The effect of the Mt St Helens eruption on tropospheric and stratospheric ions

Balloon-borne observations of electrical conductivity in the troposphere and stratosphere were performed using conductivity sondes at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany, from June to November, 1980, after the Mt St Helens eruption. A significant decrease of atmospheric ions in the altitudes from the troposphere to lower stratosphere has been detected until several months after the eruption in comparison with the observational results obtained before the eruption. Simulteneous ruby lidar observation a month after the eruption indicates an increased amount of aerosol at nearly the same altitude as that of conductivity decrease. Several months after the eruption it appears that aerosols detected by lidar and those effective in reducing ion concentration have different profiles.     

Seismicity, seismic input and site effects in the Sahel—Algiers region (North Algeria)

Algiers city is located in a seismogenic zone. To reduce the impact of seismic risk in this Capital city, a realistic modelling of the seismic ground motion (SGM) is conducted by using the hybrid method that combines the finite differences method and the modal summation. For this purpose, a complete database of geological, geophysical and earthquake data is constructed. A critical re-appraisal of the seismicity of the zone [2.25°E–3.50°E, 36.50°N–37.00°N] is performed and an earthquake list, for the period 1359–2002, is compiled. The analysis of existing and newly retrieved macroseismic information allowed the definition of earthquake parameters of macroseismic events for which a degree of reliability is assigned. Geological cross sections have been built up to model the SGM in the city, caused by the 1989 Mont-Chenoua and the 1924 Douéra earthquakes. Synthetic seismograms and response spectral ratio is produced for Algiers, and they show that the soft sediments in Algiers centre are responsible of the noticed amplification of the SGM.     

A contribution to seismic shear design of R/C walls in dual structures

The paper focuses on the seismic response of walls in dual (frame + wall) structures, with particular emphasis on shear behaviour. Although dual structures are widely used in earthquake-resistant medium-rise and high-rise buildings, the provisions of modern seismic codes regarding design of walls for shear are not fully satisfactory, particularly in the (common) case that walls of substantially different length form part of the same structure. Relevant provisions of the leading seismic codes are first summarised and their limitations discussed. Then an extensive parametric study is presented, involving two multistorey dual systems, one with identical walls, and one with walls with unequal length, designed to the provisions of Eurocode 8 for two different ductility classes (H and M). The walls of the same structures are also designed to other methods such as those used in New Zealand and Greece. The resulting different designs are then assessed by subjecting the structures to a suite of strong ground motions, carrying out inelastic time history analysis, and comparing the results against design action effects. It is found that although modern code procedures generally lead to satisfactory performance (differences among them do exist), the design of walls seems to be less appropriate in the case of unequal length walls. For this case a modified procedure is proposed, consisting of an additional factor to account for the relative contribution of walls of the same length to the total base and an improved envelope of wall shears along the height; this improved method seems to work better than the other procedures evaluated herein, but further calibration is clearly required.     

Inferred ground motions on Guadeloupe during the 2004 Les Saintes earthquake

Accurate estimates of the ground motions that occurred during damaging earthquakes are a vital part of many aspects of earthquake engineering, such as the study of the size and cause of the uncertainties within earthquake risk assessments. This article compares a number of methods to estimate the ground shaking that occurred on Guadeloupe (French Antilles) during the 21st November 2004 (M _w 6.3) Les Saintes earthquake, with the aim of providing more accurate shaking estimates for the investigation of the sources of uncertainties within loss evaluations, based on damage data from this event. The various techniques make differing use of the available ground-motion recordings of this earthquake and by consequence the estimates obtained by the different approaches are associated with differing uncertainties. Ground motions on the French Antilles are affected by strong local site effects, which have been extensively investigated in previous studies. In this article, use is made of these studies in order to improve the shaking estimates. It is shown that the simple methods neglecting the spatial correlation of earthquake shaking lead to uncertainties similar to those predicted by empirical ground-motion models and that these are uniform across the whole of Guadeloupe. In contrast, methods (such as the ShakeMap approach) that take account of the spatial correlation in motions demonstrate that shaking within roughly 10 km of a recording station (covering a significant portion of the investigated area) can be defined with reasonable accuracy but that motions at more distant points are not well constrained.     

Simulation of the dissolution of weathered versus unweathered limestone in carbonic acid solutions of varying strength

A simulation was undertaken within a climatic chamber to investigate limestone dissolution under varied carbonic acid (H₂CO₃) strengths as a possible analogue for future increases in atmospheric CO₂ arising from global warming. Twenty‐eight samples cut from a block of Bath (Box Hill) limestone from Somerville College, Oxford, which had been removed during restoration after 150 years in an urban environment, were weighed and placed in closed bottles of thin plastic containing varying concentrations of H₂CO₃. Half of the stone samples were derived from exposed surfaces of the stone block (weathered) while the others were obtained from the centre of the block on unexposed surfaces (unweathered). The purpose of this was to compare dissolution of previously weathered versus unweathered surfaces in strong (pH 4·73) versus weak (pH 6·43) solutions of H₂CO₃. A temperature of c. 19 °C was maintained within the chamber representing a plausible future temperature in Oxford for the year 2200 given current warming scenarios. The simulation lasted 25 days with a few stone samples being removed midway. Stone samples show reduced weight in all cases but one. There was greater dissolution of stone samples in a strong H₂CO₃ solution as conveyed by higher concentrations of total hardness and Ca²⁺ in the water samples as well as enhanced microscopic dissolution features identified using SEM. The simulation confirms that enhanced atmospheric CO₂ under global warming, given adequate moisture, will accelerate dissolution rates particularly of newly replaced limestone building stones. However, previously weathered surfaces, such as those on historical stone exposed for a century or more, appear to be less susceptible to the effects of such increased rainfall acidity. Conservation techniques which remove weathered surfaces, such as stone cleaning, may accelerate future decay of historical limestone structures by increasing their susceptibility to dissolution. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of the weightiness of site effects on reinforced concrete (RC) building seismic behaviour: The Adra town example (SE Spain)

The damage distribution in Adra town (south‐eastern Spain) during the 1993 and 1994 Adra earthquakes (5.0 magnitude), that reached a maximum intensity degree of VII (European Macroseismic Scale (EMS scale)), was concentrated mainly in the south‐east zone of the town and the most relevant damage occurred in reinforced concrete (RC) buildings with four or five storeys. In order to evaluate the influence of ground condition on RC building behaviour, geological, geomorphological and geophysical surveys were carried out, and a detailed map of ground surface structure was obtained. Short‐period microtremor observations were performed in 160 sites on a 100m × 100m dimension grid and Nakamura's method was applied in order to determine a distribution map of soil predominant periods. Shorter predominant periods (0.1–0.3 s) were found in mountainous and neighbouring zones and larger periods (greater than 0.5 s) in thicker Holocene alluvial fans. A relationship T = (0.049 ± 0.001)N, where T is the natural period of swaying motion and N is the number of storeys, has been empirically obtained by using microtremor measurements at the top of 38 RC buildings (ranging from 2 to 9 storeys). 1‐D simulation of strong motion on different soil conditions and for several typical RC buildings were computed, using the acceleration record in Adra town of the 1993 earthquake. It is noteworthy that all the aforementioned results show the influence of site effects in the degree and distribution of observed building damage. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF REHABILITATION MEASURES ON BED LOAD TRANSPORT AT THE SALZACH RIVER

1 BASIC PROBLEMFlood protecton, sPreaing of settlements and occuPatin Of river valleys were maor reasons to damand lindt rivers throughout Europe in the ndd 19th century. Engineers of those days often knew very wellabout the effects of their plannings: shortening the river length would accelerat the now and thusencourage the erosion into the river's sedAnents. Two vital advanages could be obtalned from that kindof constrUction, landuse of the fOrmer flood plains on the one and increasin…     

RESUSPENSION OF FINE SEDIMENT IN RESERVOIRS - A CASE STUDY OF THE LOWER INN RIVER

1 THE LOWhR unR INNThe Inn river has its source in the alPine region of the GraubUnden canton of Switzerand. ThecatChment area of about 260(X} kIn2 includes mountains of the central Alpes up to 40(X) m. The river runs5l7 km thrOugh the countries of SwitZerand, Austria and Germany on itS way into the Danube mver. Thedischarge of the river at its mouth in the city of Passau is mainly infiuenced by the snow melt in themountainous catchment area and vches between apProx. 200 m3ls durin…     

川中丘陵区土地利用变化的生态环境效应——以中国科学院盐亭紫色土农业生态试验站集水区为例

通过长期的观测数据分析与土地利用现状的对比 ,研究四川盆地中部丘陵盐亭紫色土农业生态试验站集水区的土地利用变化及其环境效应。结果表明 ,截流村土地利用自 6 0年代以来发生了巨大变化 ,其中有林地增长约 30 % ,有林地分布在丘陵坡顶、陡坎和地边 ,与农田形成镶嵌格局 ,由此构成的农林复合系统有较好的水土保持能力 ,缓减了农村燃料、饲料、材料和肥料的不足 ,具有良好的生态、社会和经济效应 ,初步实现了生态系统的良性循环。     

SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS ON ATMOSPHERIC ANOMALY OF THE TROPICAL INDIAN AND PACIFIC OCEANS IN NORTHERN WINTER

In terms of observational analysis and numerical simulations,study is performed of thesynergistic effects of the tropical Indian Ocean and Pacific SSTA on the atmosphere in northern win-ter.It turns out that the SSTA features show in-phase variation for the Indian Ocean and the central/eastern Pacific at low latitudes and anti-phase change compared with that in the neighborhood of thewestern Pacific“warming pool”.When negative SSTA in the western Pacific and positive SSTA inthe central/eastern Pacific and the Indian Ocean are available,the 500 hPa height anomaly exhibits awave train of a positive-negative-positive anomaly following a great-circle path emanating from thesubtropical western Pacific via the NW portion to North America,with enhanced westerly jet overmidlatitude East Asia and the NW Pacific,and v.v.The comparison to the results from the numeri-cal modeling of the tropical western Pacific SSTA reveals the importance of the synergistic effects ofthe oceans on atmospheric circulations.