A new proposal for simplified design of buried steel pipes crossing active faults

Simplified design methods for obtaining the maximum strain in pipelines crossing active faults proposed by Newmark, Kennedy and Wang have not considered the section deformation of the pipe. In this study, a new simplified method is developed for obtaining the maximum strain in steel pipes crossing faults considering non‐linearity of material and geometry of pipe section. It is assumed that the pipe will bend near the fault and the geometry of pipe in the longitudinal direction will change according to a bent deformation. On the other hand, the relation between maximum strain and bent angle has been obtained using a beam–shell hybrid FEM for different pipe‐fault conditions. The developed method can be used for calculating the maximum strains for fault‐crossing steel pipes with different angles of crossing both in tension and compression, by considering the deformation of the pipe cross‐section. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.     

GOLD IN TWENTY-SIX JAPANESE GEOCHEMICAL REFERENCE SAMPLES

Gold has been determined in 26 geochemical reference samples with graphite furnace AAS after digesting the samples with aqua regia and hydrofluoric acid and extracting gold by methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK). This method yields clearly higher values than those by the partial attack using aqua regia digestion.     

An equivalent-boundary method for the shell analysis of buried pipelines under fault movement

A new shell finite element method (FEM) model with an equivalent boundary is presented for estimating the response of a buried pipeline under large fault movement. The length of affected pipeline under fault movement is usually too long for a shell-mode calculation because of the limitation of memory and time of computers. In this study, only the pipeline segment near fault is modeled with plastic shell elements to study the local buckling and the large section deformation in pipe. The material property of pipe segment far away from the fault is considered as elastic, and nonlinear spring elements at equivalent boundaries are obtained and applied to two ends of shell model. Compared with the fixed-boundary shell model, the shell model with an equivalent boundary proposed by the study can remarkably reduce the needed memory and calculating time. Foundation item: National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (50078049). Contribution No. 04FE1017, Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration.     

1994 COMPILATION OF ANALYTICAL DATA FOR MINOR AND TRACE ELEMENTS IN SEVENTEEN GSJ GEOCHEMICAL REFERENCE SAMPLES, "IGNEOUS ROCK SERIES"

Analytical data for minor and trace elements published or communicated to us, on seventeen GSJ (Geological Survey of Japan) reference samples, "Igneous rock series" received up to April 1994 are compiled. The data were evaluated statistically in consideration of analytical methods. Based on the selected available data, 1994 recommended and proposed values for 65 minor and trace elements are presented.     

Groundwater monitoring for earthquake prediction by an amateur network in Japan

Since 1976 groundwater-levels and the temperature of thermal water have been monitored in 100 wells distributed mostly in the southern Kanto and Tokai districts of Japan in order to predict earthquakes. Good examples of groundwater precursors were recognized prior to the following destructive earthquakes: the 1978 West Off Izu-Oshima Earthquake (M 7.0), the 1978 Off Miyagi Earthquakes (M 7.4), and the 1980 East Off Izu Peninsula Earthquake (M 6.7). In the 1978 West Off Izu-Oshima Earthquake, groundwater levels and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) volume strainmeters, installed in the Izu peninsula, showed precursory changes at about the same time. In the other cases, however, precursory behavior was observed only in water level and temperature monitoring. Empirical relations are given between earthquake magnitude and the epicentral distance of the farthest groundwater anomaly, and between earthquake magnitude and the precursor time of groundwater.     

Formation of bipolar flow by the stellar wind embeded in molecular disk

The interaction of the isotropic stellar wind with the rotating isothermal cloud surrounding the young star is investigated. The density distribution of the cloud is taken as that for the equilibrium state of the rotating isothermal cloud modified by adding the rarefied interstellar gas in the polar region. The development of the shock envelope and the structure of the shell induced by the stellar wind are obtained. It is shown that the envelope of the shock front elongates and opens to the polar direction with half opening angle of about 20 degrees resulting the bipolar flow which is able to reproduce well the observed properties for the outflow in the bipolar sources.     

Correlating biostratigraphy and palaeoceanographic changes during late Quaternary at cold seeps with gas hydrate‐free areas of the Japan Sea using foraminifera paleoecology

Late Quaternary foraminifera assemblages have been examined in two sediment cores (MD179‐3296 and MD179‐3317) from cold seep areas in the eastern margin of the Japan Sea, off Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture. Foraminifera assemblages in core MD179‐3296, which was located at the center of a pockmark on the Umitake Spur, show no evidence of methane flux and, especially in its upper portion, share the same paleo‐environmental history as other free gas hydrate areas of the Japan Sea. In comparison, in the core MD179‐3317 at the center of a pockmark at Joetsu Knoll, foraminiferal distributions were strongly affected by methane activities and, in the main part of the core, were deposited under local conditions. Three horizons were identified in this core, which are characterized by the high abundance value of Thalmannammina parkerae and might be related to methane flux due to sea level fall especially through late marine isotope stage (MIS) 3 and MIS 2.     

Challenges of hydrological analysis for water resource development in semi-arid mountainous regions: case study in Iran

Abstract

This study modified the BTOPMC (Block-wise TOPMODEL with the Muskingum-Cunge routing method) distributed hydrological model to make it applicable to semi-arid regions by introducing an adjustment coefficient for infiltration capacity of the soil surface, and then applied it to two catchments above the dams in the Karun River basin, located in semi-arid mountain ranges in Iran. The application results indicated that the introduced modification improved the model performance for simulating flood peaks generated by infiltration excess overland runoff at a daily time scale. The modified BTOPMC was found to fulfil the need to reproduce important signatures of basin hydrology for water resource development, such as annual runoff, seasonal runoff, low flows and flood flows. However, it was also very clear that effective model use was significantly constrained by the scarcity of ground-gauged precipitation data. Considerable efforts to improve the precipitation data acquisition should precede water resource development planning.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis     

Effects of large-scale wind on the Kuroshio path south of Japan in a 60-year historical OGCM simulation

The effects of large-scale wind forcing on the bimodality of the Kuroshio path south of Japan, the large meander (LM) and non-large meander (NLM), were studied by using a historical simulation (1948–2007) with a high-resolution Ocean general circulation models (OGCM). The Kuroshio in this simulation spent much time in the NLM state, and reproduced several aspects of its long-term path variability for the first time in historical OGCM simulation, presumably because the eddy kinetic energy was kept at a moderate level. By using the simulated fields, the relationships between wind forcing (or Kuroshio transport) and path variation proposed by past studies were tested, and specific roles of eddies in those variations were investigated. The long-term variation of the simulated net Kuroshio transport south of Japan was largely explained by the linear baroclinic Rossby wave adjustment to wind forcing. In the simulated LM events, a triggering meander originated from the interaction of a wind-induced positive sea surface height (SSH) anomaly with the upstream Kuroshio and was enlarged by cyclonic eddies from the recirculation gyre. The cyclonic eddy of the trigger meander was followed by a sizable anticyclonic eddy on the upstream side. Subsequently, a weak (strong) Kuroshio favored the LM (NLM). The LM tended to be maintained when the Kuroshio transport off southern Japan was small, and increasing Kuroshio transport promoted decay of an existing LM. The supply of disturbances from upstream, which is related to the wind-induced SSH variability at low latitudes, contributed to the maintenance of an existing LM.