Evaluation of seismic site factors in the Mississippi Embayment. I. Estimation of dynamic properties

Deep deposits of the Mississippi Embayment, overlying the New Madrid Seismic Zone, present unique challenges for the estimation of local site effects on propagated ground motion. Limited information is available on the dynamic properties of these deposits. This paper develops generalized depth dependent modulus degradation and damping curves specific to the embayment deposits. Depth dependent small strain damping is estimated using weak motion recordings during the Enola earthquake, 2001. Modulus degradation and damping curves are further constrained using limited laboratory test data of embayment soils at low confining pressure. At high confining pressures embayment specific data is unavailable and test data from outside the embayment is used in developing the dynamic properties. The representative modulus degradation and damping curves are used in non-linear and equivalent linear one-dimensional site response analyses. A companion paper describes a large-scale probabilistic seismic hazard analysis study in the Mississippi Embayment that integrates non-linear site effects.     

A new rock mass failure criterion for biaxial loading conditions

To simulate brittle rocks, a mixture of glastone, sand and water was used as a model material. Thin galvanized sheets of thickness 0.254 mm were used to create joints in blocks made out of the model material. To investigate the failure modes and strength, both the intact material blocks as well as jointed model material blocks of size 35.6 × 17.8 × 2.5 cm having different joint geometry configurations were subjected to uniaxial and biaxial compressive loadings. A new intact rock failure criterion is proposed at the 3-D level. This criterion is validated for biaxial loading through laboratory experimental results obtained on intact model material blocks. Results obtained from both the intact and jointed model material blocks are used to develop a strongly non-linear new rock mass failure criterion for biaxial loading. In this failure criterion, the fracture tensor component is used to incorporate the directional effect of fracture geometry system on jointed block strength. The failure criterion shows the important role, the intermediate principal stress plays on rock mass strength.     

The influence of context on lifeline behavior: Local policies under wind storm and earthquake scenarios

Local policies can play an important role in establishing a context that shapes vulnerability and influences subsequent recovery of lifelines under the natural hazards of extreme wind and seismic events. External factors, such as access availability, have long been known to influence the rate of restoration of utility systems following blackouts. Thus, since system performance takes place within a socio-technical-political context, it can be anticipated that selected local policies may also influence either the geographic extent of damage or the rate of restoration or both. This project empirically validates the assumption that selected local non-design policies establish a context that significantly (measurably) influences system functionality in terms of spatial extent and duration of outage.     

Reevaluation of mixing among multiple water masses in the shelf: An example from the East China Sea

East China Sea (ECS) is bounded by the continent where the fourth largest river of Changjiang discharges large amounts of freshwater to the west and by the Kuroshio in the East and connected to the South China Sea via Taiwan Strait, therefore water characteristics are very complex and undergo great seasonal changes. The dominant source waters in the ECS are found to be Kuroshio Surface Water (KSW), Kuroshio Sub-surface Water (KSSW), Changjiang Diluted Water (CDW), and Taiwan Strait Warm Water (TSWW). Optimum multiparameter analysis (OMP) using temperature, salinity and ²²⁶Ra were applied to quantify the contribution of individual source water to the surface water of the ECS in summer. The successful application of radium isotope in OMP analysis demonstrates the usefulness of ²²⁶Ra in the discrimination of mixing among multiple water sources. In 1987, one interesting phenomenon was that the KSSW entered the surface with the upwelling at the margin of continental shelf, and affected the coastal water obviously. In 1999, the TSWW extended northward continuously up to the Changjiang Estuary.     

Random vibration of hysteretic systems under bi-directional ground motions

A random vibration method is developed for the response analysis of hysteretic structural systems under stochastic two-dimensional earthquake excitations. The biaxial hysteretic restoring force is modelled by coupled non-linear differential equations; the response statistics are obtained using the equivalent linearization technique. The validity of the proposed model is appraised using available biaxial loading tests of reinforced concrete columns. A parametric study was performed to examine the significance of the effects of biaxial interaction under earthquake excitations. A practical method to evaluate the extreme response statistics is also presented.     

Welded tuff infilling a volcanic vent at Weolseong,Republic of Korea

A plug of parataxitically welded tuff, with an elliptical (700 × 400 m) cross section, crops out in Weolseong district, Republic of Korea. It intrudes late Cretaceous granodiorite and extrusive tuffs of the Chisulryoung Volcanic Formation and displays a steeply inclined welding foliation, concordant with the intrusive contacts, and a subvertical stretching lineation. These fabrics are interpreted as resulting from laminar shearing in a boundary layer during deposition of the tuff by agglutination along the walls of a vent which served as a feeder for extrusive ignimbrites.     

Rb---Sr isotopic equilibrium during Sveconorwegian (= Grenville) deformation and metamorphism of the Orust dykes, S.W. Sweden

The Orust dykes and their regional correlatives are an important time marker in the polymetamorphic Östfold-Marstrand belt of S.E. Norway and S.W. Sweden. They were deformed and metamorphosed in the amphibolite facies during the Sveconorwegian (= Grenville) orogeny. Three narrow strongly deformed dykes yield Rb---Sr whole-rock ages (1106 ± 52 m.y., 1062 ± 90 m.y., 1000 ± 153 m.y.). The weighted mean age (1087 m.y.) is interpreted as the age of the first post-dyke deformation and the accompanying amphibolite facies metamorphism. High initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios (0.7074 ± 9, 0.710 ± 2, 0.713 ± 3, respectively) and other geochemical evidence point to considerable exchange of mobile elements between the dykes and the country rocks. The emplacement age is not known precisely. However, the dykes may be correlated with widespread mafic magnatism which accompanied crustal instability in the N. Atlantic region early in the Sveconorwegian (= Grenville) orogeny about 1200 m.y. ago.     

Archaean tectonics

The characteristic structures of granite-greenstone and high-grade gneiss terrains are reviewed, using the Superior Province and the North Atlantic craton as examples, with the object of finding a suitable tectonic model to explain both. The granite-greenstone terrain exhibits a combination of gravity-driven vertical tectonics and regional horizontal compression, while the high-grade gneiss terrain shows dominantly subhorizontal high-strain foliation affected by later refoldings.A uniformitarian plate tectonic model may not be appropriate to the Archaean in the likely absence of eclogite-driven subduction and because of practical problems in explaining the deformation patterns.Various alternative mechanisms are considered to explain the structure of the high-grade gneiss terrains in particular. It is concluded that the most fruitful model is tectonic underplating, whereby the crust is thickened from beneath by the emplacement of crustal slices detached from their mantle lithosphere — itself underplated independantly. Such a process could have operated in the North Atlantic craton coevally with greenstone formation and subsequent diapirism in the Superior Province.Sub-horizontal N-S compression affected both cratons in the late Archaean, after the above processes had taken place, when the crust had become sufficiently rigid to be able to transmit regional stresses.

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Zusammenfassung Die charakteristischen Strukturen von Granit-Grünschiefern und hochgradigen Gneisgebieten werden zusammenfassend betrachtet, wobei die Superior Province und das nordatlantische Kraton als Beispiele benutzt werden. Es wird versucht, ein geeignetes tektonisches Modell zu finden, um beide Gebiete zu erklären. Das Granit-Grünschiefergebiet stellt eine Kombination der von durch Gravitation verursachter vertikaler Tektonik und regionaler horizontaler Kompression dar, während das hochgradige Gneisgebiet eine hauptsächlich durch starke Beanspruchung verursachte subhorizontale Schichtung zeigt, beeinflußt durch spätere Faltungen.Ein uniformitarisches plattentektonisches Modell dürfte nicht für das Archaikum geeignet sein, wenn durch Eklogite verursachte Subduktion höchstwahrscheinlich nicht vorhanden ist und wenn außerdem praktische Probleme bei der Erklärung der Deformationsstrukturen auftauchen.Verschiedene alternative Mechanismen werden insbesondere für die Erklärung der Struktur des hochgradigen Gneisgebietes in Betracht gezogen. Als bestes Modell fanden wir die tektonische Anlagerung von unten, wobei die Kruste von unten her durch den Aufbau von Krustenscheiben, die vom Lithosphären-Mantel abgesplittert werden, verstärkt worden ist — wobei diese wiederum unabhängig davon Anlagerungen von unten aufweist. Solch ein Prozeß könnte im nordatlantischen Kraton stattgefunden haben, zusammen mit der Grünschieferformation und dem folgenden Diapirismus in der Superior Province.Subhorizontale N-S-Kompression beeinflußte beide Kratone im späten Archaikum, nachdem die obigen Prozesse stattgefunden hatten und als die Kruste genügend stark geworden war, um die regionalen Spannungen weiterzuleiten.

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Résumé Les structures caractéristiques des domaines à granites et roches vertes, et à gneiss de haut degré de métamorphisme, sont passées en revue; les exemples utilisés sont ceux de la Province Supérieure et du craton de l'Atlantique nord, et ce, dans l'intention de trouver un modèle tectonique approprié à l'explication des deux. Le domaine à granites et roches vertes témoigne de la combinaison d'une tectonique verticale mue par la pesanteur et d'une compression horizontale régionale, tandis que les formations à gneiss de degré de métamorphisme élevé montrent principalement une foliation subhorizontale sous forte tension, affectée par des replissements ultérieurs.Un modèle de tectonique de plaque basé sur la théorie de l'actualisme ne peut pas être appropriée à l'Archéen, étant donné l'absence probable de subduction actionée par des éclogites et en raison des difficultés pratiques à expliquer les structures de déformation.Plusieurs autres mécanismes sont envisagés pour expliquer la structure des régions à gneiss de degré de métamorphisme elevé. On en arrive à conclure que la modèle le plus efficient est le «sous-placage tectonique» suivant lequel la croûte s'épaissit par la mise en place, par en-dessous, de tranches de croûte détachées de leur »manteau-lithosphère«, elles-mêmes des sous-plaques indépendantes. Un tel processus aurait pu fonctionner dans le craton de l'Atlantique nord à la même époque que la formation de roches vertes et que le diapirisme subséquent dans la Province Supérieure.La compression sub-horizontale nord-sud a agi sur les deux cratons vers la fin de l'Archéen, et après qu'eurent lieu les processus ci-dessus, quand la croûte était devenue assez rigide pour pouvoir transmettre des efforts régionaux.

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Contributions of solar and greenhouse gases forcing during the present warm period

Due to the dramatic increase in the global mean surface temperature (GMST) during the twentieth century, the climate science community has endeavored to determine which mechanisms are responsible for global warming. By analyzing a millennium simulation (the period of 1000–1990 ad) of a global climate model and global climate proxy network dataset, we estimate the contribution of solar and greenhouse gas forcings on the increase in GMST during the present warm period (1891–1990 ad). Linear regression analysis reveals that both solar and greenhouse gas forcing considerably explain the increase in global mean temperature during the present warm period, respectively, in the global climate model. Using the global climate proxy network dataset, on the other hand, statistical approach suggests that the contribution of greenhouse gas forcing is slightly larger than that of solar forcing to the increase in global mean temperature during the present warm period. Overall, our result indicates that the solar forcing as well as the anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing plays an important role to increase the global mean temperature during the present warm period.