On inversion of the second- and third-order gravitational tensors by Stokes’ integral formula for a regional gravity recovery

A regional recovery of the Earth’s gravity field from satellite observables has become particularly important in various geoscience studies in order to better localize stochastic properties of observed data, while allowing the inversion of a large amount of data, collected with a high spatial resolution only over the area of interest. One way of doing this is to use observables, which have a more localized support. As acquired in recent studies related to a regional inversion of the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) data, the satellite gravity-gradient observables have a more localized support than the gravity observations. Following this principle, we compare here the performance of the second- and third-order derivatives of the gravitational potential in context of a regional gravity modeling, namely estimating the gravity anomalies. A functional relation between these two types of observables and the gravity anomalies is formulated by means of the extended Stokes’ integral formula (or more explicitly its second- and third-order derivatives) while the inverse solution is carried out by applying a least-squares technique and the ill-posed inverse problem is stabilized by applying Tikhonov’s regularization. Our results reveal that the third-order radial derivatives of the gravitational potential are the most suitable among investigated input data types for a regional gravity recovery, because these observables preserve more information on a higher-frequency part of the gravitational spectrum compared to the vertical gravitational gradients. We also demonstrate that the higher-order horizontal derivatives of the gravitational potential do not necessary improve the results. We explain this by the fact that most of the gravity signal is comprised in its radial component, while the horizontal components are considerably less sensitive to spatial variations of the gravity field.     

Coupled and splitting bedload sediment transport models based on a modified flux-wave approach

Numerical modeling of free-surface flow over a mobile bed with predominantly bedload sediment transport can be done by solving the shallow water and Exner equations using coupled and splitting approaches.The coupled method uses a coupling of the governing equations at the same time step leading to a non-conservative solution.The splitting method solves the Exner and the shallow water equations in a separate manner,and is only capable of modeling weak free-surface and bedload interactions.In the current study,an extended version of a Godunov-type wave propagation algorithm is presented for modeling of morphodynamic systems using both coupled and splitting approaches.In the introduced coupled method the entire morphodynamic system is solved in the form of a conservation law.For the splitting technique,a new wave Riemann decomposition is defined which enables the scheme to be utilized for mild and strong interactions.To consider the bedload sediment discharge within the Exner equation,the Smart and Meyer-Peter&Müller formulae are used.It was found that the coupled solution gives accurate predictions for all investigated flow regimes including propagation over a dry-state using a Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy(CFL)number equal to 0.6.Furthermore,the splitting method was able to model all flow regimes with a lower CFL number of 0.3.     

A comparison of the estimated effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere using terrestrial and satellite-derived data in Iran

The effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere has an important role in constraining compositional structure, geothermal gradient and tectonic forces within the lithosphere and the thickness of this layer can be used to evaluate the earthquakes’ focal depth. Hence, assessment of the elastic thickness of the lithosphere by gravitational admittance method in Iran is the main objective of this paper. Although the global geopotential models estimated from the satellite missions and surface data can portray the Earth’s gravity field in high precision and resolution, there are some debates about using them for lithosphere investigations. We used both the terrestrial data which have been provided by NCC (National Cartographic Center of Iran) and BGI (Bureau Gravimetrique International), and the satellite-derived gravity and topography which are generated by EIGEN-GL04C and ETOPO5, respectively. Finally, it is concluded that signal content of the satellite-derived data is as rich as the terrestrial one and it can be used for the determination of the lithosphere bending.     

Least-squares harmonic estimation of the tropopause parameters using GPS radio occultation measurements

In order to investigate temporal variations of the tropopause parameters, Least-Squares Harmonic Estimation (LS-HE) is applied to the time series of the tropopause temperatures and heights derived from Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS RO) atmospheric profiles of CHAMP, GRACE and COSMIC missions from January 2006 until May 2010 in different regions of Iran. By applying the univariate LS-HE to the completely unevenly spaced time series of the tropopause temperatures and heights, annual and diurnal components are detected together with their higher harmonics. The multivariate LS-HE estimates the main periodic signals, particularly diurnal and semidiurnal cycles, more clearly than the univariate LS-HE. Mixing in the values of the tropopause height and temperature is seen to occur in winter at lower latitudes (around 30°) as a result of subtropical jet, and in summer at higher latitudes (36°–42°) as an effect of subtropical high. A bimodal pattern is observed in the frequency histograms of the tropopause heights, in which the primary modes for the southern and northern parts of Iran correspond to subtropical and extratropical heights, respectively.     

Landslide susceptibility mapping at Zonouz Plain,Iran using genetic programming and comparison with frequency ratio,logistic regression,and artificial neural network models

Without a doubt, landslide is one of the most disastrous natural hazards and landslide susceptibility maps (LSMs) in regional scale are the useful guide to future development planning. Therefore, the importance of generating LSMs through different methods is popular in the international literature. The goal of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility of the occurrence of landslides in Zonouz Plain, located in North-West of Iran. For this purpose, a landslide inventory map was constructed using field survey, air photo/satellite image interpretation, and literature search for historical landslide records. Then, seven landslide-conditioning factors such as lithology, slope, aspect, elevation, land cover, distance to stream, and distance to road were utilized for generation LSMs by various models: frequency ratio (FR), logistic regression (LR), artificial neural network (ANN), and genetic programming (GP) methods in geographic information system (GIS). Finally, total four LSMs were obtained by using these four methods. For verification, the results of LSM analyses were confirmed using the landslide inventory map containing 190 active landslide zones. The validation process showed that the prediction accuracy of LSMs, produced by the FR, LR, ANN, and GP, was 87.57, 89.42, 92.37, and 93.27 %, respectively. The obtained results indicated that the use of GP for generating LSMs provides more accurate prediction in comparison with FR, LR, and ANN. Furthermore; GP model is superior to the ANN model because it can present an explicit formulation instead of weights and biases matrices.     

Spectral gamma‐ray logs and palaeoclimate change? Permian–Triassic,Persian Gulf

Spectral gamma ray (SGR) logs are used as stratigraphic tools in correlation, sequence stratigraphy and most recently, in clastic successions as a proxy for changes in hinterland palaeoweathering. In this study we analyse the spectral gamma ray signal recorded in two boreholes that penetrated the carbonate and evaporate‐dominated Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) in the South Pars Gasfield (offshore Iran, Persian Gulf) in an attempt to analyse palaeoenvironmental changes from the upper Permian (Upper Dalan Formation) and lower Triassic (Lower Kangan Formation). The results are compared to lithological changes, total organic carbon (TOC) contents and published stable isotope ( δ ¹⁸O, δ ¹³C) results. This work is the first to consider palaeoclimatic effects on SGR logs from a carbonate/evaporate succession. While Th/U ratios compare well to isotope data (and thus a change to less arid hinterland climates from the Late Permian to the Early Triassic), Th/K ratios do not, suggesting a control not related to hinterland weathering. Furthermore, elevated Th/U ratios in the Early Triassic could reflect a global drawdown in U, rather than a more humid episode in the sediment hinterlands, with coincident changes in TOC. Previous work that used spectral gamma ray data in siliciclastic successions as a palaeoclimate proxy may not apply in carbonate/evaporate sedimentary rocks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Back analysis of an excavated slope failure in highly fractured rock mass: the case study of Kargar slope failure (Iran)

This paper examines the failure of Kargar cut slope located at the south part of Esfahan subway using analytical and numerical back analysis methods. The excavated trench has 27 m depth with near vertical walls due to the space limitation around it. The geology of the area comprises weathered and heavily jointed shale and sandstone overlaid by alluvium deposits. Despite the slope being supported by shotcrete and fully grouted rock bolts, a catastrophic failure occurred at the east wall. Due to the uncertainty about the causes of failure initiation, back analyses have been performed via both the limit equilibrium and numerical method for considering various probable mechanisms. In the back analysis with limit equilibrium method, the rock mass is assumed as an equivalent continuum and Hoek–Brown failure criterion and geological strength index (GSI) are applied to calculate the shear strength parameters. The results show that GSI value was 33 in the failed mass. In the numerical back analysis, the distinct element method is applied to study the contribution of rock joints to the failure and progressive rock mass strength degradation until failure. The results show that threshold values of joint cohesion and friction were 0.2 MPa and 30°, respectively. Also the modeled slip surface being step-shaped agrees with the observed one.     

Efficiency Evaluating of Automatic Lineament Extraction by Means of Remote Sensing (Case Study: Venarch,Iran)

One of the main geological evidence for many ore-bearing deposits and mineralized regions is the existence of points in highly fractured zones and the fragmentation intensity resulted from development of hydrothermal alteration along the fractures, the process leading to the occurrence of ore deposits. In this paper, a new algorithm has been proposed including a set of image processing techniques for detection the lineaments in satellite images by means of programming in MATLAB environment. The set of utilized methods includes line segment extraction by EDLine algorithm, merging line segments by Tavares method and linking the resulting line segments based on the collinearity and proximity criterion. The tectonic structures were stabilized by B-Spline curve fitting. The proposed algorithms were implemented on the ASTER image of a structurally multiple fractured region located in the central Iran, and the lineament map of Venarch area has been depicted. The results obtained from the proposed algorithms indicate a high accuracy of the operations detection of 80% for the reference map lineaments and the overall accuracy of the method is effectively reported as 62%. Combination of the above algorithms proposes a new method that precisely resulted in obtaining image processing of geological evidence for increasing the accuracy and decreasing the risk, before any field operations.     

Inversion of surface gravity data for 3-D density modeling of geologic structures using total variation regularization

We develop an inversion procedure using the total variation (TV) regularization method as a stabilizing function to invert surface gravity data to retrieve 3-D density models of geologic structures with sharp boundaries. The developed inversion procedure combines several effective algorithms to solve the TV regularized problem. First, a matrix form of the gradient vector is designed using the Kronecker product to numerically approximate the 3-D TV function. The piecewise polynomial truncated singular value decomposition (PP-TSVD) algorithm is then used to solve the TV regularized inverse problem. To obtain a density model with depth resolution, we use a sensitivity-based depth weighting function. Finally, we apply the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to select the best combination of the PP-TSVD algorithm and the depth weighting function parameters. 3-D simulations conducted with synthetic data show that this approach produces sub-surface images in which the structures are well separated in terms of sharp boundaries, without the need of a priori detailed density model. The method applied to a real dataset from a micro-gravimetry survey of Gotvand Dam, southwestern Iran, clearly delineates subsurface cavities starting from a depth of 40 m within the area of the dam reservoir.