Site-specific probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for northern part of the Qeshm Island,Iran

This paper presents results of a site-specific probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for northern part of the Qeshm Island, one the most seismic prone areas of Iran. Seismotectonic and seismicity properties of seismic sources in the study area were characterized and used for evaluation of various strong ground motion parameters implementing the classical Cornell’s PSHA approach. The results show that peak rock accelerations for 475-year return period are 0.4 and 0.27 g, respectively, for 84th and 50th percentiles while being about 0.37 and 0.61 g for 2475-year return period. These values are slightly smaller than those read from national seismic zonation maps which can be attributed to the considered conservatism for development of such design maps. In order to incorporate local site conditions, a series of dynamic site response analyses based on the equivalent linear approach were also employed. The results indicate that the presence of soft subsurface deposits at the site significantly alters the fundamental characteristics of the response spectra. The obtained median (50th percentile) peak ground accelerations for 975-year return period range between 0.49 and 0.54 g at different locations in the study site showing minor amplifications relative to their corresponding bedrock acceleration of 0.48 g. Finally, the obtained site-specific spectrum was compared with the standard spectrum mandated by the design codes. In this regard, the agreement was found to be reasonable at period ranges shorter than about 0.5 s, while the differences were more obvious at longer periods. This reveals the need for implementation of site-specific design spectrum to avoid underestimation or overestimation of seismic forces for designing critically important structures especially when softer deposits are encountered.     

Aquifer vulnerability assessment using the DRASTIC model at Russeifa landfill,northeast Jordan

Groundwater is inherently susceptible to contamination from anthropogenic activities and remediation is very difficult and expensive. Prevention of contamination is hence critical in effective groundwater management. In this paper an attempt has been made to assess aquifer vulnerability at the Russeifa solid waste landfill. This disposal site is placed at the most important aquifer in Jordan, which is known as Amman-Wadi Sir (B2/A7). The daily-generated leachate within the landfill is about 160 m³/day and there is no system for collecting and treating this leachate. Therefore, the leachate infiltrates to groundwater and degrades the quality of the groundwater. The area is strongly vulnerable to pollution due to the presence of intensive agricultural activity, the solid waste disposal site and industries. Increasing groundwater demand makes the protection of the aquifer from pollution crucial. Physical and hydrogeological characteristics make the aquifer susceptible to pollution. The vulnerability of groundwater to contamination in the study area was quantified using the DRASTIC model. The DRASTIC model uses the following seven parameters: depth to water, recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topography, impact on vadose zone and hydraulic conductivity. The water level data were measured in the observation wells within the disposal site. The recharge is derived based on precipitation, land use and soil characteristics. The aquifer media was obtained from a geological map of the area. The topography is obtained from the Natural Resources Authority of Jordan, 1:50,000 scale topographic map. The impact on the vadose zone is defined by the soil permeability and depth to water. The hydraulic conductivity was obtained from the field pumping tests. The calculated DRASTIC index number indicates a moderate pollution potential for the study area.     

Non‐convex compressed sensing with frequency mask for seismic data reconstruction and denoising

Compressed Sensing has recently proved itself as a successful tool to help address the challenges of acquisition and processing seismic data sets. Compressed sensing shows that the information contained in sparse signals can be recovered accurately from a small number of linear measurements using a sparsity‐promoting regularization. This paper investigates two aspects of compressed sensing in seismic exploration: (i) using a general non‐convex regularizer instead of the conventional one‐norm minimization for sparsity promotion and (ii) using a frequency mask to additionally subsample the acquired traces in the frequency‐space () domain. The proposed non‐convex regularizer has better sparse recovery performance compared with one‐norm minimization and the additional frequency mask allows us to incorporate a priori information about the events contained in the wavefields into the reconstruction. For example, (i) seismic data are band‐limited; therefore one can use only a partial set of frequency coefficients in the range of reflections band, where the signal‐to‐noise ratio is high and spatial aliasing is low, to reconstruct the original wavefield, and (ii) low‐frequency characteristics of the coherent ground rolls allow direct elimination of them during reconstruction by disregarding the corresponding frequency coefficients (usually bellow 10 Hz) via a frequency mask. The results of this paper show that some challenges of reconstruction and denoising in seismic exploration can be addressed under a unified formulation. It is illustrated numerically that the compressed sensing performance for seismic data interpolation is improved significantly when an additional coherent subsampling is performed in the domain compared with the domain case. Numerical experiments from both simulated and real field data are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented method.     

Cr(VI) Immobilization Process in a Cr‐Spiked Soil by Zerovalent Iron Nanoparticles: Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

The response surface methodology involving the five‐level central composite design (CCD) was employed to model and optimize the Cr(VI) immobilization process in a Cr‐spiked soil using starch‐stabilized zerovalent iron nanoparticles (ZVIn). ZVIn were synthesized via a borohydride reduction method and characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). All Cr(VI) immobilization experiments were conducted in a batch system. The variables for the CCD optimization were the ZVIn dosage (% w/w), reaction time (min), and initial Cr(VI) concentration in soil (mg/kg). The predicted response values by the second‐order polynomial model were found to be in good agreement with experimental values (R² = 0.968 and adj‐R² = 0.940). The optimization result showed that the Cr(VI) immobilization efficiency presented the maximal result (90.63%) at the following optimal conditions: ZVIn dosage of 1.5% w/w, reaction time of 60 min, and an initial Cr(VI) concentration of 400 mg/kg.     

不同土壤水分条件和气温对沙枣树出胶的影响

对沙枣树的出胶进行了不同土壤水环境条件下的比较。结果表明,湿润林带的出胶率低,但出胶量高,干旱林带则相反,是出胶率高而出胶量低。沙枣树的出胶应该是自身生理活性作用和受害反应的结果。同时还发现沙枣树的出胶率和出胶量都随气温的增加而明显增加。指出出胶率高是病虫害侵染所造成,而出胶量高则是生理活性强的表现。沙枣胶的生产应该在新疆炎热的南疆地区进行,加强林带的管理和复壮有利于提高沙枣树的产胶量。     

Hydrogeochemical characteristics prediction using multiple linear regression: case study on unconfined aquifer in northeastern Tunisia

The main factors and mechanisms controlling the groundwater chemistry and mineralization are recognized through hydrochemical data. However, water quality prediction remains a key parameter for groundwater resources management and planning. The geochemical study of groundwater of a multilayered aquifer system in Tunisia is recognized by measurements of the pH, EC, total dissolved solids (TDS), major ion concentration and nitrates of 36 samples from pumping wells covering the aquifer extension and analyzed using standard laboratory and field methods. The calcite precipitation, gypsum, anhydrite and halite dissolution, and direct and reverse ion exchange are the principal process of chemical evolution in the Nadhour-Saouaf aquifer system. Using stepwise regression, the concentration groups of (Ca, Cl, and NO₃), (Cl, SO₄, and Mg), and (Ca and Na) exhibit significant prediction of TDS in Plio-Quaternary, Miocene, and Oligocene aquifer levels, respectively. The highest values of R ² and adjusted R ² close to 1 revealed the accuracy of the developed models which is confirmed by the weak difference between the measured and estimated values varying between ?12 and 8%. The important uncertainty parameters that affected the estimated TDS are assessed by the sensitivity analysis method. The concentration of (Cl), (Ca and Cl), and (Na) are the major parameters affecting the TDS sensitivity of the Plio-Quaternary, Miocene, and Oligocene aquifer levels, respectively. Hence, the developed TDS models provide a more simple and easy alternative to other methods used for groundwater quality estimation and prediction as proven from external validation on groundwater samples unconsidered in the model construction.     

巴丹吉林沙漠北缘沙尘天气过程中近地面气象要素变化及风沙流结构分析

提要：利用2013年春季在巴丹吉林沙漠北缘拐子湖地区的沙尘暴加强观测资料,对比分析该地区典型流动沙面晴天、扬沙和沙尘暴三种天气背景下各气象要素的变化特征及差异,同时对沙尘暴过程中近地层风沙活动特征进行分析。结果表明,随风速增加沙尘天气强度逐步提升且沙尘天气来临前风速、风向均表现出明显的调整现象,此后爆发过程中风速、风向相对稳定。随沙尘天气强度的增加气温逐渐减小且沙尘天气过程中地面呈利于沙尘起动的暖干状态,同时地面气压不断升高。悬浮的沙尘会导致拐子湖流动沙地各层地温有减小趋势,但减小程度相对较弱,使沙尘天气下各层地温仍保持良好的梯度变化和正弦型日变化趋势。拐子湖流沙地春季起沙风速为6.5m/s,输沙通量垂直分布状况在20cm左右具有明显的分段现象。地表100cm内总输沙量的50%和90%分别集中在地表20cm和56cm高度以内。观测期间整个5月地表0～100cm高度内的输沙通量为420.96kg/m。     

Visibility Analysis In Vision Metrology Network Design

The aim of this paper is to present a method whereby accuracy enhancement of an existing photogrammetric network is achieved through the automatic selection of additional camera stations. The determination of the positions of these 'accuracy fulfilment' camera stations is based upon what has been termed 'visibility uncertainty prediction modelling' of visibility constraints derived from the existing network geometry. Following a review of vision constraints in network design, the concepts of visibility uncertainty prediction and visibility uncertainty spheres are introduced. These provide a mechanism to predict the visibility of current object target points for the new accuracy fulfilment images. This in turn aids in network design improvement. The visibility uncertainty modelling is then illustrated for two close range photogrammetric network configurations, for which the test results demonstrate that the proposed model can reliably predict target visibility with an overall certainty of 75%.     

Mesozoic radiolarian faunas from the northwest Ilocos Region,Luzon, Philippines and their tectonic significance

Northwestern Ilocos Norte in Luzon, Philippines, exposes cherts, peridotite and a variety of metamorphic rocks including chlorite schist, quartzo‐feldspathic schist, muscovite schist and actinolite schist. These rocks are incorporated within a tectonic mélange, the Dos Hermanos Mélange, which is thrust onto the turbidite succession of the Eocene Bangui Formation and capped by the Upper Miocene Pasuquin Limestone. The radiolarian assemblages constrain the stratigraphic range of the cherts to the uppermost Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous. Stratigraphically important species include Eucyrtidiellum pyramis (Aita), Hiscocapsa acuta (Hull), Protunuma japonicus (Matsuoka & Yao), Archeodictyomitra montisserei (Squinabol), Hiscocapsa asseni (Tan), Cryptamphorella conara (Foreman) and Pseudodictyomitra carpatica (Lozyniak). The radiolarian biostratigraphic data provide evidence for the existence of a Mesozoic basinal source from which the cherts and associated rocks were derived. Crucial to determining the origin of these rocks is their distribution and resemblance with known mélange outcrops in Central Philippines. The mélange in the northwestern Ilocos region bears similarities in terms of age and composition with those noted in the western part of the Central Philippines, particularly in the islands of Romblon, Mindoro and Panay. The existence of tectonic mélanges in the Central Philippines has been attributed to the Early to Middle Miocene arc–continent collision. This event involved the Philippine Mobile Belt and the Palawan Microcontinental Block, a terrane that drifted from the southeastern margin of mainland Asia following the opening of the South China Sea. Such arc–continent collision event could also well explain the existence of a tectonic mélange in northwestern Luzon.