two periods of activity in the primitive edifice called Nevado I: the first one, which is at least 0.6 m.y. old, was mainly andesitic and effusive, whereas the second one was characterized by extrusion of domes and related pyroclastic products. A small summit caldera, C2 (3–3.5 km wide), ended the evolution of Nevado I.Two modern volcanoes then began to grow. The building of the Nevado II started about 200,000 y. ago. It settled into the C2 caldera and partially overflowed it. The other volcano, here called Paleofuego, was progressively built on the southern side of the former Nevado I. Some of its flows are 50,000 y. old, but the age of its first outbursts is not known. However, it is younger than Nevado II. These two modern volcanoes had similar evolutions. Each of them was affected by a huge Mount St. Helens-type (or Bezymianny-type) event, 10,000 y. ago for the Paleofuego, and hardly older for the Nevado II. The landslides were responsible for two horseshoe-shaped avalanche calderas, C3 (Nevado) and C4 (Paleofuego), each 4–5 km wide, opening towards the east and the south. In both cases, the activity following these events was highly explosive and produced thick air-fall deposits around the summit craters.The Nevado III, formed by thick andesitic flows, is located close to the southwestern rim of the C3 caldera. It was a small and short-lived cone. Volcan de Fuego, located at the center of the C4 caldera, is nearly 1500 m high. Its activity is characterized by an alternation of long stages of growth by flows and short destructive episodes related to violent outbursts producing pyroclastic flows with heterogeneous magma and plinian air falls.The evolution of the primitive volcano followed a similar pattern leading to formation of C1 and then C2. The analogy between the evolutions of the two modern volcanoes (Nevado II–III; Paleofuego-Fuego) is described. Their vicinity and their contemporaneous growth pose the problem of the existence of a single reservoir, or two independent magmatic chambers, after the evolution of a common structure represented by the primitive volcano.     

Oligocene uplift of the Western Greater Caucasus: an effect of initial Arabia–Eurasia collision

The Greater Caucasus is Europe's largest mountain belt. Significant uncertainties remain over the evolution of the range, largely due to a lack of primary field data. This work demonstrates that depositional systems within the Oligocene–Early Miocene Maykop Series on either side of the Western Greater Caucasus (WGC) display a similar provenance and divergent palaeocurrents away from the range, constraining a minimum age for the subaerial uplift of the range as early Early Oligocene. An Eocene–Oligocene hiatus, basal Oligocene olistostromes and a marked increase in nannofossil reworking also point to initial deformation in the earliest Oligocene. The initial uplift of the WGC occurred during the final assembly of the Tethysides to its south. Uplift commenced after the Late Eocene final suturing of northern Neotethys and during the initial collision of Arabia with the southern accreted margin of Eurasia. This suggests that compressional deformation was rapidly transferred across the collision zone from the indenting Arabian plate to its northern margin.     

A set-membership approach for high integrity height-aided satellite positioning

A Robust Set-Inversion via Interval Analysis method in a bounded-error framework is used to compute three-dimensional location zones in real time, at a given confidence level. This approach differs significantly from the usual Gaussian error model paradigm, since the satellite positions and the pseudorange measurements are represented by intervals encompassing the true value with a particular level of confidence. The method computes a location zone recursively, using contractions and bisections of an arbitrarily large initial location box. Such an approach can also handle an arbitrary number of erroneous measurements using a q-relaxed solver and allows the integration of geographic and cartographic information such as digital elevation models or three-dimensional maps. With enough data redundancy, inconsistent measurements can be detected and even rejected. The integrity risk of the location zone comes only from the measurement bounds settings, since the solver is guaranteed. A method for setting these bounds for a particular location zone confidence level is proposed. An experimental validation using real L1 code measurements and a digital elevation model is also reported in order to illustrate the performance of the method on real data.     

地下圆形衬砌隧道对沿线地震动的影响(II):数值结果

利用地下圆形衬砌隧道对入射平面P波和SV波散射级数解答，定量分析了入射波长、入射角度、隧道直径、衬砌刚度等因素对沿线地表位移放大作用的影响。计算结果表明，当入射频率较低时，地下隧道的存在对地表位移幅值影响不大；而当入射频率较高时，地表位移幅值可以达到无隧道情况的4．5倍以上；衬砌情况下地表位移幅值可以高出非衬砌情况的87．8％。建议在地铁的规划设计中考虑地下隧道的建设对隧道沿线设计地震动的影响。