A review on advances in seismology in Mexico after 30 years from the 1985 earthquake

The 19 September 1985 (M_w8.1) earthquake, located on the Michoacán coast, Mexico, generated great damage in Mexico City, more than 300 km away from the epicentral area. Other important cities near the coast and in central Mexico also suffered severe damage. Thirty years after this important event, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Baja California (CICESE) and other institutions organized a conference to discuss the scientific advances, particularly in seismology, that had taken place in Mexico since then.     

First results from the North Iceland experiment

Between June 2004 and September 2004 a temporary seismic network was installed on the northern insular shelf of Iceland and onshore in north Iceland. The seismic setup aimed at resolving the subsurface structure and, thus, the geodynamical transition from Icelandic crust to typical oceanic crust along Kolbeinsey Ridge. The experiment recorded about 1,000 earthquakes. The region encloses the Tjörnes Fracture Zone containing the Husavik–Flatey strike-slip fault and the extensional seismic Grimsey Lineament. Most of the seismicity occurs in swarms offshore. Preliminary results reveal typical mid-ocean crust north of Grimsey and a heterogeneous structure with major velocity anomalies along the seismic lineaments and north–south trending subsurface features. Complementary bathymetric mapping highlight numerous extrusion features along the Grimsey Lineament and Kolbeinsey Ridge. The seismic dataset promises to deliver new insights into the tectonic framework for earthquakes in an extensional transform zone along the global mid-ocean ridge system.     

Crustal structure across the Grand Banks–Newfoundland Basin Continental Margin – II. Results from a seismic reflection profile

New multichannel seismic reflection data were collected over a 565 km transect covering the non-volcanic rifted margin of the central eastern Grand Banks and the Newfoundland Basin in the northwestern Atlantic. Three major crustal zones are interpreted from west to east over the seaward 350 km of the profile: (1) continental crust; (2) transitional basement and (3) oceanic crust. Continental crust thins over a wide zone (∼160 km) by forming a large rift basin (Carson Basin) and seaward fault block, together with a series of smaller fault blocks eastwards beneath the Salar and Newfoundland basins. Analysis of selected previous reflection profiles (Lithoprobe 85-4, 85-2 and Conrad NB-1) indicates that prominent landward-dipping reflections observed under the continental slope are a regional phenomenon. They define the landward edge of a deep serpentinized mantle layer, which underlies both extended continental crust and transitional basement. The 80-km-wide transitional basement is defined landwards by a basement high that may consist of serpentinized peridotite and seawards by a pair of basement highs of unknown crustal origin. Flat and unreflective transitional basement most likely is exhumed, serpentinized mantle, although our results do not exclude the possibility of anomalously thinned oceanic crust. A Moho reflection below interpreted oceanic crust is first observed landwards of magnetic anomaly M4, 230 km from the shelf break. Extrapolation of ages from chron M0 to the edge of interpreted oceanic crust suggests that the onset of seafloor spreading was ∼138 Ma (Valanginian) in the south (southern Newfoundland Basin) to ∼125 Ma (Barremian–Aptian boundary) in the north (Flemish Cap), comparable to those proposed for the conjugate margins.     

差分法计算地震动旋转分量

旋转地震学是一门研究由地震、爆破以及工程振动等引起的地球介质运动的新兴学科.旋转运动的研究由来已久,但是由于缺少高精度的旋转分量地震仪,所以旋转运动的研究大多仅限于理论方面.差分法作为利用平动分量获取旋转分量的一种计算方法,在理论研究方面较为成熟,但是缺乏实际数据的验证.通过在对旋转运动研究现状充分调研的基础上,利用模...     

Synthetic SH seismograms in a laterally varying medium by the discrete wavenumber method

Summary. We present a new method to calculate the SH wavefield produced by a seismic source in a half-space with an irregular buried interface. The diffracting interface is represented by a distribution of body forces. The Green's functions needed to solve the boundary conditions are evaluated using the discrete wavenumber method. Our approach relies on the introduction of a periodicity in the source-medium configuration and on the discretization of the interface at regular spacing. The technique developed is applicable to boundaries of arbitrary shapes and is valid at all frequencies. Some examples of calculation in simple configurations are presented showing the capabilities of the method.     

Climate change in news media across the globe: An automated analysis of issue attention and themes in climate change coverage in 10 countries (2006–2018)

Climate change poses a challenge to countries across the world, with news media being an important source of information on the issue. To understand how and how much news media cover climate change, this study compares coverage in ten countries from the Global North and the Global South between 2006 and 2018 (N = 71,674). Based on a panel analysis, we illustrate that news media attention varies across countries and is often associated with political, scientific, and (partly) societal focusing events. Based on an automated content analysis, we also find that news media do not only cover ecological changes or climate science, but that they focus predominantly on the societal dimension of climate change: They emphasize how humans are aware of, affected by, battle, or cause climate change. Overall, the study illustrates important differences between the Global North and the Global South. While countries from the Global North cover climate change more frequently, countries from the Global South focus more on its challenges and implications for society at large, i.e., the societal dimension of climate change.     

Conserved quantities and the inverse problem of reflection seismology

We show that the time-dependent wave equation in both one and two spatial dimensions possesses quantities which are globally conserved. We show how these conserved quantities can be used to determine the characteristic impedance, the rock density and the elastic constant of the rock. We also demonstrate that the conserved quantities possess the capability of determining and/or bracketing the unknown component of the direct pressure response, which is required to begin downward continuation algorithms. Further, we demonstrate that the conserved quantities are always available irrespective of the source structure in time. Numerical instability, arising if the filtering due to the source structure is too harsh, can then be controlled to a degree by demanding that the conserved quantities be indeed conserved.     

GRAPES模式中三维科氏力计算及其效果评估

作为一种连续可压缩流体,大气具有分层流体特性,其状态变化可由牛顿第二定律、热力学第一定律、连续方程和理想大气状态方程组成的偏微分方程组描述。为了更加精细地描述GRAPES全球模式的动力过程,使模式大气更接近真实大气,在全球非静力模式GRAPES中考虑三维科氏力作用,通过重新构建半隐式半拉格朗日求解大气动力方程组的亥姆霍兹方程系数,在不改变求解方案的前提下实现对GRAPES模式动力过程的更新。然后采用在静力平衡基础上建立的三维大气理想试验对新的动力过程进行数值试验,检验其计算效果和数值稳定性。结果显示,考虑三维科氏力的模式动力框架计算稳定,提高了三维标量和矢量场的计算精度,在水平1°×1°分辨率模式中,平衡流试验第15天计算结果标量场Π'的l₁和l₂误差分别为0.00023和0.0004,而三维矢量场 V 的l₁和l₂误差分别为0.002和0.003,均较原模式误差小一个数量级。在罗斯贝-豪威兹波、地形罗斯贝波和斜压波试验中,新框架均表现出很高的计算稳定性和良好的计算效果。      

Voronoi tessellation on the ellipsoidal earth for vector data

Voronoi tessellation, and its dual the Delaunay triangulation, provide a cohesive framework for the study and interpretation of phenomena of geographical space in two and three dimensions. The planar and spherical solutions introduce errors in the positional accuracy of both Voronoi vertices and Voronoi edges due to errors in distance computations and the path connecting two locations with planar lines or great circle arcs instead of geodesics. For most geospatial applications the introduction of the above errors is insignificant or tolerable. However, for applications where the accuracy is of utmost importance, the ellipsoidal model of the Earth must be used. Characteristically, the introduction of any positional error in the delimitation of maritime zones and boundaries results in increased maritime space for one state at the expense of another. This is a situation that may, among others, have a serious impact on the financial activities and the relations of the states concerned. In the context of previous work on maritime delimitation we show that the Voronoi diagram constitutes the ideal solution for the development of an automated methodology addressing the problem in its entirety. Due to lack of a vector methodology for the generation of Voronoi diagram on the ellipsoid, the aforementioned solution was constrained by the accuracy of existing approaches. In order to fill this gap, in this paper we deal with the inherent attributes of the ellipsoidal model of the Earth, e.g. the fact that geodesics are open lines, and we elaborate on a methodology for the generation of the Voronoi diagram on the ellipsoid for a set of points in vector format. The resulting Voronoi diagram consists of vertices with positional accuracy that is only bounded by the user needs and edges that are comprised of geodesics densified with vertices equidistant to their generators. Finally, we present the implementation of the proposed algorithm in the Python programming language and the results of two case studies, one on the formation of closest service areas and one on maritime boundaries delimitation, with the positional accuracy set to 1 cm.