Ground motion directionality inferred from a survey of minaret damage during the 1999 Kocaeli and Düzce, Turkey earthquakes

Directionality of ground motions has been discussed in near-source groundmotion study. This is interesting from the point of structural response.Dominance of the fault normal (FN) component has been reported inrelation to fault rupture direction based on the observation recordsobtained in the source area (e.g.. Somerville et al., 1996). The authorsperformed the damage survey of the two Turkey earthquakes in 1999, theKocaeli and the Düzce earthquake, and realized that minaret is a goodtarget to investigate the ground motion directionality, because a minaret isa simple cantilever structure without structural directionality. This paperdescribes the ground motion directionality based on the survey of minaretdamages during the two earthquakes in Turkey. From the damage survey,it is found that the fault normal direction was dominant with a certaindistance from the fault, say, less than 1km. While, at the region withshorter distances, the damage direction was not fault normal but about40^° from the fault strike. Discussion is addressed for the specificdamage direction inferred from the minaret damage near the fault.     

川滇菱形地块白垩纪古地磁学特征

在位于川滇菱形地块的西昌西南大德里向斜两翼的白恶系红和岩内采集古地磁学定向样品９６个,进行了古地学研究,研究结果表明,西昌晚白垩世末期的古地磁偏角为５．９°,古地磁倾角为４５．８°,地磁极位置为北纬８４．７°,东径１９３．３°,将该数据与作前期研究结果对比,则可见自楚雄至无谋,进而至西昌,其古地磁偏角逐渐靠近正北,而古地磁极纬度渐次升高,这反映了川滇菱形地块内的断块呈自西南至东北逐渐减弱的顺时针     

Numerical studies on the influence of the variations of the Kuroshio Path on the transport of fish eggs and larvae

Main spawning and nursery grounds of the Pacific Sardine are formed in the coastal boundary regions of the Kuroshio S of Kyushu and S of Honshu, respectively. Numerical experiments on the transport and dispersion of particles in and neighbouring areas of the Kuroshio were done to investigate the transport process of the fish eggs and larvae from the spawning ground to the downstream nursery ground. Surface currents measured with GEK in the past were averaged for both paths with and without large meanders of the Kuroshio in the S of Honshu and used as the data basis. Particles were released in the Kuroshio SE of Kyushu. The results show that the transport rate of them into the S coastal waters of Honshu during large meandered path is larger than the rate during the straight path period. However, recruitment rates of the Pacific Sardine in the S coastal waters of Honshu decreases during the large meander periods of the Kuroshio path. This inverse correlation is considered to be caused by the poorer food environment strongly influenced by the intrusion of the Kuroshio water.     

Recursive evaluation of interaction forces of unbounded soil in the time domain

The interaction forces representing the contribution of the linear unbounded soil to the equations of motion of a nonlinear soil-structure-interaction analysis are specified in the form of convolution integrals. They can be evaluated recursively in the time domain. In this procedure, the forces at a specific time are computed from the displacements at the same time and from the most recent forces and most recent past displacements. It is, in principle, only approximate. When the dynamic-stiffness coefficients can be expressed as the ratios of two polynomials in frequency, the appropriately chosen recursive equations are exact. Two possibilities of choosing a recursive equation are discussed.

• (i) The impulse-invariant method, where the unknown recursive coefficients are calculated by solving a system of equations which are established by equating the rigorous and recursive formulations for a discretized unit impulse displacement.
• (ii) In the segment approach, the dynamic-stiffness coefficients in the time domain are interpolated piecewise. Applying the z-transformation analytically then results in an explicit recursive equation without solving a system of equations.

The recursive evaluation of the convolution integrals in the time domain leads to a dramatic reduction in the computational effort up to two and three orders of magnitude and in the storage requirement. This makes the time-domain analysis using the substructure method computationally competitive with the corresponding direct (non-recursive) frequency-domain procedure of determining the complex response which is, however, applicable only to a linear (total) system.     

A numerical experiment on the general circulation of the middle atmosphere with a three-dimensional model explicitly representing internal gravity waves and their breaking

The general circulation of the middle atmosphere is simulated by means of a three-dimensional primitive equation model which covers from the south pole to the north pole but is limited to a ten-degree sector in the latitudinal direction; cyclic conditions are imposed at the east—west lateral boundaries. The model is capable of explicitly representing internal gravity waves of zonal wavelength greater than a few hundred kilometers with the use of a one-degree mesh, but planetary-scale waves were excluded. No parameterization is employed for subgrid-scale eddy viscosity (or diffusivity).With the assumption of a simple external-heating function corresponding to solstice conditions, a time integration was performed for about thirty days from the motionless state. During the whole period, random forcings were imposed on each grid of the lowest level in order to generate small-scale upwardly propagating internal gravity waves.The experiment has shown that small-scale waves were indeed excited, propagated upward, broke up near the mesopause, and greatly changed the thermally induced zonal mean motion and temperature fields in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere. As a result, important features of the general circulation at those levels, such as reversals of the zonal motion and the latitudinal gradient of zonal mean temperature were reproduced.     

Mongolian herders’ vulnerability to <Emphasis Type="Italic">dzud</Emphasis>: a study of record livestock mortality levels during the severe 2009/2010 winter

The livelihoods of people inhabiting inland Eurasia have long been jeopardized by repeated natural hazards associated with a harsh environment and a cold, arid climate. Dzud is a Mongolian word indicating harsh winter conditions. In the present study, we considered dzud damage (e.g., livestock loss) to result from a combination of climate hazard (e.g., cold surges) and herders’ socioeconomic vulnerability. For this study, we integrated crucial socioeconomic factors accounting for major spatiotemporal variations in Mongolia by applying principal component analysis (PCA) to a comprehensive province-level, multiyear dataset. We subsequently characterized the regionality of herders’ vulnerability to the dzud event that occurred during the 2009/2010 winter by conducting a cluster analysis of the provincial principal component (PC) scores for the pre-dzud year (2009). Our results revealed a distinct geographical pattern of vulnerability. Herding households in the northern and northeastern (relatively wet and plain) areas were found to be well prepared for harsh winters, with shelters against wind and availability of forage, including hay, as well as easy access to major urban markets. By contrast, herding households in the southern and southwestern (arid and mountainous) areas were poorly prepared, with inadequate circumstances that facilitate pursuing of otor (movement of nomadic herders in search of better pastures) and lack of access to markets and dzud relief support because of their remote locations. The time coefficients of PC 2, related to winter preparedness, indicated that vulnerability increased between 2003 and 2009 (the pre-dzud year). This was partly responsible for the record-level mortality observed in 2010 across the southern and southwestern rural region, in conjunction with harsh winter weathers.     

On the importance of accurately ray-traced troposphere corrections for Interferometric SAR data

Numerical weather models offer the possibility to compute corrections for a variety of space geodetic applications, including remote sensing techniques like interferometric SAR. Due to the computational complexity, exact ray-tracing is avoided in many cases and mapping approaches are applied to transform vertically integrated delay corrections into slant direction. Such an approach works well as long as lateral atmospheric gradients are small enough to be neglected. But since such an approximation holds only for very rare cases it is investigated how horizontal gradients of different atmospheric constituents can evoke errors caused by the mapping strategy. Moreover, it is discussed how sudden changes of wet refractivity can easily lead to millimeter order biases when simplified methods are applied instead of ray-tracing. By an example, based on real InSAR data, the differences of the various troposphere correction schemes are evaluated and it is shown how the interpretation of the geophysical signals can be affected. In addition, it is studied to which extend troposphere noise can be reduced by applying the exact ray-tracing solution.     

Constraints on the source mechanism of harmonic tremors based on seismological, ground deformation, and visual observations at Sakurajima volcano, Japan

Vulcanian-type eruptive activity has occurred from the summit crater of Sakurajima volcano, Japan, since 1955. Over this period, harmonic tremors have commonly occurred either several hours after swarms of B-type earthquakes (herein termed HTB: Harmonic Tremor following B-type earthquake swarm) or immediately after explosive eruptions (herein termed HTE: Harmonic Tremor after an Eruption). In this study, we analyzed the spectra and particle motions of HTBs and HTEs. Both HTBs and HTEs have spectra with peaks at fundamental frequencies and higher frequencies that are integer multiples of the fundamental frequencies. The peak frequencies of HTBs remained within a certain range, whereas those of HTEs showed a gradual increase. The spectra of an HTB that occurred on 20 July 1990 had stable fundamental frequencies of 1.46–1.66 Hz and at least 9 peaks of higher modes; in contrast, the HTE that occurred 3 minutes after an explosive eruption at 11 h 15 m (JST) on 11 October 2002 showed clear frequency gliding from 0.8 to 3.7 Hz in the fundamental mode. The peak frequencies of higher modes of the HTE also showed an increase corresponding to the shift of the fundamental mode towards a higher frequency. Particle motion analysis mainly identified Rayleigh waves from the prograde elliptical motion at the deepest borehole station (HAR) and retrograde motions at the other shallower stations. Love waves were dominant at the stations north and south of the crater. The distribution patterns of Rayleigh and Love waves of HTBs are similar to those of HTEs. The nature of the dominant surface waves of both HTBs and HTEs suggest that the sources of harmonic tremors are located at a shallow depth, corresponding to a gas pocket in the uppermost part of the volcanic conduit. Differences in the temporal characteristics of the HTB and HTE spectra reflect the internal condition of the gas pocket: HTBs are associated with inflation of the conduit, whereas HTEs occur following an eruption, associated with deflationary ground deformation. HTBs are caused by resonance of the gas pocket embedded beneath the lava dome. Although HTEs occur within the open conduit, the small size of vents enables resonance within the bubbly magma conduit. The positive gliding of dominant peaks toward higher frequencies is interpreted to result from shortening of the bubbly magma conduit due to a rise in the bubble nucleation level; this rise results from the re-pressurization that accompanies the ascent of magma from deep within the reservoir.     

A nonlinear parametric model based on a power law relationship for predicting the coastal tsunami height

When a subduction-zone earthquake occurs, the tsunami height must be predicted to cope with the damage generated by the tsunami. Therefore, tsunami height prediction methods have been studied using simulation data acquired by large-scale calculations. In this research, we consider the existence of a nonlinear power law relationship between the water pressure gauge data observed by the Dense Oceanfloor Network System for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (DONET) and the coastal tsunami height. Using this relationship, we propose a nonlinear parametric model and conduct a prediction experiment to compare the accuracy of the proposed method with those of previous methods and implement particular improvements to the extrapolation accuracy.

     

Evidence of Superposed Metamorphism from the Gokavaram Area, Eastern Ghats Belt, and its Relation with the Kemp Land Coast, East Antarctica

In this paper, we compare the petrological histories of the Kemp Land Coast (east Antarctica), and Gokavaram area (Eastern Ghats), that were supposed to have been juxtaposed. The area around Gokavaram is dominated by different varieties of paragneisses (pelitic, quartzofeldspathic, and calcareous composition) with relatively minor amounts of orthogneisses (mafic, enderbitic, and granitic composition). The rocks were involved in three major phases of deformation, and were finally affected by localised shear movement. On the basis of reaction textures, well preserved in high Mg-Al granulites, and calc-silicate granulites, and geothermobarometric data we deduce a polymetamorphic evolution of the rocks. Following an early M₁ metamorphism culminating at 9.2–9.4 kbar, > 950°C, the rocks cooled nearly isobarically down to 850°C. During a subsequent M₂ metamorphism, near isothermal decompression to 5–6 kbar occurred. This was followed by near isobaric cooling down to 600–650°C. M₃ is a weak amphibolite facies overprint, largely restricted to late shears, which involved hydration as well. Available radiometric data from this area can be interpreted in terms of partial resetting of U-Pb systematics in older sphenes due to M₃ metamorphism at ca. 550 Ma. Despite the absence of sufficient isotopic data on the Eastern Ghats granulites, we document a remarkable similarity in the petrological history of the two supposedly erstwhile neighbours.