Geophysical methods applied to fault characterization and earthquake potential assessment in the Lower Tagus Valley, Portugal

The study region is located in the Lower Tagus Valley, central Portugal, and includes a large portion of the densely populated area of Lisbon. It is characterized by a moderate seismicity with a diffuse pattern, with historical earthquakes causing many casualties, serious damage and economic losses. Occurrence of earthquakes in the area indicates the presence of seismogenic structures at depth that are deficiently known due to a thick Cenozoic sedimentary cover. The hidden character of many of the faults in the Lower Tagus Valley requires the use of indirect methodologies for their study. This paper focuses on the application of high-resolution seismic reflection method for the detection of near-surface faulting on two major tectonic structures that are hidden under the recent alluvial cover of the Tagus Valley, and that have been recognized on deep oil-industry seismic reflection profiles and/or inferred from the surface geology. These are a WNW–ESE-trending fault zone located within the Lower Tagus Cenozoic basin, across the Tagus River estuary (Porto Alto fault), and a NNE–SSW-trending reverse fault zone that borders the Cenozoic Basin at the W (Vila Franca de Xira–Lisbon fault). Vertical electrical soundings were also acquired over the seismic profiles and the refraction interpretation of the reflection data was carried out. According to the interpretation of the collected data, a complex fault pattern disrupts the near surface (first 400 m) at Porto Alto, affecting the Upper Neogene and (at least for one fault) the Quaternary, with a normal offset component. The consistency with the previous oil-industry profiles interpretation supports the location and geometry of this fault zone. Concerning the second structure, two major faults were detected north of Vila Franca de Xira, supporting the extension of the Vila Franca de Xira–Lisbon fault zone northwards. One of these faults presents a reverse geometry apparently displacing Holocene alluvium. Vertical offsets of the Holocene sediments detected in the studied geophysical data of Porto Alto and Vila Franca de Xira–Lisbon faults imply minimum slip rates of 0.15–0.30 mm/year, three times larger than previously inferred for active faults in the Lower Tagus Valley and maximum estimates of average return periods of 2000–5000 years for M 6.5–7 co-seismic ruptures.     

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.     

Deep seismic reflection study over the Vindhyans of Rajasthan: Implications for geophysical setting of the basin

This paper presents results of high-resolution deep seismic reflection profiling of the Proterozoic Vindhyan basin of the Rajasthan area along the Chandli-Bundi-Kota-Kunjer profile. Seismic images have been used to estimate the thickness of Vindhyan strata as well as to understand the tectonic framework of the basin. The results are constrained by gravity, magnetic and magnetotelluric data. The study reveals gentle SE-dipping reflection bands representing the Vindhyan strata. The seismic sections depict gradual thickening of the Vindhyan succession towards southeast from Bundi. The velocities of the upper and lower Vindhyans are identified as 4.6-4.8 km/s and 5.1-5.3 km/s. The NW limit of the Vindhyan basin is demarcated by the Great Boundary Fault (GBF) that manifests as a 30 km wide NW dipping thrust fault extending to a depth of 30 km.     

Effect of sampling and linkage on fault length and length–displacement relationship

The power-law exponent (n) in the equation: D=cL ⁿ , with D = maximum displacement and L = fault length, would be affected by deviations of fault trace length. (1) Assuming n=1, numerical simulations on the effect of sampling and linkage on fault length and length–displacement relationship are done in this paper. The results show that: (a) uniform relative deviations, which means all faults within a dataset have the same relative deviation, do not affect the value of n; (b) deviations of the fault length due to unresolved fault tip decrease the values of n and the deviations of n increase with the increasing length deviations; (c) fault linkage and observed dimensions either increase or decrease the value of n depending on the distribution of deviations within a dataset; (d) mixed deviations of the fault lengths are either negative or positive and cause the values of n to either decrease or increase; (e) a dataset combined from two or more datasets with different values of c and orders of magnitude also cause the values of n to deviate. (2) Data including 19 datasets and spanning more than eight orders of fault length magnitudes (10⁻²–10⁵ m) collected from the published literature indicate that the values of n range from 0.55 to 1.5, the average value being 1.0813, and the peak value of n _d (double regression) is 1.0–1.1. Based on above results from the simulations and published data, we propose that the relationship between the maximum displacement and fault length in a single tectonic environment with uniform mechanical properties is linear, and the value of n deviated from 1 is mainly caused by the sampling and linkage effects.     

西藏俄卡地银多金属异常区地球化学

异常形态、分布严格受推覆断裂控制,范围大、浓集中心明显,浓度变化及因子载荷表明。区内找Ag、Pb有利,而Sb又为其最佳指示元素。     

Detection of rice sheath blight for in-season disease management using multispectral remote sensing

Timely diagnosis of crop diseases in fields is critical for precision on-farm disease management. Remote sensing technology can be used as an effective and inexpensive method to identify diseased plants in a field scale. However, due to the diversity of crops and their associated diseases, application of the technology to agriculture is still in research stage, which needs to be elaborately investigated for algorithm development and standard image processing procedures. In this paper, we examined the applicability of broadband high spatial-resolution ADAR (Airborne Data Acquisition and Registration) remote sensing data to detect rice sheath blight and developed an approach to further explore the applicability. Based on the field symptom measurements, a comprehensive field disease index (DI) was constructed to measure infection severity of the disease and to relate to image sampled infections. In addition to direct band digital number (DN) values, band ratio indices and standard difference indices were used to examine possible correlations between field and image data. The results indicated that the broadband remote sensing imagery has the capability to detect the disease. Some image indices such as RI₁₄, SDI₁₄ and SDI₂₄ worked better than others. A correlation coefficient above 0.62 indicated that these indices would be valuable to use for identification of the rice disease. In the validation analysis, we obtained a small root mean square error (RMS = 9.1), confirming the applicability of the developed method. Although the results were encouraging, it was difficult to discriminate healthy plants from light infection ones when DI < 20 because of their spectral similarities. Hence, it was clear that identification accuracy increases when infection reaches medium-to-severe levels (DI > 35). This phenomenon illustrated that remote sensing images with higher spectral resolution (more bands and narrower bandwidth) were required in order to further examine the capability of separating the light diseased plants from healthy plants.     

The presence, characteristics and earthquake implications of the St. Lawrence fault zone within and near Lake Ontario (Canada–USA)

Questions persist concerning the earthquake potential of the populous and industrial Lake Ontario (Canada–USA) area. Pertinent to those questions is whether the major fault zone that extends along the St. Lawrence River valley, herein named the St. Lawrence fault zone, continues upstream along the St. Lawrence River valley at least as far as Lake Ontario or terminates near Cornwall (Ontario, Canada)–Massena (NY, USA). New geological studies uncovered paleotectonic bedrock faults that are parallel to, and lie within, the projection of that northeast-oriented fault zone between Cornwall and northeastern Lake Ontario, suggesting that the fault zone continues into Lake Ontario. The aforementioned bedrock faults range from meters to tens of kilometers in length and display kinematically incompatible displacements, implying that the fault zone was periodically reactivated in the study area. Beneath Lake Ontario the Hamilton–Presqu'ile fault lines up with the St. Lawrence fault zone and projects to the southwest where it coincides with the Dundas Valley (Ontario, Canada). The Dundas Valley extends landward from beneath the western end of the lake and is marked by a vertical stratigraphic displacement across its width. The alignment of the Hamilton–Presqu'ile fault with the St. Lawrence fault zone strongly suggests that the latter crosses the entire length of Lake Ontario and continues along the Dundas Valley.The Rochester Basin, an east–northeast-trending linear trough in the southeastern corner of Lake Ontario, lies along the southern part of the St. Lawrence fault zone. Submarine dives in May 1997 revealed inclined layers of glaciolacustrine clay along two different scarps within the basin. The inclined layers strike parallel to the long dimension of the basin, and dip about 20° to the north–northwest suggesting that they are the result of rigid-body rotation consequent upon post-glacial faulting. Those post-glacial faults are growth faults as demonstrated by the consistently greater thickness, unit-by-unit, of unconsolidated sediments on the downthrown (northwest) side of the faults relative to their counterparts on the upthrown (southeast) side. Underneath the western part of Lake Ontario is a monoclinal warp that displaces the glacial and post-glacial sediments, and the underlying bedrock–sediment interface. Because of the post-glacial growth faults and the monoclinal warp the St. Lawrence fault zone is inferred to be tectonically active beneath Lake Ontario. Furthermore, within the lake it crosses at least five major faults and fault zones and coexists with other neotectonic structures. Those attributes, combined with the large earthquakes associated with the St. Lawrence fault zone well to the northeast of Lake Ontario, suggest that the seismic risk in the area surrounding and including Lake Ontario is likely much greater than previously believed.     

内蒙古色尔腾山山前断裂(乌句蒙口-东风村段)的断层活动与古地震事件

通过对色尔腾山山前断裂乌句蒙口 -东风村段的遥感资料解释、野外地质地貌考察 ,并通过对重点地段的古地震探槽开挖 ,获得了该断裂段晚更新世晚期以来的垂直位移速率是 0 88～ 1 83mm a ,全新世中期以来的垂直位移速率是 0 89mm a。通过 2个大型探槽的开挖、古地震事件分析和相关堆积物的断代研究 ,以及用逐次限定方法分析整个断层段上的古地震事件 ,认定该断裂段上全新世以来发生了 5次古地震事件 :事件 1发生在距今 90 0 0± 130 0年 ,事件2发生在距今 6 5 0 0± 5 0 0年 ,事件 3发生在距今 5 5 70年左右 ,事件 4发生在距今 4 2 0 0± 30 0年 ,事件 5发生在距今 32 5 0± 2 5 0年。晚更新世晚期到距今 1万年之间 ,古地震事件很不完整。全新世以来的 5次古地震事件表现出一定的丛集特征。最早的一丛事件发生在距今 890 0年左右 ,第2丛发生在距今 6 5 0 0～ 5 70 0年之间 ,第 3丛事件发生在距今 32 5 0～ 4 2 0 0年之间。第 1丛与第 2丛古地震事件之间间隔为 2 4 0 0年左右 ,而第 2丛与第 3丛古地震事件之间仅间隔 15 70年左右。距今 32 5 0年以来 ,该断裂段上还没有发生过错断地表的地震事件 ,已经超出了古地震丛之间的重复间隔。因此 ,它是色尔腾山前活动断裂带上具备潜在危险的一个活动断裂段。     

肝硬化再生结节病的CT诊断与鉴别

本文目的是探讨肝硬化再生结节的CT诊断及鉴别，提高肝内结节的诊断水平。方法：对120例肝硬化再生结节的CT平扫及增强图象的分析。结果：肝硬化再生结节以圆形为主，直径在5mm－55mm之间，平扫多数呈高密度，结节的分布据结节的分型而定。结论：明确肝硬化再生结节的CT诊断依据及与肝癌、肝血管瘤的鉴别。