Safety Measures after the 2011 Joplin,Missouri, Tornado

Immediately following the May 2011 tornado, the city of Joplin, Missouri, initiated recovery efforts to rebuild the part of the community devastated by this event. In doing so, city officials introduced two new safety measures and recommended several others. The main objective of this paper is to explore the tornado survivors' compliance with the safety features recommended by the Joplin city authorities. Face‐to‐face interviews, as well as other methods, were used to survey respondents who were living within the tornado path (damage zones) at the time of the tornado. Results showed that 43 percent of all respondents implemented at least one recommended tornado measure in rebuild or repair their destroyed/damaged homes. Further, it was found that three variables considered here— rebuild or repair, damage zone category, and perceived tornado risk—were all significant contributors to a homeowner's decision to implement recommended tornado safety measures. The paper concludes with a recommendation for expanding tornado safety education among the respondents.     

基于扎根理论的节事场所依赖维度探索性研究——以2011西安世界园艺博览会为例

场所依赖(place attachment)探讨的是个人对充满意义的特定场所产生的某种认知或感情的联系。作为一项探索性研究,以2011西安世界园艺博览会为案例,采用质性研究方法,通过参与观察和深度访谈等手段获取研究资料,运用扎根理论深入分析游客的活动特征和情感态度,研究游客的节事场所依赖特征。在此基础上挖掘和提炼节事场所依赖的维度,最终构建一个由个体、社会、场所和节事4个维度构成的节事场所依赖PSPE概念模型,为节事场所依赖的定量研究打下基础。     

2011年日本东北大地震（M_W=9.0）震间与震前变形场特征及其对强震预测的启示

强震震前(preseismic)动力学过程的研究对于地震预测具有十分重要的意义,但由于观测资料的限制,目前对强震前孕震区力学状态及其演化过程的认识还非常有限.2011年日本东北9.0特大地震(Tohoku-Oki)发生在GPS观测台站最为密集的地区,为研究特大地震震间(interseismic)与震前的变形状态提供了难得的机会.文中将利用日本东北大地震之前连续的GPS观测资料,分别计算震间与震前的速度场与变形场.通过对比分析发现,日本东北地区(Tohoku)震前的应变状态与震间的有很大的不同,震间的变形主要受到太平洋板块向日本海沟北西西向的俯冲挤压作用所控制,其主压应变以近东西向压缩为主,日本东北地区的运动方向与太平洋板块的运动方向大体一致.但是,临近地震前(震前)日本东北地区的运动方向发生了很大变化,震前30天的连续GPS观测结果显示,速度场的优势方向经常变换,间歇性地出现与太平洋板块运动方向相反的情况.这意味着震前孕震区的力学状态发生了很大的改变.这种变化可能与震前破裂成核或慢滑移及慢地震等过程有关,这些过程将加速或促进大地震的发生,从而为大地震的发生准备了力学条件.值得特别强调的是,这些现象都是可以通过直接观测能够发现的大地震之前的异常现象.由此可见,加密GPS站点进行连续观测,寻找震前变形异常区以及探索异常的物理机制对于地震预测预报有重要的科学意义.     

King Canute muses in the South Seas: Why aren’t Pacific Islands transitioning to low carbon sea transport futures?

Transition to low carbon sea transport is a logical response to the extreme dependency of the Pacific Islands region on imported fossil fuel, its significant vulnerability to the effects of climate change and the critical shipping needs of Pacific Island countries (PICs). Building on previous work in low carbon sea transport in the Pacific, this paper further considers the barriers to achieving such transition by assessing, through a ‘post-Paris Agreement’ lens, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by PICs and contrasting these to the near total lack of investment and planning for low carbon transition in the transport sector with the parallel occurrence in the electricity sector where ~USD 2 billion of donor investment is deployed or queued despite electricity using only ~20% of fossil fuel across the region. Consistent with recent international studies, inadequate and inappropriate financing and policy have been identified as dominant transition barriers for low carbon sea transport development in PICs. This paper further examines the regional level barriers to policy development, and finds them inhibited by the silo nature of the major regional actors. The implications that the Paris Agreement has for climate financing to support the essential research and capacity development needed to underpin a successful low carbon sea transport transition strategy at any useful scale and speed are also considered in this paper.     

Site-specific and spatially-distributed ground-motion intensity estimation in the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes

This paper presents site-specific and spatially-distributed ground-motion intensity estimates which have been utilized in the aftermath of the 2010–2011 Canterbury, New Zealand earthquakes. The methodology underpinning the ground motion intensity estimation makes use of both prediction models for ground motion intensity and its within-event spatial correlation. A key benefit of the methodology is that the estimated ground motion intensity at a given location is not a single value but a distribution of values. The distribution is comprised of both a mean and standard deviation, with the standard deviation being a function of the distance to nearby observations at strong motion stations.The methodology is illustrated for two applications. Firstly, maps of conditional peak ground acceleration (PGA) have been developed for the major events in the Canterbury earthquake sequence, which among other things, have been utilized for assessing liquefaction triggering susceptibility of land in residential areas. Secondly, the conditional distribution of response spectral ordinates is obtained at the location of the Canterbury Television building (CTV), which catastrophically collapsed in the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The conditional response spectra provide insight for the selection of ground motion records for use in forensic seismic response analyses of important structures at locations where direct recordings are absent.     

Rupture pattern of the Oct 23, 2011 Van-Merkez,Eastern Turkey earthquake

High-frequency rupture process of the Oct 23, 2011 Van-Merkez earthquake is imaged by back-projection method using high-quality teleseismic P wave data from the US Array, and prestack Kirchhoff migration using P wave data from a subarray of global seismic networks. The rupture model with two asperities is confirmed by previous two methods. In low-frequency imaging, a large asperity derived from the migration method corresponds to the second one from the high-frequency P waves. The consistency of the locations of asperities from datasets with different frequency bands indicates that there is possible insignificance of the frequency-dependent feature for the earthquake. The resultant images illustrate the spatial and temporal evolution of the rupture, which mainly propagated WSW over a length of 33 km during the first 18 s, accompanying with bursts of two asperities at 3 and 11–13 s. The rupture direction is confirmed by the S wave corner frequency variations of strong ground accelerations. The rupture fronts are mainly located at the updip of the causative fault. Based on polarities of the P waveforms and focal mechanisms of the mainshock and aftershocks, the failure of these two asperities is determined to have occurred on a reverse fault with a dip angle of 47°. Hence, the rupture pattern of the 2011 Van-Merkez earthquake was dominated by a unilateral rupture toward the west-southwest direction.     

2011年极端天气和气候事件及其他相关事件的概要回顾

2011年世界各地极端天气事件频发。1月,朝鲜半岛经历1945年来最长的寒潮天气;同期,强暴风雪袭击美国,1亿人受影响;4月8日,持续干旱大风导致德国北部小镇遭遇沙尘暴;7～10月的季风强降水致使泰国遭遇自1942年以来最严重的洪灾;高温少雨致使东非地区、南美洲地区的古巴经历严重干旱;9月北极海冰的体积达历史最小。5～9月,我国平均高温日数为1961年以来历史同期次多,多地刷新高温历史极值;2011年我国平均年降水量创60年来最低,多地遭遇严重干旱;而华西和黄淮经历异常严重秋汛。     

2011年安庆4.8级地震序列S波分裂研究

采用互相关系数法, 计算了2011年安庆M_S4.8地震的余震S波分裂参数。 结果表明, 余震序列的S波分裂现象明显, 快S波平均偏振方向在近NNW向, 与区域最大水平主压应力方向基本一致。 通过分析延迟时间随时间的变化趋势, 可以看出M_S4.8地震后有明显的应力释放现象。 在几次较大余震前, 观测到延迟时间呈现增加的特征, 并且其中一次余震在发生之前的短时间内还出现延迟时间减小的现象, 这一现象符合震前应力长时间积累和短时间应力释放的结论, 时间延迟在强震前会出现下降具有重要的地震短临预测意义。 研究认为 S 波分裂参数可以反映区域应力场的动态变化信息, 可以为安徽南部地区应力场研究与地震预测提供有用的信息。     

Spatio-temporal characteristics of aftershocks and seismogenic structure of the 2011 MW9.0 Tohoku earthquake,Japan

The Tohoku megathrust earthquake, which occurred on March 11, 2011 and had an epicenter that was 70 km east of Tohoku, Japan, resulted in an estimated ten's of billions of dollars in damage and a death toll of more than 15 thousand lives, yet few studies have documented key spatio-temporal seismogenic characteristics. Specifically, the temporal decay of aftershock activity, the number of strong aftershocks (with magnitudes greater than or equal to 7.0), the magnitude of the greatest aftershock, and area of possible aftershocks. Forecasted results from this study are based on Gutenberg-Richter's relation, Bath's law, Omori's law, and Well's relation of rupture scale utilizing the magnitude and statistical parameters of earthquakes in USA and China (Landers, Northridge, Hector Mine, San Simeon and Wenchuan earthquakes). The number of strong aftershocks, the parameters of Gutenberg-Richter's relation, and the modified form of Omori's law are confirmed based on the aftershock sequence data from the M_W9.0 Tohoku earthquake. Moreover, for a large earthquake, the seismogenic structure could be a fault, a fault system, or an intersection of several faults. The seismogenic structure of the earthquake suggests that the event occurred on a thrust fault near the Japan trench within the overriding plate that subsequently triggered three or more active faults producing large aftershocks.     

球体位错理论在2011年日本强震中的应用研究

利用球体位错理论计算了2011年日本强震产生的远场同震位移与应变,并利用GPS远场数据修正了该强震的总地震矩。结果表明：1）利用球体位错理论计算得到的理论水平位移场显示,垂直于发震断层的广大区域同震位移较大,位移矢量总体都指向震中地区,震中距约5 000千米的地方亦产生了3 mm以上的同震水平位移。理论位移与远场GPS观测结果具有良好的一致性;2）比较两个独立断层模型对应的理论同震位移场发现,震源西部地区远场位移总体上只有1%～4%的微小差异,而东部广大海域的差异则达到同震信号的6%～15%,震中周围差异更大。该差异表明,相对于震源仅局域覆盖的日本本土GPS观测数据对2011年日本强震的断层滑动分布模型的约束能力有限;3）依据中国及邻区的远场GPS同震观测数据修正2011年日本强震的总地震矩,把该地震释放的总能量约束在(3.24～4.96)×10 ²² Nm,相应的矩震级为Mw8.97～9.10;4）2011年日本强震在华北地区产生的同震应变与该区的长期应力变化背景场大体相反,表明该强震使华北地区的地壳产生了松弛效应。