THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF FOREST POLICY IN MEXICO AND CHILE

Widespread agreement exists on the broad outlines of the concept of sustainable development for developing countries. This calls for a development model capable of meeting basic needs without depleting natural resources at a rate that robs future generations of their use. In this regard, citizen participation is also considered key to legitimise such policy choices. However, there is considerable disagreement over the substance and meaning of the major components of the concept and the relationship between them. This paper argues that positions in policy disputes over the sustainable development of the forest cluster in two distinct approaches: market‐friendly initiatives and grassroots development. Since market economies prevail almost everywhere, the question that is posed concerns the conditions under which the grassroots development approach is included as a significant complement to market‐friendly initiatives. This is a political question, requiring an examination of actors, interests and power resources. The paper thus applies a political economy framework to a paired comparison of Mexico, where grassroots development approaches (community forestry) had notable successes, and Chile, where market‐friendly forest policy crowded out alternatives.     

Evaluation of damping reduction factors for estimating elastic response of structures with high damping

The damping reduction factors are used in a few building codes in order to estimate the elastic response spectrum with high damping ratios from its 5%‐damped counterpart. At present, much research regarding this factor has been published. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of five different models of damping reduction factors. In addition, the damping reduction factors adopted in the recent U.S.A. seismic codes are also evaluated. Statistical studies are carried out according to a total of 216 earthquake ground motions recorded on firm sites in California. Considered here are elastic single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) systems with natural vibrating periods between 0.1 and 6.0 s. Mean ratios and dispersion of approximate to exact maximum elastic displacement demands corresponding to various damping reduction factors are computed as functions of the natural vibrating period and the viscous damping ratio. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wave propagation and soil–structure interaction on a cliff crest during the 1999 Athens Earthquake

During the 1999 Athens Earthquake the town of Adàmes, located on the eastern cliff of the Kifissos river canyon, experienced unexpectedly heavy damage. Despite the significant amplification potential of the slope geometry, topography effects cannot alone explain the uneven damage distribution within a 300 m zone behind the crest, characterized by a rather uniform structural quality. This paper illustrates the important role of soil stratigraphy, material heterogeneity, and soil–structure interaction on the characteristics of ground surface motion. For this purpose, we first perform elastic two-dimensional wave propagation analyses utilizing available geotechnical and seismological data, and validate our results by comparison with aftershock recordings. We then conduct non-linear time-domain simulations that include spatial variability of soil properties and soil–structure interaction effects, to reveal their additive contribution in the topographic motion aggravation.     

A modal combination rule for spatially varying seismic motions

The spatial variability of seismic ground motion is an important aspect for the earthquake resistant design of extended facilities. A modified response spectrum model, which addresses the problem of multiply supported structures subjected to imperfectly correlated seismic excitations, has already been developed (see References 1 and 2). The present paper proposes a modal combination rule for the case of non-uniform seismic input, which would be used together with the modified response spectrum model in order to compute physical responses. This rule, which accounts for modal cross-correlations, is an extension to an existing rule for the case of uniform seismic motions. It modifies the existing modal cross-correlation coefficients through a correction factor which depends on structural properties and on the characteristics of the wave propagation phenomenon. Finally, some practical considerations on the theoretical development are addressed. They aim at suggesting reasonable simplifications which render the modal combination rule more appealing for engineering purposes. The proposed practical combination rule is validated through a numerical experiment which also characterizes the effect of non-uniform seismic input on modal cross-correlation.     

Remanent magnetization of andesitic and dacitic pumice from the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia) reversed due to self-reversal

The natural remanent magnetization of andesitic pumice emitted during the 1985 eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano (Colombia) has a direction opposite to the present geomagnetic field. The self-reversing mechanism can be re-activated in the laboratory during cycles of heating and subsequent cooling in air and zero magnetic field. Laboratory-produced thermoremanent magnetization is dominated by the same self-reversal process in fields up to several mT. Microchemical, optical and Curie temperature analyses indicate that the ferromagnetic minerals are members of the magnetite-ulvöspinel and hematite-ilmenite series with average compositions of Fe_2.73Ti_0.27O₄ and Fe_1.38Ti_0.62O₃, respectively. In analogy with the magnetic behaviour of synthetically grown antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic FeMn-FeNi films, the self-reversal can probably be interpreted in terms of an exchange field acting between a Ti-poor canted antiferromagnetic and a Ti-rich ferrimagnetic phase in the hemoilmenite grains.     

Rotational components of surface strong ground motion

Rotational components of seismic waves have been estimated using the strong motion array in Taiwan, SMART-1. The inner rings of accelerographs, covering an approximately circular area of 3 km², permit a decomposition of travelling waves with wavelengths in the range 0.5 to 5.0 km and frequencies from 0.1 to 5 Hz. Rotational components of the strain field, obtained from station pairs and averaged over the array using stacking techniques, were computed for five different earthquakes with M_s magnitude 5.7 to 7.8, and epicentral distances 6 to 84 km. The results indicate peak rotation values about a vertical axis on the order of 4 × 10^?5 rad at an approximately 2.5 s period. The measured values for pure rotation and rocking are in agreement with the spatial coherency structure observed in these earthquakes. For comparison, significant effects to engineered structures generally appear when curl u > 10^?4 rad. The estimates are important for design of scaled engineered models for soil-structure interaction experiments.     

Effect of turbulence and inorganic carbon supply on growth ofDunaliella viridis Teodoresco

Turbulence is known to enhance growth in microalgae. We studied the possible effects of the extra inorganic carbon supplied to the cultures when air bubbling is the source of turbulence. A set of experiments was carried out to separate the effects of the subsidiary action of agitation on growth from those due to possible carbon enrichment from air CO₂ when air bubbling was the source of mixing. It was found that air bubbling does not induce an increase of the concentration of inorganic carbon in HCO ₃ ^– -enriched growth media, and that no differences appear between air-bubbled and CO₂-free air-bubbled cultures. On the other hand, photosynthetic O₂ was accumulated in the medium in non-mixed cultures, which showed higher respiration and lower photosynthetic rates, probably due to photoinhibition induced by oversaturation of O₂. Growth rate, maximal cell density and photosynthetic efficiency were higher in aerated cultures than in non-aerated ones.     

La Pacana caldera and the Atana Ignimbrite — a major ash-flow and resurgent caldera complex in the Andes of northern Chile

The recently discovered La Pacana caldera, 60 × 35 km, is the largest caldera yet described in South America. This resurgent caldera of Pliocene age developed in a continental platemargin environment in a major province of ignimbrite volcanism in the Central Andes of northern Chile at about 23° S latitude. Collapse of La Pacana caldera was initiated by the eruption of about 900 km³ of the rhyodacitic Atana Ignimbrite. The Atana Ignimbrite was erupted from a composite ring fracture system and formed at least four major ash-flow tuff units that are separated locally by thin air-fall and surge deposits; all four sheets were emplaced in rapid succession about 4.1 ± 0.4 Ma ago. Caldera collapse was followed closely by resurgent doming of the caldera floor, accompanied by early postcaldera eruptions of dacitic to rhyolitic lava domes along the ring fractures. The resurgent dome is an elongated, asymmetrical uplift, 48.5 × 12 km, which is broken by a complex system of normal faults locally forming a narrow discontinuous apical graben. Later, postcaldera eruptions produced large andesitic and dacitic stratocones along the caldera margins and dacitic domes on the resurgent dome beginning about 3.5 Ma ago and persisting into the Quaternary. Hydrothermally altered rocks occur in the eroded cores of precaldera and postcaldera stratovolcanoes and along fractures in the resurgent dome, but no ore deposits are known. A few warm springs located in salars within the caldera moat appear to be vestiges of the caldera geothermal system.