A Simple Monte Carlo Method for Locating the Three-dimensional Critical Slip Surface of a Slope

Based on the assumption of the plain-strain problem, various optimization or random search methods have been developed for locating the critical slip surfaces in slope-stability analysis, but none of such methods is applicable to the 3D case. In this paper, a simple Monte Carlo random simulation method is proposed to identify the 3D critical slip surface. Assuming the initial slip to be the lower part of a slip ellipsoid, the 3D critical slip surface is located by means of a minimized 3D safety factor. A column-based 3D slope stability analysis model is used to calculate this factor. In this study, some practical cases of known minimum safety factors and critical slip surfaces in 2D analysis are extended to 3D slope problems to locate the critical slip surfaces. Compared with the 2D result, the resulting 3D critical slip surface has no apparent difference in terms of only cross section, but the associated 3D safety factor is definitely higher.     

Uplift and subsidence from oblique slip: the Ganos–Marmara bend of the North Anatolian Transform, western Turkey

Bends that locally violate plate-motion-parallel geometry are common structural elements of continental transform faults. We relate the vertical component of crustal motion in the western Marmara Sea region to the NNW-pointing 18° bend on the northern branch of the North Anatolian Fault (NAF-N) between the Ganos segment, which ruptured in 1912, and the central Marmara segment, a seismic gap. Crustal shortening and uplift on the transpressive west side of the bend results in the Ganos Mountain; crustal extension and subsidence on the transtensional east side produce the Tekirdağ Basin. We propose that this vertical component of deformation is controlled by oblique slip on the non-vertical north-dipping Ganos and Tekirdağ segments of the North Anatolian Fault. We compare Holocene with Quaternary structure across the bend using new and recently published data and conclude the following. First, bend-related vertical motion is occurring primarily north of the NAF-N. This suggests that this bend is fixed to the Anatolian side of the fault. Second, current deformation is consistent with an antisymmetric pattern centered at the bend, up on the west and down on the east. Accumulated deformation is shifted to the east along the right-lateral NAF-N, however, leading to locally opposite vertical components of long- and short-term motion. Uplift has started as far west as the landward extension of the Saros trough. Current subsidence is most intense close to the bend and to the Ganos Mountain, while the basin deepens gradually from the bend eastward for 28 km along the fault. The pattern of deformation is time-transgressive if referenced to the material, but is stable if referenced to the bend. The lag between motion and structure implies a 1.1–1.4 Ma age for the basin at current dextral slip rate (2.0–2.5 cm/year). Third, the Tekirdağ is an asymmetric basin progressively tilted down toward the NAF-N, which serves as the border fault. Progressive tilt suggests that the steep northward dip of the fault decreases with depth in a listric geometry at the scale of the upper crust and is consistent with reactivation of Paleogene suture-related thrust faults. Fourth, similar thrust-fault geometry west of the bend can account for the Ganos Mountain anticline/monocline as hanging-wall-block folding and back tilting. Oblique slip on a non-vertical master fault may accommodate transtension and transpression associated with other bends along the NAF and other continental transforms.     

Acidities of confined water in interlayer space of clay minerals

The acid chemistry of confined waters in smectite interlayers have been investigated with first principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) simulations. Aiming at a systematic picture, we establish the model systems to take account of the three possible controlling factors: layer charge densities (0 e, 0.5 e and 1.0 e per cell), layer charge locations (tetrahedral and octahedral) and interlayer counterions (Na⁺ and Mg²⁺). For all models, the interlayer structures are characterized in detail. Na⁺ and Mg²⁺ show significantly different hydration characteristics: Mg²⁺ forms a rigid octahedral hydration shell and resides around the midplane, whereas Na⁺ binds to a basal oxygen atom and forms a very flexible hydration shell, which consists of five waters on average and shows very fast water exchanges. The method of constraint is employed to enforce the water dissociation reactions and the thermodynamic integration approach is used to derive the free-energy values and the acidity constants. Based on the simulations, the following points have been gained. (1) The layer charge is found to be the direct origin of water acidity enhancement in smectites because the neutral pore almost does not have influences on water dissociations but all charged pores do. (2) With a moderate charge density of 0.5 e per cell, the interlayer water shows a pKa value around 11.5. While increasing layer charge density to 1.0 e, no obvious difference is found for the free water molecules. Since 1.0 e is at the upper limit of smectites’ layer charge, it is proposed that the calculated acidity of free water in octahedrally substituted Mg²⁺-smectite, 11.3, can be taken as the lower limit of acidities of free waters. (3) In octahedrally and tetrahedrally substituted models, the bound waters of Mg²⁺ show very low pKa values: 10.1 vs 10.4. This evidences that smectites can also promote the dissociations of the coordinated waters of metal cations. The comparison between the two Mg²⁺-smectites reveals that different layer charge locations do not lead to obvious differences for bound and free water acidities.     

Structure Refinement of Cs-rich Na-Li Beryl and Analysis of Its Typomorphic Characteristics of Configurations

1 Introduction Natural beryl is an accessory mineral mainly in pegmatite, partly in some highly diffractionated granite or metamorphic rocks, with the crystal shapes beingprismatic, or occasionally tabular. For tabular beryl found in pegmatite it is believed that the tabular configuration is connected with alkali metals (Bieus, 1960; Wang et al., 1981) and geneses of the tabular configuration have been reported before. In recent years, tabular beryl has been found in the Xuebaoding W-Sn-Be d…     

爆炸影响降水的观测分析

本文对“炮响雨落”的现象进行了实验验证。初步结果表明:在一定云雨条件下,炮击后可能促使未降水积状云产生降水,也可能促使已降水云的降水参量增大,这些变化发生迅速,但维持时间不长。并指出炮击促进云体降水的作用可能是通过改变支托水滴的气流造成的。在适当条件下,通过炮击影响气流的瞬时作用,可能触发云内不稳定能量释放,造成持续下沉,破坏云的发展,从而防止冰雹灾害。     

岫岩-海城5.4级地震前小震震源机制解与记录特征分析

采用Pn、Pg初始波初动符号，利用乌尔夫网上半球投影，用作图方法求解了岫岩－海城震区（1999年1月－1999年11月29日）主震前辽宁数字地震台网记录（ML≥2.5)的41个小震的震源机制参数。结合前震记录的某些特征，对主震前应力方向的时空变化，震源错动性质进行分析和讨论。     

帕米尔东北缘及塔里木盆地西北部弧形构造的扩展特征

归纳了帕米尔东北缘弧形构造的基本特征 ,分析了塔里木盆地西北部EW向逆断裂背斜带与NNW向隐伏走滑断裂之间的关系。通过塔里木盆地与西南天山和帕米尔东北缘变形特征的对比 ,认为塔里木盆地西北部的变形样式与帕米尔东北缘的弧形构造类似 ,弧形构造具有由帕米尔东北缘向塔里木盆地扩展的特征 ,这种构造是帕米尔向北挤入运动所特有的变形样式     

4-Dimensional Models of Deformation of the Earth's Crust and Earthquake Prediction

Traditionally, when creating 4-D models of elastic offsets in the Earth's crust, the data from geodesic and GPS monitoring of offsets on the ground surface, earthquake catalogs, monitoring of the water level and radon content in wells, sea level fluctuations, as well as gravitational and magnetic fields, etc., can be taken as bases for information. In essence, the reason for creating a 4-D model of slow elastic deformations is to approximate the process by a set of plane deformation solitons (solitary waves). The parameters of a set of deformation solitons are obtained by a two-stage inversion. First, the parameters of the model are determined in a kinematic way by the use of a modified simplification of the method. Then, a calibration of the amplitude characteristics of the model is carried out in terms of elastic dynamic offsets. Taking Ural, Northern Tianshan, Greece, and China as examples, models for these regions are created on the basis of seismological, geodesic, deformation, hydrogeological, and