Vertical seismic compressional- and shear-wave (P-and S-wave) profiles were collected from three shallow boreholes in sediment of the upper Mississippi embayment. The site of the 60-m hole at Shelby Forest, Tennessee, is on bluffs forming the eastern edge of the Mississippi alluvial plain. The bluffs are composed of Pleistocene loess, Pliocene-Pleistocene alluvial clay and sand deposits, and Tertiary deltaic-marine sediment. The 36-m hole at Marked Tree, Arkansas, and the 27-m hole at Risco, Missouri, are in Holocene Mississippi river floodplain sand, silt, and gravel deposits. At each site, impulsive P- and S-waves were generated by man-made sources at the surface while a three-component geophone was locked downhole at 0.91-m intervals.
Consistent with their very similar geology, the two floodplain locations have nearly identical S-wave velocity (VS) profiles. The lowest VS values are about 130 m s−1, and the highest values are about 300 m s−1 at these sites. The shear-wave velocity profile at Shelby Forest is very similar within the Pleistocene loess (12 m thick); in deeper, older material, VS exceeds 400 m s−1.
At Marked Tree, and at Risco, the compressional-wave velocity (VP) values above the water table are as low as about 230 m s−1, and rise to about 1.9 km s−1 below the water table. At Shelby Forest, VP values in the unsaturated loess are as low as 302 m s−1. VP values below the water table are about 1.8 km s−1. For the two floodplain sites, the VP/VS ratio increases rapidly across the water table depth. For the Shelby Forest site, the largest increase in the VP/VS ratio occurs at 20-m depth, the boundary between the Pliocene-Pleistocene clay and sand deposits and the Eocene shallow-marine clay and silt deposits.
Until recently, seismic velocity data for the embayment basin came from eartquake studies, crustal-scale seismic refraction and reflection profiles, sonic logs, and from analysis of dispersed earthquake surface waves. Since 1991, seismic data for shallow sediment obtained from reflection, refraction, crosshole and downhole techniques have been obtained for sites at the northern end of the embayment basin. The present borehole data, however, are measured from sites representative of large areas in the Mississippi embayment. Therefore, they fill a gap in information needed for modeling the response of the embayment to destructive seismic shaking. 相似文献
We present an overview of our recent results on utilizing small earthquakes in the earthquake engineering practice. Site-specific ground motion time-histories of large earthquakes can be successfully simulated using recordings of small earthquakes which are often referred to as 'empirical Green's functions' in seismology. Another important practical problem is whether and how these observations can be used in seismic risk studies which are based on empirical attenuation relations for ground motion parameters. We study a possibility of extrapolating attenuation relations for small earthquakes, to larger magnitudes using the data from the Garner Valley downhole array in Southern California. Finally we introduce efficient ground motion processing techniques in frequency- and time-domains and apply them to site response estimation. 相似文献
The seismic ground motion of a test area in the eastern district of Naples is computed with a hybrid technique based on the mode summation and the finite difference methods. This technique allows us the realistic modelling of source and propagation effects, including local soil conditions. In the modelling, we consider the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, a good example of strong shaking for the area of Naples, which is located about 90 km from the epicenter.The detailed geological setting is reconstructed from a large number of drillings. The sub-soil is mainly formed by alluvial (ash, stratified sand and peat) and pyroclastic materials overlying a pyroclastic rock (yellow neapolitan tuff), representing the neapolitan bedrock. The detailed information available on mechanical properties of the sub-soil and its geometry warrants the application of the sophisticated hybrid technique.As expected, the sedimentary cover causes an increase of the signal's amplitudes and duration. If thin peat layers are present, the amplification effects are reduced, and the peak ground accelerations are similar to those observed for the bedrock model. This can be explained by the backscattering of wave energy at such layers, that tend to seismically decouple the upper from the lower part of the structure.For SH-waves, the influence of the variations of the S-wave velocities on the spectral amplification is studied, by considering locally measured velocities and values determined from near-by down-hole measurements. The comparison between the computed spectral amplifications confirms the key role of an accurate determination of the seismic velocities of the different layers.The comparison performed between a realistic 2-D seismic response and a standard 1-D response, based on the vertical propagation of waves in a plane layered structure, shows considerable difference, from which it is evident that serious caution must be taken in the modelling of expected ground motion at a specific site. 相似文献
The structural feature shown on a remote sensing image is a synthetic result ofcombination of the deformations produced during the entire geological history of an area.Therefore, the respective tectonic stress field of each of the different stages in the complexdeformation of an area can be reconstructed in three steps: (1) geological structures formed atdifferent times are distinguished in remote sensing image interpretation; (2) structuraldeformation fields at different stages are determined by analyzing relationships betweenmicrostructures (joints and fractures) and the related structures (folds and faults); and (3)tectonic stress fields at different stages are respectively recovered through a study of the featuresof structural deformation fields in different periods. Circular structures and related circlular and radial joints are correlated in space to con-cealed structural rises. The authors propose a new method for establishing a natural model ofthe concealed structural rises and calculating the tectonic stress field by using quantitative dataof the remote sensing information of circular structures and related linear structures. 相似文献
Introduction Both Sichuan and Yunnan are provinces with more earthquakes. Based on catalogue of strong earthquakes in China compiled by the Prediction Department of China Earthquake Administration, there are 639 M5.0 earthquakes during 26 B.C.~A.D. 2001. Among them, 475 are M=5.0~5.9 events, 124 are M=6.0~6.9 events, 39 are M=7.0~7.9 events, and one is M=8 event occurred in Sichuan and Yunnan area. Here is one of the areas where seismic activities are most active in China. Sichuan-Yun… 相似文献