Multi‐scale Decomposition of Co‐seismic Deformation from High Resolution DEMs: a Case Study of the 2004 Mid‐Niigata Earthquake

Decomposing co-seismic deformation is an immediate need for researchers who are interested in earthquake inversion analysis and geo-hazard mapping. However, conventional InSAR or digital elevation models (DEMs) imagery analyses only provide the displacement in the Line-of-Sight (LOS) direction or elevation changes. The 2004 Mid-Niigata earthquake in Japan provides lessons on how to decompose co-seismic deformation from two sets of DEMs. If three adjacent points undergo a rigid-body-translation movement, their co-seismic deformation can be decomposed by solving simultaneous equations. Although this method has been successfully used to discuss tectonic deformations, the algorithm needed improvement and a more rigorous algorithm, including a new definition of nominal plane, DEMs comparability improvement and matrix condition check is provided. Even with these procedures, the obtained decomposed displacement often showed remarkable scatter prompting the use of the moving average method, which was used to determine both tectonic and localized displacement characteristics. A cut-off window and a pair of band-pass windows were selected according to the regional geology and construction activities to ease the tectonic and localized displacement calculations, respectively. The displacement field of the tectonic scale shows two major clusters of large lateral components, and coincidently major visible landslides were found mostly within them. The localized displacement helps to reveal hidden landslides in the target area. As far as the Kizawa hamlet is concerned, the obtained vectors show down-slope movements, which are consistent with the observed traces of dislocations that were found in the Kizawa tunnel and irrigation wells. The method proposed has great potential to be applied to understanding post-earthquake rehabilitation in other areas.     

Application of piezoelectric transducers in simulated rainfall erosivity assessment

Abstract

Rainfall simulators have often been used to mimic natural rainfall for studies of various land-surface and water interaction processes. The characteristics of the simulated rainfall are the main indicators used to judge the performance of the rainfall simulators. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of piezoelectric transducers for measuring and evaluating a dripper-type simulated rainfall drop-size distribution (DSD) and kinetic energy (KE). The directly measured KE was significantly correlated with the estimated KE using the drop-size distribution and empirical rain drop fall velocity relationships. This result emphasizes the potential use of the piezoelectric sensor to directly measure and evaluate rainfall kinetic energy. Also, the relationship between rainfall intensity and KE showed good patterns of agreement between simulated rainfall and natural rainfall.

Citation Abd Elbasit, M. A. M., Yasuda, H. & Salmi, A. (2011) Application of piezoelectric transducers in simulated rainfall erosivity assessment. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(1), 187–194.     

P - V - T equation of state of stishovite to the mantle transition zone conditions

In-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments were conducted using the SPEED-1500 multi-anvil press of SPring-8 on stishovite SiO₂ and pressure-volume-temperature data were collected at up to 22.5 GPa and 1,073 K, which corresponds to the pressure conditions of the base of the mantle transition zone. The analysis of room-temperature data yielded V₀=46.56(1) ų, K_{T 0}=296(5) GPa and K _T =4.2(4), and these properties were consistent with the subsequent thermal equation of state (EOS) analyses. A fit of the present data to high-temperature Birch-Murnaghan EOS yielded (K_T /T) _P =–0.046(5) GPa K^–1 and = a + bT with values of a =1.26(11)×10^–5 K^–1 and b =1.29(17)×10^–8 K^–2. A fit to the thermal pressure EOS gives ₀=1.62(9)×10^–5 K^–1, ( K _T / T) _V =–0.027(4) GPa K^–1 and (²P /T ²) _V =27(5)×10^–7 GPa K^–2. The lattice dynamical approach by Mie-Grüneisen-Debye EOS yielded ₀=1.33(6), q =6.1(8) and ₀=1160(120) K. The strong volume dependence of the thermal pressure of stishovite was revealed by the analysis of present data, which was not detectable by the previous high-temperature data at lower pressures, and this yields ( K _T / T) _V 0 and q 1. The analyses for the fictive volume for a and c axes show that relative stiffness of c axis to a axis is similar both on compression and thermal expansion. Present EOS enables the accurate estimate of density of SiO₂ in the deep mantle conditions.     

Regional sea-surface temperatures explain spatial and temporal variation of summer precipitation in the source region of the Yellow River

ABSTRACT

The summer precipitation (June–September) in the source region of the Yellow River accounts for about 70% of the annual total, playing an important role in water availability. This study divided the source region of the Yellow River into homogeneous zones based on precipitation variability using cluster analysis. Summer precipitation trends and teleconnections with global sea-surface temperatures (SST) and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) from 1961 to 2010 were investigated by Mann-Kendall test and Pearson product-moment correlation analysis. The results show that the northwest part (Zone 1) had a non-significantly increasing trend, and the middle and southeast parts (zones 2 and 3) that receive the most precipitation displayed a statistically significant decreasing trend for summer precipitation. The summer precipitation in the whole region showed statistically significant negative correlations with the central Pacific SST for 0–4 month lag and with the Southern Indian and Atlantic oceans SST for 5–8 month lag. Analyses of sub-regions reveal intricate and complex correlations with different SST areas that further explain the summer precipitation variability. The SOI had significant positive correlations, mainly for 0–2 months lag, with summer precipitation in the source region of the Yellow River. It is seen that El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events have an influence on summer precipitation, and the predominant negative correlations indicate that higher SST in equatorial Pacific areas corresponding to El Niño coincides with less summer precipitation in the source region of the Yellow River.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor D. Gerten     

Wave dissipation by vegetation with layer schematization in SWAN

The energy of waves propagating through vegetation is dissipated due to the work done by the waves on the vegetation. Dalrymple et al. (1984) estimated wave dissipation by integrating the force on a cylinder over its vertical extent. This was extended by Mendez and Losada (2004) to include varying depths and the effects of wave damping due to vegetation and wave breaking for narrow-banded random waves. This paper describes the wave dissipation over a vegetation field by the implementation of the Mendez and Losada formulation in a full spectrum model SWAN, with an extension to include a vertical layer schematization for the vegetation. The present model is validated with the original equation and results from Mendez and Losada (2004). The sensitivity of the model to the shape of the frequency spectrum, directional spreading and layer schematization are investigated. The model is then applied to field measurements by using a vegetation factor. This model has the ability to calculate two-dimensional wave dissipation over a vegetation field including some important aspects such as breaking and diffraction as used in SWAN model.     

Compound chondrule formation in the shock-wave heating model: Three-dimensional hydrodynamics simulation of the disruption of a partially-molten dust particle

We carried out three-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations of the disruption of a partially-molten dust particle exposed to high-speed gas flow to examine the compound chondrule formation due to mutual collisions between the fragments (fragment-collision model; [Miura, H., Yasuda, S., Nakamoto, T., 2008a. Icarus194, 811-821]).In the shock-wave heating model, which is one of the most plausible models for chondrule formation, the gas friction heats and melts the surface of the cm-sized dust particle (parent particle) and then the strong gas ram pressure causes the disruption of the molten surface layer. The hydrodynamics simulation shows details of the disruptive motion of the molten surface, production of many fragments and their trajectories parting from the parent particle, and mutual collisions among them. In our simulation, we identified 32 isolated fragments extracted from the parent particle. The size distribution of the fragments was similar to that obtained from the aerodynamic experiment in which a liquid layer was attached to a solid core and it was exposed to a gas flow. We detected 12 collisions between the fragments, which may result in the compound chondrule formation. We also analyzed the paths of all the fragments in detail and found the importance of the shadow effect in which a fragment extracted later blocks the gas flow toward a fragment extracted earlier. We examined the collision velocity and impact parameter of each collision and found that 11 collisions should result in coalescence. It means that the ratio of coalescent bodies to single bodies formed in this disruption of a parent particle is R_coa=11/(32-11)=0.52. We concluded that compound chondrule formation can occur just after the disruption of a cm-sized molten dust particle in shock-wave heating.     

A modified method for estimating vertical profiles of turbulent dissipation rate using density inversions in the Kuril Straits

To address the lack of directly measured turbulence data in the Kuril Straits, an existing method was modified to indirectly estimate continuous vertical profiles of turbulent energy dissipation rate ε by using density inversions. A linear relationship was confirmed between directly measured ε and indirectly estimated ε from the existing method, where most of the detected density inversions were discarded as noise. The existing method thus yielded large gaps in the vertical profiles, and the gaps were much greater than the observed mean autocorrelation vertical length scale of about 10 m. To reduce these gaps and produce reasonable estimates for vertical ε profiles, the quality tests were carefully re-examined with directly measured ε data, and one of the quality tests (the water mass test) was excluded because the test rejects real density inversions even with large ε. With this modification, and interpolation and smoothing of the indirectly estimated ε with the mean correlation length scale, continuous vertical ε profiles were obtained. These profiles have an error factor of 3.3 corresponding to one standard deviation of the ratio between directly observed and estimated data, and 95 % of the data were within a factor of 10.5, with the overall correlation coefficient between smoothed directly measured ε and estimated ε equal to 0.80. This method could be useful for areas where 10^?9 < ε < 10^?6.5 W/kg, and where vertical distances between adjacent density inversions are mostly less than the mean autocorrelation scale.     

Fragment-collision model for compound chondrule formation: Estimation of collision probability

We propose a new scenario for compound chondrule formation named as “fragment-collision model,” in the framework of the shock-wave heating model. A molten cm-sized dust particle (parent) is disrupted in the high-velocity gas flow. The extracted fragments (ejectors) are scattered behind the parent and the mutual collisions between them will occur. We modeled the disruption event by analytic considerations in order to estimate the probability of the mutual collisions assuming that all ejectors have the same radius. In the typical case, the molten thin () layer of the parent surface will be stripped by the gas flow. The stripped layer is divided into about 200 molten ejectors (assuming that the radius of ejectors is 300 μm) and then they are blown away by the gas flow in a short period of time (). The stripped layer is leaving from the parent with the velocity of depending on the viscosity, and we assumed that the extracted ejectors have a random velocity Δv of the same order of magnitude. Using above values, we can estimate the number density of ejectors behind the parent as . These ejectors occupy ∼9% of the space behind the parent in volume. Considering that the collision rate (number of collisions per unit time experienced by an ejector) is given by Rcoll=σcollneΔv, where σcoll is the cross-section of collision [e.g., Gooding, J.K., Keil, K., 1981. Meteoritics 16, 17-43], we obtain by substituting above values. Since most collisions occur within the short duration () before the ejectors are blown away, we obtain the collision probability of Pcoll∼0.36, which is the probability of collisions experienced by an ejector in one disruption event. The estimated collision probability is about one order of magnitude larger than the observed fraction of compound chondrules. In addition, the model predictions are qualitatively consistent with other observational data (oxygen isotopic composition, textural types, and size ratios of constituents). Based on these results, we concluded that this new model can be one of the strongest candidates for the compound chondrule formation. It should be noted that all collisions do not necessarily lead to the compound chondrule formation. The formation efficiency and the future works which should be investigated in the forthcoming paper are also discussed.     

Grain growth in the forsterite-diopside system

Grain growth experiments in dunite, clinopyroxenite, and wehrlites with various forsterite/diopside ratios were performed to investigate the effect of modal composition on grain growth kinetics in the Earth's uppermost mantle. The experiments were conducted using a piston-cylinder apparatus at 1200 °C and 1.2 GPa for 2-763 h under dry conditions. Normal grain growth (NGG) occurred in dunite, clinopyroxenite, and relatively forsterite-poor wehrlites (≤70 vol.% of forsterite). Grain growth rates of forsterite and diopside in relatively forsterite-poor wehrlites were much slower than those in dunite and clinopyroxenite. In the forsterite-rich wehrlites (≥80 vol.% of forsterite), NGG of diopside and abnormal grain growth (AGG) of forsterite occurred. The growth rate of diopside was significantly slower than that in clinopyroxenite, while the growth rate of forsterite by AGG was found to be similar to that by NGG in dunite. The presence of ≤20 vol.% diopside had the effect of inhibiting the forsterite grain growth during the initial stage, resulting in AGG of forsterite, thus overtaking the growth rate in dunite. Our experimental results suggest that there would be a significant difference in grain growth rate and consequently in effective viscosity between olivine-rich peridotites (depleted mantle) and relatively olivine-poor peridotites (fertile mantle) in the case of grain size-sensitive creep. Variation of mean grain sizes in the upper mantle would result not only from differences in temperature and phase assemblage, but also from the variation of modal compositions.     

Probing the evolution of early-type galaxies using multicolour number counts and redshift distributions

We investigate pure luminosity evolution models for early-type (elliptical and S0) galaxies (i.e. no number density change or morphological transition), and examine whether these models are consistent with observed number counts in the B , I and K bands, and redshift distributions of two samples of faint galaxies selected in the I and K bands. The models are characterized by the star formation time-scale τ _SF and the time t _gw when the galactic wind starts to blow, in addition to several other conventional parameters. We find that the single-burst model ( τ _SF=0.1 Gyr and t _gw=0.353 Gyr), which is known to reproduce the photometric properties of early-type galaxies in clusters, is inconsistent with the redshift distributions of early-type galaxies in the field environment, owing to overpredictions of the number of galaxies at z ≳1.4 even with strong extinction which is at work until t _gw. In order for dust extinction to be more effective, we treat τ _SF and t _gw as free parameters, and find that models with τ _SF≳0.5 Gyr and t _gw>1.0 Gyr can be made consistent with both the observed redshift distributions and the number counts, if we introduce strong extinction [ E ( B − V )≥1 as a peak value]. These results suggest that early-type galaxies in the field environment do not have the same evolutionary history as described by the single-burst model.