Tsunami vulnerability evaluation in the Mentawai islands based on the field survey of the 2010 tsunami

On October 25, 2010, a large earthquake occurred off the coast of the Mentawai islands in Indonesia, generating a tsunami that caused damage to the coastal area of North Pagai, South Pagai, and Sipora islands. Field surveys were conducted soon after the event by several international survey teams, including the authors’. These surveys clarified the tsunami height distribution, the damage that took place, and residents’ awareness of tsunamis in the affected islands. Heights of over 5 m were recorded on the coastal area of the Indian Ocean side of North and South Pagai islands and the south part of Sipora island. In some villages, it was difficult to evacuate immediately after the earthquake because of the lack of routes to higher ground or the presence of rivers. Residents in some villages had taken part in tsunami drills or education; however, not all villages shared awareness of tsunami threats. In the present paper, based on the results of these field surveys, the vulnerability of these islands with regards to future tsunami threats was analyzed. Three important aspects of this tsunami disaster, namely the geographic disadvantage of the islands, the resilience of buildings and other infrastructure, and people’s awareness of tsunamis, are discussed in detail, and corresponding tsunami mitigation strategies are explained.     

Internal Microanatomy and Zoological Affinity of the Early Cambrian Olivooides

The early Cambrian pentamerous microfossil Olivooides/Punctatus in South China, which is characterized by a diagnostic stellate tubular apex, has been well-known for its almost complete development sequence that can be confidently traced from embryos and hatched juveniles, to conical adults. However, its zoological affinity remains highly controversial. Here we describe the internal microanatomic structures of the soft-body inside the peridermal theca of Olivooides multisulcatus Qian, 1977, including interradial pairs of tentacles, adradial and perradial frenula, perradial oral marginal lappets and twins of perradial gastric saccule-like humps as well as a circular velarium with striated coronal muscles. Particularly, one specimen shows bifurcated velarial canals along the bell aperture. Both the components of the soft-body and the external theca (or cyst) are arranged in perfect pentaradial symmetry. These characteristics are more compatible with those of living cubomedusans and co-occurring Cambrian athecate embryonic cubozoans. Concerning the presence of peridermal theca, Olivooides most likely represents an extinct thecate stem-group cubomedusae but devoid of both perradial eyes and specialized pedalia. The well-grown soft body inside the peridermal tube displays a set of mixed features of both polyp and medusa.     

Thermal and chemical evolution of the terrestrial magma ocean

The Earth is likely to have experienced a magma ocean stage during accretion. Thermal and chemical evolution of magma ocean is investigated based on a one-dimensional two-phase-flow heat and mass transfer model. Differentiation at lower mantle pressure depends on the type of magma ocean and surrounding atmosphere. If the magma ocean is formed by the blanketing effect of a solar-type proto-atmosphere, extensive differentiation proceeds at lower mantle pressure. If the magma ocean is formed by the blanketing effect of an impact-induced steam atmosphere, no differentiation at lower mantle pressure is likely. If a very deep magma ocean is formed by a giant impact, whether differentiation proceeds at lower mantle pressure or not depends on grain size, viscosity of melt and/or properties of a transient atmosphere. On the contrary, chemical differentiation likely proceeds at upper mantle pressure irrespective of magma ocean type. A shallow magma ocean can remain for 100 200 My without any heating processes.     

Resistivity inversion of cross-hole and borehole-to-surface EM data using axially symmetric models1

We describe a least-squares inversion approach to estimating the subsurface resistivity structure from cross-hole or borehole-to-surface electromagnetic data. It is assumed that the resistivity distribution is symmetric about the axis of a borehole and that vertical magnetic dipoles are located on the borehole axis. The receivers are placed either in another borehole or on the earth's surface. The inversion scheme uses the finite-element and smoothness-constrained least-squares methods. The computational effort required to obtain partial derivatives is reduced considerably by using the reciprocity principle. Numerical simulations show that the reconstructions are generally in good agreement with the true structures when the assumption of an axisymmetric earth structure holds. An example involving the breakdown of this assumption, which can be obtained by interchanging the source and receiver boreholes, suggests that the inversion result may also be useful for locating a general 3D anomaly although artifacts are present.     

Analytical study on vulnerability functions for casualty estimation in the collapse of adobe buildings induced by earthquake

Collapse of adobe buildings during an earthquakes with various earthquake intensities is analyzed using the 3-dimensional distinct element method code developed by the first author. Firstly, we evaluate structural damage with damage index, interior-space damage with w score, and human casualties in the collapsing buildings with three casualty criteria. Secondly, we investigate relationships between the earthquake intensity, the structural damage, the interior-space damage, and the casualties. It is found that the casualties have stronger correlation with the interior-space damage than the structural damage, and three vulnerability functions, namely, structural, interior-space and casualty vulnerability functions, are proposed. Effects of reinforcing methods on these functions are also examined. Finally, a series of analytical procedures to develop vulnerability functions and to estimate casualties using the functions are described.     

Physical and chemical effects of ingested plastic debris on short-tailed shearwaters, Puffinus tenuirostris, in the North Pacific Ocean

We investigated the plastics ingested by short-tailed shearwaters, Puffinus tenuirostris, that were accidentally caught during experimental fishing in the North Pacific Ocean in 2003 and 2005. The mean mass of plastics found in the stomach was 0.23 g per bird (n = 99). Plastic mass did not correlate with body weight. Total PCB (sum of 24 congeners) concentrations in the abdominal adipose tissue of 12 birds ranged from 45 to 529 ng/g-lipid. Although total PCBs or higher-chlorinated congeners, the mass of ingested plastic correlated positively with concentrations of lower-chlorinated congeners. The effects of toxic chemicals present in plastic debris on bird physiology should be investigated.     

NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS OF FIFTEEN GSJ IGNEOUS ROCK REFERENCE SAMPLES

Fifteen rock reference samples "Igneous rock series" issued by the Geological Survey of Japan were analysed for up to 31 elements by neutron activation analysis (NAA); 14 MeV-NAA for Si and Al, fission track method for U, radiochemical and instrumental NAA for rare-earth elements, and instrumental NAA for the remaining elements, with reactor neutrons for the latter three. The present results are compared with published values.     

Dynamical downscaling of future sea level change in the western North Pacific using ROMS

The future regional sea level (RSL) rise in the western North Pacific is investigated by dynamical downscaling with the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) with an eddy-permitting resolution based on three global climate models—MIROC-ESM, CSIRO-Mk3.6.0, and GFDL-CM3—under the highest greenhouse-gas emission scenario. The historical run is forced by the air-sea fluxes calculated from Coordinated Ocean Reference Experiment version 2 (COREv2) data. Three future runs—ROMS-MIROC, ROMS-CSIRO, and ROMS-GFDL—are forced with an atmospheric field constructed by adding the difference between the climate model parameters for the twenty-first and twentieth century to fields in the historical run. In all downscaling, the RSL rise along the eastern coast of Japan is generally half or less of the RSL rise maxima off the eastern coast. The projected regional (total) sea level rises along the Honshu coast during 2081–2100 relative to 1981–2000 are 19–25 (98–104), 6–15 (71–80), and 8–14 (80–86) cm in ROMS-MIROC, ROMS-CSIRO, and ROMS-GFDL, respectively. The discrepancies of the RSL rise along the Honshu coast between the climate models and downscaling are less than 10 cm. The RSL changes in the Kuroshio Extension (KE) region in all downscaling simulations are related to the changes of KE (northward shift or intensification) with climate change.     

青岛大气气溶胶的浓度分布和干沉降的观测研究

根据青岛沙尘天气历史资料和近年来的青岛地面气溶胶观测资料,分析了青岛沙尘日数的长期变化趋势、季节变化特征以及气溶胶质量浓度、谱分布和干沉降的季节变化.分析结果表明,1961～1988年青岛沙尘日数呈波动变化,且幅度较大.1999年以来沙尘日数明显增加,且以浮尘天气为主.青岛在1961～2001年扬沙日数年平均值为1.83天,是北京同期的13%;年浮尘日数为2.93天,是北京同期的75%.青岛沙尘发生日数主要集中在冬春季,春季最高,冬季次高;夏季没有沙尘天气,秋季很低.青岛气溶胶质量浓度有明显的季节变化,春季最高,冬季次之,秋季又次之,夏季最低.大流量观测的总悬浮颗粒物(TSP)年平均浓度为177μgm-3,安德森分级采样器观测的气溶胶质量浓度为123μg m-3,两者的差别与不同的观测时间和观测仪器有关.在3月和4月,粗细粒子的浓度相差很大,粗粒子分别占总浓度的80%和62%.青岛气溶胶沉降通量在0.06～0.2 g m-2d-1之间,平均值为0.13 g m-2d-1,是北京沉降通量的30%.