The effective number of cycles of earthquake ground motion

The seismic response of any system that accumulates damage under cyclic loading is dependent not only on the maximum amplitude of the motion but also its duration. This is explicitly recognized in methods for estimating the liquefaction potential of soil deposits. Many researchers have proposed that the effective number of cycles of the ground motion is a more robust indicator of the destructive capacity of the shaking than the duration. However, as is the case with strong‐motion duration, there is no universally accepted approach to determining the effective number of cycles of motion, and the different methods that have been proposed can give widely varying results for a particular accelerogram. Definitions of the effective number of cycles of motion are reviewed, classified and compared. Measurements are found to differ particularly for accelerograms with broad‐banded frequency content, which contain a significant number of non‐zero crossing peaks. The key seismological parameters influencing the number of cycles of motion and associated equations for predicting this quantity for future earthquakes are identified. Correlations between cycle counts and different duration measures are explored and found to be rather poor in the absence of additional parameters. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study on simulating strong ground motion by fractal stochastic method

The time history of strong ground motion can be synthesized by empirical Green's function (EGF) method.Firstly a large seismic event is discretized into a series of subevents; secondly recordings of earthquakes with proper size and spatial distribution are chosen as time history (EGF) of those subevents; finally the EGFs are summated to get the time history of ground motion caused by the large event.     

Use of time series analysis for the identification of tidal effect on groundwater in the coastal area of Kimje, Korea

The purpose of this study is to apply time series analysis to investigate whether the groundwater quality in the coastal area is affected by the tide. Continuous and regular in situ monitoring data of electrical conductivity (EC) and groundwater level, and tidal level data measured by the National Oceanographic Research Institute were used for the time series analysis. Through the time series analysis, it is known that EC and groundwater level conspicuously fluctuate with two periodicities (15.4 and 0.52-day), which is very similar to those of the tide. Also the behaviors of their fluctuations vary in accordance with the tidal period. These indicate that the groundwater quality has been mainly controlled by the tidal level, and the strength of tidal effect on the groundwater quality is different according to the tidal period.     

Conditional Simulation of Random Fields with Bivariate Gamma Isofactorial Distributions

This work focuses on a random function model with gamma marginal and bivariate isofactorial distributions, which has been applied in mining geostatistics for estimating recoverable reserves by disjunctive kriging. The objective is to widen its use to conditional simulation and further its application to the modeling of continuous attributes in geosciences. First, the main properties of the bivariate gamma isofactorial distributions are analyzed, with emphasis in the destructuring of the extreme values, the presence of a proportional effect (higher variability in high-valued areas), and the asymmetry in the spatial correlation of the indicator variables with respect to the median threshold. Then, we provide examples of stationary random functions with such bivariate distributions, for which the shape parameter of the marginal distribution is half an integer. These are defined as the sum of squared independent Gaussian random fields. An iterative algorithm based on the Gibbs sampler is proposed to perform the simulation conditional to a set of existing data. Such ‘multivariate chi-square’ model generalizes the well-known multigaussian model and is more flexible, since it allows defining a shape parameter which controls the asymmetry of the marginal and bivariate distributions.     

The 17 March 2005 Kuzulu landslide (Sivas, Turkey) and landslide-susceptibility map of its near vicinity

Landslides are common natural hazards in the seismically active North Anatolian Fault Zone of Turkey. Although seismic activity, heavy rainfall, channel incisions, and anthropogenic effects are commonly the main triggers of landslides, on March 17, 2005, a catastrophic large landslide in Sivas, northeastern of Turkey, the Kuzulu landslide, was triggered by snowmelt without any other precursor. The initial failure of the Kuzulu landslide was rotational. Following the rotational failure, the earth material in the zone of accumulation exhibited an extremely rapid flow caused by steep gradient and high water content. The Agnus Creek valley, where Kuzulu village is located, was filled by the earth-flow material and a landslide dam was formed on the upper part of Agnus Creek. The distance from the toe of the rotational failure down to the toe of the earth flow measured more than 1800 m, with about 12.5 million m³ of displaced earth material. The velocity of the Kuzulu landslide was extremely fast, approximately 6 m/s. The main purposes of this study are to describe the mechanism and the factors conditioning the Kuzulu landslide, to present its environmental impacts, and to produce landslide-susceptibility maps of the Kuzulu landslide area and its near vicinity. For this purpose, a detailed landslide inventory map was prepared and geology, slope, aspect, elevation, topographic-wetness index and stream-power index were considered as conditioning factors. During the susceptibility analyses, the conditional probability approach was used and a landslide-susceptibility map was produced. The landslide-susceptibility map will help decision makers in site selection and the site-planning process. The map may also be accepted as a basis for landslide risk-management studies to be applied in the study area.     

阿塔卡马海沟表层水颗粒有机碳与微生物群落呼吸作用的时空变化研究

海沟是全球大洋体系的重要组成部分。研究这一极端环境的生物地球化学循环过程有助于我们进一步理解海洋的物质循环。前期研究发现,海沟表层水体的初级生产力(NPP)对海沟沉积物埋藏的有机碳性质具有重要影响,但是,颗粒有机碳(POC)在沉降过程中被微生物呼吸和降解的过程尚不清楚。因此,本研究利用2018年春"太阳号"阿塔卡马海沟(Atacama Trench)国际联合航次SO261所采集的表层水样品,测试其中POC浓度、C/N、δ¹³C、δ¹⁵N等参数,并结合0.2—0.8、0.8—3.0、>3.0μm三种粒径微生物群落呼吸(microbial community respiration,MCR)速率测试,探究其日变化模式及不同站位的空间变化模式,进而衡量微生物对POC的呼吸降解作用。结果表明,该海域表层水中对POC降解占主导作用的微生物类群粒径为0.8—3.0μm;24 h时间序列实验表明MCR随时间呈现"M"型曲线的双峰变化模式,且和C/N、δ¹³C、δ¹⁵N等参数变化趋势吻合,表明同一站位的呼吸速...     

中国主要红树林表层沉积物中重金属的分布特征及其影响因素

红树林生态系统处于海洋与陆地的动态交界面,遭受海水周期性浸淹,因而在结构与功能上具有既不同于陆地生态系统,也不同于海洋生态系统的特性。红树林作为初级生产者,为林区动物、微生物提供食物与营养,为鸟类、昆虫、鱼虾等提供栖息、繁衍场所。因此,红树植物对维护生态平衡、保护海岸生态系统起着重要的作用[1-2]。近年来由于工农业的发展,沿海城市人口与经济的增长,大量的污染物汇集于河口、海湾区,使这些地区的重金属污染日趋严重,特别是在直接向红树林区倾污排废的地区更是如此。