Site amplification investigation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, using H/V ratio of microtremor

The degree of damage during earthquakes strongly depends on dynamic characteristics of buildings as well as amplification of seismic waves in soils. Among the other approaches, microtremor is, perhaps, the easiest and cheapest way to understand the dynamic characteristics of soil. Non-reference microtremor measurements have been carried out in 45 locations in and around the capital Dhaka city of Bangladesh. Subsoil investigations (Standard Penetration Test and Shear Wave Velocity) have also been executed in those locations. Soil model has been developed for those locations for site response analysis by means of the program SHAKE. Among those 45 locations, predominant frequency of microtremor observation varies from 0.48 to 3.65 Hz. Out of those 45, for 35 locations Transfer function obtained from the program SHAKE have higher frequency compared to microtremor H/V ratio and for one location it has lower predominant frequency. For six locations, frequencies obtained from two methods are identical. For three other locations, there are no similarities between predominant frequency obtained from microtremor and transfer function. The seismic Vulnerability Index (Kg) for 45 sites varies between 0.45 and 31.85. Ten sites have been identified as having moderate vulnerability of soil layers to deform.     

Hawking non-thermal and thermal radiations of Schwarzschild anti-de Sitter black hole by Hamilton-Jacobi method

The massive particles tunneling method has been used to investigate the Hawking non-thermal and purely thermal radiations of Schwarzschild Anti-de Sitter (SAdS) black hole. Considering the spacetime background to be dynamical, incorporate the self-gravitation effect of the emitted particles the imaginary part of the action has been derived from Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Using the conservation laws of energy and angular momentum we have showed that the non-thermal and purely thermal tunneling rates are related to the change of Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and the derived emission spectrum deviates from the pure thermal spectrum. The result obtained for SAdS black hole is also in accordance with Parikh and Wilczek’s opinion and gives a correction to the Hawking radiation of SAdS black hole.     

Environmental impact assessment on water quality deterioration caused by the decreased Ganges outflow and saline water intrusion in south-western Bangladesh

 This paper deals with an environmental impact assessment of low water flow in the river Ganges during a dry period at the Khulna and Mongla port areas in south-western Bangladesh. Large-scale surface water withdrawal in India after commissioning the Farakka Barrage causes a drastic fall in the Ganges low-flow condition within the Bangladesh territory during every dry period. The average lowest discharge in the Ganges is 552 m³/s, which is about 73% less than that in the pre-Farakka time. This has caused the deterioration of both surface and groundwater quality of the study area. Salinity is the principal cause of water quality degradation in the area. Present observation shows that the surface water of the area is sulphate-chloride dominated, which signifies high salinity whereas the groundwater is categorized as of medium to high salinity. To maintain the Rupsa River's maximum salinity below 1000 μS/cm the discharge in the Ganges should be ∼1500 m³/s, whereas that at Garai basin is ∼10 m³/s. If this present situation continues it will be a crippling blow to the environment of the area in the long term. An integrated multidisciplinary approach to hydrogeological research is urgently required to salvage the area from further deterioration. Received: 9 August 1999 · Accepted: 8 March 2000     

Mineralogy and chemical composition of the clay fraction of Neogene shales from the Surma Group in the Bengal basin,Bangladesh

Mineralogical and chemical investigations (<2μm clay separates) of shale samples from the Neogene-age Surma Group obtained from four wells (Habiganj-11, Shahbazpur-1, Titas-11, Titas-15) in the Bengal basin, Bangladesh, were carried out in order to reveal the clay mineral composition as reservoir exploration and exploitation requires a good understanding of the clay minerals. The samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF). Mineralogically, the sub-surface Surma Group shales comprise predominantly quartz, plagioclase, illite, chlorite, kaolinite, with lesser amounts of K-feldspar, dolomite and smectite, and minor to trace amounts of calcite, siderite and pyrite. The chemical composition of the <2 μm clay separates also suggests an illite and chlorite-rich composition. With increasing burial depth, the Surma Group shales are enriched in illite. The gradual decreasing of the smectite clays with depth and ultimate disappearance at greater depths (≥ 3000 m) may have been responsible for the presence of the diagenetic illite. Based on the mineralogical composition it is most likely that the illite-chlorite associations together with quartz and feldspar were predominantly detrital in origin and thus reflect the presence of a rapidly-rising source terrain not subjected to intense weathering.     

Development of Tide–Surge Interaction Model for the Coastal Region of Bangladesh

In this paper, a two-dimensional, vertically integrated hydrodynamic model is developed taking into account entrained air bubbles during storm surges as well as incorporating inverted barometer, and river and land dynamics. The model is specifically designed for the coastal region of Bangladesh. A nested scheme method with a fine mesh scheme (FMS), capable of incorporating the complex coastline and all major offshore islands accurately, nested into a coarse mesh scheme (CMS) covering up to 15° N latitude in the Bay of Bengal is used. To incorporate the small and big offshore islands in the Meghna estuarine region with its complex coastline accurately, a very fine mesh scheme (VFMS) is again nested into the FMS. Along the northeast corner of the VFMS, the Meghna river discharge is taken into account. The coastal and island boundaries are approximated through proper stair steps. The model equations are solved by a semi-implicit finite difference technique using a staggered C-grid. A stable appropriate tidal condition over the model domain is generated by applying tidal forcing with the four major tidal constituents M ₂, S ₂, K ₁, and O ₁ along the southern open boundary of the CMS. This tidal regime is introduced as the initial state of the sea for nonlinear interaction of tide and surge. The model is applied to simulate water levels due to the interaction of tide and surge associated with the cyclones April 1991 and Aila at different coastal and island locations along the coast of Bangladesh. The results are found to be quite satisfactory with root mean square error of ～0.50 m as calculated for both the storm events. Tests of sensitivities on water levels are carried out for air bubbles, offshore islands, river discharge, inverse barometer, and grid resolution. The presence of air bubbles increases simulated water levels a little bit in our model, and the contribution of air bubbles in increasing water level is found around 2 %. Further, water levels are found to be influenced by offshore islands, river discharge, inverse barometer as well as grid resolution.     

Effectiveness of Mg–Al-layered double hydroxide for heavy metal removal from mine wastewater and sludge volume reduction

Health hazards from heavy metal pollution in water systems are a global environmental problem. Of similar concern is sludge that results from wastewater treatment due to unsatisfactory sludge management technology. Therefore, the effectiveness of using Mg–Al-layered double hydroxide in the removal of heavy metals from mine wastewater was tested and compared with that of calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)₂], which is a common treatment method for heavy metal removal. Initially, the mine wastewater contained cations of the heavy metals iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb). The Mg–Al-layered double hydroxides were able to remove 371, 7.2, 121, and 0.4 mg/L of these pollutants, respectively, using the co-precipitation method. The removal of these metals is most effective using 0.5 g Mg–Al-layered double hydroxide (Mg/Al molar ratio 4) and 20 min of shaking. Zn was removed by the formation of Zn(NO₃)(OH)·H₂O and Zn₅(NO₃)₂(OH)₈ when LDH, Mg/Al molar ratios of 4 and 2, respectively, were used. Similarly, Fe, Cu, and Pb were removed by the formation of Fe–Al-layered double hydroxide, Cu₂(OH)₃·NO₃ and Pb₄(OH)₄(NO₃)₄, respectively. While Ca(OH)₂ is also capable of reducing the heavy metal concentrations below the Japanese recommended values, this analysis shows that using 0.5 g Mg–Al-layered double hydroxide is a better treatment condition for mine wastewater, because it generates lower sludge volumes than 0.1 g of Ca(OH)₂. The measured sludge volume was 1.5 mL for Mg–Al-layered double hydroxide and 2.5 mL for Ca(OH)₂, a nearly twofold further reduction.     

Response of porous beds subjected to random waves

A general analysis procedure is developed for the evaluation of the effective stress response of a porous ocean bed subjected to random waves. The ocean floor soil is treated as a saturated porous elastic medium and Biot's theory is used to formulate the coupled flow and deformation. The waves are treated as a random process which is described by Pierson–Moskowitz spectrum. The derived statistical properties of the response are used to evaluate the probability of failure in ocean bed.     

Path Planning and Navigation of Oceanic Autonomous Sailboats and Vessels: A Survey

Oceanic autonomous surface vehicles(ASVs) are one kind of autonomous marine robots that have advantages of energy saving and is flexible to use. Nowadays, ASVs are playing an important role in marine science, maritime industry, and national defense. It could improve the efficiency of oceanic data collection, ensure marine transportation safety, and protect national security. One of the core challenges for ASVs is how to plan a safe navigation autonomously under the complicated ocean environment. Based on the type of marine vehicles, ASVs could be divided into two categories: autonomous sailboats and autonomous vessels. In this article, we review the challenges and related solutions of ASVs' autonomous navigation, including modeling analysis, path planning and implementation. Finally, we make a summary of all of those in four tables and discuss about the future research directions.     

The 1996 Sulawesi Tsunami

On 1 January, 1996 at 16:05 p.m. local time, an earthquake of magnitude M = 7.8 struck the central part of Sulawesi Island (Indonesia). It was accompanied by tsunami waves 2–4 m high. Nine people were killed and 63 were injured. A tsunami survey was conducted by Indonesian and Russian specialists. The measured tsunami runup heights and eyewitness accounts are reported and discussed. Historical data on the Sulawesi Island tsunamis are analysed and tsunami risk prediction in the central part of Sulawesi Island carried out for the first time.