Small-business demise and recovery after Katrina: rate of survival and demise

Post-disaster research is often plagued by displacement of subjects, loss of infrastructure, and the disruption of communication. Economic losses and business disruptions caused by a disaster tend to affect small businesses on a greater scale. With the majority of small businesses being operated out of a home, the inability to recover affects both economic and overall well-being of the business and the family. Specifically for small businesses, post-disaster research is important because it leads to increased preparedness and survival strategies for the sector and reduced economic vulnerabilities in owner-controlled areas. Historically, most of what is known about preparation, response, and recovery of small businesses from natural disasters is based on businesses that have recovered. However, there exists a need for understanding recovery also from the perspective of those that tried, but failed to recover. Grounded in a pragmatic approach, this study presents a methodology for tracking demised small businesses after Hurricane Katrina. Supported by empirical evidence, solutions to the problems of timing, generalizability, and access are presented, providing a systematic methodology for successfully studying small businesses after a disaster event. Rate of survival and demise data are presented, providing more useful numbers than prior estimates. Locating demised and recovered small businesses efficiently is the first step in understanding how business owners prepare, react, adjust, and strive to recover from disaster-driven events. A solution to this challenging issue of access makes the study of demised small businesses possible.     

Evaluation of Lateral Interpretation Criteria for Drilled Shaft Capacity in Gravels

Representative interpretation criteria are examined in detail to evaluate the lateral response of drilled shaft foundations in gravels. A database of field lateral load tests is used for the analysis. The representative criteria are subdivided into absolute displacement, displacement as a function of shaft diameter, rotation limit, mathematical model, and graphical construction method. Comparison of these criteria shows that the initial elastic region ends at approximately 3–5 mm, 0.50 %B, and 0.08° rotation, which represent the serviceability limit state. The final region begins at about 25 mm, 2.5 %B, and 0.33° rotation, which represent the ultimate limit state. The graphical construction methods, Q_L and Q_S&W, are located within the transition region of the curve. Among these criteria, the displacement limits, Q_L, and Q_S&W methods demonstrate more reliable results. The typical load–displacement curves for lateral capacity in gravels are developed for engineering practical use. Further, recommendations for the use of these interpretation criteria are also given.     

Thrust tectonics and paleogene syntectonic sedimentation in the Empordà area,southeastern Pyrenees

Abstract

The structure of the southern Pyrenees, east of the Albanyà fault (Empordà area), consists of several Alpine thrust sheets. From bottom upwards three main structural units can be distinguished : the Roc de Frausa, the Biure-Bac Grillera and the Figueres units. The former involves basement and Paleogene cover rocks. This unit is deformed by E-W trending kilometric-scale folds, its north dipping floor thrust represents the sole thrust in this area. The middle unit is formed by an incomplete Mesozoic succession overlain by Garumnian and Eocene sediments. Mesozoic rocks internal structure consists of an imbricate stack. The floor thrust dips to the south and climbs up section southwards. The upper unit exibits the most complete Mesozoic sequence. Its floor thrust is subhorizontal. The lower and middle units thrust in a piggy-back sequence. The upper unit was emplaced out of sequence.

Lower Eocene sedimentation in the Biure-Bac Grillera unit was controlled by emergent imbricate thrusts and synchronic extensional faults. One of these faults (La Salut fault) represents the boundary between a platform domain in the footwall and a subsident trough in the hangingwall. Southward thrust propagation produces the inversion of these faults and the development of cleavage-related folds in their hangingwalls (buttressing effect). This inversion is also recorded by syntectonic deposits, which have been grouped in four depositional sequences. The lower sequences represent the filling on the hangingwall trough and the upper sequences the spreading of clastics to the south once the extensional movement ends.     

The DEM or Mt. Etna: geomorphological and structural implications

Abstract

A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of Mt. Etna is presented; it has altimetric and planimetric resolution of 1 m and 5 m, respectively, and covers an area of about 120 km . This 3-D view of Mt. Etna allowed both recognition and location of the main morphostructural and volcano-tectonic features of the volcano. A slope map has been generated from the DEM; on the basis of slope distributions and surface textures, five acclivity domains have been recognized. The largest domain, south of the summit craters, reflects the occurrence of old plateau lavas, distinct from central volcanoes which built the present Etnean volcanic system. Interaction between the central volcanoes, with their summit calderas and failed slopes, produced the other recognised domains. Furthermore, newly identified relevant morphostructural lines are discussed. © Elsevier, Paris     

Peri-Gondwanan Ordovician crustal fragments in the high-grade basement of the Eastern Rhodope Massif,Bulgaria: evidence from U-Pb LA-ICP-MS zircon geochronology and geochemistry

Field, geochemical, and geochronologic data of high-grade basement metamafic and evolved rocks are used to identify the nature and timing of pre-Alpine crustal growth of the Rhodope Massif. These rocks occur intrusive into clastic-carbonate metasedimentary succession. Petrography and mineral chemistry show compositions consistent with Alpine amphibolite-facies metamorphism that obliterated the original igneous textures of the protoliths. Bulk-rock geochemistry identifies low-Ti tholeiitic to calc-alkaline gabbroic-basaltic and plagiogranite precursors, with MORB-IAT supra-subduction zone signature and trace elements comparable to modern back-arc basalts. The U-Pb zircon dating revealed a mean age of 455 Ma for the magmatic crystallization of the protoliths that contain inherited Cambrian (528–534 Ma) zircons. Carboniferous, Jurassic, and Eocene metamorphic events overprinted the Ordovician protoliths. The radiometric results of the metamorphic rocks demonstrate that Ordovician oceanic crust was involved in the build-up of the Rhodope high-grade basement. Dating of Eocene-Oligocene volcanic rocks overlying or cross-cutting the metamorphic rocks supplied Neoproterozoic, Ordovician and Permo-Carboniferous xenocrystic zircons that were sampled en route to the surface from the basement. The volcanic rocks thus confirm sub-regionally present Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic igneous and metamorphic basement. We interpret the origin of the Middle-Late Ordovician oceanic magmatism in a back-arc rift-spreading center propagating along peri-Gondwanan Cadomian basement terrane related to the Rheic Ocean widening. The results highlight the presence of elements of Cadomian northern Gondwana margin in the high-grade basement and record of Rheic Ocean evolution. The eastern Rhodope Massif high-grade basement compared to adjacent terranes with Neoproterozoic and Cambro-Ordovician evolution shares analogous tectono-magmatic record providing a linkage among basement terranes incorporated in the Alpine belt of the north Aegean region.     

U–Pb zircon dating and nature of metavolcanics and metarkoses from the Monte Grighini Unit: new insights on Late Ordovician magmatism in the Variscan belt in Sardinia, Italy

In the external units of the Sardinian Variscides Nappe Zone, volcanic and volcanoclastic successions of Middle Ordovician age follow Lower Paleozoic calc-alkaline magmatism developed at the northern Gondwana margin. We present geochemical and zircon U–Pb isotopic data for the Truzzulla Formation, a low-to-medium-grade metamorphic volcanic–volcanoclastic succession belonging to the Monte Grighini Unit, the deepest unit in the Nappe Zone. Geochemical and radiometric data allow us to define a Late Ordovician (Katian) magmatic (volcanic) event of calc-alkaline affinity. These new data, in conjunction with previously published data, indicate that in the Sardinian Variscides, the age of Lower Paleozoic Andean-type calc-alkaline magmatism spans from Middle to Late Ordovician. Moreover, the age distribution of calc-alkaline volcanics and volcanoclastic rocks in the Nappe Zone is consistent with a diachronous development of Middle–Late Ordovician Andean-type magmatic arc through the portion of the northern Gondwanian margin now represented by the Sardinian Variscides. This reconstruction of the Sardinian Variscides reflects the complex magmatic and tectonic evolution of the northern margin of Gondwana in the Lower Paleozoic.     

Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) crinoids of the Hidas Valley (Mecsek Mountains, S Hungary) and their biogeographic significance

The Bathonian crinoid fauna that occurs in red nodular limestone and argillaceous limestones from the Hidas Valley, Mecsek Mts (southern Hungary) consists of three isocrinid and six cyrtocrinid species. Isocrinids are represented by Balanocrinus inornatus (d’Orbigny), B. berchteni Hess and Pugin and Balanocrinus sp. Cyrtocrinids are represented by Phyllocrinus stellaris Zar?czny, P. birkenmajeri G?uchowski, P. malbosianus d’Orbigny, Apsidocrinus sp., Lonchocrinus sp., and the new species Psalidocrinus hidasinus sp. nov. This last species is the earliest occurrence of the genus Psalidocrinus previously known from the Early Tithonian to Valanginian. This is the first crinoid fauna described from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of Hungary. The co-occurrence of isocrinids and cyrtocrinids indicates an environment subject to weak currents. The stratigraphical and geographical distribution of the identified cyrtocrinid genera and species suggests a Tethyan origin and subsequent migration to the northern Tethyan shelf.