A successfully stress-forecast earthquake

A M = 5 earthquake in Iceland has been successfully 'stress forecast' by using variations in time delays of seismic shear wave splitting to assess the time and magnitude at which stress-modified microcracking reaches fracture criticality within the stressed volume where strain is released. Local investigations suggested the approximate location of the forecast earthquake. We report the criteria on which this stress forecast was based.     

成矿过程奇异性与矿产预测定量化的新理论与新方法

在分析地震、滑坡、洪水、暴雨、森林火灾等一系列非线性地球系统过程共同特征的基础上,笔者提出了成矿过程作为奇异性过程的命题。探讨了成矿过程奇异性、广义自相似性、自组织临界性等基本非线性特征的内在联系。从多重分形理论出发给出了:(1)度量成矿域空间结构不均匀性的局部奇异性分析模型;(2)度量成矿多样性与自相似性关系的系列广义自相似性度量模型;(3)首次给出了奇异性指标作为度量控矿要素与矿床分布相关关系的非线性模型,提出了从奇异性出发计算成矿后验概率的新的对数概率模型;(4)介绍了成矿奇异性的动力学模拟过程。详细介绍了非线性矿产资源预测理论和方法的基本内容和模型。     

海洋与气候学视域下中北太平洋过渡区研究现状、启示与对策

中北太平洋过渡区是高低纬海洋西边界强化动力系统的接续区和交汇区,是大尺度和中小尺度海洋过程的突出集中区,是研究海洋和海气系统多尺度过程与海洋气候和环境生态效应的关键区。文章从海洋学和气候学角度简述中北太平洋过渡区相关海域有关科学研究成果,并就相关科学问题研究现状和不足提出启发性研究对策和建议。结果表明,中北太平洋过渡区对认识全球变暖背景下海洋与气候变化的临界条件、临界状态、跨界触发、通道机制等研究具有重要参考价值,建议通过国际合作主导引领相关地区海洋自主或联合调查,系统构建气候变化观测体系,发展多尺度过程互馈机制和可预测性研究,创建仿生仿真多功能耦合模型,突破致害致灾风险预评估与区划技术关键,为深化海洋与气候变化认识,防灾减灾研究,海洋区域治理和海洋环境与生态安全保障提供坚实的科技支撑。     

大气酸沉降的自组织临界性

运用概率分布函数、矩分析、功率谱分析和无趋势波动分析(DFA)方法,分析了美国1978～2001年期间酸沉降数据, 发现大气酸沉降事件类似于沙堆模型中的崩塌事件,具有自组织临界性(SOC)。降水中氢离子沉降量(WHD)的频率分布符合双幂律分布,即在由临界WHD所区分的两个区间内,WHD的频率分布分别呈幂律分布;双幂律分布及临界WHD刻画了酸沉降事件的宏观特征。WHD时间序列具有1/fβ噪声特征,在时域上具有长程相关性(LRC)。降水中硝酸根离子和硫酸根离子沉降量与WHD表现为类似行为。此外,将正常降水的酸度值或环境容量作为大气酸沉降的临界状态,并以此类比为沙堆模型的临界稳态角度。因此,酸沉降的演化符合具有自组织临界性的复杂系统的三个基本特征。据此,作者认为酸沉降在频域上的幂律分布及在时域上的长程相关性是污染胁迫下大气自组织临界行为的标志,自组织临界行为是控制酸沉降演化趋势的内在机制之一。     

Statistical physics of fault patterns self-organized by repeated earthquakes

This work presents at attempt to model brittle ruptures and slips in a continental plate and its spontaneous organization by repeated earthquakes in terms of coarse-grained properties of the mechanical plate. A statistical physics model, which simulates anti-plane shear deformation of a thin plate with inhomogeneous elastic properties, is thus analyzed theoretically and numerically in order to study the spatio-temporal evolution of rupture patterns in response to a constant applied strain rate at its borders, mimicking the effect of neighboring plates. Rupture occurs when the local stress reaches a threshold value. Broken elements are instantaneously healed and retain the original material properties, enabling the occurrence of recurrent earthquakes. Extending previous works (Cowie et al., 1993;Miltenberger et al., 1993), we present a study of the most startling feature of this model which is that ruptures become strongly correlated in space and time leading to the spontaneous development of multifractal structures and gradually accumulate large displacements. The formation of the structures and the temporal variation of rupture activity is due to a complex interplay between the random structure, long-range elastic interactions and the threshold nature of rupture physics. The spontaneous formation of fractal fault structures by repeated earthquakes is mirrored at short times by the spatio-temporal chaotic dynamics of earthquakes, well-described by a Gutenberg-Richter power law. We also show that the fault structures can be understood as pure geometrical objects, namely minimal manifolds, which in two dimensions correspond to the random directed polymer (RDP) problem. This mapping allows us to use the results of many studies on the RDP in the field of statistical physics, where it is an exact result that the minimal random manifolds in 2D systems are self-affine with a roughness exponent 2/3. We also present results pertaining to the influence of the degree of stress release per earthquake on the competition between faults. Our results provide a rigorous framework from which to initiate rationalization of many, reported fractal fault studies.     

Self-organised criticality and fluid-rock interactions in the brittle field

The concept of self-organised criticality (SOC) has recently been suggested as a paradigm for the long-term behaviour of earthquakes, even though many of the currently-proposed models require some tuning of the state variables or local conservation rules to produce the universally-observed Gutenberg-Richter frequency-magnitude distribution witha b value near 1. For example, a systematic negative correlation is predicted between modelb values and the degree of conservation of local force after the slip of a single element in an elastic spring/block/frictional slider model. A similar relation is described here for a cellular automaton model with constitutive laws based on fracture mechanics. Such systems, although critical phenomena in the sense of producing order on all scales, are clearly not universal, and may not in general even be true examples of SOC. Nevertheless they adequately reproduce both the observed power-law (fractal or multifractal) scaling and its reported short-term fluctuation.We also present experimental and field evidence for similar systematic variations inb value with the degree of force conservation (expressed in terms of a normalised crack extension force) during subcritical crack growth involving the physical and chemical influence of pore fluids during a single cycle of failure both in tension and compression. We find that the level of conservation is strongly influenced by fluid-rock interaction under stress, allowing energy partition into processes such as: physico-chemical stress corrosion reactions; the dissolution and precipitation of mineral species on crack surfaces; and the purely mechnical phenomenon of dilatant hardening. All of these are known to occur in the Earth on a local scale, but few have been explicitly included in automaton models of seismicity. The implication is that over long time periods pore fluids may exert a strong physical and chemical influence on the universal state of SOC which the system evolves in a complex interplay of local feedback mechanisms keeping the system near criticality, perhaps most strikingly due to the valve action of faults. In the short term, crustal fluids might nevertheless be responsible for systematic local fluctuations about this average state.     

Modeling fragmentation in two dimensions

Three cellular automaton toy-models of fragmentation in two-dimensional lattices are explored. Of the three models, two can be considered in the class of simple bond percolation, and one as correlated bond percolation. Fractal fragment-size distribution in all models is found away from criticality, providing a certain fraction of the bonds is designated with considerably larger strengths than the rest in the system. As the fraction of these bonds is raised from zero, the fragment-size distribution transforms smoothly from exponential forms into a power law. Though each model takes a different path to the fractal distribution, they all show the same fractal exponent of 1.85(5). As might be expected in one dimension, the same models of their variants, failed to produce fractal distributions.     

Symmetropy of earthquake patterns: asymmetry and rotation in a disordered seismic source

We demonstrate that the idea of symmetropy can be used for quantification of earthquake patterns. The symmetropy can be considered as a measure of asymmetry. A pattern is richer in asymmetry when the symmetropy is smaller. The specific results of its applications are obtained as follows. In a discrete model of a seismic source with self-organized criticality, the spatial patterns of earthquakes during critical states and sub-critical states are distinguished by the behaviour of the symmetropy: sub-critical patterns show that the symmetropy is approximately a constant but this has various values during critical states. The critical patterns show asymmetric property without any asymmetric force from the outside and without asymmetric intracellular rule. We show that the emergence of asymmetric patterns is a generic feature of dynamic ruptures in our model. Such a generic asymmetry results from the model which is an inherently discrete system consisting of finite-sized cells. These cells may represent geometrical disordered fault zones. We further discuss rotational motions that generate seismic rotational waves. In micromorphic continuum theory, such rotations are attributed to dynamic ruptures in disordered systems. We note that the concept of disorder in this theory is expressed by a set of finite-sized microstructures and is consistent with the concept of disorder modelled in the present study. Thus, we suggest that the spatially asymmetric patterns of earthquakes might be related to the rotational motions, because both come from dynamic ruptures in a discrete fault zone without a well-defined continuum limit.