Glacially derived material in an Inner Mongolian desert lake during Marine Isotope Stage 2

Establishing the precise timing of continental glacial dynamics and abrupt high‐latitude climate events is crucial to understanding the causes of global climate change. Here we present multi‐proxy records in a lake sediment core from arid Inner Mongolia (Wuliangsuhai Lake) that show two distinct glacially derived sedimentation events at ～26.2–21.8 and ～17.3–11.5k cal a BP. Fine sediments from the Last Glacial Maximum separate these glacially derived coarse sediments. Within these intervals, the occurrence of granite clasts at ～24–23.5, 17.3–17 and 15.6–14.1k cal a BP implies either sediment discharge by meltwater as well as strong current flow in the Yellow River and/or sediment influx through hill‐slope mass wasting and landsliding from the nearby Yin Mountains. Surface microfeatures of quartz grains and spot elemental analysis of black specks in these intervals, however, indicate that physical weathering is dominant and that the provenance of the rocks is probably from a glacial source. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time glacier‐derived materials have been detected in any desert lake in the Yellow River basin. The occurrence of granite clasts roughly correlates with Heinrich events in the North Atlantic, suggesting synchronous ice sheet dynamics in high‐ and mid‐latitude regions during the Last Glacial period. Although our data provide unprecedented evidence for the influence of glacier‐related processes in arid Inner Mongolia, further well‐dated records are clearly needed to re‐evaluate the correlative inference drawn between granite clast layers in Wuliangsuhai Lake and Heinrich events in the North Atlantic. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Potential hazards and dynamical analysis of interfacial solitary wave interactions

Over the last few decades, a lot of attention has been concentrated on the consequences of marine impacts, especially those caused by the tsunami wave train. Internal solitary waves are similar to the surface waves that commonly occur in the waters of the ocean or large lakes and can have significant effects on oceanic mixing, climate change, the movement of submerged plankton, and the weathering of geological structures. This motion can be severe enough to create natural hazards, such as submarine tsunamis in the ocean. These could also even occur in large lakes. Numerical modeling has shown that the waveform of a soliton that interacts with others of a similar kind would emerge unchanged from the collision, except for a phase shift. However, the results from laboratory experiments are rather limited, despite the successful generation of ISWs using a collapse mechanism in a wave flume. This paper reports on some interesting facts compiled from the results of a series of laboratory experiments on the investigation of the head-on collision of two ISWs. Our results confirm that the waveforms of two depression ISWs will more or less retain their initial shape after a head-on collision. However, the transmitted wavelength will broaden when two elevation ISWs collide, perhaps affected by bottom friction. Overall, the resulting waveforms induced by such head-on collisions agree well with the theoretical predictions for depression ISWs, regardless of their scale of amplitude, but the results are only valid for elevated waveforms of large amplitude.     

The construction of a high-resolution visual monitoring for hazard analysis

High rates of urbanization, environmental degradation, and industrial development in disaster-prone areas have all served to increase the extent of damage following catastrophes. In this paper, we present a novel framework for exploiting multi-resolution dual cameras, including a wide-angle camera and a speed dome camera, to construct a wide-angle, multi-layered, high-resolution visual monitoring system for hazard assessment. Our two-part camera system requires calibration of the correspondence between the detailed and overview image captured by the speed dome camera and wide-angle fixed camera, respectively. In-factory calibration is carried out using white–black patterns for speed dome turning and multi-layered calibration. The results are displayed as wide-angle, multi-layered, high-resolution images which are built up by the speed dome camera.     

The emergence of “star disaster-affected areas” and its implications to disaster and communication interdisciplinary study: a Taiwan example from Typhoon Morakot

This study explored the phenomenon of “star disaster-affected areas” created by media in Taiwan and its consequences. Taitung County was chosen as the study subject since it was covered in a biased large amount in 2009 Typhoon Morakot unprecedentedly. A content analysis of four major newspapers, in-depth interviews, and field research in Chialan and Dawu Township founds that media is the key player to create “star disaster-affected areas.” The factors of being “star disaster-affected areas” are the degree of impacted severity in the areas, the numbers of affected residents, casualty and death tolls, accessibility to affected areas, and most importantly human interests and visual impacts for better media storytelling. The consequences include uneven resources distributions and unfair reaction and recovery policies. This study provided implications for media workers, disaster management actors, residents, and media scholars to revisit ethics and theory to fit it the characteristics of disaster news and above all, disaster and communication scholars to develop an interdisciplinary study to facilitate disaster management.     

青藏高原东北缘岩石圈三维密度结构

综合重力观测资料和地震波走时资料反演了青藏高原东北缘岩石圈三维密度结构,并对该区岩石圈结构及动力学特征进行了讨论.首先利用收集到的P波近震和远震走时数据进行地震层析成像,得到研究区岩石圈三维P波速度结构.然后利用速度-密度经验关系式,将速度扰动转化为密度扰动建立研究区三维初始密度模型.最后利用分离的布格重力异常反演得到了岩石圈三维密度结构.反演结果表明:青藏高原东北缘地壳密度结构特征有利于地震孕育发生和地壳物质侧向流动;地壳内,密度异常等值线走向与地表断裂走向基本一致,进入地幔后,密度异常等值线走向发生了顺时针旋转,这表明青藏高原东北缘地壳和地幔具有不同的构造运动模式,暗示该区可能发生了壳幔解耦;80~100 km深度上,P波速度异常较密度异常明显偏低,推测该区可能发生了部分熔融或者岩石含水量的增加;印度板块俯冲和周围坚硬块体阻挡联合作用,使得青藏高原东北缘形成了强大的区域构造应力场,并导致深部软流圈热物质上涌,为该区壳幔解耦、部分熔融和P波速度降低创造了条件.     

A new weir surface repair layer with shock absorbing cushion design

A shock absorbing cushion has never been introduced into any traditional weir surface repair layer design.However,shocks induced by high discharge with heavy sediment can easily produce brittle fracture and peeling over a weir surface repair layer as it is impacted by floods accompanied by particles of different sizes.In this study,transcending traditional designs,the authors developed a composite unit designed with a shock absorbing cushion that has performed well during field tests,proving that the weir body can be effectively protected even if the composite units are directly laid on a severely uneven weir surface repair layer.     

Developing fragility curves for a pile-supported wharf

This study proposes a procedure for developing seismic fragility curves for a pile-supported wharf. A typical pile-supported wharf, as commonly used in the ports of Taiwan, is chosen for demonstration. For a structural model of the wharf, the deck is modeled by shell elements and the Winkler model is used for the pile–soil system, in which the piles and soils are represented by beam elements and springs, respectively. A pushover analysis with lateral loads distributed according to the fundamental modal shape of the wharf structure is conducted to deduce the capacity curve of the wharf. The procedure for developing fragility curves can be explicitly performed using the spreadsheet platform in Microsoft EXCEL. First, quantitative criteria for damage states are established from the sequence of development of plastic zones. Then a nonlinear static procedure called the Spectrum Capacity Method (CSM) is used to efficiently construct a response matrix of the wharf to 24 earthquake events with differing levels of peak ground acceleration (PGA). Based on the damage criteria and the response matrix, the fragility curves of the wharf can be thus constructed through simple statistical analysis. Shifted lognormal cumulative distribution functions are also employed to better approximate the fragility curves for practical applications.     

An integrated flood risk assessment model for property insurance industry in Taiwan

Taiwan is located in an area affected by Northwest Pacific typhoons, which are also one of the most important sources of rainfall to the island. Unfortunately, the abundant rainfall brought by typhoons frequently produces hazards. In recent years, typhoons and floods have caused serious damage, especially Typhoon Morakot in 2009. In this study, a probabilistic model is developed based on historical events which can be used to assess flood risk in Taiwan. There are 4 separate modules in this model, including a rainfall event module, a hydraulic module, a vulnerability module, and a financial loss module. Local data obtained from the Taiwan government are used to construct this model. Historical rainfall data for typhoon and flood events that have occurred since 1960, obtained from the Central Weather Bureau, are used for computing the maximum daily rainfall for each basin. In addition, the latest flood maps from the Water Resources Agency are collected to assess the probable inundation depth. A case study using the local data is carried out. Assessment is made to predict possible economic loss from different financial perspectives such as the total loss, insured loss, and loss exceeding probabilities. The assessment results can be used as a reference for making effective flood risk management strategies in Taiwan.     

Normalizing XRF-scanner data: A cautionary note on the interpretation of high-resolution records from organic-rich lakes

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning of unlithified, untreated sediment cores is becoming an increasingly common method used to obtain paleoproxy data from lake records. XRF-scanning is fast and delivers high-resolution records of relative variations in the elemental composition of the sediment. However, lake sediments display extreme variations in their organic matter content, which can vary from just a few percent to well over 50%. As XRF scanners are largely insensitive to organic material in the sediment, increasing levels of organic material effectively dilute those components that can be measured, such as the lithogenic material (the closed-sum effect). Consequently, in sediments with large variations in organic material, the measured variations in an element will to a large extent mirror the changes in organic material. It is therefore necessary to normalize the elements in the lithogenic component of the sediment against a conservative element to allow changes in the input of the elements to be addressed. In this study we show that Al, which is the lightest element that can be measured using the Itrax XRF-scanner, can be used to effectively normalize the elements of the lithogenic fraction of the sediment against variations in organic content. We also show that care must be taken when choosing resolution and exposure time to ensure optimal output from the measurements.     

Sequential assimilation in the wind wave model for simulations of typhoon events around Taiwan Island

We investigate the effect of data assimilation in the Wind Wave Model (WWM, Hsu et al., 2005) for wind wave simulations of typhoon events using an Optimal Interpolation (OI) method in the coastal waters of Taiwan. The main point of the present study is that the assimilation is conducted for typhoon events with short-time periods around an island. Five real typhoon events were used for numerical assimilation experiments with different combinations of the key parameters: the correlation length, the ratio of the errors between the observation and the prediction, and the number of measuring stations. The retrieved wind velocity is obtained using the wave energy growth curve computed from the WWM. The wave energy dissipation function suggested by Makin and Kudryavtsev (1999) was adopted in the data assimilation. This study shows that assimilation can improve the initial performance of the wave model, but it becomes insignificant after about 12 h. In summary, the OI approach is shown to be a reliable assimilation scheme for the WWM applied to typhoon events in the coastal waters of Taiwan Island.