A combined study of macroseismic data and focal mechanisms applied to the West-Bohemian earthquake,Czechoslovakia

The main shock of the West-Bohemian earthquake swarm, Czechoslovakia, (magnitudem=4.5, depthh=10 km) exhibits an irregular areal distribution of macroseismic intensities 6° to 7° MSK-64. Four lobes of the 6° isoseismal are found and the maximum observed intensity is located at a distance of 8 km from the instrumentally determined epicentre. This distribution can be explained by the energy flux of the directS wave generated by a circular source, the hypocentral location and focal mechanism of which are taken from independent instrumental studies. The theoretical intensity, which is assumed to be logarithmically proportional to the integrated squared ground-motion velocity (i.e.,I=const+log v ² (t)dt), fits the observed intensity with an overall root-mean-square error less than 0.5°. It is important that the present intensity data can also be equally well explained by the isotropic source. The fit was attained by means of a horizontally layered model though large fault zones and an extended sedimentary basin suggest a significant lateral heterogeneity of the epicentral region. The results encourage a broader application of the simple modelling technique used.     

突发性地面增温与临震前兆——以1988年澜沧、耿马7.6,7.2级地震为例

本文通过较多的地面温度资料分析,认为1988年11月6日澜沧、耿马地震前几天,震区及其周围大范围的突发性地面增温异常是一种临震前兆,总结了增温异常的时空演变规律与地震活动的关系,并对其形成机制提出初步想法     

PCBs and OCPs in sediments from Hongfeng Reservoir in Guizhou Province, China

In this research, chlorinated hydrocarbons （polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides） were measured by GC-ECD in sediments from the Hongfeng Reservoir area. The concentrations of total PCBs range from 3.2 to 31.6 ng/g, among which PCB28, PCB52 are the major congeners with the concentrations from 0.5 to 4.6 ng/g, and from 0.4 to 28.1 ng/g, respectively. The concentrations of these pollutants decrease from surface to bottom, while the concentrations at 1-4 cm are lower than at 5-8 cm, suggesting the decline of PCBs input. TOC concentrations of sediment are found in a significant positive correlation with those of PCBs, suggesting that PCBs are mainly adsorbed on organic matter and particles. HCHs and DDTs are the predominant organochlorine pesticides with the concentrations ranging from 1.6 to 8.9 ng/g （average 3.2 ng/g） and 0.9 to 25.7 ng/g （average 7.8 ng/g）, respectively. β-HCH and γ-HCH （lindane） are the predominant HCH isomers from sediments, and p, p＇-DDE and p, p＇-DDT are the predominant DDT isomers. DDT/DDE＋DDD and α-HCH/γ-HCH ratios range from 0.6 to 0.9 and 0.1 to 3.0, respectively, which indicates more use of lindane than technical mixtures of HCHs before, and also suggests changes in HCHs and DDTs in the environment. The high values of β-HCH and p, p＇-DDE also show that atmospheric input is one of the important sources of the Hongfeng Reservoir, because β-HCH and p, p＇-DDE are stable and have low Sw and Pv so that they can be easily transferred over a long range in atmosphere.     

Early diagenesis of nurtrients （C, N, P and Si） stored in sediments of two reservoirs in southwestern China

Damming is a common anthropogenic intervention along the course of rivers, which is defined as ＂artificial-lake effect＂, both in China and across the world. Today as many as 48000 dams and/or reservoirs are in operation in the Changjiang River （Yangtze River） drainage area, and more are being constructed. While damming is well known to affect riverbome nutrient loads, and thus the riverine ecosystems owing to removal of carbon fixation, and removal of particles in reservoir sediments, there is limited information on the detailed early diagenesis of sediments in reservoirs including the regeneration processes of nutrients deposited in sediments and exchange flux across the sediment-water interface, which is important for mass balance of riverbome nutrients. In the present study, two large-size reservoirs, Wujiangdu Reservoir （WJDR） and Dongfeng Reservoir （DFR）, located on the main steam of the Wujiang River and with uniformity hydrography and discrepancy biogeochemical activity （e. g. primary production）, were selected for a comparative study on the detailed processes of nutrient regeneration. Water, pore water and sediment were sampled from these two reservoirs and dissolved organic carbon （DOC）, NH4^＋, NO3^-, PO4^3-, dissolved silica （DSi） in the overlying water and pore water, and total organic matter in sediments were determined. The results of correlation analysis suggested that in these two reservoirs, processes of nutrient regeneration near the sediment-water interface were significantly different. As a result of rapid decomposition of algae-derived ＂labile＂ organic matter in upper sediments, nutrient regeneration processes and upward fluxes in WJDR are dramatically stronger than those of DFR. NH4^＋ upward flux from sediment in WJDR was about 17 times higher than that in DFR. PO4^3- flux in WJDR is about 13 times above that in DFR. DOC flux in WJDR is larger that in DFR by 5 times, and DSi by 1 time.     

Effects of dynamic shear strength and time-histories stress analysis on newmark sliding block analyses

A simplified procedure for evaluating aseismic stability of slope subjected to earthquake shaking, in which the effect of dynamic shear strength and time-history stress on the yielding angular acceleration of sliding block is taken into account, is presented. The fundamental feature of this procedure is the dynamic shear strength. The numerical computations are performed by using the proposed method. It is shown that the computed sliding displacement for a given core dam, with either method of dynamic shear strength properly considered, is more rational compared with the conventional computational results based on static shear strength.     

Reservoir description using dynamic parameterisation selection with a combined stochastic and gradient search

There is a correspondence between flow in a reservoir and large scale permeability trends. This correspondence can be derived by constraining reservoir models using observed production data. One of the challenges in deriving the permeability distribution of a field using production data involves determination of the scale of resolution of the permeability. The Adaptive Multiscale Estimation (AME) seeks to overcome the problems related to choosing the resolution of the permeability field by a dynamic parameterisation selection. The standard AME uses a gradient algorithm in solving several optimisation problems with increasing permeability resolution. This paper presents a hybrid algorithm which combines a gradient search and a stochastic algorithm to improve the robustness of the dynamic parameterisation selection. At low dimension, we use the stochastic algorithm to generate several optimised models. We use information from all these produced models to find new optimal refinements, and start out new optimisations with several unequally suggested parameterisations. At higher dimensions we change to a gradient-type optimiser, where the initial solution is chosen from the ensemble of models suggested by the stochastic algorithm. The selection is based on a predefined criterion. We demonstrate the robustness of the hybrid algorithm on sample synthetic cases, which most of them were considered insolvable using the standard AME algorithm.     

Non-volcanic deep low-frequency tremors accompanying slow slips in the southwest Japan subduction zone

Non-volcanic deep low-frequency tremors in southwest Japan exhibit a strong temporal and spatial correlation with slow slip detected by the dense seismic network. The tremor signal is characterized by a low-frequency vibration with a predominant frequency of 0.5–5 Hz without distinct P- or S-wave onset. The tremors are located using the coherent pattern of envelopes over many stations, and are estimated to occur near the transition zone on the plate boundary on the forearc side along the strike of the descending Philippine Sea plate. The belt-like distribution of tremors consists of many clusters. In western Shikoku, the major tremor activity has a recurrence interval of approximately six months, with each episode lasting over a week. The tremor source area migrates during each episode along the strike of the subducting plate with a migration velocity of about 10 km/day. Slow slip events occur contemporaneously with this tremor activity, with a coincident estimated source area that also migrates during each episode. The coupling of tremor and slow slip in western Shikoku is very similar to the episodic tremor and slip phenomenon reported for the Cascadia margin in northwest North America. The duration and recurrence interval of these episodes varies between tremor clusters even on the same subduction zone, attributable to regional difference in the frictional properties of the plate interface.     

3-D seismic structure of the source area of the 1993 Latur, India, earthquake and its implications for rupture nucleations

The Latur earthquake (M_w 6.1) of 29 September 1993 is a rare stable continental region (SCR) earthquake that occurred on a previously unknown blind fault. In this study, we determined detailed three-dimensional (3-D) P- and S-wave velocity (V_p, V_s) and Poisson's ratio (σ) structures by inverting the first P- and S-wave high-quality arrival time data from 142 aftershocks that were recorded by a network of temporary seismic stations. The source zone of the Latur earthquake shows strong lateral heterogeneities in V_p, V_s and σ structures, extending in a volume of about 90 × 90 × 15 km³. The mainshock occurred within, but near the boundary, of a low-V_p, high-V_s and low-σ zone. This suggests that the structural asperities at the mainshock hypocenter are associated with a partially fluid-saturated fractured rock in a previously unknown source zone with intersecting fault surfaces. This might have triggered the 1993 Latur mainshock and its aftershock sequence. Our results are in good agreement with other geophysical studies that suggest high conductivity and high concentration of radiogenic helium gas beneath the source zone of the Latur earthquake. Our study provides an additional evidence for the presence of fluid related anomaly at the hidden source zone of the Latur earthquake in the SCR and helps us understand the genesis of damaging earthquakes in the SCR of the world.     

A way to synchronize models with seismic faults for earthquake forecasting: Insights from a simple stochastic model

Numerical models are starting to be used for determining the future behaviour of seismic faults and fault networks. Their final goal would be to forecast future large earthquakes. In order to use them for this task, it is necessary to synchronize each model with the current status of the actual fault or fault network it simulates (just as, for example, meteorologists synchronize their models with the atmosphere by incorporating current atmospheric data in them). However, lithospheric dynamics is largely unobservable: important parameters cannot (or can rarely) be measured in Nature. Earthquakes, though, provide indirect but measurable clues of the stress and strain status in the lithosphere, which should be helpful for the synchronization of the models.The rupture area is one of the measurable parameters of earthquakes. Here we explore how it can be used to at least synchronize fault models between themselves and forecast synthetic earthquakes. Our purpose here is to forecast synthetic earthquakes in a simple but stochastic (random) fault model. By imposing the rupture area of the synthetic earthquakes of this model on other models, the latter become partially synchronized with the first one. We use these partially synchronized models to successfully forecast most of the largest earthquakes generated by the first model. This forecasting strategy outperforms others that only take into account the earthquake series. Our results suggest that probably a good way to synchronize more detailed models with real faults is to force them to reproduce the sequence of previous earthquake ruptures on the faults. This hypothesis could be tested in the future with more detailed models and actual seismic data.