Macrobenthic community structure in the northern Saudi waters of the Gulf, 14 years after the 1991 oil spill

The 1991 Gulf oil spill heavily impacted the coastal areas of the Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf and recent studies have indicated that even 15 years after the incident, macrobenthos had not completely recovered in the sheltered bays in the affected region such as, Manifa Bay. This study investigates the community conditions of macrobenthos in the open waters in one of the impacted areas, Al-Khafji waters, about 14 years after the spill. Diversity measures and community structure analyses indicate a healthy status of polychaete communities. The BOPA index reveals that oil sensitive amphipods were recolonized in the study area. This confirms that the benthic communities of the oil spill impacted area had taken only <14 years to recover in the open waters of the impacted areas. The study also reveals the existence of three distinct polychaete communities along the depth and sediment gradients.     

Wave data assimilation using a hybrid approach in the Persian Gulf

The main goal of this study is to develop an efficient approach for the assimilation of the hindcasted wave parameters in the Persian Gulf. Hence, the third generation SWAN model was employed for wave modeling forced by the 6-h ECMWF wind data with a resolution of 0.5°. In situ wave measurements at two stations were utilized to evaluate the assimilation approaches. It was found that since the model errors are not the same for wave height and period, adaptation of model parameter does not result in simultaneous and comprehensive improvement of them. Therefore, an approach based on the error prediction and updating of output variables was employed to modify wave height and period. In this approach, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to estimate the deviations between the simulated and measured wave parameters. The results showed that updating of output variables leads to significant improvement in a wide range of the predicted wave characteristics. It was revealed that the best input parameters for error prediction networks are mean wind speed, mean wind direction, wind duration, and the wave parameters. In addition, combination of the ANN estimated error with numerically modeled wave parameters leads to further improvement in the predicted wave parameters in contrast to direct estimation of the parameters by ANN.     

Sensitive Ion‐Flotation Separation of Ag(I) Traces Using 2‐(2‐Methoxyphenyl)benzimidazole before Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometric Determination in Water

A sensitive, reliable, and environmentally friendly method for simple separation and preconcentration of Ag(I) traces in aqueous samples is presented prior to their flame atomic absorption spectrometric determinations. At pH 7.0, Ag(I) was separated with 2‐(2‐methoxyphenyl)benzimidazole (MPBI) as a new complexing agent and floated after adding sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a foaming reagent. The floated layer was then dissolved in proper amount of concentrated nitric acid in methanol and introduced to the flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS). The effects of pH, concentration of MPBI, type and amount of surfactant as the floating agent, type and amount of eluting agent, and influence of foreign ions on the recovery of the analyte ion were investigated. Also, using a nonlinear curve fitting method, the formation constant of 1.62 × 10⁶ was obtained for Ag(I)–MPBI complex. The analytical curve was linear in the range of 1.8 × 10^?7–1.7 × 10^?6 mol/L for determination of Ag(I). The relative standard deviation (RSD; N = 10) corresponding to 0.7 × 10^?6 mol/L of Ag(I), the limit of detection (10 blanks), and the enrichment factor were obtained as 1.7%, 2.9 × 10^?8 mol/L, and 43.0, respectively. The proposed procedure was then applied successfully for determination of silver ions in different water samples.     

Estimating the Shapes of Gravity Sources through Optimized Support Vector Classifier (SVC)

In gravity interpretation methods, an initial guess for the approximate shape of the gravity source is necessary. In this paper, the support vector classifier (SVC) is applied for this duty by using gravity data. It is shown that using SVC leads us to estimate the approximate shapes of gravity sources more objectively. The procedure of selecting correct features is called feature selection (FS).In this research, the proper features are selected using inter/intra class distance algorithm and also FS is optimized by increasing and decreasing the number of dimensions of features space. Then, by using the proper features, SVC is used to estimate approximate shapes of sources from the six possible shapes, including: sphere, horizontal cylinder, vertical cylinder, rectangular prism, syncline, and anticline. SVC is trained using 300 synthetic gravity profiles and tested by 60 other synthetic and some real gravity profiles (related to a well and two ore bodies), and shapes of their sources estimated properly.     

Assessing building vulnerability to tsunami using the PTVA-3 model: A case study of Chabahar Bay,Iran

Chabahar Bay, in southeastern Iran, lies at the north of the Gulf of Oman and close to the Makran Subduction Zone, which makes it a region that is susceptible to tsunamis. This bay has an increasingly important role in Iran’s international trade, and therefore the assessment of the regional vulnerability to the effects of a tsunami is vital. Based on both the details of historical events and the results of numerical modeling of the propagation pattern of a tsunami in this region, this study assessed the vulnerability of buildings within the Chabahar Bay region to a tsunami event. The Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment (PTVA) model was used to calculate a relative vulnerability index (RVI) for the affected buildings based on their physical and structural characteristics. The results showed that in a postulated worst-case-scenario tsunami event in the Chabahar Bay area, approximately 60 % of the residential buildings would be affected, a level of damage that is categorized as “Average” in the RVI classification. Overall, the economic losses related to the damage of residential buildings due to a tsunami in the Chabahar Bay area are anticipated to be the equivalent of US$ 16.5 million.     

Psychological sequels of flood on residents of southeast Caspian region

Flood is the most common disaster in the world and has acute or chronic health consequences including psychological sequels. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the main consequences. This study aimed to explore the psychological impacts (PTSD) in two flooded cities of Mazandaran Province, Neka and Behshahr, in the southeastern Caspian region that experienced flooding in 2012. A cross-sectional community-based study was performed on randomly selected samples of 400 individuals using GIS-based sampling from 139931 residents of the two flooded cities. The PTSS-10 questionnaire was used for data collection. The results showed that the overall stress disorder mean score among the participants was 2.59 out of 6. PTSD prevalence in the affected population was 64%. It was also found that stress scores significantly increased in younger people, male gender, the divorced, the widows or the widowers, and those who lost their properties (p < 0.05). Study findings showed that flood is a considerable stressor which develops PTSD. This finding should be taken into account in all four phases of disaster management cycle, and subsequently, specialized post-disaster mental health services must be provided for the afflicted population.     

Hydraulic Conductivity of Fly Ash-Amended Mine Tailings

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of fly ash addition on hydraulic conductivity (k) of mine tailings. Mine tailings used in this study were categorized as synthetic tailings and natural tailings; two synthetic tailings were developed via blending commercially-available soils and natural tailings were collected from a garnet mine located in the U.S. Two fly ashes were used that had sufficient calcium oxide (CaO) content (17 and 18.9 %) to generate pozzolanic activity. Hydraulic conductivity was measured on pure tailings and fly ash-amended tailings in flexible-wall permeameters. Fly ash was added to mine tailings to constitute 10 % dry mass of the mixture, and specimens were cured for 7 and 28 days. The influence of fly ash-amendment on k of mine tailings was attributed to (1) molding water content and (2) plasticity of the mine tailings. Tailings that classified as low-plasticity silts with clay contents less than 15 % exhibited a decrease in k when amended with fly ash and prepared wet of optimum water content (w _opt ). Tailings that classified as low-plasticity clay exhibited a one-order magnitude increase in k with addition of fly ash for materials prepared dry or near w _opt . The decrease in k for silty tailings was attributed to formation of cementitious bonds that obstructed flow paths, whereas the increase in k for clayey tailings was attributed to agglomeration of clay particles and an overall increase in average pore size. The results also indicated that the effect of curing time on k is more pronounced during the early stages of curing (≤7 days), as there was negligible difference between k for 7 and 28-days cured specimens.     

Lithospheric structure of NW Iran from P and S receiver functions

We computed P and S receiver functions to investigate the lithospheric structure beneath the northwest Iran and compute the Vp/Vs ratio within the crust of this seismologically active area. Our results enabled us to map the lateral variations of the Moho as well as those of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) beneath this region. We selected data from teleseismic events (M_b?>?5.5, epicentral distance between 30° and 95° for P receiver functions and M_b?>?5.7, epicentral distance between 60° and 85° for S receiver functions) recorded from 1995 to 2008 at 8 three-component short-period stations of Tabriz Telemetry Seismic Network. Our results obtained from P receiver functions indicate clear conversions at the Moho boundary. The Moho depth was firstly estimated from the delay time of the Moho converted phase relative to the direct P wave. Then we used the H-Vp/Vs stacking algorithm of Zhu and Kanamori to estimate the crustal thickness and Vp/Vs ratio underneath the stations with clear Moho multiples. We found an average Moho depth of 48 km, which varies between 38.5 and 53 km. The Moho boundary showed a significant deepening towards east and north. This may reveal a crustal thickening towards northeast possibly due to the collision between the Central Iran and South Caspian plates. The obtained average Vp/Vs ratio was estimated to be 1.76, which varies between 1.73 and 1.82. The crustal structure was also determined by modeling of P receiver functions. We obtained a three-layered model for the crust beneath this area. The thickness of the layers is estimated to be 6–11, 18–35, and 38–53 km, respectively. The average of the shear wave velocity was calculated to be 3.4 km/s in the crust and reaches 4.3 km/s below the Moho discontinuity. The crustal thickness values obtained from P receiver functions are in good agreement with those derived by S receiver functions. In addition, clear conversions with negative polarity were observed at ~8.7 s in S receiver functions, which could be related to the conversion at the LAB. This may show a relatively thin continental lithosphere of about 85 km implying that the lithosphere was influenced by various geodynamical reworking processes in the past.     

Seismic evaluation of rocking structures through performance assessment and fragility analysis

Numerical studies have been conducted for low- and medium-rise rocking structures to investigate their efficiency as earthquake-resisting systems in comparison with conventional structures. Several non-linear time-history analyses have been performed to evaluate seismic performance of selected cases at desired ground shaking levels, based on key parameters such as total and flexural story drifts and residual deformations. The Far-field record set is selected as input ground motions and median peak values of key parameters are taken as best estimates of system response. In addition, in order to evaluate the probability of exceeding relevant damage states, analytical fragility curves have been developed based on the results of the incremental dynamic analysis procedure. Small exceedance probabilities and acceptable margins against collapse, together with minor associated damages in main structural members, can be considered as superior seismic performance for medium-rise rocking systems. Low-rise rocking systems could provide significant performance improvement over their conventional counterparts notwithstanding certain weaknesses in their seismic response.