1993年7—9月的全球地震动态

１９９３年第三季度，全球地震活动水平为中等偏高，明显高于上半年平均水平。日本北海道西南近海发生７．６级浅源地震，但不属于日本海沟地震。埃及西奈半岛发生５．７级地震，为今年亚欧带西段之最大地震。马里亚纳群岛发生８．１级中深震，使西北太平洋地区地震水平达到全球第一。兴都库什地区接连发生三次较大中深震，可能对我国西部地区地震活动有影响。墨西哥恰帕斯州近海发生７．３级地震，美洲带新的地震活动轮回正式开始。印度南部发生６．３级中强震，属于板内地震。     

1986年和1987年秋季西太平洋赤道附近海域的辐射状况

本文利用1986和1987年秋季在西太平洋赤道海域取得的短期辐射资料,分析了这一特定海域的辐射状况。揭示了所在海域太阳辐射的一些特征。这对了解该海域海气界面上的热状况以及它对所在海域天气气候的影响无疑都有帮助。     

Frost weathering and the saturation of coastal rocks

Measurements were made of the water content in coastal rocks, by simulating tidal oscillations in the laboratory, and by field measurement in eastern Canada. If rapid freezing takes place upon exposure to the air, saturation levels may be high enough to permit frost weathering in fine grained rocks in the lower portions of the intertidal zone. Near the high tidal level, however, it may be dependent upon a supply of water from the ice foot and from melting snow. If freezing is slow, frost action may be inhibited by desorption of the rocks while they are exposed by the ebb tide. There was no evidence of a level of permanent sea water saturation within the intertidal zone. Ambient temperature and humidity may affect the rate of rock desorption.     

Simulation of pebble abrasion on coastal benches by transgressive waves

Tumbler simulations of abrasion processes affecting rocks on basaltic marine benches have clarified the effects of mass and volume of rock fragments on their rate of wear. Several experiments indicate that rate of basalt wear increases with mass in the interval 1 g to 8 g, but is not related to volume of fragments abraded in seawater. Relatively small quantities of rock flour suspended in the immersant seawater substantially reduced the rate of basalt wear. Basalt and calcareous beachrock responded differently in systems with both rock types tumbling together. Examination of the cuttings from these low-energy encounters suggests that abrasion on elevated benches along exposed seacoasts reduces virtually all clastic material to particles of silt size or smaller, producing essentially no sand.     

华南沿海沉积盆地的新构造运动及其与地震的关系

华南沿海大多数中新生代沉积盆地属于断陷盆地，分析这类盆地的演化发育可以将其划分为完成型、继承型和新生型三类，它们的新构造运动特征，尤其是第四纪以来的活动性有明显差异。通过地质地貌方法初步估算了三类盆地的垂直构造运动的速率，在进行对比后认为，其构造运动的强度与地震活动有密切关系。指出三类盆地主要分布地区的两条地质界线对划分我国东南沿海地震可能有一定意义。     

Intermittent surging movements of a coastal landslide

Since the late 1960s there has been a large mudslide in coastal cliffs of Permo-Triassic strata (conglomerate overlying mudstone) at West Down Beacon, 2 km west of Budleigh Salterton, Devon. A total displacement of 100 m was achieved between 1981 and 1985 as the lobate toe of the mudslide pushed forward across the beach in eleven surges of movement. Each surge involved a displacement of between 5 and 15 m and was completed within a few hours. The toe moved by planar sliding, possibly on more than one seaward-dipping shear surface or zone. Occasionally there were additional relatively minor displacements (less than 1 m), but normally the mudslide was stationary between the major surges. After each surge high-oblique aerial photographs were obtained for stereoscopic interpretation. Debris falls from the cliff appear to have triggered some of the mudslide surges. A displacement recording of one surge has indicated that the rate of movement of the mudslide may have been partly controlled by variations in sea level during the tidal cycle.     

Dune formation on the humid tropical sector of the North Queensland Coast,Australia

Several previous attempts have been made to explain the apparent poor development of coastal dunes in the humid tropics in terms of lack of wind energy, failure of sand supply to the shoreline, excessive climatic wetness, salt crust formation on beaches, and the character of tropical back-beach vegetation. However, recent published reports indicate that coastal dune occurrences are more common in the humid tropics than was formerly thought, throwing suspicion on the idea that environmental conditions militate against dune formation in these areas as a whole. Evidence from the humid tropical sector of the North Queensland coast suggests that the poor development of dunes in this area primarily reflects poor sediment sorting in the beach and nearshore zone and low wind energy at the shoreline due to the nature of the coastal orientation and physiography in relation to the prevailing southeasterly winds. These limiting factors are not unique to humid tropical climates.     

The main issues affecting coasts of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans: a meta-analysis from Seas at the Millennium

A review of the world oceans in three volumes by 365 scientists, provides scope for several ‘meta-analyses' of the main problems affecting over 100 areas in the year 2000. This article summarises the main issues affecting a sub-set of the reviewed areas, covering Asian, African and Arabian countries dealt with in Volume 2, which included over 50 articles. From all issues raised, assessment is made of the nature of the major ones, including evaluation of reasons why so many of them remain important issues after so much attention to them. These include long standing problems, several problems more newly flagged as becoming particularly important, the issue of global warming and no less than three related issues connected with fishing and over exploitation. One or two issues such as industrial pollution and sewage, previously considered of almost universal concern, almost traditional pollution issues even, continue to feature strongly for some countries, but while these were almost always referred to in Seas chapters, by and large these categories appear not to be the most pressing of issues today, except in localized areas (albeit areas where huge numbers of people live). Perhaps other issues have simply taken over. They are excluded from this article.     

Forecasting extreme events in the tropical Indian Ocean sector climate

Prospects for forecasting climate variability over the tropical Indian Ocean sector, specifically extreme positive events of the Indian Dipole Mode (IDM), with lead times of a season or more are investigated using the NASA Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction Project (NSIPP) coupled-model system. The coupled system presents biases in its climatology over the Indian Ocean sector, which include (i) warmest sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) occurring in the central equatorial basin rather than on the eastside with the eastern (western) tropical SSTs up to 1 °C too cool (warm), (ii) a too northwest lying InterTropical Convergence Zonal over the ocean in boreal fall, (iii) a thermocline shallower (deeper) than observed west of Sumatra-Java (north of Madagascar), (iv) a delay of about a month in the onset (cessation) of the southwest (southeast) monsoon in the west (east) in boreal spring (fall). These biases affect the effectiveness of the SST-clouds-shortwave radiation negative feedback, the sensitivity of SST to wind-stress perturbations, and the character of equatorial coupled ocean-atmosphere modes. Despite these biases, ensemble hindcasts of the SST anomalies averaged over the eastern and western poles of the IDM for the decade 1993–2002, which included extreme positive events in 1994 and 1997/1998, are encouragingly good at 3-months lead. The onset of the 1997/1998-event is delayed by about a month, though the peak and decay are correctly timed. At 6-months lead-time, the forecast at the eastern pole deteriorates with either positive or negative false alarms generated each boreal fall. The forecast at the western pole remains good.     

Link between convection and meridional gradient of sea surface temperature in the Bay of Bengal

We use daily satellite estimates of sea surface temperature (SST) and rainfall during 1998–2005 to show that onset of convection over the central Bay of Bengal (88–92°E, 14–18°N) during the core summer monsoon (mid-May to September) is linked to the meridional gradient of SST in the bay. The SST gradient was computed between two boxes in the northern (88–92°E, 18–22°N) and southern (82–88°E, 4–8°N) bay; the latter is the area of the cold tongue in the bay linked to the Summer Monsoon Current. Convection over central bay followed the SST difference between the northern and southern bay (ΔT) exceeding 0.75°C in 28 cases. There was no instance of ΔT exceeding this threshold without a burst in convection. There were, however, five instances of convection occurring without this SST gradient. Long rainfall events (events lasting more than a week) were associated with an SST event (ΔT ≥ 0.75°C); rainfall events tended to be short when not associated with an SST event. The SST gradient was important for the onset of convection, but not for its persistence: convection often persisted for several days even after the SST gradient weakened. The lag between ΔT exceeding 0.75°C and the onset of convection was 0–18 days, but the lag histogram peaked at one week. In 75% of the 28 cases, convection occurred within a week of ΔT exceeding the threshold of 0.75°C. The northern bay SST, T _N , contributed more to ΔT, but it was a weaker criterion for convection than the SST gradient. A sensitivity analysis showed that the corresponding threshold for T _N was 29°C. We hypothesise that the excess heating (∼1°C above the threshold for deep convection) required in the northern bay to trigger convection is because this excess in SST is what is required to establish the critical SST gradient.