Neotectonic and seismotectonic investigation of seismically active regions in Tunisia: a multidisciplinary approach

Due to its key position within the Africa–Europe convergence zone, Tunisia is marked by thrusting, folding, and faulting and has a major rupture zones associated with active faults. Consequently, most of Tunisian land is seismically active with significant active deformations, showing recent seismic events and their relative surface effects. This paper reports on several aspects of the seismotectonics, historical, and present-day seismicity and places them in the general tectonic and geodynamic framework of Tunisia. Field investigations, based on an integrated multidisciplinary approach, included (1) the identification of active faults, their motion and displacement, geomorphic aspects, and scarps and their relation with the general structural map of Tunisia and (2) an extensive analysis of brittle tectonic deformation affecting Quaternary deposits in several sites throughout Tunisia. The integration of field data within the existing data related to the seismic events that took place during the last decades allowed the establishment of an earthquake distribution map, as well as major seismic zones for better understanding of the seismicity database of Tunisia. To establish microzonation maps in seismic regions such as Gafsa and its surroundings, we have analyzed surface effects and secondary structures associated with active faults and correlated them with deformation rates, reconstructed for significant seismic events. Most faults exhibited typical left-stepping en-echelon with strike-slip component pattern suggesting that Tunisia is presently subjected to NNW–SSE compression. The focal mechanism of most Tunisia earthquakes combined with the existing tectonic and structural information and reconstruction of the Quaternary stress tensor allowed (a) better understanding of seismic zoning, (b) provided better assessment of the seismic hazard, and (c) facilitated the interpretation of the relationship between seismic zones and the geodynamic African–Eurasian plate boundary.     

Turbulence structure in the upper ocean: a comparative study of observations and modeling

Observations of turbulent dissipation rates measured by two independent instruments are compared with numerical model runs to investigate the injection of turbulence generated by sea surface gravity waves. The near-surface observations are made by a moored autonomous instrument, fixed at approximately 8 m below the sea surface. The instrument is equipped with shear probes, a high-resolution pressure sensor, and an inertial motion package to measure time series of dissipation rate and nondirectional surface wave energy spectrum. A free-falling profiler is used additionally to collect vertical microstructure profiles in the upper ocean. For the model simulations, we use a one-dimensional mixed layer model based on a k–ε type second moment turbulence closure, which is modified to include the effects of wave breaking and Langmuir cells. The dissipation rates obtained using the modified k–ε model are elevated near the sea surface and in the upper water column, consistent with the measurements, mainly as a result of wave breaking at the surface, and energy drawn from wave field to the mean flow by Stokes drift. The agreement between observed and simulated turbulent quantities is fairly good, especially when the Stokes production is taken into account.     

Influence of a method of evaluation of the curvature of flexible vegetation elements on vertical distributions of flow velocities

Methods of computing the deflections of flexible vegetation elements under the dynamic pressure of water were presented in the paper. Two methods, based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, were discussed, one designed for small deflections and the other, generalized one, also for larger deflections. The choice of the method for computations of deflections was discussed from the perspective of the computation of flow velocities above flexible vegetation. Computational results were compared with laboratory experiments and it was found that the simplified, computationally less expensive method may be used in many practical situations without deterioration of the results.     

Dependence of air pollution on meteorological conditions based on magnetic susceptibility measurements: a case study from Warsaw

This study reports systematic analysis of air pollution concentration by particulate matter (PM) in relation to annual changes of metrological conditions. The concentration of PM collected on filters was evaluated by magnetic properties. Long series of filters collected during 1977, 1980, 1981 and 1985 in Warsaw have been used for measurement. Such long time series allowed a better determination of correlation between seasonal susceptibility changes and meteorological conditions and to verify the repeatability of annual behavior. The magnetic susceptibility normalized by mass (??) has been used as a proxy of pollution. Monthly variations of ?? (??_m) demonstrated slow and small seasonal changes disturbed by quick, high peaks. The filters with high susceptibilities contain a mixture of magnetic single and multidomain grains which is characteristic for anthropogenic pollution, with the frequency-dependent susceptibility ??_fd being less than 4%. The low susceptibility samples are characterized by admixture of small amount of pseudo-single domain (PSD) and possible small amount of superparamagnetic (SP) grains. Detailed analysis of reduced mean monthly susceptibility ??_R revealed that temperature and absolute humidity correlate positively in cold period of year and negatively in warm months. The linear correlation coefficients range from 0.7 to 0.9 and from 0.3 to 0.4 for negative and positive linear correlation, respectively. The dispersion of pollutants in a city depends on the way of ventilation. The big cities like Warsaw are urban heat islands which act the most effective way for the warm period and for the cold time. The correlation of ??_R with absolute humidity is similar to that for temperature but for different reasons. The presence of big amount of water vapor particles in the atmosphere can favor the adhesion of smaller ferromagnetic grains to their surface which can accelerate the process of falling down of such agglomerates. Such a process can take place during wintertime. We do not observe clear correlation between ??_R and precipitation.     

Simple Hydraulic Conductivity Estimation by the Kalman Filtered Double Constraint Method

This paper presents the Kalman Filtered Double Constraint Method (DCM‐KF) as a technique to estimate the hydraulic conductivities in the grid blocks of a groundwater flow model. The DCM is based on two forward runs with the same initial grid block conductivities, but with alternating flux‐head conditions specified on parts of the boundary and the wells. These two runs are defined as: (1) the flux run, with specified fluxes (recharge and well abstractions), and (2) the head run, with specified heads (measured in piezometers). Conductivities are then estimated as the initial conductivities multiplied by the fluxes obtained from the flux run and divided by the fluxes obtained from the head run. The DCM is easy to implement in combination with existing models (e.g., MODFLOW). Sufficiently accurate conductivities are obtained after a few iterations. Because of errors in the specified head‐flux couples, repeated estimation under varying hydrological conditions results in different conductivities. A time‐independent estimate of the conductivities and their inaccuracy can be obtained by a simple linear KF with modest computational requirements. For the Kleine Nete catchment, Belgium, the DCM‐KF yields sufficiently accurate calibrated conductivities. The method also results in distinguishing regions where the head‐flux observations influence the calibration from areas where it is not able to influence the hydraulic conductivity.     

Experimental Investigation of Kinetic Energy and Momentum Coefficients in Regular Channels with Stiff and Flexible Elements Simulating Submerged Vegetation

The paper addresses the problem of determination of the energy and momentum coefficients for flows through a partly vegetated channel. These coefficients are applied to express the fluid kinetic energy and momentum equations as functions of a mean velocity. The study is based on laboratory measurements of water velocity distributions in a straight rectangular flume with stiff and flexible stems and plastic imitations of the Canadian waterweed. The coefficients were established for the vegetation layer, surface layer and the whole flow area. The results indicate that the energy and momentum coefficients increase significantly with water depth and the number of stems per unit channel area. New regression relationships for both coefficients are given.     

Indoor activity size distribution of the short-lived radon progeny

Activity size distribution of the short-lived radon progeny in indoor air was measured continuously over several weeks. Two different measurement techniques were used: a direct measurement with a low-pressure Berner cascade impactor for attached fraction of ²¹⁴Pb and ²¹⁴Bi (≥100 nm) and an indirect determination based on measurement with a wire screen diffusion battery (unattached fraction 0.5–5 nm, ²¹⁸Po, ²¹⁴Pb). In parallel, the meteorological parameters like temperature, humidity were registered. Measured activity size distribution of radon progeny can be approximated by a sum of three log-normal distributions modes (nucleation, accumulation and coarse). The greatest activity fraction was adsorbed on aerosol particles in the accumulation size range (100–1000 nm) with activity median aerodynamic diameters (AMAD_a) and geometric standard deviations (GSD _a ) values of 250–500 nm, and 1.5–3.5, respectively. The influence of the weather conditions on the activity of the accumulation particles was not significant. In contrast to the results of measurements a small but significant fraction of the radon progeny (average value 5 %) was attached to coarse particles (>1000 nm). This fraction varied between 0 and 10 %. On the other hand, although the amount of unattached activities not more 10 % of the total activity, but is considered to yield about 50 % of the total radiation dose. The mean thermodynamic equivalent diameters of ²¹⁸Po and ²¹⁴Pb were determined to be 1.28 and 1.30 nm with relative mean geometric standard deviations of 1.30 and 1.24, respectively. Based on the obtained results of radon progeny size distributions (attached and unattached), the total deposition fractions of the human lung were evaluated by using a lung deposition model.