Range of validity of seismic ray and beam methods in general inhomogeneous media – I. General theory

Summary. The limitations of asymptotic wave theory and its geometrical manifestations are newly formalized and scrutinized. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of acoustic and seismic rays and beams in general inhomogeneous media are expressed in terms of new physical parameters: the threshold frequency ω₀ associated with the P/S decoupling condition, the cut-off frequency ω_c associated with the radiation-zone condition, the total curvature of the wavefront and the Fresnel-zone radius.
The analysis is facilitated with the introduction of a new ancillary functional – the hypereikonal which is capable of representing ordinary as well as evanescent waves. The hypereikonal is the natural extension of the eikonal theory.
With the aid of the above new parameters, simple conditions are obtained for the decoupled far field, the decoupled near field, two point dynamic ray tracing, paraxial wavefields and Gaussian beams.     

The dust coma of periodic comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (1982 VIII)

The dust coma of Comet P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was monitored in the infrared (1–20 μm) from September 1982 to March 1983. Maximum dust production rate of ～2 × 10⁵ g/sec occured in December, 1 month postperihelion. The ratio of dust/gas production was higher than that in other short-period comets. No silicate feature was visible in the 8- to 13-μm spectrum on 23 October. The mean geometric albedo of the grains was ～0.04 at 1.25 μm and ～0.05 at 2.2 μm.     

An approximate method for evaluating the shear band thickness in saturated soils

A formula for the thickness of a shear band formed in saturated soils under a simple shear or a combined stress state has been proposed. It is shown that the shear band thickness is dependent on the pore pressure properties of the material and the dilatancy rate, but is independent of the details of the combined stress state. This is in accordance with some separate experimental observations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On spatial characteristics of five-minute oscillations in the sunspot umbra

Using a differential method we have carried out observations of oscillations in six sunspots. Spectral lines Fe i 5434 Å and Fe i 5576 Å were used. Horizontal waves are not observed in the sunspot umbra photosphere. Results obtained indicate that, at least, the sunspot umbra oscillates as a single whole.     

A WKBJ spectral method for computation of SV synthetic seismograms in a cylindrically symmetric medium

Summary. A method of synthetic seismogram computation for teleseismic SV -waves is developed in order to treat quantitatively SV -waves in problems of body wave source inversion and source—receiver structure studies. The method employs WKBJ theory for a generalized ray in a vertically inhomogeneous half-space and the propagator matrix technique for waves in near-surface homogeneous layers. Wavenumber integration is done along the real axis of the wavenumber plane and anelasticity is included by using complex velocity in all regions of the earth model. The near-surface source structure is taken into account in the computation for the case of the shallow source by allowing a point source to be located in the homogeneous layers. Source and receiver area structures are also allowed to differ. A general moment tensor point source is considered.     

青藏块体东北缘断层形变与中强地震

对祁连山－海原断裂带近期断层形变特征进行了初步研究，发现多场地，大范围的断层活动异常是中等强度地震发生的显著背景，并且往往与大陆地震活动的阶段性总体状况相呼应；区域形变存在明显的特征量，包括特征形态和特征时间，同一场地在不同地震前的异常特征具有重复性，但会受到背景差异显著的不同地震的影响，目前形变状况表明研究区仍具有发生中强地震的地壳运动背景。     

济宁市嘉祥县石灰岩矿山地质环境评价与治理

在对嘉祥县石灰岩矿进行地质灾害危险性评估、矿山环境地质问题评价的基础上,建立了一套评价体系,其中地质灾害危险性评估分为2个评价指标,矿山环境地质问题评价分为2种要素3个指标,同时将矿山恢复治理难易程度也作为一个评价因子。评价过程中对各指标危害性大、中、小程度均单独赋值,然后将各指标的分值进行叠加,确定出矿山环境地质问题的等级,将概划出的13个评价单元分为极差、差、一般3个区。提出了强化矿山管理、植树造林、科学避让、修建拦水坝等保护与治理措施及建议。     

P‐wave transmission across fractures with nonlinear deformational behaviour

Stress wave attenuation across fractured rock masses is a great concern of underground structure safety. When the wave amplitude is large, fractures experience nonlinear deformation during the wave propagation. This paper presents a study on normal transmission of P‐wave across parallel fractures with nonlinear deformational behaviour (static Barton–Bandis model). The results show that the magnitude of transmission coefficient is a function of incident wave amplitude, nondimensional fracture spacing and number of fractures. Two important indices of nondimensional fracture spacing are identified, and they divide the area of nondimensional fracture spacing into three parts (individual fracture area, transition area and small spacing area). In the different areas, the magnitude of transmission coefficient has different trends with nondimensional fracture spacing and number of fractures. In addition, the study reveals that under some circumstances, the magnitude of transmission coefficient increases with increasing number of fractures, and is larger than 1. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.