THE APPLICATION OF IMAGE-BASED MODELING IN PALEOEARTHQUAKE TRENCH STUDY

The geological structure exposed by paleoearthquake trenches is the key material to the right cognition of fault activity and paleoearthquake. However, paleoearthquake trenching inevitably destroys active tectonic geomorphic evidence and trench exposures are usually difficult to reserve. The conventional process of recording the delicate geological information, manually constructing photomosaics by image-editing software, is time-consuming and produces undesirable artificial distortions. Herein, we explored the process of constructing trench orthophotomosaics and the 3D image model using the Image-based Modeling technology and applied it to the Liutiaohe trench across the Tianqiaogou-Huangyangchuan Fault, Gansu Province. Based on the 3D image modeling and orthophotomosaic, we firstly constructed the control points and scale bars on cleaned trench walls and collected photos of all sections of the trench with a digital camera in the field, and then reconstructed the 3D model of the trench through the Agisoft PhotoScan, an efficient image-based modeling software, and finally yielded the 3D image model of the trench and othophotomasaics of the trench exposures. The results show that the automated workflow can produce seamless, sub-millimeter-level high-resolution photomosaics more quickly, with precision in the centimeter range, and the 3D image model is of great help to identify strata and geological structures in trenches with much lower capital and labor costs and low expertise levels compared with LiDAR, meanwhile, the 3D archive benefits the share and communication and even allows future reinterpreting the site using new insights.     

Soil erosion in the Anthropocene: Research needs

Soil erosion is a geomorphological and, at the same time, a land degradation process that may cause environmental and property damage, loss of livelihoods and services as well as social and economic disruption. Erosion not only lowers soil quality on‐site, but causes also significant sediment‐related problems off‐site. Given the large number of research papers on this topic, one might therefore conclude that we know now almost everything about soil erosion and its control so that little new knowledge can be added. This conclusion can be refuted by pointing to some major research gaps. There is a need for more research attention to (1) improved understanding of both natural and anthropogenic soil erosion processes and their interactions, (2) scaling up soil erosion processes and rates in space and time, and (3) innovative techniques and strategies to prevent soil erosion or reduce erosion rates. This is illustrated with various case studies from around the world. If future research addresses these research gaps, we will (1) better understand processes and their interactions operating at a range of spatial and temporal scales, predict their rates as well as their on‐site and off‐site impacts, which is academically spoken rewarding but also crucial for better targeting erosion control measures, and (2) we will be in a better position to select the most appropriate and effective soil erosion control techniques and strategies which are highly necessary for a sustainable use of soils in the Anthropocene. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

LATE QUATERNARY PALEOEARTHQUAKES ON THE MIDDLE SEGMENT OF THE LIJIANG-XIAOJINHE FAULT,SOUTHEASTERN TIBET

More attention has been paid to the late Quaternary activity of the boundary fault of the Sichuan-Yunnan block in eastern Tibet. The Lijiang-Xiaojinhe Fault (LXF) locates along the boundary of the northwest Sichuan and central Yunnan sub-blocks in the Sichuan-Yunnan block. Clear displaced landforms show that the fault has undergone strong late-Quaternary activity. However there is no surface-rupturing earthquake occurring on the LXF in the historical record. The LXF crosses the city of Lijiang, one of the most important tourist cities in Southwest China. The rupture behavior on this fault remains unclear and it is hard to assess its seismic hazard in the future. In this study, on the base of the interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery, we chose the middle segment of the LXF and dug three trenches at Muzhuda, Hongxing, and Gantangzi sites to constrain the ages of paleoearthquakes combined with radiocarbon dating and OxCal modeling. The Muzhuda trench shows that at least three events occurred on the middle segment of the LXF at 7 940~6 540a BP, 4 740~4 050a BP and 1 830~420a BP, respectively. The Hongxing trench indicates that the LXF underwent two events at 5 120~3 200a BP and 2 100~1 220a BP. The Gantangzi trench reveals at least three paleoearthquakes at 44 980~17 660a BP, 7 210~3 810a BP and 2 540~1 540a BP, respectively. The events in the Gantangzi trench might be incomplete because of stratigraphic gap. These three trenches indicate that three events occurred on the middle segment of the LXF in the Holocene at 7 940~7 210a BP, 4 740~4 050a BP and 1 830~1 540a BP, respectively. Large earthquakes on the middle segment of the LXF appear to fit the quasi-periodic model with the mean recurrence interval of~3 000a and the estimated magnitude 7.5. Given the strong late-Quaternary activity of the middle segment of the LXF and a long elapsed time, we propose that the middle segment of the LXF might have a high seismic hazard potential in the near future.     

Study on Holocene Paleoearthquakes in Xizhang Trench on the Jiaocheng Fault Zone,Shanxi Province

Xizhang trench is located 10 km northwest of Taiyuan city, Shanxi Province, in front of a NNW-trending scarp of 4.6m height on the northern segment of the Jiaocheng fault zone. The dimensions of the trench are 108m in length, 8m in width, and 10m in depth. There are 18 horizons revealed in the trench. The upper strata are sandy loam; the upper strata of the downthrown block of the fault are gravels, the lower ones are an interbed of brown loam and sandy loam. The strata on the upthrown block of the fault are sandy loam containing gravel. The trench shows 3 fault planes, and the upper offset point on the fault plane is 1.5m below the ground surface, the newest dislocated stratum is （3.74±0.06） ka BP. The trench reveals a lot of deformation traces, such as fault planes, dislocated strata, colluvial wedges and formation tilting. The relationship between strata and faults in the trench shows that 3 paleoearthquake events have occurred at the Jiaocheng fault zone since the Early Holocene, they are about （3.74±0.06）- （3.06±0.26）ka BP, （8.35±0.09）ka- （3.74±0.06）ka BP, and（ 10.66±0.85） - （8.35±0.09）ka BP. The average interval among the events is 2.6 - 3.6ka. The minimum coseismic vertical displacements of the 3 events are 3.0m, 2.5m and 3.2m, respectively. The significance of Xizhang trench is that the Jiaocheng fault used to be active thousands of years ago, though there is no M ≥ 7.0 earthquake recorded in historical documents. Evidence of new Jiaocheng fault zone activity during the Holocene is important for the earthquake safety assessment of Taiynan city in the future.     

Isolation of plane shear wave using water saturated trench barrier

The article presents a theoretical investigation of the propagation of normally and obliquely incident plane shear waves past a rectangular trench filled up with water saturated soil sandwiched between anisotropic elastic media. The motivation for this work is due to the effectiveness of the isolation of waves by the in-filled rectangular trench. Unlike the most of the previous researchers, this model considers the soil–structure interaction effects and directly determines the influence of barrier in the form of in-filled trench on the mode of wave propagation. It is of interest to determine the reflection and transmission coefficients, and the energy partition distribution of shear waves in the in-filled rectangular trench showing the influence of barrier on the propagation of waves. An extensive parametric study through numerical computation is carried out to investigate the influence of the material properties of the in-filled trench and the amplitude ratios on shear waves. The in-filled trench barrier directly declines the intensity of waves significantly in such a way that the waves do not create any hazards to the nearby structures, if exists at all.     

南阳膨胀土的宏观结构与路堑边坡病害治理

南阳盆地是我国膨胀土主要分布地区之一,在宁(南京)西(西安)铁路施工工程地质调查中,发现南阳地区上第三系中新统湖相沉积膨胀土中发育的构造裂隙、中更新统冲洪积膨胀土中发育的卸荷裂隙和全新统湖沼相膨胀土中发育的收缩裂隙控制了路堑边坡病害的形式、规模和破坏特征。施工过程中采取了针对性措施治理边坡病害,取得了明显的工程效果。     

山西断陷系交城断裂全新世古地震活动初步研究

断错地貌调查及探槽开挖表明,晋中盆地西界分布的黄土台地的前、后缘均存在断层,断层的最新活动位于地表陡坎的前缘,地表见到的断层最新活动断面的上升盘是早全新世地层。同时,新民探槽开挖表明,该断裂在早全新世以后曾发生三次古地震事件,最新一次活动接近距今2748a,另两期古地震事件的时间分别距今4037～5910a及8360～5910a。如果取后两次古地震事件时间跨度的中值,这三次古地震事件的间隔分别是2225a和2162a,平均2193a。     

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空沟对列车运行引起的地基振动隔振效果研究

为研究空沟对高速列车引起地基振动的隔振效果,在已有研究基础上改进出一种新的解析研究模型。模型中首次运用了饱和半空间模型来研究地基上隔振沟对高速列车的隔振效果;隔振沟则通过在饱和半空间土体上设置3个合适宽度、截面为矩形的弹性层来模拟;中间矩形弹性层为路堤,路堤上方放置了枕木与轨道。枕木与轨道分别通过纵向异性Kirchhoff薄板与Euler梁来模拟,饱和土地基采用Biot多孔饱和介质理论来描述。控制方程通过傅立叶变换与傅立叶级数展开,在变换域中进行求解。研究表明,随着列车运行速度的提高,空沟的隔振效果明显提高;饱和土体固-液相的耦合作用对隔振沟的隔振效果的影响明显,尤其当列车运行速度超过土体表面Rayleigh波速时,随着土体渗透系数的增加,空沟隔振效果显著降低。此外,列车运行速度超过土体表面波速时,饱和土地基上空沟的隔振效果明显优于相应单相弹性地基上空沟的隔振效果。     

层状地基中空沟对交通荷载的竖向隔振分析

空沟是一种常用的连续隔振屏障,可以有效地降低人工振动。以位移为变量的二维格子法在波动问题计算中具有良好的适应性、高效性,兼备有限元与差分法的一些优点,应用该法针对层状地基中作用于路堤上的交通荷载引起振动的空沟竖向隔振问题进行了参数研究,分别考虑了上软下硬地基和上硬下软地基两种情况。研究结果表明：空沟宽度对隔振效果的影响较小;空沟深度与空沟的位置是影响隔振效果的关键因素,它们相互关联,其取值应综合考虑;在上述两类层状地基中,若空沟深度与上层土的厚度接近或相等均对竖向隔振不利;路堤高度越大对竖向隔振效果越不利。