The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes: context and cause of injury

The aim of this study was to investigate causes of injury during the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes. Data on patients injured during the Darfield (4 September 2010) and Christchurch (22 February 2011) earthquakes were sourced from the New Zealand Accident Compensation Corporation. The total injury burden was analyzed for demography, context of injury, causes of injury, and injury type. Injury context was classified as direct (shaking of the primary earthquake or aftershocks causing unavoidable injuries), action (movement of person during the primary earthquake or aftershocks causing potentially avoidable injuries), and secondary (cause of injury after shaking ceased). Nine categories of injury cause were identified. Three times as many people were injured in the Christchurch earthquake as in the Darfield earthquake (7,171 vs. 2,256). The primary shaking caused approximately two-thirds of the injuries from both quakes. Actions during the primary shaking and aftershocks led to many injuries (51.3 % Darfield and 19.4 % Christchurch). Primary direct caused the highest proportion of injuries during the daytime Christchurch quake (43.6 %). Many people were injured after shaking stopped in both events: 499 (22.1 % Darfield) and 1,881 (26.2 % Christchurch). Most of these people were injured during clean-up (320 (14.2 %) Darfield; 622 (8.7 %) Christchurch). In both earthquakes, more females than males (1,453 vs. 803 Darfield; 4,646 vs. 2,525 Christchurch) were injured (except by masonry, damaged ground, and during clean-up); trip/fall (27.9 % Darfield; 26.1 % Christchurch) was the most common cause of injury; and soft tissue injuries (74.1 % Darfield; 70.4 % Christchurch) was the most common type of injury. This study demonstrated that where people were and their actions during and after earthquakes influenced their risk of injury.     

The Exxon and BP oil spills: a comparison of psychosocial impacts

We address the research question: ‘Did the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill have similar psychosocial impacts as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill?’ We answer this question by comparing survey results from a random sample of Cordova, Alaska, residents collected 18 months after the Exxon spill with a random sample of residents in the Alabama coastal counties of Baldwin and south Mobile 1 year after the BP disaster. Analysis revealed similarly high levels of psychological stress for survivors of both disasters. For residents of coastal Alabama, the strongest predictors of psychosocial stress were exposure to oil, ties to renewable resources, concerns about their economic future, worries about air quality, and safety issues regarding seafood harvests in oiled areas. Differences between south Mobile and Baldwin counties were related to the former community’s economic ties to renewable resources and Baldwin County’s dependence on tourism for economic sustainability.     

Recent climatic trends and linkages to river discharge in Central Vietnam

In this study, change in rainfall, temperature and river discharge are analysed over the last three decades in Central Vietnam. Trends and rainfall indices are evaluated using non‐parametric tests at different temporal levels. To overcome the sparse locally available network, the high resolution APHRODITE gridded dataset is used in addition to the existing rain gauges. Finally, existing linkages between discharge changes and trends in rainfall and temperature are explored. Results are indicative of an intensification of rainfall (+15%/decade), with more extreme and longer events. A significant increase in winter rainfall and a decrease in consecutive dry days provides strong evidence for a lengthening wet season in Central Vietnam. In addition, trends based on APHRODITE suggest a strong orographic signal in winter and annual trends. These results underline the local variability in the impacts of climatic change at the global scale. Consequently, it is important that change detection investigations are conducted at the local scale. A very weak signal is detected in the trend of minimum temperature (+0.2°C/decade). River discharge trends show an increase in mean discharge (31 to 35%/decade) over the last decades. Between 54 and 74% of this increase is explained by the increase in precipitation. The maximum discharge also responds significantly to precipitation changes leading to a lengthened wet season and an increase in extreme rainfall events. Such trends can be linked with a likely increase in floods in Central Vietnam, which is important for future adaptation planning and management and flood preparedness in the region. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Behavior of carbonate-associated sulfate during meteoric diagenesis and implications for the sulfur isotope paleoproxy

Although carbonate-associated sulfate (CAS) is used widely as a proxy for the sulfur isotope composition of ancient seawater, little is known about the effects of diagenesis on retention of primary δ³⁴S signals. Our case study of the Key Largo Limestone, Pleistocene, Florida, is the first systematic assessment of the impact of meteoric diagenesis on CAS properties. Geochemical and petrographic data show that meteoric diagenesis has affected the exposed coralline facies to varying degrees, yielding differences now expressed as sharp reaction fronts between primary and secondary carbonate minerals within individual coral heads. Specifically, analyses across high-resolution transects in the Key Largo Limestone show that concentrations of strontium and sodium decrease across the recrystallization front from original aragonite to meteoric low-magnesium calcite by factors of roughly 5 and 10, respectively. Predictably, δ¹⁸O values decrease across these same fronts. The δ¹³C relationships are more complex, with the most depleted values observed in the latest-formed calcite. Such trends likely reflect carbon isotope buffering capacity that decreased as reaction progressed, as well as protracted development of soil profiles and the associated terrestrial biomass and thus depleted δ¹³C during sea-level lowstand. Conversely, δ³⁴S values of CAS vary within a narrow ‘buffered’ range from 20.6 to 22.6‰ (compared to 20.8-22.0‰ of coeval Pleistocene seawater) across the same mineralogical transition, despite sulfate concentrations that drop in the diagenetic calcite by an average factor of 12. Collectively, these data point to robust preservation of primary δ³⁴S for carbonates that have experienced intense meteoric diagenesis, which is encouraging news for those using the isotopic composition of CAS as a paleoceanographic proxy. At the same time, the vulnerability of CAS concentrations to diagenetic resetting is clear.     

Harnessing the power of immersive virtual reality - visualization and analysis of 3D earth science data sets

ABSTRACT

The availability and quantity of remotely sensed and terrestrial geospatial data sets are on the rise. Historically, these data sets have been analyzed and quarried on 2D desktop computers; however, immersive technologies and specifically immersive virtual reality (iVR) allow for the integration, visualization, analysis, and exploration of these 3D geospatial data sets. iVR can deliver remote and large-scale geospatial data sets to the laboratory, providing embodied experiences of field sites across the earth and beyond. We describe a workflow for the ingestion of geospatial data sets and the development of an iVR workbench, and present the application of these for an experience of Iceland’s Thrihnukar volcano where we: (1) combined satellite imagery with terrain elevation data to create a basic reconstruction of the physical site; (2) used terrestrial LiDAR data to provide a geo-referenced point cloud model of the magmatic-volcanic system, as well as the LiDAR intensity values for the identification of rock types; and (3) used Structure-from-Motion (SfM) to construct a photorealistic point cloud of the inside volcano. The workbench provides tools for the direct manipulation of the georeferenced data sets, including scaling, rotation, and translation, and a suite of geometric measurement tools, including length, area, and volume. Future developments will be inspired by an ongoing user study that formally evaluates the workbench’s mature components in the context of fieldwork and analyses activities.     

Book reviews

GRIFFITH TAYLOR: Antarctic scientist and pioneer geographer (Carleton Library Series No. 145) by M. Sanderson. 15 x 23 cm, xi and 218 pages. Carleton University Press: Ottawa 1988 (ISBN 0 88629 068 6) $C24.95 (hard); (ISBN 0 88629 068 X) $C14.95 (soft) plus postage.

LAND, WATER AND PEOPLE: Geographical essays in Australian resource management edited by R. L. Heathcote and J. A. Mabbutt. 14 x 21 cm, xiii and 266 pages. Allen & Unwin: Sydney 1988 (ISBN 0 04 303008 4) $A24.95 (soft).

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHY: Book One by J. Paine, H. McLean and G. Mayhew. 19 x 25 cm, 389 pages. Macmillan: Melbourne 1988 (ISBN 0 333 43073 5) $A28.95 (soft).

Climate Impact Assessment Program (1975) Impacts of climate change on the biosphere, Monograph No. 5, US Department of Transportation, Washington DC.

SMALL‐SCALE AGRICULTURE edited by J. Hirst, J. Overton, B. Allen and Y. Byron. 18 x 25 cm, xii and 210 pages. Commonwealth Geographical Bureau and Department of Human Geography, Australian National University: Canberra 1988 (ISBN 0 7316 3609 0) $A 10.00 (soft).

THE BRITTLE RIM: Finance, Business and the Pacific Region by M. T. Daly and M. I. Logan. 15 × 23 cm, 263 pages, Penguin Books: Ring‐wood 1989 (ISBN 0 14 012095 5) $A24.99 (soft)

THE END OF ORGANISED CAPITALISM by S. Lash and J. Urry. 15 x 23cm, 383 pages. Polity Press: Cambridge 1987 (ISBN 07456 00697) $A34.95 (soft).

THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT: An Introduction to Global Issues by J. L. Seitz. 15 x 23 cm, xiii and 194 pages. Basil Blackwell: New York 1988 (ISBN 0 631 15801 4) $A27.95 (soft).

DEVELOPING WITH FOREIGN INVESTMENT edited by V. Cable and B. Persaud. 16 x 24 cm, viii and 327 pages. Croom Helm: London 1987 (ISBN 0 7099 4825 5) $A87.95 (hard).

PLANNING SYDNEY'S FUTURE by P. Spearritt and C. DeMarco, 21 x 27 cm, and 150 pages. Allen & Unwin: Sydney 1988 (ISBN 0 04 324014 3) $A17.95 (soft).

THE RICHEST LODE: Broken Hill 1888–1988 by R. J. Solomon. 22 x 28 cm, 424 pages. Hale & Iremonger: Sydney 1988 (ISBN 0 86806 333 9).

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT (North Australia: Progress and Prospects, Volume 1) edited by D. Wade‐Marshall and P. Loveday. xiii and 310 pages. North Australia Research Unit, Australian National University: Darwin 1988 (ISBN 07315 0335 X).

NEW CALEDONIA OR KANAKY? The Political History of a French Colony (Pacific Research Monograph No. 16) by J. Connell. National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University: Canberra 1987 (ISBN 0 7315 05123).

DISEASE ECOLOGY by Andrew Learmonth. 15 x 23 cm, 456 pages. Basil Blackwell: Oxford 1988 (ISBN 0 631 15799 9) $A46.00 (soft).

QUALITATIVE METHODS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY edited by J. Eyles and D. M. Smith. 15 x 23 cm, xiii and 272 pages. Polity Press: Cambridge 1988 (ISBN 0 7456 0371 8) $A34.95 (soft).

GEOGRAPHICAL SYSTEMS AND SYSTEMS OF GEOGRAPHY: Essays in Honour of William Warntz edited by W. J. Coffey. 14 x 21 cm, 211 pages. Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario: London, Ontario 1988 (ISBN 0 7714 09747) $C30.00 (soft).     

A discrete element model to link the microseismic energies recorded in caprock to geomechanics

A discrete element model is presented to study slip-induced microseismic events along weak planes and crack-induced microseismic events within the intact rock for a representative elementary volume, REV, in the caprock of Weyburn reservoir. Also, the effect of varying factors such as orientation, coefficient of friction and elasticity of the weak plane on release of microseismic energies is studied. According to the results, for the conditions studied in this paper, the magnitudes of slip-induced events range from ~?1 to ?6, while crack-induced events range from ~?7 to ?11. Considering the capability of geophones, this suggests that events “recorded” in the caprock are more likely to have slip origins along weak planes than having crack origins within the intact rock. In order to show the applicability of the model in practice, the events recorded in the caprock of Weyburn from September to November of 2010 are analyzed. Also, a simple model is presented that correlates the amount of consumed energy per volume of the REV with the seismic energy released due to stick–slips along a weak plane. The results show that weak planes can be emissive even long before the failure of their surrounding is reached, and therefore, there can be a level of tolerance for the observed microseismic events in the caprock.     

Physically based evaluation of climate models over the Iberian Peninsula

A novel approach is proposed for evaluating regional climate models based on the comparison of empirical relationships among model outcome variables. The approach is actually a quantitative adaptation of the method for evaluating global climate models proposed by Betts (Bull Am Meteorol Soc 85:1673–1688, 2004). Three selected relationships among different magnitudes involved in water and energy land surface budgets are firstly established using daily re-analysis data. The selected relationships are obtained for an area encompassing two river basins in the southern Iberian Peninsula corresponding to 2 months, representative of dry and wet seasons. The same corresponding relations are also computed for each of the thirteen regional simulations of the ENSEMBLES project over the same area. The usage of a metric based on the Hellinger coefficient allows a quantitative estimation of how well models are performing in simulating the relations among surface magnitudes. Finally, a series of six rankings of the thirteen regional climate models participating in the ENSEMBLES project is obtained based on their ability to simulate such surface processes.