NEAR-FAULT DISPLACEMENT AND DEFORMATION OBTAINED FROM ONE-KILOMETER-LONG FAULT-CROSSING BASELINE MEASUREMENTS-A PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENT AT 2 SITES ON THE EASTERN BOUNDARY OF THE SICHUAN-YUNNAN BLOCK

The current and conventional fault-crossing short baseline measurement has a relatively high precision, but its measurement arrays usually fail to or cannot completely span major active fault zones due to the short length of the baselines, which are only tens to 100 meters. GNSS measurement has relatively low resolution on near-fault deformation and hence is not suitable for monitoring those faults with low motion and deformation rates, due to sparse stations and relatively low accuracy of the GNSS observation. We recently built up two experimental sites on the eastern boundary of the active Sichuan-Yunnan block, one crossing the Daqing section of the Zemuhe Fault and the other crossing the Longshu section of the Zhaotong Fault, aiming to test the measurement of near-fault motion and deformation by using fault-crossing arrays of one-kilometer-long baselines. In this paper, from a three-year-long data set we firstly introduce the selection of the sites and the methods of the measurement. We then calculate and analyze the near-field displacement and strain of the two sites by using three hypothetical models, the rigid body, elastic and composed models, proposed by previous researchers. In the rigid body model, we assume that an observed fault is located between two rigid blocks and the observed variances in baseline lengths result from the relative motion of the blocks. In the elastic model, we assume that a fault deforms uniformly within the fault zone over which a baseline array spans, and in the array baselines in different directions may play roles as strainmeters whose observations allow us to calculate three components of near-fault horizontal strain. In the composed model, we assume that both displacement and strain are accumulated within the fault zone that a baseline array spans, and both contribute to the observed variances in baseline lengths. Our results show that, from the rigid body model, variations in horizontal fault-parallel displacement component of the Zemuhe Fault at the Daqing site fluctuate within 3mm without obvious tendencies. The displacement variation in the fault-normal component keeps dropping in 2015 and 2016 with a cumulative decrease of 6mm, reflecting transverse horizontal compression, and it turns to rise slightly(suggesting extension)in 2017. From the elastic model, the variation in horizontal fault-normal strain component of the fault at Daqing shows mainly compression, with an annual variation close to 10^-5, and variations in the other two strain components are at the order of 10^-6. For the Longshu Fault, the rigid-body displacement of the fault varies totally within a few millimeters, but shows a dextral strike-slip tendency that is consistent with the fault motion known from geological investigation, and the observed dextral-slip rate is about 0.7mm/a on average. The fault-parallel strain component of the Longshu Fault is compressional within 2×10^-6, and the fault-normal strain component is mainly extensional. Restricted by the assumption of rigid-body model, we have to ignore homolateral deformation on either side of an observed fault and attribute such deformation to the fault displacement, resulting in an upper limit estimate of the fault displacement. The elastic model emphasizes more the deformation on an observed fault zone and may give us information about localizations of near-fault strain. The results of the two sites from the composed model suggest that it needs caution when using this model due to that big uncertainty would be introduced in solving relevant equations. Level surveying has also been carried out at the meantime at the two sites. The leveling series of the Daqing site fluctuates within 4mm and shows no tendency, meaning little vertical component of fault motion has been observed at this site; while, from the rigid-body model, the fault-normal motion shows transverse-horizontal compression of up to 6mm, indicating that the motion of the Zemuhe Fault at Daqing is dominantly horizontal. The leveling series of the Longshu site shows a variation with amplitude comparable with that observed from the baseline series here, suggesting a minor component of thrust faulting; while the baseline series of the same site do not present tendencies of fault-normal displacement. Since the steep-dip faults at the two sites are dominantly strike-slip in geological time scale, we ignore probable vertical movement temporarily. In addition, lengths of homolateral baselines on either side of the faults change somewhat over time, and this makes us consider the existence of minor faults on either side of the main faults. These probable minor faults may not reach to the surface and have not been identified through geological mapping; they might result in the observed variances in lengths of homolateral baselines, fortunately such variations are small relative to those in fault-crossing baselines. In summary, the fault-crossing measurement using arrays with one-kilometer-long baselines provides us information about near-fault movement and strain, and has a slightly higher resolution relative to current GNSS observation at similar time and space scales, and therefore this geodetic technology will be used until GNSS networks with dense near-fault stations are available in the future.     

2MASS near-infrared photometry of symbiotic stars

We present Two Micron All Sky Survey photometry for 216 symbiotic and possible symbiotic stars. This represents the most comprehensive near-infrared photometry for these sources which has been published to date. The results are used to define the statistics of S- and D-type stars; to investigate the photometric properties of Magellanic S-type symbiotics; and to define the possible evolution of D-type symbiotics within the J − H / H − K _S colour plane. It appears that the colours of D-type symbiotics are consistent with differing mass-loss rates d M /d t , provided that the grains have a silicate-like composition, and maximum temperatures of the order of ∼800 K.     

Improving efficiency in radio surveys for gravitational lenses

Many lens surveys have hitherto used observations of large samples of background sources to select the small minority which are multiply imaged by lensing galaxies along the line of sight. Recently surveys such as SLACS and OLS have improved the efficiency of surveys by pre-selecting double-redshift systems from SDSS. We explore other ways to improve survey efficiency by optimum use of astrometric and morphological information in existing large-scale optical and radio surveys. The method exploits the small position differences between FIRST radio positions of lensed images and the SDSS lens galaxy positions, together with the marginal resolution of some larger gravitational lens systems by the FIRST beam. We present results of a small pilot study with the VLA and MERLIN, and discuss the desirable criteria for future surveys.     

The environments and clustering properties of 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey selected starburst galaxies

We investigate the environments and clustering properties of starburst galaxies selected from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) in order to determine which, if any, environmental factors play a role in triggering a starburst. We quantify the local environments, clustering properties and luminosity functions of our starburst galaxies and compare to random control samples. The starburst galaxies are also classified morphologically in terms of their broad Hubble type and evidence of tidal merger/interaction signatures. We find the starburst galaxies to be much less clustered on large (5–15 Mpc) scales compared to the overall 2dFGRS galaxy population. In terms of their environments, we find just over half of the starburst galaxies to reside in low to intermediate luminosity groups, and a further ∼30 per cent residing in the outskirts and infall regions of rich clusters. Their luminosity functions also differ significantly from that of the overall 2dFGRS galaxy population, with the sense of the difference being critically dependent on the way their star formation rates are measured. In terms of pin-pointing what might trigger the starburst, it would appear that factors relating to their local environment are most germane. Specifically, we find clear evidence that the presence of a near neighbour of comparable luminosity/mass within 20 kpc is likely to be important in triggering a starburst. We also find that a significant fraction (20–30 per cent) of the galaxies in our starburst samples have morphologies indicative of either an ongoing or a recent tidal interaction and/or merger. These findings notwithstanding, there remain a significant portion of starburst galaxies where such local environmental influences are not in any obvious way playing a triggering role, leading us to conclude that starbursts can also be internally driven.     

A statistical study of Galactic SNRs using the PMN survey

The Parkes–MIT–NRAO (PMN) radio survey has been used to generate a quasi all-sky study of Galactic Supernova Remnants (SNRs) at a common frequency of 4.85 GHz (λ=6 cm). We present flux densities estimated for the sample of 110 Southern Galactic SNRs (up to δ=−65°) observed with the Parkes 64-m radio telescope and an additional sample of 54 from the Northern PMN (up to δ=+64°) survey undertaken with the Green Bank 43-m (20 SNRs) and 91-m (34 SNRs) radio telescopes. Out of this total sample of 164 selected SNRs (representing 71% of the currently 231 known SNRs in the Green catalogue) we consider 138 to provide reliable estimates of flux density and surface brightness distribution. This sub-sample represents those SNRs which fall within carefully chosen selection criteria which minimises the effects of the known problems in establishing reliable fluxes from the PMN survey data. Our selection criteria are based on a judicious restriction of source angular size and telescope beam together with careful evaluation of fluxes on a case by case basis. Direct comparison of our new fluxes with independent literature values gives excellent overall agreement. This gives confidence in the newly derived PMN fluxes when the selection criteria are respected. We find a sharp drop off in the flux densities for Galactic SNRs beyond 4 Jy and then a fairly flat distribution from 5 to 9 Jy, a slight decline and a further flat distribution from 9 to 20 Jy though the numbers of SNR in each Jy bin are low. We also re-visit the contentious Σ–D (radio surface brightness–SNRs diameter) relation to determine a new power law index for a sub-sample of shell type SNRs which yields β=−2.2±0.6. This new evaluation of the Σ–D relation, applied to the restricted sample, provides new distance estimates and their Galactic scale height distribution. We find a peak in the SNR distribution between 7–11 kpc with most restricted to ±100 pc Galactic scale height.     

The effects of stock size and environmental variability on Cape hake recruitment in Namibia: an unsolved puzzle (a comment on Kainge et al. 2013)

Measuring and forecasting recruitment are central to the understanding and management of fish stocks. Kainge et al. (2013) studied the effect of spawning stock size and environmental fluctuations on the recruitment levels of the Cape hake Merluccius capensis in Namibia. However, their study contains some flaws that undermine the conclusion that Cape hake recruitment is under the influence of upwelling in summer. Until those flaws are properly addressed, this conclusion, in our view, should be treated with caution.