From the editors: special issue announcement

During the past several months, we have been considering "Special Issues" on a variety of topics for the journal of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration. We are pleased to announce that the December 2008 issue will be     

Ductility demand spectra for multiple near- and far-fault earthquakes

This study presents ductility demand spectra for single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems under multiple near- and far-fault seismic ground motions. The main innovation has to do with the quantification of the seismic sequence effect directly into ductility demands, a phenomenon which has not been studied in the past. Due to lack of real seismic sequences records, this paper examines only artificial sequences, where they have been generated by a rational and random combination of real single events. A statistical investigation of more than 120 millions dynamic inelastic analyses is conducted to obtain expressions for the ductility demands, in terms of the period of vibration, the viscous damping, the post-yield stiffness and the force reduction factor. It is found that due to the seismic sequence effect, it is certainly insufficient to consider only the ‘design earthquake’, since this traditional hypothesis leads to underestimated ductility demands and therefore to underestimated structural damage.     

Distinct ruby suite at Sardapur, Orissa: A spectroscopic investigation

Orissa is an important area for gem variety of corundum deposits in India. Spectroscopic studies, such as ESR, OAS on samples from Sardapur, Orissa, were carried out to ascertain the colour cause of corundum. Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopic study was carried out on the samples to detect the presence of paramagnetic ions i.e. Fe²⁺, Fe³⁺, Ti⁴⁺, Cr³⁺ and V³⁺ etc. The variable temperature experiment carried out to observe the effect of heating on peak valence state change in paramagnetic ions. Samples were cut and polished to obtain the optical absorption spectrum (OAS) to detect the colour causing transition ions/defect centres. The samples of gem variety were step heated up to 300°C for colour enhancement studies. EPMA analysis has revealed the low chromium concentration in the rubies. The varying hues of red in the corundum are due to the presence of bivalent and trivalent iron and charge transfer process along with Cr³⁺ absorption in the 550 nm region.     

The Effect of the CO32- to Ca2+ Ion activity ratio on calcite precipitation kinetics and Sr2+ partitioning

Background  

A proposed strategy for immobilizing trace metals in the subsurface is to stimulate calcium carbonate precipitation and incorporate contaminants by co-precipitation. Such an approach will require injecting chemical amendments into the subsurface to generate supersaturated conditions that promote mineral precipitation. However, the formation of reactant mixing zones will create gradients in both the saturation state and ion activity ratios (i.e., ). To better understand the effect of ion activity ratios on CaCO₃ precipitation kinetics and Sr²⁺ co-precipitation, experiments were conducted under constant composition conditions where the supersaturation state (Ω) for calcite was held constant at 9.4, but the ion activity ratio was varied between 0.0032 and 4.15.     

Selective variance reduction of multi-temporal LST imagery in the East Africa Rift System

A new method for elevation and latitude decorrelation stretch of multi-temporal land surface temperature (LST) in the East Africa Rift System (EARS) from MODIS 2008 monthly average night imagery and Globe digital elevation model (DEM) is presented. Multiple linear regression analysis of principal components images (PCAs) quantifies the variance explained by elevation and latitude. Selective variance reduction (SVR) reconstructs the multi-temporal LST imagery from the residual images and selected PCAs by taking into account the portion of variance not related to elevation and latitude. Clustering of the reconstructed imagery identifies two major thermal anomalies a) in the Afar Triangle, and b) a new one in between the Ethiopia and Kenya. These regions present LST values higher than the elevation and latitude predicted ones through out the year. It is assumed that the new thermal anomaly corresponds to a triple junction formed in between the Ethiopian Rift and the Eastern and the Western branches of the EARS, in an area where active volcanoes and mantle plume activity concentrate. SVR is expected to assist tectonic and volcanic zones characterization on the basis of their thermal response.     

Assessment of the sensitivity of the southern coast of the Gulf of Corinth (Peloponnese, Greece) to sea-level rise

The eustatic sea-level rise due to global warming is predicted to reach approximately 18?C59 cm by the year 2100, which necessitates the identification and protection of sensitive sections of coastline. In this study, the classification of the southern coast of the Gulf of Corinth according to the sensitivity to the anticipated future sealevel rise is attempted by applying the Coastal Sensitivity Index (CSI), with variable ranges specifically modified for the coastal environment of Greece, utilizing GIS technology. The studied coastline has a length of 148 km and is oriented along the WNW-ESE direction. CSI calculation involves the relation of the following physical variables, associated with the sensitivity to long-term sea-level rise, in a quantifiable manner: geomorphology, coastal slope, relative sea-level rise rate, shoreline erosion or accretion rate, mean tidal range and mean wave height. For each variable, a relative risk value is assigned according to the potential magnitude of its contribution to physical changes on the coast as the sea-level rises. Every section of the coastline is assigned a risk ranking based on each variable, and the CSI is calculated as the square root of the product of the ranked variables divided by the total number of variables. Subsequently, a CSI map is produced for the studied coastline. This map showed that an extensive length of the coast (57.0 km, corresponding to 38.7% of the entire coastline) is characterized as highly and very highly sensitive primarily due to the low topography, the presence of erosionsusceptible geological formations and landforms and fast relative sea-level rise rates. Areas of high and very high CSI values host socio-economically important land uses and activities.     

MESSENGER observations of the plasma environment near Mercury

The MESSENGER Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) measured the bulk plasma characteristics of Mercury's magnetosphere and solar wind environment during the spacecraft's first two flybys of the planet on 14 January 2008 (M1) and 6 October 2008 (M2), producing the first measurements of thermal ions in Mercury's magnetosphere. In this work, we identify major features of the Mercury magnetosphere in the FIPS proton data and describe the data analysis process used for recovery of proton density (n_p) and temperature (T_p) with a forward modeling technique, required because of limitations in measurement geometry. We focus on three regions where the magnetospheric flow speed is likely to be low and meets our criteria for the recovery process: the M1 plasma sheet and the M1 and M2 dayside and nightside boundary-layer regions. Interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions were substantially different between the two flybys, with intense reconnection signatures observed by the Magnetometer during M2 versus a relatively quiet magnetosphere during M1. The recovered ion density and temperature values for the M1 quiet-time plasma sheet yielded n_p∼1–10 cm⁻³, T_p∼2×10⁶ K, and plasma β∼2. The nightside boundary-layer proton densities during M1 and M2 were similar, at n_p∼4–5 cm⁻³, but the temperature during M1 (T_p∼4–8×10⁶ K) was 50% less than during M2 (T_p∼8×10⁶ K), presumably due to reconnection in the tail. The dayside boundary layer observed during M1 had a density of ∼16 cm⁻³ and temperature of 2×10⁶ K, whereas during M2 this region was less dense and hotter (n_p∼8 cm⁻³ and T_p∼10×10⁶ K), again, most likely due to magnetopause reconnection. Overall, the southward interplanetary magnetic field during M2 clearly produced higher T_p in the dayside and nightside magnetosphere, as well as higher plasma β in the nightside boundary, ∼20 during M2 compared with ∼2 during M1. The proton plasma pressure accounts for only a fraction (24% for M1 and 64% for M2) of the drop in magnetic pressure upon entry into the dayside boundary layer. This result suggests that heavy ions of planetary origin, not considered in this analysis, may provide the “missing” pressure. If these planetary ions were hot due to “pickup” in the magnetosheath, the required density for pressure balance would be an ion density of ∼1 cm⁻³ for an ion temperature of ∼10⁸ K.     

The space environment of Mercury at the times of the second and third MESSENGER flybys

The second and third flybys of Mercury by the MESSENGER spacecraft occurred, respectively, on 6 October 2008 and on 29 September 2009. In order to provide contextual information about the solar wind properties and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near the planet at those times, we have used an empirical modeling technique combined with a numerical physics-based solar wind model. The Wang–Sheeley–Arge (WSA) method uses solar photospheric magnetic field observations (from Earth-based instruments) in order to estimate the inner heliospheric radial flow speed and radial magnetic field out to 21.5 solar radii from the Sun. This information is then used as input to the global numerical magnetohydrodynamic model, ENLIL, which calculates solar wind velocity, density, temperature, and magnetic field strength and polarity throughout the inner heliosphere. WSA-ENLIL calculations are presented for the several-week period encompassing the second and third flybys. This information, in conjunction with available MESSENGER data, aid in understanding the Mercury flyby observations and provide a basis for global magnetospheric modeling. We find that during both flybys, the solar wind conditions were very quiescent and would have provided only modest dynamic driving forces for Mercury's magnetospheric system.     

Optimal transfers between unstable periodic orbits using invariant manifolds

This paper presents a method to construct optimal transfers between unstable periodic orbits of differing energies using invariant manifolds. The transfers constructed in this method asymptotically depart the initial orbit on a trajectory contained within the unstable manifold of the initial orbit and later, asymptotically arrive at the final orbit on a trajectory contained within the stable manifold of the final orbit. Primer vector theory is applied to a transfer to determine the optimal maneuvers required to create the bridging trajectory that connects the unstable and stable manifold trajectories. Transfers are constructed between unstable periodic orbits in the Sun–Earth, Earth–Moon, and Jupiter-Europa three-body systems. Multiple solutions are found between the same initial and final orbits, where certain solutions retrace interior portions of the trajectory. All transfers created satisfy the conditions for optimality. The costs of transfers constructed using manifolds are compared to the costs of transfers constructed without the use of manifolds. In all cases, the total cost of the transfer is significantly lower when invariant manifolds are used in the transfer construction. In many cases, the transfers that employ invariant manifolds are three times more efficient, in terms of fuel expenditure, than the transfer that do not. The decrease in transfer cost is accompanied by an increase in transfer time of flight.