Evidence for long-term instability in the Storegga Slide region off western Norway

Shallow-seismic surveys around the Storegga Slide off western Norway have allowed greater understanding of the development of this part of the European margin. The northern flank of the scarp is formed of seismically well-layered, hemipelagic and distal-glaciomarine deposits in which a variety of luid-escape structures, probably due to gas, are locally abundant. There is evidence of slides that substantially pre-date the earliest slide previously recognized. Surveying on the North Sea Fan to the southwest of the Storegga Slide shows the markedly different nature of the autochthonous sediments on the southern flank of the Storegga Slide; there is a predominance of glacigenic debris flows in the upper part of the sequence, lesser maximum slopes, and an apparent absence of interstitial gas and/or hydrates. This contrast has had considerable effect on slope stability and has influenced the position of the southwestern Storegga Slide boundary. The North Sea Fan succession includes at least three major buried slides, termed the Vigra, Møre and Tampen slides, all of which substantially pre-date the Storegga event and probably pre-date predominantly glacigenic margin sedimentation. Post-late Weichselian slope failure is locally significant. The region has a long, but as yet chronologically poorly defined history of instability in which seismic triggering is considered to have been important.     

Application and evaluation of a differential inversion technique for remote temperature sensing

Summary A new theoretical approach is developed for remote temperature sensing based on application of Laplace transform techniques to the radiative transfer equation. This approach allows calculation of the atmospheric temperature profile from measurements of the upwelling radiance and its derivatives. Atmospheric temperatures are obtained by this technique without the use of anya priori temperature information. This technique is applied toboth synthetic data for detailed numerical study, and to measurements of the upwelling radiance taken with the Tiros Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS). Limitations arising from experimental errors, truncation errors, round-off, numerical errors, and instability of numerical Laplace transformation are discussed.With 9 Figures     

Heat and water vapour fluxes and scalar roughness lengths over an Antarctic ice shelf

We present eddy-correlation measurements of heat and water vapour fluxes made during the Antarctic winter. The surface layer was stably stratified throughout the period of observation and sensible heat fluxes were always directed downwards. However, both upward and downward water vapour fluxes were observed. Their magnitude was generally small and the latent heat flux was not a significant fraction of the surface energy budget. The variation of heat and water vapour fluxes with stability is well described by Monin-Obukhov similarity theory but the scalar roughness lengths for heat and water vapour appear to be much larger than the momentum roughness length. Possible explanations of this effect are discussed.     

中国四川2008年5月12日汶川地震的地质与地球物理背景

2008年5月12日, 在青藏高原东缘的龙门山, 发生了MW7.9地震. 这一地震是在青藏高原长期隆升和向东推挤的背景下形成的. 发生地震的区域有以下典型的地质特征: 不是陡峭山前的活动汇聚造山带(包括地形起伏大于4 km的情况), 而是缺少高活动强度的低角度逆冲断层;虽拥有年轻的高地形(距今15 Ma)和加厚的地壳, 但是却只有低的GPS缩短率(小于3 mm/a), 并且缺少同时代的前陆沉积. 在我们看来, 青藏高原东部下面的地壳加厚不是因为上部地壳的大范围缩短, 而是由于位于软弱层(低速层)中的深部地壳的韧性增厚. 横跨龙门山的晚新生代缩短量可能仅有10～20 km, 且伴有主要造成青藏高原和四川盆地差异抬升的褶皱和断裂. 5月12日的地震可能反映了青藏高原东部相对四川盆地的带有缓慢的汇聚和右旋走滑的长期抬升. 5月12日地震邻区内GPS确定的速率表明, 该地震的平均复发间隔大约为2 000～10 000年.     

Variations of electric resistance and H2 and Rn emissions of concrete blocks under increasing uniaxial compression

Electric resistance and emissions of hydrogen and radon isotopes of concrete (which is somewhat similar to fault-zone materials) under increasing uniaxial compression were continuously monitored to check whether they show any pre- and post-failure changes that may correspond to similar changes reported for earthquakes. The results show that all these parameters generally begin to increase when the applied stresses reach 20% to 90% of the corresponding failure stresses, probably due to the occurrence and growth of dilatant microcracks in the specimens. The prefailure changes have different patterns for different specimens, probably because of differences in spatial and temporal distributions of the microcracks. The resistance shows large co-failure increases, and the gas emissions show large post-failure increases. The post-failure increase of radon persists longer and stays at a higher level than that of hydrogen, suggesting a difference in the emission mechanisms for these two kinds of gases. The H₂ increase may be mainly due to chemical reaction at the crack surfaces while they are fresh, whereas the Rn increases may be mainly the result of the increased emanation area of such surfaces. The results suggest that monitoring of resistivity and gas emissions may be useful for predicting earthquakes and failures of concrete structures.     

A survey of Earth strain tides in Great Britain

Summary . We report 35 measurements of Earth strain tides at 16 near-surface sites in Great Britain. This is the first widespread survey undertaken specifically to examine the problem of the inhomogeneity of elastic strain fields near the Earth's surface. Some sites were instrumented intensively in order to examine variations of tidal admittance over distances of several hundred metres, while measurements from single instruments at other sites were compared with theoretically predicted strain tides. After allowing for cavity and topographic effects, our data show variations of up to 50 per cent in tidal admittance. We interpret such large anomalies as being due to variations in the regional elastic parameters of wavelength about a 100 m or less. The data indicate that strain measurements from single instrument sites must be interpreted with caution.     

Accretion disc viscosity: how big is alpha?

We consider observational and theoretical estimates of the accretion disc viscosity parameter α. We find that in thin, fully ionized discs, the best observational evidence suggests a typical range α∼ 0.1–0.4, whereas the relevant numerical simulations tend to derive estimates for α which are an order of magnitude smaller. We discuss possible reasons for this apparent discrepancy.