Hydrogeologic-structure and groundwater-movement imaging in tideland using electrical sounding resistivity: a case study on the Ariake Sea coast, southwest Japan

Groundwater flow exerts a crucial control on the boundary between the sea and freshwater and is thus a key factor for preserving groundwater resources and preventing seawater intrusion in coastal areas. Although it is highly probable that geological faults in coastal areas affect groundwater flow patterns, the effect has not been described yet in detail. This study is aimed at detecting and imaging groundwater flow and its temporal change around a fault in a coastal area through resistivity and chargeability distributions using electrical sounding. The Okoshiki area in central Kyushu, southwest Japan, was selected as a case study area, because of the presence of Kamiouda Fault. The measurements were conducted along six lines of both parallel and perpendicular orientations to the coastline. A feature suggesting a fault zone was evident on two lines. Through the temporal change of resistivity, movement and mixing processes of the seawater and freshwater during the ebb, low and flood tides were interpreted. A conceptual model of the processes was constructed in which a fault zone and the configuration of bedrock are dominant elements by acting as a selective path and a barrier to the groundwater flow, respectively.     

Interannual variability of Pacific Winter Water inflow through Barrow Canyon from 2000 to 2006

We examined the interannual variability of Pacific Winter Water (PWW), both upstream in the northeastern Chukchi Sea and Barrow Canyon using mooring observations from 2000 to 2006, and downstream in the Canada Basin using hydrographic data acquired in 2002–2006. The interannual variation of PWW salinity is governed by two factors: (1) variability in the salinity of Pacific Water that flows northward through Bering Strait in winter; and (2) the input of salt associated with sea ice formation during winter in an intermittent coastal polynya located along the Alaskan coast between Cape Lisburne and Point Barrow. During the winters of 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 an increased transport of cold and saline PWW (S?>?33.5) to the basin via Barrow Canyon was observed. In 2000/2001 enhanced ice formation in the polynya contributed to the increased salinity of PWW, whereas in 2001/2002 the salinity of water entering through the Bering Strait was higher, and this resulted in more saline PWW being delivered to the basin. In the following four winters (2002/2003, 2003/2004, 2004/2005 and 2005/2006) the transport of cold and saline PWW in winter to the basin was less than that in the two preceding winters. In three of these four winters (2003/2004 being the exception) the coastal polynya was less active, thus reducing the input of salt due to brine enrichment. In the winter of 2003/2004, however, warmer water within the polynya region constrained ice formation and thus less cold and saline PWW was produced, despite the fact that the coastal polynya was active and frequently open.     

Horizontal distribution of calanoid copepods in the western Arctic Ocean during the summer of 2008

The horizontal distribution of the epipelagic zooplankton communities in the western Arctic Ocean was studied during August–October 2008. Zooplankton abundance and biomass were higher in the Chukchi Sea, and ranged from 3,000 to 274,000 ind. m^?2 and 5–678 g WM m^?2, respectively. Copepods were the most dominant taxa and comprised 37?94% of zooplankton abundance. For calanoid copepods, 30 species belonging to 20 genera were identified. Based on the copepod abundance, their communities were classified into three groups using a cluster analysis. The horizontal distribution of each group was well synchronized with depth zones, defined here as Shelf, Slope and Basin. Neritic Pacific copepods were the dominant species in the Shelf zone. Arctic copepods were substantially greater in the Slope zone than the other regions. Mesopelagic copepods were greater in the Basin zone than the other regions. Stage compositions of large-sized Arctic copepods (Calanus glacialis and Metridia longa) were characterized by the dominance of late copepodid stages in the Basin. Both the abundance and stage compositions of large copepods corresponded well with Chl. a concentrations in each region, with high Chl. a in the Shelf and Slope supporting reproduction of copepods resulting in high abundance dominated by early copepodid stages.     

Individual exposure to particulate matter in urban and rural Chinese households: estimation of exposure concentrations in indoor and outdoor environments

Natural Hazards - According to the World Health Report, an estimated 540,000 people in China died prematurely due to indoor air pollution in 2009. The major source of indoor air pollution is the...     

Thermal conductivity of NaCl,MgO, coesite and stishovite up to 40 kbar

The thermal conductivity of NaCl, MgO, coesite and stishovite have been measured as a function of pressures up to 40 kbar (4 Gpa) at room temperature. Polycrystalline coesite and stishovite were synthesized under high pressures and temperatures at our laboratory. An improved version of the comparative method suitable for the thermal conductivity measurement of small samples under high pressures was designed. The zero-pressure values are 0.0189 and 0.0412 cal. cm^?1 s^?1 °C^?1 for coesite and stishovite, respectively. The thermal conductivities were found to increase linearly with pressure, and the increase rates relative to their zero-pressure values were 3.1, 0.68, 0.39 and 0.90% per kbar for NaCl, MgO, coesite and stishovite, respectively. On the thermal conductivity of coesite, the pressure dependence is small and the zero-pressure value is almost the same as that of polycrystalline quartz. On the other hand, the zero-pressure value of stishovite is 2.2 times as large as that of coesite.     

Displacement behavior of CH4 adsorbed on coals by injecting pure CO2, N2, and CO2–N2 mixture

Gas adsorption isotherms of Akabira coals were established for pure carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrogen (N₂). Experimental data fit well into the Langmuir model. The ratio of sorption capacity of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂ is 8.5:3.5:1 at a lower pressure (1.2 MPa) regime and becomes 5.5:2:1 when gas pressure increases to 6.0 MPa. The difference in sorption capacity of these three gases is explained by differences in the density of the three gases with increasing pressure. A coal–methane system partially saturated with CH₄ at 2.4 MPa adsorption pressure was experimentally studied. Desorption behavior of CH₄ by injecting pure CO₂ (at 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0 MPa), and by injecting the CO₂–N₂ mixture and pure N₂ (at 3.0 and 6.0 MPa) were evaluated. Results indicate that the preferential sorption property of coal for CO₂ is significantly higher than that for CH₄ or N₂. CO₂ injection can displace almost all of the CH₄ adsorbed on coal. When modeling the CH₄–CO₂ binary and CH₂–CO₂–N₂ ternary adsorption system by using the extended Langmuir (EL) equation, the EL model always over-predicted the sorbed CO₂ value with a lower error, while under-predicting the sorbed CH₄ with a higher error. A part of CO₂ may dissolve into the solid organic structure of coal, besides its competitive adsorption with other gases. According to this explanation, the EL coefficients of CO₂ in EL equation were revised. The revised EL model proved to be very accurate in predicting sorbed ratio of multi-component gases on coals.     

Physical basis of earthquake magnitudes: an extreme value of seismic amplitudes from incoherent fracture of random fault patches

A relation between surface-wave magnitude M_s and fault area S for great earthquakes has been proposed

log S 2M_{s − 11.5 (}M_{s > 7.5)}

A similar formula has been also derived for body-wave magnitude m_b^* redetermined from maximum amplitudes of short-period P-wavetrains

log S ∝ 1.7 m_b^*

These are quite different from a theoretical relation expected on the basis of long-wave approximation. Because wavelengths of seismic waves used for the above magnitudes are very short compared to the size of earthquake sources, these relations represent the short-period nature of the earthquake process. The statistical theory of extreme values has been applied to understand the relations considering that the component waves which constitute the wavetrains for m_b^* and M_s determinations originate from the random fracture of fault heterogeneities.     

Investigation on the Performance of Pipe Roof Method Adjacent to the Underground Construction

In this paper, the behaviour of the pipe roof method with different pipe roofs disposition schemes including the pipe roof gate system and L-shaped system is discussed in terms of ground settlement reduction in the condition of underground space construction adjacent to the existing structure by using numerical simulation method. Considering the construction sequences of parallel underground tunnels with rectangular cross sections, the appropriate parameters and ground response characteristics of the corresponding pipe roof methods are evaluated by the ground surface displacement. The results indicated that the construction impacts from new buildings can be reduced by the pipe roof method. However, the theoretical performance of pipe roofs is highly dependent on the spacing between two structures. Generally, the L-shaped system is more effective in case of the distance (D) that is less than or equal to 1/2 width of box culvert (R) under the condition of a new structure constructed nearby the existing building. When two structures are constructed simultaneously, the excavation and the construction of structures influence each other reciprocally. The conclusions could provide a reference for the pipe roof method with the application scenario of adjacent building protection.

     

Effects of spatial variation of soil properties on seismic performance of port structures

From past seismic events such as the 1995 Kobe (Hyogoken-Nanbu) and 2001 Nisqually earthquakes, it was found that liquefaction-induced lateral spread has caused significant damage to structures such as buildings and bridges, in addition to underground utility facilities like pipelines. In this respect, seaport facilities are particularly vulnerable to these liquefaction-related damages, because they are usually constructed on poorly consolidated natural deposit or fills. This study investigates the effect of the liquefaction and lateral spread on the seismic response of caisson type quay walls. For this purpose, 2D nonlinear dynamic analyses of soil–structure system are carried out with the aid of finite difference software, FLAC. The unique feature of this study lies in the fact that the 2D soil system is idealized as homogeneous non-Gaussian random field. A simulation algorithm is then used to generate a set of digital realizations of 2D random field sample. Each realization is used for the dynamic analysis to generate a unique response of the soil–structure system. Repeating this analysis for the entire set of realizations, the probabilistic nature of the response is characterized in the Monte Carlo sense. This result based on random field is compared with the response obtained under the uniform field assumption with the mean value of soil property. The comparison shows that in general the uniform model provides unconservative result compared with the response from the random field model due to nonlinear behavior of the soil–structure system. It is also found that the consideration of spatial variation of soil can capture the dispersion of observed response of quay walls.