Shallow destructive earthquakes

Depths of earthquake occurrence and large slip distribution are critical for seismic hazard assessment.Numerous examples show that earthquakes with similar magnitudes,however,can result in significantly different ground shaking and damage.One of the critical factors is that whether the large slip was generated near the ground surface.In this article,we reviewed two aspects that are important on this regard,shallow slip deficit and nucleation depth.Understanding how shallow future earthquakes may nucleate in particular regions,such as shale gas fields,is critical for hazard assessment.Whether or not a strong earthquake may slip significantly at shallow depths(less than 3 km)plays crucial rules in seismic hazard preparation and should be further investigated by integrating high-resolution fault zone observations,dynamic rupture simulation,and fault zone properties.Moreover,precisely resolving shallow depth and slip distribution of earthquakes demands InSAR and/or other image data that can better capture the near-fault deformation to constrain the source parameters of earthquakes.     

碘代异丙烷在黑碳表面的吸附研究

黑碳气溶胶由于其对大气辐射平衡和气候的影响而受到高度重视,碘化学则是大气化学中十分重要的研究领域。然而对于卤素化合物尤其含碘化合物与黑碳气溶胶表面相互作用的研究还少有报道。文中首次研究了在298K下,碘氧自由基(IO)重要源之一的碘代异丙烷(i-C3H7I)在黑碳表面的吸附,黑碳样品使用DegussaFW2(一种含有氧化态的无定形黑碳)。实验发现碘代异丙烷与黑碳表面发生相互作用,使黑碳表面逐渐被钝化,并且其吸附系数(γ)与暴露时间相关。实验测得初始吸附系数(γ0)值为(9.5±3.8)×10-2。所报道的初始吸附系数γ0可以提供一个上限值,实验结果表明在真实大气环境下,i-C3H7I在黑碳气溶胶表面的非均相消耗可能是十分重要的,也许会对i-C3H7I在真实大气中的浓度有一定影响。并且研究结果对进一步研究i-C3H7I与黑碳气溶胶相互作用对大气辐射平衡、黑碳气溶胶非均相化学作用和云雾降水凝结核(CCN)形成的影响均有十分重要的意义,研究结果也为评估i-C3H7I与碳质气溶胶非均相相互作用对大气环境的影响和深入的模式研究提供了基本参数。     

The effect of metamorphic fluid flow on the nucleation and growth of garnets from Troms, North Norway

A spatial association is observed between the size distribution of garnet porphyroblasts and the size distribution of quartz veins in greenschist facies metapelites from Troms, North Norway. The size distribution of quartz veins reflects the flow regime of metamorphic fluids. The hypothesis that the flow regime of metamorphic fluids is also responsible for the size distribution of garnet crystals was tested by ascribing empirical acceleration parameters to the nucleation and growth rates of garnet crystals.
In regions where fluid flow was interpreted as pervasive', acceleration parameters for nucleation were high, whereas in regions where fluid flow was interpreted as channelled', acceleration parameters for growth were high. Accelerated crystal growth is further implied from the chemical zoning and crystal morphologies of garnets collected near discrete veins.
This spatial association may imply that fluid flow can be instrumental in controlling garnet crystallization. Fluid flow could affect garnet crystallization kinetics by facilitating thermal advection and/or mass transfer. In the study area, rhodochrosite (MnCO₃) veins provide evidence for mass transfer of Mn by fluid flow. An influx of Mn would expand the stability field of garnet to lower temperatures. The resulting thermal overstep could accelerate nucleation and/or growth of garnets.
The corollary of this study is that size distributions and chemical zoning of garnets, or other porphyroblast phases, can be used to study metamorphic fluid flow.     

Landscape Roughness Parameters for Sherwood Forest – Validation of Aggregation Models

Various models for calculating the effective or area-averaged roughness length zoe have been tested for a partly forested area. Three types of model are considered: the tile approach for very large scales of inhomogeneity (> 20 km), drag models for very small scales (up to 1 km), and surface-layer methods such as the blending-height method for intermediate scales. Over partly forested areas, where both pressure effects and roughness sub-layer effects may become significant, small-scale models are expected be the most suitable type of model. The various model types were tested against new experimental data that were obtained over the partly forested Sherwood Forest area (UK). The best fit with the data was obtained with the blending-height method, rather than with the different small-scale models. This is remarkable as the surface-layer assumptions of the blending-height method were clearly violated: the calculated blending height was 7 m, as compared to the mean tree height of 20 m. Of the small-scale models, a sparse-canopy approach compared poorly with the experimental data. The drag models overestimated the area-averaged roughness to a lesser degree, but a major point of concern remains the choice of the model parameters. Therefore, suggestions are made for an improved choice of these parameters.     

Determination of the Turbulent Temperature–Humidity Correlation from Scintillometric Measurements

We report on the investigation and successful application of the bichromatic correlation of optical and microwave signals for determining the area-averaged correlation of temperature–humidity fluctuations. The additional technical effort is marginal compared to the common ‘two-wavelength method’, which has (in contrast) the restriction that only two of the three relevant meteorological structure parameters can be deduced. Therefore, in the past, it was often assumed that the turbulent humidity and temperature fluctuations are perfectly positively or negatively correlated. However, as shown in this study, over non-homogeneous terrain when the flow conditions are not ideal, this assumption is questionable. The measurements were analysed statistically, and were compared to in situ measurements of the Bowen ratio Bo and the correlation of temperature–humidity fluctuations using eddy-covariance techniques. The latter is in good agreement to that derived by scintillometry. We found that the correlation is not ±1 but as low as −0.6 for Bo smaller than −2, and up to 0.8 for Bo larger than 1.     

Exact transverse macro dispersion coefficients for transport in heterogeneous porous media

We study transport through heterogeneous media. We derive the exact large scale transport equation. The macro dispersion coefficients are determined by additional partial differential equations. In the case of infinite Peclet numbers, we present explicit results for the transverse macro dispersion coefficients. In two spatial dimensions, we demonstrate that the transverse macro dispersion coefficient is zero. The result is not limited on lowest order perturbation theory approximations but is an exact result. However, the situation in three spatial dimensions is very different: The transverse macro dispersion coefficients are finite – a result which is confirmed by numerical simulations we performed.     

Mapping and estimating land change between 2001 and 2013 in a heterogeneous landscape in West Africa: Loss of forestlands and capacity building opportunities

In West Africa, accurate classification of land cover and land change remains a big challenge due to the patchy and heterogeneous nature of the landscape. Limited data availability, human resources and technical capacities, further exacerbate the challenge. The result is a region that is among the more understudied areas in the world, which in turn has resulted in a lack of appropriate information required for sustainable natural resources management. The objective of this paper is to explore open source software and easy-to-implement approaches to mapping and estimation of land change that are transferrable to local institutions to increase capacity in the region, and to provide updated information on the regional land surface dynamics. To achieve these objectives, stable land cover and land change between 2001 and 2013 in the Kara River Basin in Togo and Benin were mapped by direct multitemporal classification of Landsat data by parameterization and evaluation of two machine-learning algorithms. Areas of land cover and change were estimated by application of an unbiased estimator to sample data following international guidelines. A prerequisite for all tools and methods was implementation in an open source environment, and adherence to international guidelines for reporting land surface activities. Findings include a recommendation of the Random Forests algorithm as implemented in Orfeo Toolbox, and a stratified estimation protocol − all executed in the QGIS graphical use interface. It was found that despite an estimated reforestation of 10,0727 ± 3480 ha (95% confidence interval), the combined rate of forest and savannah loss amounted to 56,271 ± 9405 ha (representing a 16% loss of the forestlands present in 2001), resulting in a rather sharp net loss of forestlands in the study area. These dynamics had not been estimated prior to this study, and the results will provide useful information for decision making pertaining to natural resources management, land management planning, and the implementation of the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD).     

Determination of heterogeneous reaction probability using deposition profile measurement in an annular reactor: Application to the N2O5/H2O reaction

A method for the estimation of the reaction probability of the heterogeneous N₂O₅+H₂O 2HNO₃ reaction using the deposition profile in a laminar flow tube, in which the walls are coated with the condensed aqueous phase of interest, is presented. The production of gas phase nitric acid on the surface followed by its absorption complicates the deposition profiles and hence the calculation of the reaction probability. An estimation of the branching ratio for this process enables a more appropriate calculation to be carried out. Reaction probabilities of N₂O₅ on substances including some normally constituting atmospheric aerosols, NaCl, NH₄HSO₄, as well as Na₂CO₃ are estimated and found to depend on relative humidity and characteristics of the coating used. These fell within the range (0.04–2.0)×10^–2.     

The initiation and linkage of surface fractures above a buried strike-slip fault: An experimental approach

Surface fractures in the overburdened sedimentary rocks, formed above a deep-seated basement fault, often provide important information about the kinematics of the underlying master fault. It has already been established that these surface fractures dynamically evolve and link one another with progressive displacement on the master fault below. In the present study, two different series of riedel-type experiments were carried out with clay analogue models under different boundary conditions viz., (i) heterogeneous simple shear of the cover rocks above a buried strike slip fault (wrench system) and (ii) heterogeneous simple shear with a component of shear-normal compression of the overburden package above a basement fault (transpressional system), to observe the initiation and linkage of surface fractures with varying T′ (where T′ = thickness of the overburden normalized with respect to the width of the master fault). In the wrench system, Riedel (R) shears were linked by principal displacement (Y) shears at early stages (shear strain of 0.8 to 1) in thin (2 < T′ < 18) models and finally (at a minimum shear strain of 1.4) gave rise to a through-going fault parallel to the basement fault without development of any other fracture. Conjugate Riedel (R′) shears develop only within the thicker (T′ > 18) clay models at a minimum shear strain of 0.7. With increasing deformation (at a minimum shear strain of 1.2) two R′ shears were joined by an R shear and finally opened up to make a sigmoidal vein with an asymmetry antithetic to the major fault-movement sense. Under transpression, the results were similar to that of heterogeneous simple shear for layers 2 < T′ < 15. In layers of intermediate thickness (15 < T′ < 25) early formed high angle R shears were cross cut by low angle R shears (at a minimum shear strain of 0.5 and shortening of 0.028) and “Riedel-within-Riedel” shears were formed within thick (T′ > 25) models (at minimum shear strain of 0.7 and shortening of 0.1), with marked angularity of secondary fault zone with the master fault at depth.     

几种碘化银焰剂成冰性能检测

碘化银焰剂是人工影响天气作业中重要的冷云催化剂,目前国内使用的碘化银焰剂有多种配方,有必要对它们的成冰性能进行统一评估。本研究采用1m^3等温云室,对我国人影作业中使用的7种碘化银焰剂(编号为1~7号)进行了统一检测。结果表明:7种焰剂成核率的量级按每克催化剂计算在10^(10)~10^(13)g^(-1)(-8^-18℃)之间,用指数函数拟合能较好地反映成核率随温度的变化;在低温段(≤-16℃),各焰剂成核率较高,不同焰剂之间的成核率差异相对于高温段(>-16℃)要小;在高温段,3、4、7号焰剂也具有较高的成核率,成冰性能要好于其他焰剂;7种焰剂的核化速率不同,-8℃时90%的冰核完成核化的时间在7.8~18min之间,推断该温度下的成核机制以接触核化等慢过程为主。