Paleoclimatological and paleoenvironmental records since 4 000 a B. P. in sediments of alpine lakes in Taiwan

The 3 310-m-high Chia-min Lake records the climatic history since 4 ka B. P. in Taiwan. The warm/wet period before 2.2 ka B.P. seemed to correspond to the later part of the Holocene Megathermal, and the cold/dry period during 0–2.2 ka B. P. corresponded to the Katathermal. Before the termination of the Megathermal, an especially warm and humid segment (2.2–2.4 ka B. P.) emerged. The paleoclimatic records from Yuen-yang and Chi-tsai Lakes support the notion that the Megathermal in Taiwan terminated during 2—2.3 ka B. P. A warm segment (820–1 320 AD) in the Katathermal could be considered the Medieval Warm Period. The climate turned cold and dry after 1 320 AD and this indicated the onset of the Little Ice Age. These paleoclimatic variations are also in good agreement with those recorded in Great Ghost Lake.     

洋岛,海山碳酸盐岩的沉积特征及其古地理意义

高出水面的洋岛和潜伏水下的海山普遍存在于现代地球表面的各大洋中，地质历史中存在的古洋岛和古海山也逐渐为人们所认识。笔者从地形特征，沉积学特征，成岩作用和生物学特征几个方面对洋岛，海山进行了分析，洋岛，海山通常具有洋岛型火山岩基底和碳酸盐盖层的双层式地层结构，具有低分异度，探讨了古洋岛，古海山的鉴别对于再造古海洋，古地理格局的现实意义。     

Change of crustal gravitational potential energy in the Taiwan orogen by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence

The active convergence between the northwest corner of the Philippine Sea Plate and the southeast margin of the Eurasian Plate has given rise to the Taiwan mountain-building and produced numerous earthquakes. Among the earthquakes, the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake is the largest one recorded in the century. In this study, we examine the crustal gravitational potential energy (GPE) change in the Taiwan orogen caused by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence, which was catalogued by the regional broadband seismometer array for a whole year. As a result, we find that the crust was going up and down randomly during the earthquake sequence, but an overall cumulative gain of the crustal GPE, +1.82×10¹⁶ J, was rapidly achieved in 1 month after the main shock. The crustal GPE was nearly still afterwards and reached +1.90×10¹⁶ J in 1 year. Spatially, although the main surface faulting has occurred in western Taiwan, the crustal GPE gain is mainly distributed in central Taiwan at the area where the existing crustal GPE is high and the existing lithospheric GPE is relatively low. The crustal GPE loss by the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence can also be observed and is generally distributed at both sides of the crustal GPE gain area. The crustal GPE gain mainly found in central Taiwan corroborates that the uplift of the Taiwan orogen is principally taking place in central Taiwan, rather than in the more hazardous western Taiwan.     

Management of Historical Seismic Data Using GIS: The Island of Ischia (Southern Italy)

This paper presents the results of the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) inmanaging information on the effects of earthquakes in historical times on the island ofIschia. The unpublished sources on the Casamicciola earthquake of 28 July 1883 andthe extensive bibliography documenting the island's seismicity from 1228 showed theneed to proceed towards a type of data storage that would also allow management ofthe same data. Application of GIS techniques allowed us to insert, extract, handle,manage and analyse the data for the zoning of seismic damage on the island of Ischia.The end-product consists of information layers, such as maps of isoseismals, the damage, and hazard involved, as well as numerical tables associated to maps.The study was developed using GIS Arc-View 3.2 software (ESRI) and is structured inthematic vectorial levels and rasters. The overlapping themes constitute a cartographicdata base of the island. The damaged sites are located on a map at a scale of 1:10,000,with all the information on the 1883 earthquake (total number of houses, number ofcollapsed houses, collapsed or damaged rooms, photographs, plans of buildings, etc.)being associated to each site. The GIS is structured in such a way as to be able to beintegrated with further georeferenced data and with other databases. It is thus able toprovide support both for in-depth analyses of the dynamic processes on the island andextend the assessment to other natural risks (volcanic, landslides, flooding, etc.).     

Imaging the ramp–décollement geometry of the Chelungpu fault using coseismic GPS displacements from the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake

We use coseismic GPS data from the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake to estimate the subsurface shape of the Chelungpu fault that ruptured during the earthquake. Studies prior to the earthquake suggest a ramp–décollement geometry for the Chelungpu fault, yet many finite source inversions using GPS and seismic data assume slip occurred on the down-dip extension of the Chelungpu ramp, rather than on a sub-horizontal décollement. We test whether slip occurred on the décollement or the down-dip extension of the ramp using well-established methods of inverting GPS data for geometry and slip on faults represented as elastic dislocations. We find that a significant portion of the coseismic slip did indeed occur on a sub-horizontal décollement located at 8 km depth. The slip on the décollement contributes 21% of the total modeled moment release. We estimate the fault geometry assuming several different models for the distribution of elastic properties in the earth: homogeneous, layered, and layered with lateral material contrast across the fault. It is shown, however, that heterogeneity has little influence on our estimated fault geometry. We also investigate several competing interpretations of deformation within the E/W trending rupture zone at the northern end of the 1999 ground ruptures. We demonstrate that the GPS data require a 22- to 35-km-long lateral ramp at the northern end, contradicting other investigations that propose deformation is concentrated within 10 km of the Chelungpu fault. Lastly, we propose a simple tectonic model for the development of the lateral ramp.     

Transfer of Taiwanese ideas and technology to The Gambia, West Africa: a viable approach to rural development?

The development of Taiwan's agricultural sector contributed significantly to the country's transformation from virtual poverty after World War II to a modern industrial nation. Success resulted from the use of appropriate technologies, developed through an exceptionally close working relationship between government, research and development institutions, extension services and farmers in Taiwan. As part of their overseas development aid programme, the Republic of China on Taiwan has established Technical Missions in those developing countries where it receives political recognition. Among these is The Gambia, West Africa, where one focus of Taiwan's current Technical Mission is the development of women's market gardens. Although the gardens have proved successful, there is doubt as to whether their achievements will be sustained once Taiwan's Technical Mission in The Gambia has ended. Field research in Taiwan and in The Gambia, based largely on participatory techniques, has revealed that the low-tech methods introduced from Taiwan are appropriate for the Gambian environment. However, much depends on whether women participating in the schemes can commit sufficient time and energy to the gardens, as at present this is a limiting factor. The potential of the gardens may also be constrained by a lack of appropriate institutional infrastructure, particularly the scope for profitable disposal of garden produce. A major conclusion of the article is that successful transfer of appropriate technology to The Gambia is likely to be impeded by poorly developed coordination between groups that proved to be key 'players' in the development of agriculture in Taiwan: government, research and development institutions, extension services and producers.     

The development of talus slopes around Lord Howe island and implications for the history of island planation

Lord Howe Island is a small eroded remnant of a Late Miocene shield volcano. A fringing coral reef dissipates wave energy along a portion of the shoreline, but the remainder of the coast is rugged with spectacular high basaltic sea cliffs. This paper investigates the evolution of talus slopes that occur beneath the loftiest cliffs, and places this analysis within the context of a longer history of island planation that has resulted in a wide truncated shelf around the island. During the Last Glacial, when the sea level was lower than at present, talus slopes accumulated around the extent of the island's cliffed coast because material eroded from cliffs by subaerial processes could not be removed by marine processes. The survival of these slopes during the Holocene has depended on a balance achieved between rates of subaerial and marine erosion. This balance is fundamentally influenced by cliff height, as cliffs higher than 200 m are plunging or veneered by talus slopes, whereas lower cliffs have erosional shore platforms. On comparison with published erosion rates from inland basalt scarps it appears that marine processes may account for over 90 per cent of the total cliff retreat that has occurred at Lord Howe Island, yet contemporary coastal morphology attests to the significance of subaerial processes in recent times. It is likely that marine cliffing was very rapid soon after volcanism ceased, but rates of erosion decreased through time as wave energy became increasingly attenuated across a widening planation surface, and as increasing cliff heights yielded greater quantities of talus that provided protection from rapid marine erosion.     

Numerical Simulation of Wind and Temperature Fields over Beijing Area in Summer

1. IntroductionThe basic role of urban-rural boundary layer re-search is to study all kinds of physical process changesin the atmosphere boundary layer over urban and itssurrounding areas. Urban heat island (UHI) is a well-known feature of urban-rural climate. Attempts toincrease the understanding of the causes of the UHIand other urban-rural boundary layer phenomena haveused observational, theoretical and modelling methodssince long before. Seaman (1989) used a hydrostaticmodel, with real …     

Distribution of chlorophyll-a off the Changjiang River and its dynamic cause interpretation

Red tide,also called harmful algal bloom interna-tionally,is a disaster abnormal phenomenon of oceanecology with an explosive breed or dense assemble ofone or several phytoplanktons in a specific ocean en-vironment condition,colors the seawater,influencesand harms ocean living things.The formation of redtide is controlled mainly by a complex interplay ofbiological,physical and chemical processes,but themost main cause influencing the occurrence of red tideis the seawater eutrophication,i.e.,the…     

Changes in the spatial scale of Beijing UHI and urban development

The seasonal and interannual variations of Beijing urban heat island (UHI) are investigated in this paper using the temperature data from 1960 to 2000 at 20 meteorological stations in the Beijing region, and then the relationship between the intensity and spatial scale of UHI and Beijing urbanization indices is analyzed and discussed. Main conclusions are the followings. First, Beijing UHI shows obvious seasonal variations, and it is strongest in winter, next in spring and autumn, and least in summer. The seasonal variation of the UHI mainly occurs in the urban area. The UHI intensity at the center of Beijing is more than 0.8℃ in winter, and only 0.5℃ in summer. Second, the intensity of Beijing HUI exhibits a clear interannual warming trend with its mean growth rate (MGR) being 0.3088℃/10 a. The MGR of HUI is largest in winter, next in spring and autumn, and least in summer, and the urban temperature increase makes a major contribution to the growth of HUI intensity. Third, since the Reform and Opening, the urbanization indices have grown several ten times or even one hundred times, the intensity of HUI has increased dramatically, and its spatial scale also expanded distinctively along with the expansion of urban architectural complexes. Fourth, the interannual variation of urbanization indices is very similar with that of HUI intensity, and their linear correlation coefficients are significant at a more than 0.001 confidence level.