Field Survey and Geological Effects of the 15 November 2006 Kuril Tsunami in the Middle Kuril Islands

The near-field expression of the tsunami produced by the 15 November 2006 Kuril earthquake (M_w 8.1–8.4) in the middle Kuril Islands, Russia, including runup of up to 20 m, remained unknown until we conducted a post-tsunami survey in the summer of 2007. Because the earthquake occurred between summer field expeditions in 2006 and 2007, we have observations, topographic profiles, and photographs from three months before and nine months after the tsunami. We thoroughly surveyed portions of the islands of Simushir and Matua, and also did surveys on parts of Ketoi, Yankicha, Ryponkicha, and Rasshua. Tsunami runup in the near-field of the middle Kuril Islands, over a distance of about 200 km, averaged 10 m over 130 locations surveyed and was typically between 5 and 15 m. Local topography strongly affected inundation and somewhat affected runup. Higher runup generally occurred along steep, protruding headlands, whereas longer inundation distances occurred on lower, flatter coastal plains. Sediment transport was ubiquitous where sediment was available—deposit grain size was typically sand, but ranged from mud to large boulders. Wherever there were sandy beaches, a more or less continuous sand sheet was present on the coastal plain. Erosion was extensive, often more extensive than deposition in both space and volume, especially in areas with runup of more than 10 m. The tsunami eroded the beach landward, stripped vegetation, created scours and trim lines, cut through ridges, and plucked rocks out of the coastal plain.     

Dynamic properties of the Quaternary sedimentary rocks and their influence on seismic site effects. Case study in Bucharest City,Romania

Bucharest is one of the cities most affected by earthquakes in Europe. Situated at 150–170 km distance from Vrancea epicentral zone, Bucharest had suffered many damages due to high energy Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes. For example, the 4 March 1977 event produced the collapse of 32 buildings with 8–12 levels, while more than 150 old buildings with 6–9 levels were seriously damaged. The studies done after this earthquake had shown the importance of the surface geological structure upon ground motion parameters. New seismic measurements are performed in Bucharest area aiming at defining better elastic and dynamic properties of the shallow sedimentary rocks. Down-hole seismic measurements were performed in a number of 10 cased boreholes drilled in the Bucharest City area. Processing and interpretation of the data lead to the conclusion that shallow sedimentary rocks can be considered weak in the area, down to 150–200 m depth. Seismic wave velocity values and bulk density values presented in the paper associated with local geology are useful primary data in the seismic microzonation of Bucharest City. They are used as 1D models to derive transfer functions and response spectra for the stack of sedimentary rocks in several parts of Bucharest area, leading to a better knowledge of the local site amplification and associated frequency spectra. In a recent study the H/V spectral ratio using Nakamura’s method was applied on the seismic noise measurements in 22 sites in Bucharest City in order to derive the fundamental period associated with these sites. The values confirm the previous results, showing a dominant resonance in the period range of 1.25–1.75 s. The fundamental periods obtained with Nakamura’s method are in good agreement with those computed on the basis of geological and geotechnical data in boreholes, which show an increase of the fundamental period in the Bucharest area from south to north, in the same direction as the increase of the thickness of the Quaternary deposits above the Fratesti layer which is considered the bedrock in the area.     

Cs baseline levels in the Mediterranean and Black Sea: A cross-basin survey of the CIESM Mediterranean Mussel Watch programme

The common mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis was selected as unique biomonitor species to implement a regional monitoring programme, the CIESM Mediterranean Mussel Watch (MMW), in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. As of today, and upon standardization of the methodological approach, the MMW Network has been able to quantify ¹³⁷Cs levels in mussels from 60 coastal stations and to produce the first distribution map of this artificial radionuclide at the scale of the entire Mediterranean and Black Seas. While measured ¹³⁷Cs levels were found to be very low (usually <1 Bq kg⁻¹ wet wt) ¹³⁷Cs activity concentrations in the Black Sea and North Aegean Sea were up to two orders of magnitude higher than those in the western Mediterranean Basin. Such effects, far from representing a threat to human populations or the environment, reflect a persistent signature of the Chernobyl fallout in this area.     

Theoretical and Practical Basis for Progressive Multi-face Technology of Mine Development

INTRODUCTIONThe underground m ine prospecting work seem s to be oneof the m ajor tasks for the mining industry.The key to thesuccessful com pletion of the task is the im provem ent in tech-nology and method engineering.The method engineering onthe surface is characterized by the increasing combination ofan individual process with space and tim e,which is the basisfor the development of m ethod engineering for cutting.Theexperience of Yakutsk and Magadan Geological Surveys isused to compi…     

ADM1‐Based Robust Interval Observer for Anaerobic Digestion Processes

A robust state estimation scheme is proposed for anaerobic digestion (AD) processes to estimate key variables under the most uncertain scenarios (namely, uncertainties on the process inputs and unknown reaction and specific growth rates). This scheme combines the use of the IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1), the interval observer theory and a minimum number of measurements to reconstruct the unmeasured process variables within guaranteed lower and upper bounds in which they evolve. The performance of this robust estimation scheme is evaluated via numerical simulations that are carried out under actual operating conditions. It is shown that under some structural and operational conditions, the proposed robust interval observer (RIO) has the property of remaining stable in the face of uncertain process inputs, badly known kinetics and load disturbances. It is also shown that the RIO is indeed a powerful tool for the estimation of biomass (composed of seven different species) from a minimum number of measurements in a system with a total of 32 variables from which 24 correspond to state variables.     

Effect of temperature on the physical precursors of rock block failure

The influence of temperature (25–400 °C) on the variations of mechanical, acoustic, electric and electromagnetic precursors of rock failure has been shown experimentally. The most significant variations were detected in the principal parameters of the acoustic and electromagnetic emissions whose impulse energy underwent a fast growth. However, the general character of hierarchical evolution stages of micro and macrofailure was practically unchanged. This has been confirmed by the so-called concentration parameter of rupture, which is theoretically calculated and checked in experiments; its space-time variations preceding the occurrence and progression of macrofailure are slightly depending on the rock temperature effect. This has been shown through the convolution of some physical precursors in a complex parameter whose variation showed an approaching of macrofailure, which remains slightly influenced by changes in temperature. Our results are interpreted in relation to physics of superficial earthquakes and precursors.     

Rebuttal to comment on “Modeling of opposition effects with ensembles of clusters: Interplay of various scattering mechanisms” by Elena V. Petrova, Victor P. Tishkovets, Klaus Jockers, 2007 [Icarus 188, 233-245]

Shkuratov and Zubko [Shkuratov, Yu.G., Zubko, E., 2008. Icarus 194, 850-852] criticize our paper [Petrova, E.V., Tishkovets, V.P., Jockers, K., 2007. Icarus 188, 233-245]. With this comment we reply to this criticism. We show that the experimental data and the modeling calculations presented by these authors cannot disprove the near-field effect as an important contributor to the scattering mechanisms considered in our paper.     

Global m= 1 instabilities and lopsidedness in disc galaxies

Lopsidedness is common in spiral galaxies. Often, there is no obvious external cause, such as an interaction with a nearby galaxy, for such features. Alternatively, the lopsidedness may have an internal cause, such as a dynamical instability. In order to explore this idea, we have developed a computer code that searches for self-consistent perturbations in razor-thin disc galaxies and performed a thorough mode-analysis of a suite of dynamical models for disc galaxies embedded in an inert dark matter halo with varying amounts of rotation and radial anisotropy.
Models with two equal-mass counter-rotating discs and fully rotating models both show growing lopsided modes. For the counter-rotating models, this is the well-known counter-rotating instability, becoming weaker as the net rotation increases. The m = 1 mode of the maximally rotating models, on the other hand, becomes stronger with increasing net rotation. This rotating m = 1 mode is reminiscent of the eccentricity instability in near-Keplerian discs.
To unravel the physical origin of these two different m = 1 instabilities, we studied the individual stellar orbits in the perturbed potential and found that the presence of the perturbation gives rise to a very rich orbital behaviour. In the linear regime, both instabilities are supported by aligned loop orbits. In the non-linear regime, other orbit families exist that can help support the modes. In terms of density waves, the counter-rotating m = 1 mode is due to a purely growing Jeans-type instability. The rotating m = 1 mode, on the other hand, grows as a result of the swing amplifier working inside the resonance cavity that extends from the disc centre out to the radius where non-rotating waves are stabilized by the model's outwardly rising Q profile.