WorldWideScience

Sample records for earthquake arrival times

  1. Automatic arrival time detection for earthquakes based on Modified Laplacian of Gaussian filter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saad, Omar M.; Shalaby, Ahmed; Samy, Lotfy; Sayed, Mohammed S.

    2018-04-01

    Precise identification of onset time for an earthquake is imperative in the right figuring of earthquake's location and different parameters that are utilized for building seismic catalogues. P-wave arrival detection of weak events or micro-earthquakes cannot be precisely determined due to background noise. In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on Modified Laplacian of Gaussian (MLoG) filter to detect the onset time even in the presence of very weak signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The proposed algorithm utilizes a denoising-filter algorithm to smooth the background noise. In the proposed algorithm, we employ the MLoG mask to filter the seismic data. Afterward, we apply a Dual-threshold comparator to detect the onset time of the event. The results show that the proposed algorithm can detect the onset time for micro-earthquakes accurately, with SNR of -12 dB. The proposed algorithm achieves an onset time picking accuracy of 93% with a standard deviation error of 0.10 s for 407 field seismic waveforms. Also, we compare the results with short and long time average algorithm (STA/LTA) and the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), and the proposed algorithm outperforms them.

  2. Rapid estimation of earthquake magnitude from the arrival time of the peak high‐frequency amplitude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noda, Shunta; Yamamoto, Shunroku; Ellsworth, William L.

    2016-01-01

    We propose a simple approach to measure earthquake magnitude M using the time difference (Top) between the body‐wave onset and the arrival time of the peak high‐frequency amplitude in an accelerogram. Measured in this manner, we find that Mw is proportional to 2logTop for earthquakes 5≤Mw≤7, which is the theoretical proportionality if Top is proportional to source dimension and stress drop is scale invariant. Using high‐frequency (>2  Hz) data, the root mean square (rms) residual between Mw and MTop(M estimated from Top) is approximately 0.5 magnitude units. The rms residuals of the high‐frequency data in passbands between 2 and 16 Hz are uniformly smaller than those obtained from the lower‐frequency data. Top depends weakly on epicentral distance, and this dependence can be ignored for distances earthquake produces a final magnitude estimate of M 9.0 at 120 s after the origin time. We conclude that Top of high‐frequency (>2  Hz) accelerograms has value in the context of earthquake early warning for extremely large events.

  3. Seismicity and arrival-time residuals from the Victoria Earthquake of June 9, 1980

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wong, V.; Frez, J.

    1981-01-01

    Hypocenter distribution in space and time of the aftershock activity from the Victoria Earthquake of June 9, 1980 was studied. It was concluded that the main event excited aftershocks in several pre-existing nests at the northwest end of the Cerro Prieto Fault, but no significant activity occurred at the immediate neighborhood of the main event. The depth of the aftershocks increases with the distance from the northwest end of the fault and this feature might be related with the higher temperatures and the spreading center located between the ends of the Imperial and Cerro Prieto Faults. The significance of the arrival-times residuals for local and regional stations is discussed both for P and S-waves and the importance of obtaining station corrections is emphasized. The non-uniqueness in determining a structure which minimizes the residuals is illustrated. Two different structures which satisfy the local data are presented.

  4. Real Time Earthquake Information System in Japan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doi, K.; Kato, T.

    2003-12-01

    An early earthquake notification system in Japan had been developed by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) as a governmental organization responsible for issuing earthquake information and tsunami forecasts. The system was primarily developed for prompt provision of a tsunami forecast to the public with locating an earthquake and estimating its magnitude as quickly as possible. Years after, a system for a prompt provision of seismic intensity information as indices of degrees of disasters caused by strong ground motion was also developed so that concerned governmental organizations can decide whether it was necessary for them to launch emergency response or not. At present, JMA issues the following kinds of information successively when a large earthquake occurs. 1) Prompt report of occurrence of a large earthquake and major seismic intensities caused by the earthquake in about two minutes after the earthquake occurrence. 2) Tsunami forecast in around three minutes. 3) Information on expected arrival times and maximum heights of tsunami waves in around five minutes. 4) Information on a hypocenter and a magnitude of the earthquake, the seismic intensity at each observation station, the times of high tides in addition to the expected tsunami arrival times in 5-7 minutes. To issue information above, JMA has established; - An advanced nationwide seismic network with about 180 stations for seismic wave observation and about 3,400 stations for instrumental seismic intensity observation including about 2,800 seismic intensity stations maintained by local governments, - Data telemetry networks via landlines and partly via a satellite communication link, - Real-time data processing techniques, for example, the automatic calculation of earthquake location and magnitude, the database driven method for quantitative tsunami estimation, and - Dissemination networks, via computer-to-computer communications and facsimile through dedicated telephone lines. JMA operationally

  5. The incorporation of fault zone head wave and direct wave secondary arrival times and arrival polarizations into seismic tomography: Application to the Parkfield, California area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennington, N. L.; Thurber, C. H.; Peng, Z.; Zhao, P.

    2012-12-01

    We present a 3D P-wave velocity (Vp) model of the Parkfield region that utilizes existing P-wave arrival time data, including fault zone head waves (FZHW), plus new data from direct wave secondary arrivals (DWSA). The first-arrival and DWSA travel times are obtained as the global and local minimum travel time paths, respectively. The inclusion of DWSA results in as much as a 10% increase in the across-fault velocity contrast for the Vp model at Parkfield relative to Thurber et al. (2006). Viewed along strike, three pronounced velocity contrast regions are observed: a pair of strong positive velocity contrasts (SW fast), one NW of the 1966 Parkfield hypocenter and the other SE of the 2004 Parkfield hypocenter, and a strong negative velocity contrast (NE fast) between the two hypocenters. The negative velocity contrast partially to entirely encompasses peak coseismic slip estimated in several slip models for the 2004 earthquake, suggesting that the negative velocity contrast played a part in defining the rupture patch of the 2004 Parkfield earthquake. We expand on this work by modifying our seismic tomography algorithm to incorporate arrival polarizations (azimuths). Synthetic tests will be presented to demonstrate the improvements in velocity structure when arrival polarizations are incorporated. These tests will compare the synthetic model recovered when FZHW/DWSA arrivals as well as existing P-wave arrival time data are inverted to that recovered with the same dataset with the inclusion of arrival polarizations. We plan to extend this work to carry out a full scale seismic tomography/relocation inversion at Parkfield, CA utilizing arrival polarizations from all first-P arrivals, and FZHW/DWSA arrivals as well as existing P-wave arrival time data. This effort requires the determination of polarization data for all P-waves and FZHW's at Parkfield. To this end, we use changes in the arrival azimuth from fault normal to source-receiver direction to identify FZHW and

  6. Incorporating fault zone head wave and direct wave secondary arrival times into seismic tomography: Application at Parkfield, California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennington, Ninfa L.; Thurber, Clifford; Peng, Zhigang; Zhang, Haijiang; Zhao, Peng

    2013-03-01

    We present a three-dimensional (3D) P wave velocity (Vp) model of the Parkfield region that utilizes existing P wave arrival time data, including fault zone head waves (FZHWs), and data from direct wave secondary arrivals (DWSAs). The first-arrival and DWSA travel times are obtained as the global- and local-minimum travel time paths, respectively. The inclusion of FZHWs and DWSAs results in as much as a 5% and a 10% increase in the across-fault velocity contrast, respectively, for the Vp model at Parkfield relative to that of Thurber et al. [2006]. Viewed along strike, three pronounced velocity contrast regions are observed: a pair of strong positive velocity contrasts (SW fast), one NW of the 1966 Parkfield earthquake hypocenter and the other SE of the 2004 Parkfield earthquake hypocenter, and a strong negative velocity contrast (NE fast) between the two hypocenters. The negative velocity contrast partially to entirely encompasses peak coseismic slip estimated in several slip models for the 2004 earthquake, suggesting that the negative velocity contrast played a part in defining the rupture patch of the 2004 Parkfield earthquake. Following Ampuero and Ben-Zion (2008), the pattern of velocity contrasts is consistent with the observed bilateral rupture propagation for the 2004 Parkfield earthquake. Although the velocity contrasts also suggest bilateral rupture propagation for the 1966 Parkfield earthquake, the fault is creeping to the NW here, i.e., exhibiting velocity-strengthening behavior. Thus, it is not surprising that rupture propagated only SE during this event.

  7. A Bayesian Approach to Real-Time Earthquake Phase Association

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benz, H.; Johnson, C. E.; Earle, P. S.; Patton, J. M.

    2014-12-01

    Real-time location of seismic events requires a robust and extremely efficient means of associating and identifying seismic phases with hypothetical sources. An association algorithm converts a series of phase arrival times into a catalog of earthquake hypocenters. The classical approach based on time-space stacking of the locus of possible hypocenters for each phase arrival using the principal of acoustic reciprocity has been in use now for many years. One of the most significant problems that has emerged over time with this approach is related to the extreme variations in seismic station density throughout the global seismic network. To address this problem we have developed a novel, Bayesian association algorithm, which looks at the association problem as a dynamically evolving complex system of "many to many relationships". While the end result must be an array of one to many relations (one earthquake, many phases), during the association process the situation is quite different. Both the evolving possible hypocenters and the relationships between phases and all nascent hypocenters is many to many (many earthquakes, many phases). The computational framework we are using to address this is a responsive, NoSQL graph database where the earthquake-phase associations are represented as intersecting Bayesian Learning Networks. The approach directly addresses the network inhomogeneity issue while at the same time allowing the inclusion of other kinds of data (e.g., seismic beams, station noise characteristics, priors on estimated location of the seismic source) by representing the locus of intersecting hypothetical loci for a given datum as joint probability density functions.

  8. Coherent Seismic Arrivals in the P Wave Coda of the 2012 Mw 7.2 Sumatra Earthquake: Water Reverberations or an Early Aftershock?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Wenyuan; Shearer, Peter M.

    2018-04-01

    Teleseismic records of the 2012 Mw 7.2 Sumatra earthquake contain prominent phases in the P wave train, arriving about 50 to 100 s after the direct P arrival. Azimuthal variations in these arrivals, together with back-projection analysis, led Fan and Shearer (https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL067785) to conclude that they originated from early aftershock(s), located ˜150 km northeast of the mainshock and landward of the trench. However, recently, Yue et al. (https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073254) argued that the anomalous arrivals are more likely water reverberations from the mainshock, based mostly on empirical Green's function analysis of a M6 earthquake near the mainshock and a water phase synthetic test. Here we present detailed back-projection and waveform analyses of three M6 earthquakes within 100 km of the Mw 7.2 earthquake, including the empirical Green's function event analyzed in Yue et al. (https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073254). In addition, we examine the waveforms of three M5.5 reverse-faulting earthquakes close to the inferred early aftershock location in Fan and Shearer (https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL067785). These results suggest that the reverberatory character of the anomalous arrivals in the mainshock coda is consistent with water reverberations, but the origin of this energy is more likely an early aftershock rather than delayed and displaced water reverberations from the mainshock.

  9. Performance of Real-time Earthquake Information System in Japan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakamura, H.; Horiuchi, S.; Wu, C.; Yamamoto, S.

    2008-12-01

    Horiuchi et al. (2005) developed a real-time earthquake information system (REIS) using Hi-net, a densely deployed nationwide seismic network, which consists of about 800 stations operated by NIED, Japan. REIS determines hypocenter locations and earthquake magnitudes automatically within a few seconds after P waves arrive at the closest station and calculates focal mechanisms within about 15 seconds. Obtained hypocenter parameters are transferred immediately by using XML format to a computer in Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), who started the service of EEW to special users in June 2005. JMA also developed EEW using 200 stations. The results by the two systems are merged. Among all the first issued EEW reports by both systems, REIS information accounts for about 80 percent. This study examines the rapidity and credibility of REIS by analyzing the 4050 earthquakes which occurred around the Japan Islands since 2005 with magnitude larger than 3.0. REIS re-determines hypocenter parameters every one second according to the revision of waveform data. Here, we discuss only about the results by the first reports. On rapidness, our results show that about 44 percent of the first reports are issued within 5 seconds after the P waves arrives at the closest stations. Note that this 5-second time window includes time delay due to data package and transmission delay of about 2 seconds. REIS waits till two stations detect P waves for events in the network but four stations outside the network so as to get reliable solutions. For earthquakes with hypocentral distance less than 100km, 55 percent of earthquakes are warned in 5 seconds and 87 percent are warned in 10 seconds. Most of events having long time delay are small and triggered by S wave arrivals. About 80 percent of events have difference in epicenter distances less than 20km relative to JMA manually determined locations. Because of the existence of large lateral heterogeneity in seismic velocity, the difference depends

  10. Future Developments for the Earthquake Early Warning System following the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamada, M.; Mori, J. J.

    2011-12-01

    The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake (Mw9.0) caused significant damage over a large area of northeastern Honshu. An earthquake early warning was issued to the public in the Tohoku region about 8 seconds after the first P-arrival, which is 31 seconds after the origin time. There was no 'blind zone', and warnings were received at all locations before S-wave arrivals, since the earthquake was fairly far offshore. Although the early warning message was properly reported in Tohoku region which was the most severely affected area, a message was not sent to the more distant Tokyo region because the intensity was underestimated. . This underestimation was because the magnitude determination in the first few seconds was relatively small (Mj8.1)., and there was no consideration of a finite fault with a long length. Another significant issue is that warnings were sometimes not properly provided for aftershocks. Immediately following the earthquake, the waveforms of some large aftershocks were contaminated by long-period surface waves from the mainshock, which made it difficult to pick P-wave arrivals. Also, correctly distinguishing and locating later aftershocks was sometimes difficult, when multiple events occurred within a short period of time. This masinhock begins with relatively small moment release for the first 10 s . Since the amplitude of the initial waveforms is small, most methods that use amplitudes and periods of the P-wave (e.g. Wu and Kanamori, 2005) cannot correctly determine the size of the4 earthquake in the first several seconds. The current JMA system uses the peak displacement amplitude for the magnitude estimation, and the magnitude saturated at about M8 1 minute after the first P-wave arrival. . Magnitudes of smaller earthquakes can be correctly identified from the first few seconds of P- or S-wave arrivals, but this M9 event cannot be characterized in such a short time. The only way to correctly characterize the size of the Tohoku

  11. Automatic detection of P- and S-wave arrival times: new strategies based on the modified fractal method and basic matching pursuit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chi Durán, R. K.; Comte, D.; Diaz, M. A.; Silva, J. F.

    2017-12-01

    In this work, new strategies for automatic identification of P- and S-wave arrival times from digital recorded local seismograms are proposed and analyzed. The database of arrival times previously identified by a human reader was compared with automatic identification techniques based on the Fourier transformation in reduced time (spectrograms), fractal analysis, and the basic matching pursuit algorithm. The first two techniques were used to identify the P-wave arrival times, while the third was used for the identification of the S-wave. For validation, the results were compared with the short-time average over long-time average (STA/LTA) of Rietbrock et al., Geophys Res Lett 39(8), (2012) for the database of aftershocks of the 2010 Maule Mw = 8.8 earthquake. The identifiers proposed in this work exhibit good results that outperform the STA/LTA identifier in many scenarios. The average difference from the reference picks (times obtained by the human reader) in P- and S-wave arrival times is 1 s.

  12. Earthquake early warning system using real-time signal processing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leach, R.R. Jr.; Dowla, F.U.

    1996-02-01

    An earthquake warning system has been developed to provide a time series profile from which vital parameters such as the time until strong shaking begins, the intensity of the shaking, and the duration of the shaking, can be derived. Interaction of different types of ground motion and changes in the elastic properties of geological media throughout the propagation path result in a highly nonlinear function. We use neural networks to model these nonlinearities and develop learning techniques for the analysis of temporal precursors occurring in the emerging earthquake seismic signal. The warning system is designed to analyze the first-arrival from the three components of an earthquake signal and instantaneously provide a profile of impending ground motion, in as little as 0.3 sec after first ground motion is felt at the sensors. For each new data sample, at a rate of 25 samples per second, the complete profile of the earthquake is updated. The profile consists of a magnitude-related estimate as well as an estimate of the envelope of the complete earthquake signal. The envelope provides estimates of damage parameters, such as time until peak ground acceleration (PGA) and duration. The neural network based system is trained using seismogram data from more than 400 earthquakes recorded in southern California. The system has been implemented in hardware using silicon accelerometers and a standard microprocessor. The proposed warning units can be used for site-specific applications, distributed networks, or to enhance existing distributed networks. By producing accurate, and informative warnings, the system has the potential to significantly minimize the hazards of catastrophic ground motion. Detailed system design and performance issues, including error measurement in a simple warning scenario are discussed in detail.

  13. GIS Based System for Post-Earthquake Crisis Managment Using Cellular Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raeesi, M.; Sadeghi-Niaraki, A.

    2013-09-01

    Earthquakes are among the most destructive natural disasters. Earthquakes happen mainly near the edges of tectonic plates, but they may happen just about anywhere. Earthquakes cannot be predicted. Quick response after disasters, like earthquake, decreases loss of life and costs. Massive earthquakes often cause structures to collapse, trapping victims under dense rubble for long periods of time. After the earthquake and destroyed some areas, several teams are sent to find the location of the destroyed areas. The search and rescue phase usually is maintained for many days. Time reduction for surviving people is very important. A Geographical Information System (GIS) can be used for decreasing response time and management in critical situations. Position estimation in short period of time time is important. This paper proposes a GIS based system for post-earthquake disaster management solution. This system relies on several mobile positioning methods such as cell-ID and TA method, signal strength method, angel of arrival method, time of arrival method and time difference of arrival method. For quick positioning, the system can be helped by any person who has a mobile device. After positioning and specifying the critical points, the points are sent to a central site for managing the procedure of quick response for helping. This solution establishes a quick way to manage the post-earthquake crisis.

  14. GIS BASED SYSTEM FOR POST-EARTHQUAKE CRISIS MANAGMENT USING CELLULAR NETWORK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Raeesi

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Earthquakes are among the most destructive natural disasters. Earthquakes happen mainly near the edges of tectonic plates, but they may happen just about anywhere. Earthquakes cannot be predicted. Quick response after disasters, like earthquake, decreases loss of life and costs. Massive earthquakes often cause structures to collapse, trapping victims under dense rubble for long periods of time. After the earthquake and destroyed some areas, several teams are sent to find the location of the destroyed areas. The search and rescue phase usually is maintained for many days. Time reduction for surviving people is very important. A Geographical Information System (GIS can be used for decreasing response time and management in critical situations. Position estimation in short period of time time is important. This paper proposes a GIS based system for post–earthquake disaster management solution. This system relies on several mobile positioning methods such as cell-ID and TA method, signal strength method, angel of arrival method, time of arrival method and time difference of arrival method. For quick positioning, the system can be helped by any person who has a mobile device. After positioning and specifying the critical points, the points are sent to a central site for managing the procedure of quick response for helping. This solution establishes a quick way to manage the post–earthquake crisis.

  15. Quantum arrival times and operator normalization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hegerfeldt, Gerhard C.; Seidel, Dirk; Gonzalo Muga, J.

    2003-01-01

    A recent approach to arrival times used the fluorescence of an atom entering a laser illuminated region, and the resulting arrival-time distribution was close to the axiomatic distribution of Kijowski, but not exactly equal, neither in limiting cases nor after compensation of reflection losses by normalization on the level of expectation values. In this paper we employ a normalization on the level of operators, recently proposed in a slightly different context. We show that in this case the axiomatic arrival-time distribution of Kijowski is recovered as a limiting case. In addition, it is shown that Allcock's complex potential model is also a limit of the physically motivated fluorescence approach and connected to Kijowski's distribution through operator normalization

  16. Fault zone structure determined through the analysis of earthquake arrival times

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Michelini, A.

    1991-10-01

    This thesis develops and applies a technique for the simultaneous determination of P and S wave velocity models and hypocenters from a set of arrival times. The velocity models are parameterized in terms of cubic B-splines basis functions which permit the retrieval of smooth models that can be used directly for generation of synthetic seismograms using the ray method. In addition, this type of smoothing limits the rise of instabilities related to the poor resolving power of the data. V{sub P}/V{sub S} ratios calculated from P and S models display generally instabilities related to the different ray-coverages of compressional and shear waves. However, V{sub P}/V{sub S} ratios are important for correct identification of rock types and this study introduces a new methodology based on adding some coupling (i.e., proportionality) between P and S models which stabilizes the V{sub P}/V{sub S} models around some average preset value determined from the data. Tests of the technique with synthetic data show that this additional coupling regularizes effectively the resulting models.

  17. Managing customer arrivals with time windows

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chen, Gang; Jiang, Liping

    2016-01-01

    Due to increasing container traffic and mega-ships, many seaports face challenges of huge amounts of truck arrivals and congestion problem at terminal gates, which affect port efficiency and generate serious air pollution. To solve this congestion problem, we propose a solution of managing truck...... arrivals with time windows based on the truck-vessel service relationship, specifically trucks delivering containers for the same vessel share one common time window. Time windows can be optimized with different strategies. In this paper, we first propose a framework for installing this solution...

  18. An algorithm of local earthquake detection from digital records

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. PROZOROV

    1978-06-01

    Full Text Available The problem of automatical detection of earthquake signals in seismograms
    and definition of first arrivals of p and s waves is considered.
    The algorithm is based on the analysis of t(A function which represents
    the time of first appearence of a number of going one after another
    swings of amplitudes greather than A in seismic signals. It allows to explore
    such common features of seismograms of earthquakes as sudden
    first p-arrivals of amplitude greater than general amplitude of noise and
    after the definite interval of time before s-arrival the amplitude of which
    overcomes the amplitude of p-arrival. The method was applied to
    3-channel recods of Friuli aftershocks, ¿'-arrivals were defined correctly
    in all cases; p-arrivals were defined in most cases using strict criteria of
    detection. Any false signals were not detected. All p-arrivals were defined
    using soft criteria of detection but less reliability and two false events
    were obtained.

  19. Toward real-time regional earthquake simulation II: Real-time Online earthquake Simulation (ROS) of Taiwan earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Shiann-Jong; Liu, Qinya; Tromp, Jeroen; Komatitsch, Dimitri; Liang, Wen-Tzong; Huang, Bor-Shouh

    2014-06-01

    We developed a Real-time Online earthquake Simulation system (ROS) to simulate regional earthquakes in Taiwan. The ROS uses a centroid moment tensor solution of seismic events from a Real-time Moment Tensor monitoring system (RMT), which provides all the point source parameters including the event origin time, hypocentral location, moment magnitude and focal mechanism within 2 min after the occurrence of an earthquake. Then, all of the source parameters are automatically forwarded to the ROS to perform an earthquake simulation, which is based on a spectral-element method (SEM). A new island-wide, high resolution SEM mesh model is developed for the whole Taiwan in this study. We have improved SEM mesh quality by introducing a thin high-resolution mesh layer near the surface to accommodate steep and rapidly varying topography. The mesh for the shallow sedimentary basin is adjusted to reflect its complex geometry and sharp lateral velocity contrasts. The grid resolution at the surface is about 545 m, which is sufficient to resolve topography and tomography data for simulations accurate up to 1.0 Hz. The ROS is also an infrastructural service, making online earthquake simulation feasible. Users can conduct their own earthquake simulation by providing a set of source parameters through the ROS webpage. For visualization, a ShakeMovie and ShakeMap are produced during the simulation. The time needed for one event is roughly 3 min for a 70 s ground motion simulation. The ROS is operated online at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica (http://ros.earth.sinica.edu.tw/). Our long-term goal for the ROS system is to contribute to public earth science outreach and to realize seismic ground motion prediction in real-time.

  20. Regional dependence in earthquake early warning and real time seismology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caprio, M.

    2013-01-01

    An effective earthquake prediction method is still a Chimera. What we can do at the moment, after the occurrence of a seismic event, is to provide the maximum available information as soon as possible. This can help in reducing the impact of the quake on population or and better organize the rescue operations in case of post-event actions. This study strives to improve the evaluation of earthquake parameters shortly after the occurrence of a major earthquake, and the characterization of regional dependencies in Real-Time Seismology. The recent earthquake experience from Tohoku (M 9.0, 11.03.2011) showed how an efficient EEW systems can inform numerous people and thus potentially reduce the economic and human losses by distributing warning messages several seconds before the arrival of seismic waves. In the case of devastating earthquakes, usually, in the first minutes to days after the main shock, the common communications channels can be overloaded or broken. In such cases, a precise knowledge of the macroseismic intensity distribution will represent a decisive contribution in help management and in the valuation of losses. In this work, I focused on improving the adaptability of EEW systems (chapters 1 and 2) and in deriving a global relationship for converting peak ground motion into macroseismic intensity and vice versa (chapter 3). For EEW applications, in chapter 1 we present an evolutionary approach for magnitude estimation for earthquake early warning based on real-time inversion of displacement spectra. The Spectrum Inversion (SI) method estimates magnitude and its uncertainty by inferring the shape of the entire displacement spectral curve based on the part of the spectra constrained by available data. Our method can be applied in any region without the need for calibration. SI magnitude and uncertainty estimates are updated each second following the initial P detection and potentially stabilize within 10 seconds from the initial earthquake detection

  1. Regional dependence in earthquake early warning and real time seismology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Caprio, M.

    2013-07-01

    An effective earthquake prediction method is still a Chimera. What we can do at the moment, after the occurrence of a seismic event, is to provide the maximum available information as soon as possible. This can help in reducing the impact of the quake on population or and better organize the rescue operations in case of post-event actions. This study strives to improve the evaluation of earthquake parameters shortly after the occurrence of a major earthquake, and the characterization of regional dependencies in Real-Time Seismology. The recent earthquake experience from Tohoku (M 9.0, 11.03.2011) showed how an efficient EEW systems can inform numerous people and thus potentially reduce the economic and human losses by distributing warning messages several seconds before the arrival of seismic waves. In the case of devastating earthquakes, usually, in the first minutes to days after the main shock, the common communications channels can be overloaded or broken. In such cases, a precise knowledge of the macroseismic intensity distribution will represent a decisive contribution in help management and in the valuation of losses. In this work, I focused on improving the adaptability of EEW systems (chapters 1 and 2) and in deriving a global relationship for converting peak ground motion into macroseismic intensity and vice versa (chapter 3). For EEW applications, in chapter 1 we present an evolutionary approach for magnitude estimation for earthquake early warning based on real-time inversion of displacement spectra. The Spectrum Inversion (SI) method estimates magnitude and its uncertainty by inferring the shape of the entire displacement spectral curve based on the part of the spectra constrained by available data. Our method can be applied in any region without the need for calibration. SI magnitude and uncertainty estimates are updated each second following the initial P detection and potentially stabilize within 10 seconds from the initial earthquake detection

  2. Fault zone structure determined through the analysis of earthquake arrival times

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Michelini, Alberto [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

    1991-10-01

    This thesis develops and applies a technique for the simultaneous determination of P and S wave velocity models and hypocenters from a set of arrival times. The velocity models are parameterized in terms of cubic B-splines basis functions which permit the retrieval of smooth models that can be used directly for generation of synthetic seismograms using the ray method. In addition, this type of smoothing limits the rise of instabilities related to the poor resolving power of the data. VP/VS ratios calculated from P and S models display generally instabilities related to the different ray-coverages of compressional and shear waves. However, VP/VS ratios are important for correct identification of rock types and this study introduces a new methodology based on adding some coupling (i.e., proportionality) between P and S models which stabilizes the VP/VS models around some average preset value determined from the data. Tests of the technique with synthetic data show that this additional coupling regularizes effectively the resulting models.

  3. Equilibrium Arrival Times to Queues

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Breinbjerg, Jesper; Østerdal, Lars Peter

    We consider a non-cooperative queueing environment where a finite number of customers independently choose when to arrive at a queueing system that opens at a given point in time and serves customers on a last-come first-serve preemptive-resume (LCFS-PR) basis. Each customer has a service time...... requirement which is identically and independently distributed according to some general probability distribution, and they want to complete service as early as possible while minimizing the time spent in the queue. In this setting, we establish the existence of an arrival time strategy that constitutes...... a symmetric (mixed) Nash equilibrium, and show that there is at most one symmetric equilibrium. We provide a numerical method to compute this equilibrium and demonstrate by a numerical example that the social effciency can be lower than the effciency induced by a similar queueing system that serves customers...

  4. The arrival time distribution of muons in extensive air showers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van der Walt, D.J.

    1984-01-01

    An experiment was done to investigate the lateral dependence of the muon arrival time distribution in extensive air showers at small core distances. In the present experiment the muon arrival time distribution was investigated by measuring the relative arrival times between single muons in five fast Cerenkov detectors beneath 500g/cm 2 of concrete and at an atmospheric depth of 880g/cm 2 . It is shown that, although it is not possible to determine the arrival time distribution as such, it is possible to interpret the relative arrival times between muons in terms of the differences between the order statistics of a sample drawn from the arrival time distribution. The relationship between the arrival time distribution of muons relative to the first detected muon and the muon arrival time distribution is also derived. It was found that the dispersion of the muon arrival time distribution does not increase significantly with increasing core distance between 10m and 60m from the core. A comparison with theoretical distributions obtained from model calculations for proton initiated showers indicate that 1. the mean delay of muons with respect to the first detected muon is significantly larger than that expected from the model and 2. the observed dispersion is also significantly larger than the predicted dispersion for core distances between 10m and 60m

  5. Traffic Incident Clearance Time and Arrival Time Prediction Based on Hazard Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang beibei Ji

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Accurate prediction of incident duration is not only important information of Traffic Incident Management System, but also an effective input for travel time prediction. In this paper, the hazard based prediction models are developed for both incident clearance time and arrival time. The data are obtained from the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads’ STREAMS Incident Management System (SIMS for one year ending in November 2010. The best fitting distributions are drawn for both clearance and arrival time for 3 types of incident: crash, stationary vehicle, and hazard. The results show that Gamma, Log-logistic, and Weibull are the best fit for crash, stationary vehicle, and hazard incident, respectively. The obvious impact factors are given for crash clearance time and arrival time. The quantitative influences for crash and hazard incident are presented for both clearance and arrival. The model accuracy is analyzed at the end.

  6. Toward real-time regional earthquake simulation of Taiwan earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, S.; Liu, Q.; Tromp, J.; Komatitsch, D.; Liang, W.; Huang, B.

    2013-12-01

    We developed a Real-time Online earthquake Simulation system (ROS) to simulate regional earthquakes in Taiwan. The ROS uses a centroid moment tensor solution of seismic events from a Real-time Moment Tensor monitoring system (RMT), which provides all the point source parameters including the event origin time, hypocentral location, moment magnitude and focal mechanism within 2 minutes after the occurrence of an earthquake. Then, all of the source parameters are automatically forwarded to the ROS to perform an earthquake simulation, which is based on a spectral-element method (SEM). We have improved SEM mesh quality by introducing a thin high-resolution mesh layer near the surface to accommodate steep and rapidly varying topography. The mesh for the shallow sedimentary basin is adjusted to reflect its complex geometry and sharp lateral velocity contrasts. The grid resolution at the surface is about 545 m, which is sufficient to resolve topography and tomography data for simulations accurate up to 1.0 Hz. The ROS is also an infrastructural service, making online earthquake simulation feasible. Users can conduct their own earthquake simulation by providing a set of source parameters through the ROS webpage. For visualization, a ShakeMovie and ShakeMap are produced during the simulation. The time needed for one event is roughly 3 minutes for a 70 sec ground motion simulation. The ROS is operated online at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica (http://ros.earth.sinica.edu.tw/). Our long-term goal for the ROS system is to contribute to public earth science outreach and to realize seismic ground motion prediction in real-time.

  7. Development of an Earthquake Early Warning System Using Real-Time Strong Motion Signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Yih-Min; Kanamori, Hiroo

    2008-01-09

    As urbanization progresses worldwide, earthquakes pose serious threat to livesand properties for urban areas near major active faults on land or subduction zonesoffshore. Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) can be a useful tool for reducing earthquakehazards, if the spatial relation between cities and earthquake sources is favorable for suchwarning and their citizens are properly trained to respond to earthquake warning messages.An EEW system forewarns an urban area of forthcoming strong shaking, normally with afew sec to a few tens of sec of warning time, i.e., before the arrival of the destructive Swavepart of the strong ground motion. Even a few second of advanced warning time willbe useful for pre-programmed emergency measures for various critical facilities, such asrapid-transit vehicles and high-speed trains to avoid potential derailment; it will be alsouseful for orderly shutoff of gas pipelines to minimize fire hazards, controlled shutdown ofhigh-technological manufacturing operations to reduce potential losses, and safe-guardingof computer facilities to avoid loss of vital databases. We explored a practical approach toEEW with the use of a ground-motion period parameter τc and a high-pass filtered verticaldisplacement amplitude parameter Pd from the initial 3 sec of the P waveforms. At a givensite, an earthquake magnitude could be determined from τ c and the peak ground-motionvelocity (PGV) could be estimated from Pd. In this method, incoming strong motion acceleration signals are recursively converted to ground velocity and displacement. A Pwavetrigger is constantly monitored. When a trigger occurs, τ c and Pd are computed. Theearthquake magnitude and the on-site ground-motion intensity could be estimated and thewarning could be issued. In an ideal situation, such warnings would be available within 10sec of the origin time of a large earthquake whose subsequent ground motion may last fortens of seconds.

  8. Estimating epidemic arrival times using linear spreading theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Lawrence M.; Holzer, Matt; Shapiro, Anne

    2018-01-01

    We study the dynamics of a spatially structured model of worldwide epidemics and formulate predictions for arrival times of the disease at any city in the network. The model is composed of a system of ordinary differential equations describing a meta-population susceptible-infected-recovered compartmental model defined on a network where each node represents a city and the edges represent the flight paths connecting cities. Making use of the linear determinacy of the system, we consider spreading speeds and arrival times in the system linearized about the unstable disease free state and compare these to arrival times in the nonlinear system. Two predictions are presented. The first is based upon expansion of the heat kernel for the linearized system. The second assumes that the dominant transmission pathway between any two cities can be approximated by a one dimensional lattice or a homogeneous tree and gives a uniform prediction for arrival times independent of the specific network features. We test these predictions on a real network describing worldwide airline traffic.

  9. Real-time earthquake data feasible

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bush, Susan

    Scientists agree that early warning devices and monitoring of both Hurricane Hugo and the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption saved thousands of lives. What would it take to develop this sort of early warning and monitoring system for earthquake activity?Not all that much, claims a panel assigned to study the feasibility, costs, and technology needed to establish a real-time earthquake monitoring (RTEM) system. The panel, drafted by the National Academy of Science's Committee on Seismology, has presented its findings in Real-Time Earthquake Monitoring. The recently released report states that “present technology is entirely capable of recording and processing data so as to provide real-time information, enabling people to mitigate somewhat the earthquake disaster.” RTEM systems would consist of two parts—an early warning system that would give a few seconds warning before severe shaking, and immediate postquake information within minutes of the quake that would give actual measurements of the magnitude. At this time, however, this type of warning system has not been addressed at the national level for the United States and is not included in the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program, according to the report.

  10. Exploring Earthquakes in Real-Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bravo, T. K.; Kafka, A. L.; Coleman, B.; Taber, J. J.

    2013-12-01

    Earthquakes capture the attention of students and inspire them to explore the Earth. Adding the ability to view and explore recordings of significant and newsworthy earthquakes in real-time makes the subject even more compelling. To address this opportunity, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), in collaboration with Moravian College, developed ';jAmaSeis', a cross-platform application that enables students to access real-time earthquake waveform data. Students can watch as the seismic waves are recorded on their computer, and can be among the first to analyze the data from an earthquake. jAmaSeis facilitates student centered investigations of seismological concepts using either a low-cost educational seismograph or streamed data from other educational seismographs or from any seismic station that sends data to the IRIS Data Management System. After an earthquake, students can analyze the seismograms to determine characteristics of earthquakes such as time of occurrence, distance from the epicenter to the station, magnitude, and location. The software has been designed to provide graphical clues to guide students in the analysis and assist in their interpretations. Since jAmaSeis can simultaneously record up to three stations from anywhere on the planet, there are numerous opportunities for student driven investigations. For example, students can explore differences in the seismograms from different distances from an earthquake and compare waveforms from different azimuthal directions. Students can simultaneously monitor seismicity at a tectonic plate boundary and in the middle of the plate regardless of their school location. This can help students discover for themselves the ideas underlying seismic wave propagation, regional earthquake hazards, magnitude-frequency relationships, and the details of plate tectonics. The real-time nature of the data keeps the investigations dynamic, and offers students countless opportunities to explore.

  11. Investigation of Backprojection Uncertainties With M6 Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Wenyuan; Shearer, Peter M.

    2017-10-01

    We investigate possible biasing effects of inaccurate timing corrections on teleseismic P wave backprojection imaging of large earthquake ruptures. These errors occur because empirically estimated time shifts based on aligning P wave first arrivals are exact only at the hypocenter and provide approximate corrections for other parts of the rupture. Using the Japan subduction zone as a test region, we analyze 46 M6-M7 earthquakes over a 10 year period, including many aftershocks of the 2011 M9 Tohoku earthquake, performing waveform cross correlation of their initial P wave arrivals to obtain hypocenter timing corrections to global seismic stations. We then compare backprojection images for each earthquake using its own timing corrections with those obtained using the time corrections from other earthquakes. This provides a measure of how well subevents can be resolved with backprojection of a large rupture as a function of distance from the hypocenter. Our results show that backprojection is generally very robust and that the median subevent location error is about 25 km across the entire study region (˜700 km). The backprojection coherence loss and location errors do not noticeably converge to zero even when the event pairs are very close (<20 km). This indicates that most of the timing differences are due to 3-D structure close to each of the hypocenter regions, which limits the effectiveness of attempts to refine backprojection images using aftershock calibration, at least in this region.

  12. Contributed Review: Source-localization algorithms and applications using time of arrival and time difference of arrival measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xinya; Deng, Zhiqun Daniel; Rauchenstein, Lynn T.; Carlson, Thomas J.

    2016-04-01

    Locating the position of fixed or mobile sources (i.e., transmitters) based on measurements obtained from sensors (i.e., receivers) is an important research area that is attracting much interest. In this paper, we review several representative localization algorithms that use time of arrivals (TOAs) and time difference of arrivals (TDOAs) to achieve high signal source position estimation accuracy when a transmitter is in the line-of-sight of a receiver. Circular (TOA) and hyperbolic (TDOA) position estimation approaches both use nonlinear equations that relate the known locations of receivers and unknown locations of transmitters. Estimation of the location of transmitters using the standard nonlinear equations may not be very accurate because of receiver location errors, receiver measurement errors, and computational efficiency challenges that result in high computational burdens. Least squares and maximum likelihood based algorithms have become the most popular computational approaches to transmitter location estimation. In this paper, we summarize the computational characteristics and position estimation accuracies of various positioning algorithms. By improving methods for estimating the time-of-arrival of transmissions at receivers and transmitter location estimation algorithms, transmitter location estimation may be applied across a range of applications and technologies such as radar, sonar, the Global Positioning System, wireless sensor networks, underwater animal tracking, mobile communications, and multimedia.

  13. Natural Time and Nowcasting Earthquakes: Are Large Global Earthquakes Temporally Clustered?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luginbuhl, Molly; Rundle, John B.; Turcotte, Donald L.

    2018-02-01

    The objective of this paper is to analyze the temporal clustering of large global earthquakes with respect to natural time, or interevent count, as opposed to regular clock time. To do this, we use two techniques: (1) nowcasting, a new method of statistically classifying seismicity and seismic risk, and (2) time series analysis of interevent counts. We chose the sequences of M_{λ } ≥ 7.0 and M_{λ } ≥ 8.0 earthquakes from the global centroid moment tensor (CMT) catalog from 2004 to 2016 for analysis. A significant number of these earthquakes will be aftershocks of the largest events, but no satisfactory method of declustering the aftershocks in clock time is available. A major advantage of using natural time is that it eliminates the need for declustering aftershocks. The event count we utilize is the number of small earthquakes that occur between large earthquakes. The small earthquake magnitude is chosen to be as small as possible, such that the catalog is still complete based on the Gutenberg-Richter statistics. For the CMT catalog, starting in 2004, we found the completeness magnitude to be M_{σ } ≥ 5.1. For the nowcasting method, the cumulative probability distribution of these interevent counts is obtained. We quantify the distribution using the exponent, β, of the best fitting Weibull distribution; β = 1 for a random (exponential) distribution. We considered 197 earthquakes with M_{λ } ≥ 7.0 and found β = 0.83 ± 0.08. We considered 15 earthquakes with M_{λ } ≥ 8.0, but this number was considered too small to generate a meaningful distribution. For comparison, we generated synthetic catalogs of earthquakes that occur randomly with the Gutenberg-Richter frequency-magnitude statistics. We considered a synthetic catalog of 1.97 × 10^5 M_{λ } ≥ 7.0 earthquakes and found β = 0.99 ± 0.01. The random catalog converted to natural time was also random. We then generated 1.5 × 10^4 synthetic catalogs with 197 M_{λ } ≥ 7.0 in each catalog and

  14. True Time API Link (real time arrival info)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh / Western PA Regional Data Center — This link will take you to the site where you can create an account to access Port Authority's real time arrival information. To request access to Port Authority's...

  15. Stress Regime in the Nepalese Himalaya from Recent Earthquakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pant, M.; Karplus, M. S.; Velasco, A. A.; Nabelek, J.; Kuna, V. M.; Ghosh, A.; Mendoza, M.; Adhikari, L. B.; Sapkota, S. N.; Klemperer, S. L.; Patlan, E.

    2017-12-01

    The two recent earthquakes, April 25, 2015 Mw 7.8 (Gorkha earthquake) and May 12, 2015 Mw 7.2, at the Indo-Eurasian plate margin killed thousands of people and caused billion dollars of property loss. In response to these events, we deployed a dense array of seismometers to record the aftershocks along Gorkha earthquake rupture area. Our network NAMASTE (Nepal Array Measuring Aftershock Seismicity Trailing Earthquake) included 45 different seismic stations (16 short period, 25 broadband, and 4 strong motion sensors) covering a large area from north-central Nepal to south of the Main Frontal Thrust at a spacing of 20 km. The instruments recorded aftershocks from June 2015 to May 2016. We used time domain short term average (STA) and long term average (LTA) algorithms (1/10s and 4/40s) respectively to detect the arrivals and then developed an earthquake catalog containing 9300 aftershocks. We are manually picking the P-wave first motion arrival polarity to develop a catalog of focal mechanisms for the larger magnitude (>M3.0) events with adequate (>10) arrivals. We hope to characterize the seismicity and stress mechanisms of the complex fault geometries in the Nepalese Himalaya and to address the geophysical processes controlling seismic cycles in the Indo-Eurasian plate margin.

  16. Automatic Event Detection and Picking of P, S Seismic Phases for Earthquake Early Warning: A Case Study of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    WANG, Z.; Zhao, B.

    2015-12-01

    We develop an automatic seismic phase arrival detection and picking algorithm for the impending earthquakes occurred with diverse focal mechanisms and depths. The polarization analysis of the three-component seismograms is utilized to distinguish between P and S waves through a sliding time window. When applying the short term average/long term average (STA/LTA) method to the polarized data, we also construct a new characteristics function that can sensitively reflect the changes of signals' amplitude and frequency, providing a better detection for the phase arrival. Then an improved combination method of the higher order statistics and the Akaike information criteria (AIC) picker is applied to the refined signal to lock on the arrival time with a higher degree of accuracy. We test our techniques to the aftershocks of the Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, where hundreds of three-component acceleration records with magnitudes of 4.0 to 6.4 are treated. In comparison to the analyst picks, the results of the proposed detection algorithms are shown to perform well and can be applied from a single instrument within a network of stations for the large seismic events in the Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS).

  17. Investigation of Back-Projection Uncertainties with M6 Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, W.; Shearer, P. M.

    2017-12-01

    We investigate possible biasing effects of inaccurate timing corrections on teleseismic P-wave back-projection imaging of large earthquake ruptures. These errors occur because empirically-estimated time shifts based on aligning P-wave first arrivals are exact only at the hypocenter and provide approximate corrections for other parts of the rupture. Using the Japan subduction zone as a test region, we analyze 46 M6-7 earthquakes over a ten-year period, including many aftershocks of the 2011 M9 Tohoku earthquake, performing waveform cross-correlation of their initial P-wave arrivals to obtain hypocenter timing corrections to global seismic stations. We then compare back-projection images for each earthquake using its own timing corrections with those obtained using the time corrections for other earthquakes. This provides a measure of how well sub-events can be resolved with back-projection of a large rupture as a function of distance from the hypocenter. Our results show that back-projection is generally very robust and that sub-event location errors average about 20 km across the entire study region ( 700 km). The back-projection coherence loss and location errors do not noticeably converge to zero even when the event pairs are very close (<20 km). This indicates that most of the timing differences are due to 3D structure close to each of the hypocenter regions, which limits the effectiveness of attempts to refine back-projection images using aftershock calibration, at least in this region.

  18. Development of an Earthquake Early Warning System Using Real-Time Strong Motion Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiroo Kanamori

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available As urbanization progresses worldwide, earthquakes pose serious threat to livesand properties for urban areas near major active faults on land or subduction zonesoffshore. Earthquake Early Warning (EEW can be a useful tool for reducing earthquakehazards, if the spatial relation between cities and earthquake sources is favorable for suchwarning and their citizens are properly trained to respond to earthquake warning messages.An EEW system forewarns an urban area of forthcoming strong shaking, normally with afew sec to a few tens of sec of warning time, i.e., before the arrival of the destructive Swavepart of the strong ground motion. Even a few second of advanced warning time willbe useful for pre-programmed emergency measures for various critical facilities, such asrapid-transit vehicles and high-speed trains to avoid potential derailment; it will be alsouseful for orderly shutoff of gas pipelines to minimize fire hazards, controlled shutdown ofhigh-technological manufacturing operations to reduce potential losses, and safe-guardingof computer facilities to avoid loss of vital databases. We explored a practical approach toEEW with the use of a ground-motion period parameter τc and a high-pass filtered verticaldisplacement amplitude parameter Pd from the initial 3 sec of the P waveforms. At a givensite, an earthquake magnitude could be determined from τc and the peak ground-motionvelocity (PGV could be estimated from Pd. In this method, incoming strong motion acceleration signals are recursively converted to ground velocity and displacement. A Pwavetrigger is constantly monitored. When a trigger occurs, τc and Pd are computed. Theearthquake magnitude and the on-site ground-motion intensity could be estimated and thewarning could be issued. In an ideal situation, such warnings would be available within 10sec of the origin time of a large earthquake whose subsequent ground motion may last fortens of seconds.

  19. Earthquake Early Warning in Japan - Result of recent two years -

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shimoyama, T.; Doi, K.; Kiyomoto, M.; Hoshiba, M.

    2009-12-01

    Japan Meteorological Agency(JMA) started to provide Earthquake Early Warning(EEW) to the general public in October 2007. It was followed by provision of EEW to a limited number of users who understand the technical limit of EEW and can utilize it for automatic control from August 2006. Earthquake Early Warning in Japan definitely means information of estimated amplitude and arrival time of a strong ground motion after fault rupture occurred. In other words, the EEW provided by JMA is defined as a forecast of a strong ground motion before the strong motion arrival. EEW of JMA is to enable advance countermeasures to disasters caused by strong ground motions with providing a warning message of anticipating strong ground motion before the S wave arrival. However, due to its very short available time period, there should need some measures and ideas to provide rapidly EEW and utilize it properly. - EEW is issued to general public when the maximum seismic intensity 5 lower (JMA scale) or greater is expected. - EEW message contains origin time, epicentral region name, and names of areas (unit is about 1/3 to 1/4 of one prefecture) where seismic intensity 4 or greater is expected. Expected arrival time is not included because it differs substantially even in one unit area. - EEW is to be broadcast through the broadcasting media(TV, radio and City Administrative Disaster Management Radio), and is delivered to cellular phones through cell broadcast system. For those who would like to know the more precise estimation and smaller earthquake information at their point of their properties, JMA allows designated private companies to provide forecast of strong ground motion, in which the estimation of a seismic intensity as well as arrival time of S-wave are contained, at arbitrary places under the JMA’s technical assurance. From October, 2007 to August, 2009, JMA issued 11 warnings to general public expecting seismic intensity “5 lower” or greater, including M=7.2 inland

  20. Near-real time 3D probabilistic earthquakes locations at Mt. Etna volcano

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barberi, G.; D'Agostino, M.; Mostaccio, A.; Patane', D.; Tuve', T.

    2012-04-01

    Automatic procedure for locating earthquake in quasi-real time must provide a good estimation of earthquakes location within a few seconds after the event is first detected and is strongly needed for seismic warning system. The reliability of an automatic location algorithm is influenced by several factors such as errors in picking seismic phases, network geometry, and velocity model uncertainties. On Mt. Etna, the seismic network is managed by INGV and the quasi-real time earthquakes locations are performed by using an automatic-picking algorithm based on short-term-average to long-term-average ratios (STA/LTA) calculated from an approximate squared envelope function of the seismogram, which furnish a list of P-wave arrival times, and the location algorithm Hypoellipse, with a 1D velocity model. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the performances of a different automatic procedure to improve the quasi-real time earthquakes locations. In fact, as the automatic data processing may be affected by outliers (wrong picks), the use of a traditional earthquake location techniques based on a least-square misfit function (L2-norm) often yield unstable and unreliable solutions. Moreover, on Mt. Etna, the 1D model is often unable to represent the complex structure of the volcano (in particular the strong lateral heterogeneities), whereas the increasing accuracy in the 3D velocity models at Mt. Etna during recent years allows their use today in routine earthquake locations. Therefore, we selected, as reference locations, all the events occurred on Mt. Etna in the last year (2011) which was automatically detected and located by means of the Hypoellipse code. By using this dataset (more than 300 events), we applied a nonlinear probabilistic earthquake location algorithm using the Equal Differential Time (EDT) likelihood function, (Font et al., 2004; Lomax, 2005) which is much more robust in the presence of outliers in the data. Successively, by using a probabilistic

  1. CAT-PUMA: CME Arrival Time Prediction Using Machine learning Algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jiajia; Ye, Yudong; Shen, Chenglong; Wang, Yuming; Erdélyi, Robert

    2018-04-01

    CAT-PUMA (CME Arrival Time Prediction Using Machine learning Algorithms) quickly and accurately predicts the arrival of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) of CME arrival time. The software was trained via detailed analysis of CME features and solar wind parameters using 182 previously observed geo-effective partial-/full-halo CMEs and uses algorithms of the Support Vector Machine (SVM) to make its predictions, which can be made within minutes of providing the necessary input parameters of a CME.

  2. Determination Hypocentre and Focal Mechanism Earthquake of Oct 31, 2016 in Bone, South Sulawesi

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altin Massinai, Muhammad; Fawzy Ismullah M, Muhammad

    2018-03-01

    Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded an earthquake with M4.6 on at October 31, 2016 at Bone District, around 80 Km northeast form Makassar, South Sulawesi. The earthquake occurred 18:18:14 local time in 4.7°S, 120°E with depth 10 Km. Seismicity around location predicted caused by activity Walennae fault. We reprocessed earthquake data to determine precise hypocentre location and focal mechanism. The P- and S-wave arrival time got from BMKG used as input HYPOELLIPSE code to determine hypocentre. The results showed that the earthquake occurred 10:18:14.46 UTC in 4.638°S, 119.966°E with depth 24.76 Km. The hypocentre resolved 10 Km fix depth and had lower travel time residual than BMKG result. Focal mechanism determination used Azmtak code based on the first arrival polarity at earthquake waveform manually picked. The result showed a reverse mechanism with strike direction 38°, dip 44°, rake angle 134° on fault plane I and strike direction 164°, dip 60°, rake angle 56° on fault plane II. So, the earthquake which may be related to a reverse East Walennae Fault.

  3. Improvements to Earthquake Location with a Fuzzy Logic Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gökalp, Hüseyin

    2018-01-01

    In this study, improvements to the earthquake location method were investigated using a fuzzy logic approach proposed by Lin and Sanford (Bull Seismol Soc Am 91:82-93, 2001). The method has certain advantages compared to the inverse methods in terms of eliminating the uncertainties of arrival times and reading errors. In this study, adopting this approach, epicentral locations were determined based on the results of a fuzzy logic space concerning the uncertainties in the velocity models. To map the uncertainties in arrival times into the fuzzy logic space, a trapezoidal membership function was constructed by directly using the travel time difference between the two stations for the P- and S-arrival times instead of the P- and S-wave models to eliminate the need for obtaining information concerning the velocity structure of the study area. The results showed that this method worked most effectively when earthquakes occurred away from a network or when the arrival time data contained phase reading errors. In this study, to resolve the problems related to determining the epicentral locations of the events, a forward modeling method like the grid search technique was used by applying different logical operations (i.e., intersection, union, and their combination) with a fuzzy logic approach. The locations of the events were depended on results of fuzzy logic outputs in fuzzy logic space by searching in a gridded region. The process of location determination with the defuzzification of only the grid points with the membership value of 1 obtained by normalizing all the maximum fuzzy output values of the highest values resulted in more reliable epicentral locations for the earthquakes than the other approaches. In addition, throughout the process, the center-of-gravity method was used as a defuzzification operation.

  4. Quantum arrival-time distributions from intensity functions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wlodarz, Joachim

    2002-01-01

    is similar in nature to other time-dependent arrival-type processes occurring, e.g., in population biology or queue theory. A simple but illustrative example related to the well-known Wigner discussion of the time-energy uncertainty relation is given and the numerical results obtained are compared...

  5. Estimating bus passenger waiting times from incomplete bus arrivals data

    OpenAIRE

    McLeod, F.N.

    2007-01-01

    This paper considers the problem of estimating bus passenger waiting times at bus stops using incomplete bus arrivals data. This is of importance to bus operators and regulators as passenger waiting time is a key performance measure. Average waiting times are usually estimated from bus headways, that is, time gaps between buses. It is both time-consuming and expensive to measure bus arrival times manually so methods using automatic vehicle location systems are attractive; however, these syste...

  6. Real-time earthquake source imaging: An offline test for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yong; Wang, Rongjiang; Zschau, Jochen; Parolai, Stefano; Dahm, Torsten

    2014-05-01

    In recent decades, great efforts have been expended in real-time seismology aiming at earthquake and tsunami early warning. One of the most important issues is the real-time assessment of earthquake rupture processes using near-field seismogeodetic networks. Currently, earthquake early warning systems are mostly based on the rapid estimate of P-wave magnitude, which contains generally large uncertainties and the known saturation problem. In the case of the 2011 Mw9.0 Tohoku earthquake, JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) released the first warning of the event with M7.2 after 25 s. The following updates of the magnitude even decreased to M6.3-6.6. Finally, the magnitude estimate stabilized at M8.1 after about two minutes. This led consequently to the underestimated tsunami heights. By using the newly developed Iterative Deconvolution and Stacking (IDS) method for automatic source imaging, we demonstrate an offline test for the real-time analysis of the strong-motion and GPS seismograms of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. The results show that we had been theoretically able to image the complex rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake automatically soon after or even during the rupture process. In general, what had happened on the fault could be robustly imaged with a time delay of about 30 s by using either the strong-motion (KiK-net) or the GPS (GEONET) real-time data. This implies that the new real-time source imaging technique is helpful to reduce false and missing warnings, and therefore should play an important role in future tsunami early warning and earthquake rapid response systems.

  7. Contributed Review: Source-localization algorithms and applications using time of arrival and time difference of arrival measurements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, Xinya [Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA; Deng, Zhiqun Daniel [Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA; Rauchenstein, Lynn T. [Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA; Carlson, Thomas J. [Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA

    2016-04-01

    Locating the position of fixed or mobile sources (i.e., transmitters) based on received measurements from sensors is an important research area that is attracting much research interest. In this paper, we present localization algorithms using time of arrivals (TOA) and time difference of arrivals (TDOA) to achieve high accuracy under line-of-sight conditions. The circular (TOA) and hyperbolic (TDOA) location systems both use nonlinear equations that relate the locations of the sensors and tracked objects. These nonlinear equations can develop accuracy challenges because of the existence of measurement errors and efficiency challenges that lead to high computational burdens. Least squares-based and maximum likelihood-based algorithms have become the most popular categories of location estimators. We also summarize the advantages and disadvantages of various positioning algorithms. By improving measurement techniques and localization algorithms, localization applications can be extended into the signal-processing-related domains of radar, sonar, the Global Positioning System, wireless sensor networks, underwater animal tracking, mobile communications, and multimedia.

  8. Cyclic characteristics of earthquake time histories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hall, J.R. Jr; Shukla, D.K.; Kissenpfennig, J.F.

    1977-01-01

    From an engineering standpoint, an earthquake record may be characterized by a number of parameters, one of which is its 'cyclic characteristics'. The cyclic characteristics are most significant in fatigue analysis of structures and liquefaction analysis of soils where, in addition to the peak motion, cyclic buildup is significant. Whereas duration peak amplitude and response spectra for earthquakes have been studied extensively, the cyclic characteristics of earthquake records have not received an equivalent attention. Present procedures to define the cyclic characteristics are generally based upon counting the number of peaks at various amplitude ranges on a record. This paper presents a computer approach which describes a time history by an amplitude envelope and a phase curve. Using Fast Fourier Transform Techniques, an earthquake time history is represented as a projection along the x-axis of a rotating vector-the length the vector is given by the amplitude spectra-and the angle between the vector and x-axis is given by the phase curve. Thus one cycle is completed when the vector makes a full rotation. Based upon Miner's cumulative damage concept, the computer code automatically combines the cycles of various amplitudes to obtain the equivalent number of cycles of a given amplitude. To illustrate the overall results, the cyclic characteristics of several real and synthetic earthquake time histories have been studied and are presented in the paper, with the conclusion that this procedure provides a physical interpretation of the cyclic characteristics of earthquakes. (Auth.)

  9. Real-Time Integration of Positioning and Accelerometer Data for Early Earthquake Warning on Canada's West Coast

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biffard, B.; Rosenberger, A.; Pirenne, B.; Valenzuela, M.; MacArthur, M.

    2017-12-01

    Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) operates ocean and coastal observatories on all three of Canada's coasts, and more particularly across the Cascadia subduction zone. The data are acquired, parsed, calibrated and archived by ONC's data management system (Oceans 2.0), with real-time event detection, reaction and access capabilities. As such, ONC is in a unique position to develop early warning systems for earthquakes, near- and far-field tsunamis and other events. ONC is leading the development of a system to alert southwestern British Columbia of an impending Cascadia subduction zone earthquake on behalf of the provincial government and with the support of the Canadian Federal Government. Similarly to other early earthquake warning systems, an array of accelerometers is used to detect the initial earthquake p-waves. This can provide 5-60 seconds of warning to subscribers who can then take action, such as stopping trains and surgeries, closing valves, taking cover, etc. To maximize the detection capability and the time available to react to a notification, instruments are placed both underwater and on land on Vancouver Island. A novel feature of ONC's system is, for land-based sites, the combination of real-time satellite positioning (GNSS) and accelerometer data in the calculations to improve earthquake intensity estimates. This results in higher accuracy, dynamic range and responsiveness than either type of sensor is capable of alone. P-wave detections and displacement data are sent from remote stations to a data centre that must calculate epicentre locations and magnitude. The latter are then delivered to subscribers with client software that, given their position, will calculate arrival time and intensity. All of this must occur with very high standards for latency, reliability and accuracy.

  10. An Exact Solution of the Gamma Ray Burst Arrival Time Analysis ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    R. Narasimhan (Krishtel eMaging) 1461 1996 Oct 15 13:05:22

    An Exact Solution of the Gamma Ray Burst Arrival Time Analysis. Problem. S. Sinha ISRO Satellite Center, Bangalore 560 017, India. Abstract. An analytical solution of the GRB arrival time analysis is presented. The errors in the position of the GRB resulting from timing and position errors of different satellites are calculated.

  11. Empirical estimation of the arrival time of ICME Shocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaltout, Mosalam

    Empirical estimation of the arrival time of ICME Shocks Mosalam Shaltout1 ,M.Youssef 1and R.Mawad2 1 National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) ,Helwan -Cairo-Egypt Email: mosalamshaltout@hotmail.com 2 Faculty of Science-Monifiia University-Physics Department-Shiben Al-Koum -Monifiia-Egypt We are got the Data of the SSC events from Preliminary Reports of the ISGI (Institut de Physique du Globe, France) .Also we are selected the same CME interval 1996-2005 from SOHO/LASCO/C2.We have estimated the arrival time of ICME shocks during solar cycle 23rd (1996-2005), we take the Sudden storm commencement SSC as a indicator of the arrival of CMEs at the Earth's Magnetosphere (ICME).Under our model ,we selected 203 ICME shock-SSC associated events, we got an imperial relation between CME velocity and their travel time, from which we obtained high correlation between them, R=0.75.

  12. Tsunami Arrival Detection with High Frequency (HF Radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Donald Barrick

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Quantitative real-time observations of a tsunami have been limited to deep-water, pressure-sensor observations of changes in the sea surface elevation and observations of sea level fluctuations at the coast, which are essentially point measurements. Constrained by these data, models have been used for predictions and warning of the arrival of a tsunami, but to date no system exists for local detection of an actual incoming wave with a significant warning capability. Networks of coastal high frequency (HF-radars are now routinely observing surface currents in many countries. We report here on an empirical method for the detection of the initial arrival of a tsunami, and demonstrate its use with results from data measured by fourteen HF radar sites in Japan and USA following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Sendai, Japan, on 11 March 2011. The distance offshore at which the tsunami can be detected, and hence the warning time provided, depends on the bathymetry: the wider the shallow continental shelf, the greater this time. We compare arrival times at the radars with those measured by neighboring tide gauges. Arrival times measured by the radars preceded those at neighboring tide gauges by an average of 19 min (Japan and 15 min (USA The initial water-height increase due to the tsunami as measured by the tide gauges was moderate, ranging from 0.3 to 2 m. Thus it appears possible to detect even moderate tsunamis using this method. Larger tsunamis could obviously be detected further from the coast. We find that tsunami arrival within the radar coverage area can be announced 8 min (i.e., twice the radar spectral time resolution after its first appearance. This can provide advance warning of the tsunami approach to the coastline locations.

  13. Operator-normalized quantum arrival times in the presence of interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hegerfeldt, G.C.; Seidel, D.; Muga, J.G.; Navarro, B.

    2004-01-01

    We model ideal arrival-time measurements for free quantum particles and for particles subject to an external interaction by means of a narrow and weak absorbing potential. This approach is related to the operational approach of measuring the first photon emitted from a two-level atom illuminated by a laser. By operator normalizing the resulting time-of-arrival distribution, a distribution is obtained which for freely moving particles not only recovers the axiomatically derived distribution of Kijowski for states with purely positive momenta but is also applicable to general momentum components. For particles interacting with a square barrier the mean arrival time and corresponding 'tunneling time' obtained at the transmission side of the barrier become independent of the barrier width (Hartman effect) for arbitrarily wide barriers, i.e., without the transition to the ultraopaque, classical-like regime dominated by wave packet components above the barrier

  14. Earthquake Early Warning: User Education and Designing Effective Messages

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burkett, E. R.; Sellnow, D. D.; Jones, L.; Sellnow, T. L.

    2014-12-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and partners are transitioning from test-user trials of a demonstration earthquake early warning system (ShakeAlert) to deciding and preparing how to implement the release of earthquake early warning information, alert messages, and products to the public and other stakeholders. An earthquake early warning system uses seismic station networks to rapidly gather information about an occurring earthquake and send notifications to user devices ahead of the arrival of potentially damaging ground shaking at their locations. Earthquake early warning alerts can thereby allow time for actions to protect lives and property before arrival of damaging shaking, if users are properly educated on how to use and react to such notifications. A collaboration team of risk communications researchers and earth scientists is researching the effectiveness of a chosen subset of potential earthquake early warning interface designs and messages, which could be displayed on a device such as a smartphone. Preliminary results indicate, for instance, that users prefer alerts that include 1) a map to relate their location to the earthquake and 2) instructions for what to do in response to the expected level of shaking. A number of important factors must be considered to design a message that will promote appropriate self-protective behavior. While users prefer to see a map, how much information can be processed in limited time? Are graphical representations of wavefronts helpful or confusing? The most important factor to promote a helpful response is the predicted earthquake intensity, or how strong the expected shaking will be at the user's location. Unlike Japanese users of early warning, few Californians are familiar with the earthquake intensity scale, so we are exploring how differentiating instructions between intensity levels (e.g., "Be aware" for lower shaking levels and "Drop, cover, hold on" at high levels) can be paired with self-directed supplemental

  15. Time-decreasing hazard and increasing time until the next earthquake

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corral, Alvaro

    2005-01-01

    The existence of a slowly always decreasing probability density for the recurrence times of earthquakes in the stationary case implies that the occurrence of an event at a given instant becomes more unlikely as time since the previous event increases. Consequently, the expected waiting time to the next earthquake increases with the elapsed time, that is, the event moves away fast to the future. We have found direct empirical evidence of this counterintuitive behavior in two worldwide catalogs as well as in diverse regional catalogs. Universal scaling functions describe the phenomenon well

  16. Strong motion duration and earthquake magnitude relationships

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salmon, M.W.; Short, S.A.; Kennedy, R.P.

    1992-06-01

    Earthquake duration is the total time of ground shaking from the arrival of seismic waves until the return to ambient conditions. Much of this time is at relatively low shaking levels which have little effect on seismic structural response and on earthquake damage potential. As a result, a parameter termed ''strong motion duration'' has been defined by a number of investigators to be used for the purpose of evaluating seismic response and assessing the potential for structural damage due to earthquakes. This report presents methods for determining strong motion duration and a time history envelope function appropriate for various evaluation purposes, for earthquake magnitude and distance, and for site soil properties. There are numerous definitions of strong motion duration. For most of these definitions, empirical studies have been completed which relate duration to earthquake magnitude and distance and to site soil properties. Each of these definitions recognizes that only the portion of an earthquake record which has sufficiently high acceleration amplitude, energy content, or some other parameters significantly affects seismic response. Studies have been performed which indicate that the portion of an earthquake record in which the power (average rate of energy input) is maximum correlates most closely with potential damage to stiff nuclear power plant structures. Hence, this report will concentrate on energy based strong motion duration definitions

  17. Automatic pickup of arrival time of channel wave based on multi-channel constraints

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Bao-Li

    2018-03-01

    Accurately detecting the arrival time of a channel wave in a coal seam is very important for in-seam seismic data processing. The arrival time greatly affects the accuracy of the channel wave inversion and the computed tomography (CT) result. However, because the signal-to-noise ratio of in-seam seismic data is reduced by the long wavelength and strong frequency dispersion, accurately timing the arrival of channel waves is extremely difficult. For this purpose, we propose a method that automatically picks up the arrival time of channel waves based on multi-channel constraints. We first estimate the Jaccard similarity coefficient of two ray paths, then apply it as a weight coefficient for stacking the multichannel dispersion spectra. The reasonableness and effectiveness of the proposed method is verified in an actual data application. Most importantly, the method increases the degree of automation and the pickup precision of the channel-wave arrival time.

  18. Real-Time Earthquake Monitoring with Spatio-Temporal Fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whittier, J. C.; Nittel, S.; Subasinghe, I.

    2017-10-01

    With live streaming sensors and sensor networks, increasingly large numbers of individual sensors are deployed in physical space. Sensor data streams are a fundamentally novel mechanism to deliver observations to information systems. They enable us to represent spatio-temporal continuous phenomena such as radiation accidents, toxic plumes, or earthquakes almost as instantaneously as they happen in the real world. Sensor data streams discretely sample an earthquake, while the earthquake is continuous over space and time. Programmers attempting to integrate many streams to analyze earthquake activity and scope need to write code to integrate potentially very large sets of asynchronously sampled, concurrent streams in tedious application code. In previous work, we proposed the field stream data model (Liang et al., 2016) for data stream engines. Abstracting the stream of an individual sensor as a temporal field, the field represents the Earth's movement at the sensor position as continuous. This simplifies analysis across many sensors significantly. In this paper, we undertake a feasibility study of using the field stream model and the open source Data Stream Engine (DSE) Apache Spark(Apache Spark, 2017) to implement a real-time earthquake event detection with a subset of the 250 GPS sensor data streams of the Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN). The field-based real-time stream queries compute maximum displacement values over the latest query window of each stream, and related spatially neighboring streams to identify earthquake events and their extent. Further, we correlated the detected events with an USGS earthquake event feed. The query results are visualized in real-time.

  19. First arrival time picking for microseismic data based on DWSW algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yue; Wang, Yue; Lin, Hongbo; Zhong, Tie

    2018-03-01

    The first arrival time picking is a crucial step in microseismic data processing. When the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is low, however, it is difficult to get the first arrival time accurately with traditional methods. In this paper, we propose the double-sliding-window SW (DWSW) method based on the Shapiro-Wilk (SW) test. The DWSW method is used to detect the first arrival time by making full use of the differences between background noise and effective signals in the statistical properties. Specifically speaking, we obtain the moment corresponding to the maximum as the first arrival time of microseismic data when the statistic of our method reaches its maximum. Hence, in our method, there is no need to select the threshold, which makes the algorithm more facile when the SNR of microseismic data is low. To verify the reliability of the proposed method, a series of experiments is performed on both synthetic and field microseismic data. Our method is compared with the traditional short-time and long-time average (STA/LTA) method, the Akaike information criterion, and the kurtosis method. Analysis results indicate that the accuracy rate of the proposed method is superior to that of the other three methods when the SNR is as low as - 10 dB.

  20. Earthquake location in island arcs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engdahl, E.R.; Dewey, J.W.; Fujita, K.

    1982-01-01

    A comprehensive data set of selected teleseismic P-wave arrivals and local-network P- and S-wave arrivals from large earthquakes occurring at all depths within a small section of the central Aleutians is used to examine the general problem of earthquake location in island arcs. Reference hypocenters for this special data set are determined for shallow earthquakes from local-network data and for deep earthquakes from combined local and teleseismic data by joint inversion for structure and location. The high-velocity lithospheric slab beneath the central Aleutians may displace hypocenters that are located using spherically symmetric Earth models; the amount of displacement depends on the position of the earthquakes with respect to the slab and on whether local or teleseismic data are used to locate the earthquakes. Hypocenters for trench and intermediate-depth events appear to be minimally biased by the effects of slab structure on rays to teleseismic stations. However, locations of intermediate-depth events based on only local data are systematically displaced southwards, the magnitude of the displacement being proportional to depth. Shallow-focus events along the main thrust zone, although well located using only local-network data, are severely shifted northwards and deeper, with displacements as large as 50 km, by slab effects on teleseismic travel times. Hypocenters determined by a method that utilizes seismic ray tracing through a three-dimensional velocity model of the subduction zone, derived by thermal modeling, are compared to results obtained by the method of joint hypocenter determination (JHD) that formally assumes a laterally homogeneous velocity model over the source region and treats all raypath anomalies as constant station corrections to the travel-time curve. The ray-tracing method has the theoretical advantage that it accounts for variations in travel-time anomalies within a group of events distributed over a sizable region of a dipping, high

  1. A new Bayesian Inference-based Phase Associator for Earthquake Early Warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meier, Men-Andrin; Heaton, Thomas; Clinton, John; Wiemer, Stefan

    2013-04-01

    State of the art network-based Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems can provide warnings for large magnitude 7+ earthquakes. Although regions in the direct vicinity of the epicenter will not receive warnings prior to damaging shaking, real-time event characterization is available before the destructive S-wave arrival across much of the strongly affected region. In contrast, in the case of the more frequent medium size events, such as the devastating 1994 Mw6.7 Northridge, California, earthquake, providing timely warning to the smaller damage zone is more difficult. For such events the "blind zone" of current systems (e.g. the CISN ShakeAlert system in California) is similar in size to the area over which severe damage occurs. We propose a faster and more robust Bayesian inference-based event associator, that in contrast to the current standard associators (e.g. Earthworm Binder), is tailored to EEW and exploits information other than only phase arrival times. In particular, the associator potentially allows for reliable automated event association with as little as two observations, which, compared to the ShakeAlert system, would speed up the real-time characterizations by about ten seconds and thus reduce the blind zone area by up to 80%. We compile an extensive data set of regional and teleseismic earthquake and noise waveforms spanning a wide range of earthquake magnitudes and tectonic regimes. We pass these waveforms through a causal real-time filterbank with passband filters between 0.1 and 50Hz, and, updating every second from the event detection, extract the maximum amplitudes in each frequency band. Using this dataset, we define distributions of amplitude maxima in each passband as a function of epicentral distance and magnitude. For the real-time data, we pass incoming broadband and strong motion waveforms through the same filterbank and extract an evolving set of maximum amplitudes in each passband. We use the maximum amplitude distributions to check

  2. Limiting the effects of earthquakes on gravitational-wave interferometers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coughlin, Michael; Earle, Paul; Harms, Jan; Biscans, Sebastien; Buchanan, Christopher; Coughlin, Eric; Donovan, Fred; Fee, Jeremy; Gabbard, Hunter; Guy, Michelle; Mukund, Nikhil; Perry, Matthew

    2017-01-01

    Ground-based gravitational wave interferometers such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) are susceptible to ground shaking from high-magnitude teleseismic events, which can interrupt their operation in science mode and significantly reduce their duty cycle. It can take several hours for a detector to stabilize enough to return to its nominal state for scientific observations. The down time can be reduced if advance warning of impending shaking is received and the impact is suppressed in the isolation system with the goal of maintaining stable operation even at the expense of increased instrumental noise. Here, we describe an early warning system for modern gravitational-wave observatories. The system relies on near real-time earthquake alerts provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Preliminary low latency hypocenter and magnitude information is generally available in 5 to 20 min of a significant earthquake depending on its magnitude and location. The alerts are used to estimate arrival times and ground velocities at the gravitational-wave detectors. In general, 90% of the predictions for ground-motion amplitude are within a factor of 5 of measured values. The error in both arrival time and ground-motion prediction introduced by using preliminary, rather than final, hypocenter and magnitude information is minimal. By using a machine learning algorithm, we develop a prediction model that calculates the probability that a given earthquake will prevent a detector from taking data. Our initial results indicate that by using detector control configuration changes, we could prevent interruption of operation from 40 to 100 earthquake events in a 6-month time-period.

  3. Limiting the effects of earthquakes on gravitational-wave interferometers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coughlin, Michael; Earle, Paul; Harms, Jan; Biscans, Sebastien; Donovan, Fred; Buchanan, Christopher; Coughlin, Eric; Fee, Jeremy; Guy, Michelle; Gabbard, Hunter; Mukund, Nikhil; Perry, Matthew

    2017-01-01

    Ground-based gravitational wave interferometers such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) are susceptible to ground shaking from high-magnitude teleseismic events, which can interrupt their operation in science mode and significantly reduce their duty cycle. It can take several hours for a detector to stabilize enough to return to its nominal state for scientific observations. The down time can be reduced if advance warning of impending shaking is received and the impact is suppressed in the isolation system with the goal of maintaining stable operation even at the expense of increased instrumental noise. Here, we describe an early warning system for modern gravitational-wave observatories. The system relies on near real-time earthquake alerts provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Preliminary low latency hypocenter and magnitude information is generally available in 5 to 20 min of a significant earthquake depending on its magnitude and location. The alerts are used to estimate arrival times and ground velocities at the gravitational-wave detectors. In general, 90% of the predictions for ground-motion amplitude are within a factor of 5 of measured values. The error in both arrival time and ground-motion prediction introduced by using preliminary, rather than final, hypocenter and magnitude information is minimal. By using a machine learning algorithm, we develop a prediction model that calculates the probability that a given earthquake will prevent a detector from taking data. Our initial results indicate that by using detector control configuration changes, we could prevent interruption of operation from 40 to 100 earthquake events in a 6-month time-period. (paper)

  4. Triggered Seismicity in Utah from the November 3, 2002, Denali Fault Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pankow, K. L.; Nava, S. J.; Pechmann, J. C.; Arabasz, W. J.

    2002-12-01

    Coincident with the arrival of the surface waves from the November 3, 2002, Mw 7.9 Denali Fault, Alaska earthquake (DFE), the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) regional seismic network detected a marked increase in seismicity along the Intermountain Seismic Belt (ISB) in central and north-central Utah. The number of earthquakes per day in Utah located automatically by the UUSS's Earthworm system in the week following the DFE was approximately double the long-term average during the preceding nine months. From these preliminary data, the increased seismicity appears to be characterized by small magnitude events (M = 3.2) and concentrated in five distinct spatial clusters within the ISB between 38.75°and 42.0° N. The first of these earthquakes was an M 2.2 event located ~20 km east of Salt Lake City, Utah, which occurred during the arrival of the Love waves from the DFE. The increase in Utah earthquake activity at the time of the arrival of the surface waves from the DFE suggests that these surface waves triggered earthquakes in Utah at distances of more than 3,000 km from the source. We estimated the peak dynamic shear stress caused by these surface waves from measurements of their peak vector velocities at 43 recording sites: 37 strong-motion stations of the Advanced National Seismic System and six broadband stations. (The records from six other broadband instruments in the region of interest were clipped.) The estimated peak stresses ranged from 1.2 bars to 3.5 bars with a mean of 2.3 bars, and generally occurred during the arrival of Love waves of ~15 sec period. These peak dynamic shear stress estimates are comparable to those obtained from recordings of the 1992 Mw 7.3 Landers, California, earthquake in regions where the Landers earthquake triggered increased seismicity. We plan to present more complete analyses of UUSS seismic network data, further testing our hypothesis that the DFE remotely triggered seismicity in Utah. This hypothesis is

  5. Auto Correlation Analysis of Coda Waves from Local Earthquakes for Detecting Temporal Changes in Shallow Subsurface Structures: the 2011 Tohoku-Oki, Japan Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakahara, Hisashi

    2015-02-01

    For monitoring temporal changes in subsurface structures I propose to use auto correlation functions of coda waves from local earthquakes recorded at surface receivers, which probably contain more body waves than surface waves. Use of coda waves requires earthquakes resulting in decreased time resolution for monitoring. Nonetheless, it may be possible to monitor subsurface structures in sufficient time resolutions in regions with high seismicity. In studying the 2011 Tohoku-Oki, Japan earthquake (Mw 9.0), for which velocity changes have been previously reported, I try to validate the method. KiK-net stations in northern Honshu are used in this analysis. For each moderate earthquake normalized auto correlation functions of surface records are stacked with respect to time windows in the S-wave coda. Aligning the stacked, normalized auto correlation functions with time, I search for changes in phases arrival times. The phases at lag times of <1 s are studied because changes at shallow depths are focused. Temporal variations in the arrival times are measured at the stations based on the stretching method. Clear phase delays are found to be associated with the mainshock and to gradually recover with time. The amounts of the phase delays are 10 % on average with the maximum of about 50 % at some stations. The deconvolution analysis using surface and subsurface records at the same stations is conducted for validation. The results show the phase delays from the deconvolution analysis are slightly smaller than those from the auto correlation analysis, which implies that the phases on the auto correlations are caused by larger velocity changes at shallower depths. The auto correlation analysis seems to have an accuracy of about several percent, which is much larger than methods using earthquake doublets and borehole array data. So this analysis might be applicable in detecting larger changes. In spite of these disadvantages, this analysis is still attractive because it can

  6. Application of Hilbert-Huang Transform in Generating Spectrum-Compatible Earthquake Time Histories

    OpenAIRE

    Ni, Shun-Hao; Xie, Wei-Chau; Pandey, Mahesh

    2011-01-01

    Spectrum-compatible earthquake time histories have been widely used for seismic analysis and design. In this paper, a data processing method, Hilbert-Huang transform, is applied to generate earthquake time histories compatible with the target seismic design spectra based on multiple actual earthquake records. Each actual earthquake record is decomposed into several components of time-dependent amplitude and frequency by Hilbert-Huang transform. The spectrum-compatible earthquake time history ...

  7. Web-Based Real Time Earthquake Forecasting and Personal Risk Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rundle, J. B.; Holliday, J. R.; Graves, W. R.; Turcotte, D. L.; Donnellan, A.

    2012-12-01

    Earthquake forecasts have been computed by a variety of countries and economies world-wide for over two decades. For the most part, forecasts have been computed for insurance, reinsurance and underwriters of catastrophe bonds. One example is the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities that has been responsible for the official California earthquake forecast since 1988. However, in a time of increasingly severe global financial constraints, we are now moving inexorably towards personal risk management, wherein mitigating risk is becoming the responsibility of individual members of the public. Under these circumstances, open access to a variety of web-based tools, utilities and information is a necessity. Here we describe a web-based system that has been operational since 2009 at www.openhazards.com and www.quakesim.org. Models for earthquake physics and forecasting require input data, along with model parameters. The models we consider are the Natural Time Weibull (NTW) model for regional earthquake forecasting, together with models for activation and quiescence. These models use small earthquakes ('seismicity-based models") to forecast the occurrence of large earthquakes, either through varying rates of small earthquake activity, or via an accumulation of this activity over time. These approaches use data-mining algorithms combined with the ANSS earthquake catalog. The basic idea is to compute large earthquake probabilities using the number of small earthquakes that have occurred in a region since the last large earthquake. Each of these approaches has computational challenges associated with computing forecast information in real time. Using 25 years of data from the ANSS California-Nevada catalog of earthquakes, we show that real-time forecasting is possible at a grid scale of 0.1o. We have analyzed the performance of these models using Reliability/Attributes and standard Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) tests. We show how the Reliability and

  8. Real-time earthquake monitoring using a search engine method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jie; Zhang, Haijiang; Chen, Enhong; Zheng, Yi; Kuang, Wenhuan; Zhang, Xiong

    2014-12-04

    When an earthquake occurs, seismologists want to use recorded seismograms to infer its location, magnitude and source-focal mechanism as quickly as possible. If such information could be determined immediately, timely evacuations and emergency actions could be undertaken to mitigate earthquake damage. Current advanced methods can report the initial location and magnitude of an earthquake within a few seconds, but estimating the source-focal mechanism may require minutes to hours. Here we present an earthquake search engine, similar to a web search engine, that we developed by applying a computer fast search method to a large seismogram database to find waveforms that best fit the input data. Our method is several thousand times faster than an exact search. For an Mw 5.9 earthquake on 8 March 2012 in Xinjiang, China, the search engine can infer the earthquake's parameters in <1 s after receiving the long-period surface wave data.

  9. Earthquake simulations with time-dependent nucleation and long-range interactions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. H. Dieterich

    1995-01-01

    Full Text Available A model for rapid simulation of earthquake sequences is introduced which incorporates long-range elastic interactions among fault elements and time-dependent earthquake nucleation inferred from experimentally derived rate- and state-dependent fault constitutive properties. The model consists of a planar two-dimensional fault surface which is periodic in both the x- and y-directions. Elastic interactions among fault elements are represented by an array of elastic dislocations. Approximate solutions for earthquake nucleation and dynamics of earthquake slip are introduced which permit computations to proceed in steps that are determined by the transitions from one sliding state to the next. The transition-driven time stepping and avoidance of systems of simultaneous equations permit rapid simulation of large sequences of earthquake events on computers of modest capacity, while preserving characteristics of the nucleation and rupture propagation processes evident in more detailed models. Earthquakes simulated with this model reproduce many of the observed spatial and temporal characteristics of clustering phenomena including foreshock and aftershock sequences. Clustering arises because the time dependence of the nucleation process is highly sensitive to stress perturbations caused by nearby earthquakes. Rate of earthquake activity following a prior earthquake decays according to Omori's aftershock decay law and falls off with distance.

  10. Fixed recurrence and slip models better predict earthquake behavior than the time- and slip-predictable models 1: repeating earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubinstein, Justin L.; Ellsworth, William L.; Chen, Kate Huihsuan; Uchida, Naoki

    2012-01-01

    The behavior of individual events in repeating earthquake sequences in California, Taiwan and Japan is better predicted by a model with fixed inter-event time or fixed slip than it is by the time- and slip-predictable models for earthquake occurrence. Given that repeating earthquakes are highly regular in both inter-event time and seismic moment, the time- and slip-predictable models seem ideally suited to explain their behavior. Taken together with evidence from the companion manuscript that shows similar results for laboratory experiments we conclude that the short-term predictions of the time- and slip-predictable models should be rejected in favor of earthquake models that assume either fixed slip or fixed recurrence interval. This implies that the elastic rebound model underlying the time- and slip-predictable models offers no additional value in describing earthquake behavior in an event-to-event sense, but its value in a long-term sense cannot be determined. These models likely fail because they rely on assumptions that oversimplify the earthquake cycle. We note that the time and slip of these events is predicted quite well by fixed slip and fixed recurrence models, so in some sense they are time- and slip-predictable. While fixed recurrence and slip models better predict repeating earthquake behavior than the time- and slip-predictable models, we observe a correlation between slip and the preceding recurrence time for many repeating earthquake sequences in Parkfield, California. This correlation is not found in other regions, and the sequences with the correlative slip-predictable behavior are not distinguishable from nearby earthquake sequences that do not exhibit this behavior.

  11. Arrival time and incidence angle distributions of extensive air showers (EAS) muons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brancus, I.M.; Duma, M.; Vulpescu, B.; Foeller, M.; Rebel, H.; Voelker, G.; Chilingarian, A.A.

    1995-01-01

    The arrival time distributions of the muons can be related to the longitudinal EAS development and may provide additional information about the nature of the primary. Based on EAS simulations using the Monte-Carlo code CORSIKA, the correlations between arrival time and incidence angle distributions have been investigated in a case of a set of ideal detectors (10 m x 10 m) placed at various distances from the shower core. Applying advanced statistical techniques based on Bayes decision rule and non-parametric multivariate analysing methods it turns out that the correlations of muon arrival time and incidence angle at various separating distances of about 50 m exhibit promising features for mass discrimination (author)

  12. Designing and Implementing a Retrospective Earthquake Detection Framework at the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patton, J.; Yeck, W.; Benz, H.

    2017-12-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center (USGS NEIC) is implementing and integrating new signal detection methods such as subspace correlation, continuous beamforming, multi-band picking and automatic phase identification into near-real-time monitoring operations. Leveraging the additional information from these techniques help the NEIC utilize a large and varied network on local to global scales. The NEIC is developing an ordered, rapid, robust, and decentralized framework for distributing seismic detection data as well as a set of formalized formatting standards. These frameworks and standards enable the NEIC to implement a seismic event detection framework that supports basic tasks, including automatic arrival time picking, social media based event detections, and automatic association of different seismic detection data into seismic earthquake events. In addition, this framework enables retrospective detection processing such as automated S-wave arrival time picking given a detected event, discrimination and classification of detected events by type, back-azimuth and slowness calculations, and ensuring aftershock and induced sequence detection completeness. These processes and infrastructure improve the NEIC's capabilities, accuracy, and speed of response. In addition, this same infrastructure provides an improved and convenient structure to support access to automatic detection data for both research and algorithmic development.

  13. AIMBAT: A Python/Matplotlib Tool for Measuring Teleseismic Arrival Times

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lou, X.; van der Lee, S.; Lloyd, S.

    2013-12-01

    Python is an open-source, platform-independent, and object-oriented scripting language. It became more popular in the seismologist community since the appearance of ObsPy (Beyreuther et al. 2010, Megies et al. 2011), which provides a powerful framework for seismic data access and processing. This study introduces a new Python-based tool named AIMBAT (Automated and Interactive Measurement of Body-wave Arrival Times) for measuring teleseismic body-wave arrival times on large-scale seismic event data (Lou et al. 2013). Compared to ObsPy, AIMBAT is a lighter tool that is more focused on a particular aspect of seismic data processing. It originates from the widely used MCCC (Multi-Channel Cross-Correlation) method developed by VanDecar and Crosson (1990). On top of the original MCCC procedure, AIMBAT is automated in initial phase picking and is interactive in quality control. The core cross-correlation function is implemented in Fortran to boost up performance in addition to Python. The GUI (graphical user interface) of AIMBAT depends on Matplotlib's GUI-neutral widgets and event-handling API. A number of sorting and (de)selecting options are designed to facilitate the quality control of seismograms. By using AIMBAT, both relative and absolute teleseismic body-wave arrival times are measured. AIMBAT significantly improves efficiency and quality of the measurements. User interaction is needed only to pick the target phase arrival and to set a time window on the array stack. The package is easy to install and use, open-source, and is publicly available. Graphical user interface of AIMBAT.

  14. Monitoring molecular interactions using photon arrival-time interval distribution analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laurence, Ted A [Livermore, CA; Weiss, Shimon [Los Angels, CA

    2009-10-06

    A method for analyzing/monitoring the properties of species that are labeled with fluorophores. A detector is used to detect photons emitted from species that are labeled with one or more fluorophores and located in a confocal detection volume. The arrival time of each of the photons is determined. The interval of time between various photon pairs is then determined to provide photon pair intervals. The number of photons that have arrival times within the photon pair intervals is also determined. The photon pair intervals are then used in combination with the corresponding counts of intervening photons to analyze properties and interactions of the molecules including brightness, concentration, coincidence and transit time. The method can be used for analyzing single photon streams and multiple photon streams.

  15. Combining multiple earthquake models in real time for earthquake early warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minson, Sarah E.; Wu, Stephen; Beck, James L; Heaton, Thomas H.

    2017-01-01

    The ultimate goal of earthquake early warning (EEW) is to provide local shaking information to users before the strong shaking from an earthquake reaches their location. This is accomplished by operating one or more real‐time analyses that attempt to predict shaking intensity, often by estimating the earthquake’s location and magnitude and then predicting the ground motion from that point source. Other EEW algorithms use finite rupture models or may directly estimate ground motion without first solving for an earthquake source. EEW performance could be improved if the information from these diverse and independent prediction models could be combined into one unified, ground‐motion prediction. In this article, we set the forecast shaking at each location as the common ground to combine all these predictions and introduce a Bayesian approach to creating better ground‐motion predictions. We also describe how this methodology could be used to build a new generation of EEW systems that provide optimal decisions customized for each user based on the user’s individual false‐alarm tolerance and the time necessary for that user to react.

  16. Arrival-Time Detection and Ultrasonic Flow-Meter Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Willatzen, Morten; Soendergaard, Peter; Latino, Carl; Voss, Frands; Andersen, Niels Lervad; Brokate, Martin; Bounaim, Aicha

    2006-01-01

    The Danfoss problem on ultrasonic flow measurement has been separated into three parts each handled by a subgroup of the authors listed above. The first subgroup deals with a presentation of modelling equations describing the physics of ultrasonic flow meters employing reciprocal ultrasonic transducer systems. The mathematical model presented allows the electrical output signal to be determined corresponding to any time-dependent electrical input signal. The transducers modelled consist of a piezoceramic material layer and a passive acoustic matching layer. The second subgroup analyzes the possibility of coding the input signal so as to simplify arrival-time detection by re.nding the coded input sequence in the received signal. The narrow-band nature of the transducers makes this problem non-trivial but suggestions for improvement are proposed. The analysis given is based on traditional autoand cross-correlation techniques. The third subgroup attempts to improve existing correlation methods in determining arrival-time detection of signals. A mathematical formulation of the problem is given and the application to a set of real signals provided by Danfoss A/S is performed with good results

  17. Real-time earthquake monitoring: Early warning and rapid response

    Science.gov (United States)

    1991-01-01

    A panel was established to investigate the subject of real-time earthquake monitoring (RTEM) and suggest recommendations on the feasibility of using a real-time earthquake warning system to mitigate earthquake damage in regions of the United States. The findings of the investigation and the related recommendations are described in this report. A brief review of existing real-time seismic systems is presented with particular emphasis given to the current California seismic networks. Specific applications of a real-time monitoring system are discussed along with issues related to system deployment and technical feasibility. In addition, several non-technical considerations are addressed including cost-benefit analysis, public perceptions, safety, and liability.

  18. Earthquake forecasting studies using radon time series data in Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walia, Vivek; Kumar, Arvind; Fu, Ching-Chou; Lin, Shih-Jung; Chou, Kuang-Wu; Wen, Kuo-Liang; Chen, Cheng-Hong

    2017-04-01

    For few decades, growing number of studies have shown usefulness of data in the field of seismogeochemistry interpreted as geochemical precursory signals for impending earthquakes and radon is idendified to be as one of the most reliable geochemical precursor. Radon is recognized as short-term precursor and is being monitored in many countries. This study is aimed at developing an effective earthquake forecasting system by inspecting long term radon time series data. The data is obtained from a network of radon monitoring stations eastblished along different faults of Taiwan. The continuous time series radon data for earthquake studies have been recorded and some significant variations associated with strong earthquakes have been observed. The data is also examined to evaluate earthquake precursory signals against environmental factors. An automated real-time database operating system has been developed recently to improve the data processing for earthquake precursory studies. In addition, the study is aimed at the appraisal and filtrations of these environmental parameters, in order to create a real-time database that helps our earthquake precursory study. In recent years, automatic operating real-time database has been developed using R, an open source programming language, to carry out statistical computation on the data. To integrate our data with our working procedure, we use the popular and famous open source web application solution, AMP (Apache, MySQL, and PHP), creating a website that could effectively show and help us manage the real-time database.

  19. One-dimensional velocity model of the Middle Kura Depresion from local earthquakes data of Azerbaijan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yetirmishli, G. C.; Kazimova, S. E.; Kazimov, I. E.

    2011-09-01

    We present the method for determining the velocity model of the Earth's crust and the parameters of earthquakes in the Middle Kura Depression from the data of network telemetry in Azerbaijan. Application of this method allowed us to recalculate the main parameters of the hypocenters of the earthquake, to compute the corrections to the arrival times of P and S waves at the observation station, and to significantly improve the accuracy in determining the coordinates of the earthquakes. The model was constructed using the VELEST program, which calculates one-dimensional minimal velocity models from the travel times of seismic waves.

  20. The earthquake problem in engineering design: generating earthquake design basis information

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sharma, R.D.

    1987-01-01

    Designing earthquake resistant structures requires certain design inputs specific to the seismotectonic status of the region, in which a critical facility is to be located. Generating these inputs requires collection of earthquake related information using present day techniques in seismology and geology, and processing the collected information to integrate it to arrive at a consolidated picture of the seismotectonics of the region. The earthquake problem in engineering design has been outlined in the context of a seismic design of nuclear power plants vis a vis current state of the art techniques. The extent to which the accepted procedures of assessing seismic risk in the region and generating the design inputs have been adherred to determine to a great extent the safety of the structures against future earthquakes. The document is a step towards developing an aproach for generating these inputs, which form the earthquake design basis. (author)

  1. Precise and accurate train run data: Approximation of actual arrival and departure times

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Richter, Troels; Landex, Alex; Andersen, Jonas Lohmann Elkjær

    with the approximated actual arrival and departure times. As a result, all future statistics can now either be based on track circuit data with high precision or approximated actual arrival times with a high accuracy. Consequently, performance analysis will be more accurate, punctuality statistics more correct, KPI...

  2. Verification of real-time WSA-ENLIL+Cone simulations of CME arrival-time at the CCMC/SWRC from 2010-2016

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wold, A. M.; Mays, M. L.; Taktakishvili, A.; Odstrcil, D.; MacNeice, P. J.; Jian, L. K.

    2017-12-01

    The Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA)-ENLIL+Cone model is used extensively in space weather operations world-wide to model CME propagation. As such, it is important to assess its performance. We present validation results of the WSA-ENLIL+Cone model installed at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) and executed in real-time by the CCMC/Space Weather Research Center (SWRC). CCMC/SWRC uses the WSA-ENLIL+Cone model to predict CME arrivals at NASA missions throughout the inner heliosphere. In this work we compare model predicted CME arrival-times to in-situ ICME leading edge measurements near Earth, STEREO-A and STEREO-B for simulations completed between March 2010-December 2016 (over 1,800 CMEs). We report hit, miss, false alarm, and correct rejection statistics for all three spacecraft. For all predicted CME arrivals, the hit rate is 0.5, and the false alarm rate is 0.1. For the 273 events where the CME was predicted to arrive at Earth, STEREO-A, or STEREO-B and we observed an arrival (hit), the mean absolute arrival-time prediction error was 10.4 ± 0.9 hours, with a tendency to early prediction error of -4.0 hours. We show the dependence of the arrival-time error on CME input parameters. We also explore the impact of the multi-spacecraft observations used to initialize the model CME inputs by comparing model verification results before and after the STEREO-B communication loss (since September 2014) and STEREO-A side-lobe operations (August 2014-December 2015). There is an increase of 1.7 hours in the CME arrival time error during single, or limited two-viewpoint periods, compared to the three-spacecraft viewpoint period. This trend would apply to a future space weather mission at L5 or L4 as another coronagraph viewpoint to reduce CME arrival time errors compared to a single L1 viewpoint.

  3. Rapid Large Earthquake and Run-up Characterization in Quasi Real Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bravo, F. J.; Riquelme, S.; Koch, P.; Cararo, S.

    2017-12-01

    Several test in quasi real time have been conducted by the rapid response group at CSN (National Seismological Center) to characterize earthquakes in Real Time. These methods are known for its robustness and realibility to create Finite Fault Models. The W-phase FFM Inversion, The Wavelet Domain FFM and The Body Wave and FFM have been implemented in real time at CSN, all these algorithms are running automatically and triggered by the W-phase Point Source Inversion. Dimensions (Large and Width ) are predefined by adopting scaling laws for earthquakes in subduction zones. We tested the last four major earthquakes occurred in Chile using this scheme: The 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule Earthquake, The 2014 Mw 8.2 Iquique Earthquake, The 2015 Mw 8.3 Illapel Earthquake and The 7.6 Melinka Earthquake. We obtain many solutions as time elapses, for each one of those we calculate the run-up using an analytical formula. Our results are in agreements with some FFM already accepted by the sicentific comunnity aswell as run-up observations in the field.

  4. Prediction of Global and Localized Damage and Future Reliability for RC Structures subject to Earthquakes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Köyluoglu, H.U.; Nielsen, Søren R.K.; Cakmak, A.S.

    1997-01-01

    the arrival of the first earthquake from non-destructive vibration tests or via structural analysis. The previous excitation and displacement response time series is employed for the identification of the instantaneous softening using an ARMA model. The hysteresis parameters are updated after each earthquake....... The proposed model is next generalized for the MDOF system. Using the adapted models for the structure and the global damage state, the global damage in a future earthquake can then be estimated when a suitable earthquake model is applied. The performance of the model is illustrated on RC frames which were...

  5. Prediction of Global and Localized Damage and Future Reliability for RC Structures subject to Earthquakes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Köyluoglu, H.U.; Nielsen, Søren R.K.; Cakmak, A.S.

    1994-01-01

    the arrival of the first earthquake from non-destructive vibration tests or via structural analysis. The previous excitation and displacement response time series is employed for the identification of the instantaneous softening using an ARMA model. The hysteresis parameters are updated after each earthquake....... The proposed model is next generalized for the MDOF system. Using the adapted models for the structure and the global damage state, the global damage in a future earthquake can then be estimated when a suitable earthquake model is applied. The performance of the model is illustrated on RC frames which were...

  6. A review on remotely sensed land surface temperature anomaly as an earthquake precursor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhardwaj, Anshuman; Singh, Shaktiman; Sam, Lydia; Joshi, P. K.; Bhardwaj, Akanksha; Martín-Torres, F. Javier; Kumar, Rajesh

    2017-12-01

    The low predictability of earthquakes and the high uncertainty associated with their forecasts make earthquakes one of the worst natural calamities, capable of causing instant loss of life and property. Here, we discuss the studies reporting the observed anomalies in the satellite-derived Land Surface Temperature (LST) before an earthquake. We compile the conclusions of these studies and evaluate the use of remotely sensed LST anomalies as precursors of earthquakes. The arrival times and the amplitudes of the anomalies vary widely, thus making it difficult to consider them as universal markers to issue earthquake warnings. Based on the randomness in the observations of these precursors, we support employing a global-scale monitoring system to detect statistically robust anomalous geophysical signals prior to earthquakes before considering them as definite precursors.

  7. Remote Triggering of the Mw 6.9 Hokkaido Earthquake as a Result of the Mw 6.6 Indonesian Earthquake on September 11, 2008

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheng-Horng Lin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Only just recently, the phenomenon of earthquakes being triggered by a distant earthquake has been well established. Yet, most of the triggered earthquakes have been limited to small earthquakes (M < 3. Also, the exact triggering mechanism for earthquakes is still not clear. Here I show how one strong earthquake (Mw = 6.6 is capable of triggering another (Mw = 6.9 at a remote distance (~4750 km. On September 11, 2008, two strong earthquakes with magnitudes (Mw of 6.6 and 6.9 hit respectively in Indonesia and Japan within a short interval of ~21 minutes time. Careful examination of broadband seismograms recorded in Japan shows that the Hokkaido earthquake occurred just as the surface waves generated by the Indonesia earthquake arrived. Although the peak dynamic stress estimated at the focus of the Hokkaido earthquake was just reaching the lower bound for the capability of triggering earthquakes in general, a more plausible mechanism for triggering an earthquake might be attributed to the change of a fault property by fluid infiltration. These observations suggest that the Hokkaido earthquake was likely triggered from a remote distance by the surface waves generated from the Indonesia earthquake. If some more cases can be observed, a temporal warning of possible interaction between strong earthquakes might be concerned in the future.

  8. Earthquake Catalogue of the Caucasus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Godoladze, T.; Gok, R.; Tvaradze, N.; Tumanova, N.; Gunia, I.; Onur, T.

    2016-12-01

    The Caucasus has a documented historical catalog stretching back to the beginning of the Christian era. Most of the largest historical earthquakes prior to the 19th century are assumed to have occurred on active faults of the Greater Caucasus. Important earthquakes include the Samtskhe earthquake of 1283 (Ms˜7.0, Io=9); Lechkhumi-Svaneti earthquake of 1350 (Ms˜7.0, Io=9); and the Alaverdi earthquake of 1742 (Ms˜6.8, Io=9). Two significant historical earthquakes that may have occurred within the Javakheti plateau in the Lesser Caucasus are the Tmogvi earthquake of 1088 (Ms˜6.5, Io=9) and the Akhalkalaki earthquake of 1899 (Ms˜6.3, Io =8-9). Large earthquakes that occurred in the Caucasus within the period of instrumental observation are: Gori 1920; Tabatskuri 1940; Chkhalta 1963; Racha earthquake of 1991 (Ms=7.0), is the largest event ever recorded in the region; Barisakho earthquake of 1992 (M=6.5); Spitak earthquake of 1988 (Ms=6.9, 100 km south of Tbilisi), which killed over 50,000 people in Armenia. Recently, permanent broadband stations have been deployed across the region as part of the various national networks (Georgia (˜25 stations), Azerbaijan (˜35 stations), Armenia (˜14 stations)). The data from the last 10 years of observation provides an opportunity to perform modern, fundamental scientific investigations. In order to improve seismic data quality a catalog of all instrumentally recorded earthquakes has been compiled by the IES (Institute of Earth Sciences/NSMC, Ilia State University) in the framework of regional joint project (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, USA) "Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) in the Caucasus. The catalogue consists of more then 80,000 events. First arrivals of each earthquake of Mw>=4.0 have been carefully examined. To reduce calculation errors, we corrected arrivals from the seismic records. We improved locations of the events and recalculate Moment magnitudes in order to obtain unified magnitude

  9. Managing truck arrivals with time windows to alleviate gate congestion at container terminals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chen, G.; Govindan, Kannan; Yang, Z.

    2013-01-01

    Long truck queues at gates often limit the efficiency of a container terminal and generate serious air pollution. To reduce the gate congestion, this paper proposes a method called'vessel dependent time windows (VDTWs)' to control truck arrivals, which involves partitioning truck entries into gro......Long truck queues at gates often limit the efficiency of a container terminal and generate serious air pollution. To reduce the gate congestion, this paper proposes a method called'vessel dependent time windows (VDTWs)' to control truck arrivals, which involves partitioning truck entries...... into groups and assigning different time windows to the groups. The proposed VDTWs method includes three steps: (1) predicting truck arrivals based on the time window assignment, (2) estimating the queue length of trucks, and (3) optimizing the arrangement of time windows to minimize the total cost...

  10. Spatial Distribution of earthquakes off the coast of Fukushima Two Years after the M9 Earthquake: the Southern Area of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Rupture Zone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamada, T.; Nakahigashi, K.; Shinohara, M.; Mochizuki, K.; Shiobara, H.

    2014-12-01

    Huge earthquakes cause vastly stress field change around the rupture zones, and many aftershocks and other related geophysical phenomenon such as geodetic movements have been observed. It is important to figure out the time-spacious distribution during the relaxation process for understanding the giant earthquake cycle. In this study, we pick up the southern rupture area of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (M9.0). The seismicity rate keeps still high compared with that before the 2011 earthquake. Many studies using ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs) have been doing since soon after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in order to obtain aftershock activity precisely. Here we show one of the studies at off the coast of Fukushima which is located on the southern part of the rupture area caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. We deployed 4 broadband type OBSs (BBOBSs) and 12 short-period type OBSs (SOBS) in August 2012. Other 4 BBOBSs attached with absolute pressure gauges and 20 SOBSs were added in November 2012. We recovered 36 OBSs including 8 BBOBSs in November 2013. We selected 1,000 events in the vicinity of the OBS network based on a hypocenter catalog published by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and extracted the data after time corrections caused by each internal clock. Each P and S wave arrival times, P wave polarity and maximum amplitude were picked manually on a computer display. We assumed one dimensional velocity structure based on the result from an active source experiment across our network, and applied time corrections every station for removing ambiguity of the assumed structure. Then we adopted a maximum-likelihood estimation technique and calculated the hypocenters. The results show that intensive activity near the Japan Trench can be seen, while there was a quiet seismic zone between the trench zone and landward high activity zone.

  11. Localizing Submarine Earthquakes by Listening to the Water Reverberations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castillo, J.; Zhan, Z.; Wu, W.

    2017-12-01

    Mid-Ocean Ridge (MOR) earthquakes generally occur far from any land based station and are of moderate magnitude, making it complicated to detect and in most cases, locate accurately. This limits our understanding of how MOR normal and transform faults move and the manner in which they slip. Different from continental events, seismic records from earthquakes occurring beneath the ocean floor show complex reverberations caused by P-wave energy trapped in the water column that are highly dependent of the source location and the efficiency to which energy propagated to the near-source surface. These later arrivals are commonly considered to be only a nuisance as they might sometimes interfere with the primary arrivals. However, in this study, we take advantage of the wavefield's high sensitivity to small changes in the seafloor topography and the present-day availability of worldwide multi-beam bathymetry to relocate submarine earthquakes by modeling these water column reverberations in teleseismic signals. Using a three-dimensional hybrid method for modeling body wave arrivals, we demonstrate that an accurate hypocentral location of a submarine earthquake (<5 km) can be achieved if the structural complexities near the source region are appropriately accounted for. This presents a novel way of studying earthquake source properties and will serve as a means to explore the influence of physical fault structure on the seismic behavior of transform faults.

  12. Verification of real-time WSA-ENLIL+Cone simulations of CME arrival-time at the CCMC from 2010 to 2016

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wold, Alexandra M.; Mays, M. Leila; Taktakishvili, Aleksandre; Jian, Lan K.; Odstrcil, Dusan; MacNeice, Peter

    2018-03-01

    The Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA)-ENLIL+Cone model is used extensively in space weather operations world-wide to model coronal mass ejection (CME) propagation. As such, it is important to assess its performance. We present validation results of the WSA-ENLIL+Cone model installed at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) and executed in real-time by the CCMC space weather team. CCMC uses the WSA-ENLIL+Cone model to predict CME arrivals at NASA missions throughout the inner heliosphere. In this work we compare model predicted CME arrival-times to in situ interplanetary coronal mass ejection leading edge measurements at Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory-Ahead (STEREO-A), Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory-Behind (STEREO-B), and Earth (Wind and ACE) for simulations completed between March 2010 and December 2016 (over 1,800 CMEs). We report hit, miss, false alarm, and correct rejection statistics for all three locations. For all predicted CME arrivals, the hit rate is 0.5, and the false alarm rate is 0.1. For the 273 events where the CME was predicted to arrive at Earth, STEREO-A, or STEREO-B, and was actually observed (hit event), the mean absolute arrival-time prediction error was 10.4 ± 0.9 h, with a tendency to early prediction error of -4.0 h. We show the dependence of the arrival-time error on CME input parameters. We also explore the impact of the multi-spacecraft observations used to initialize the model CME inputs by comparing model verification results before and after the STEREO-B communication loss (since September 2014) and STEREO-A sidelobe operations (August 2014-December 2015). There is an increase of 1.7 h in the CME arrival time error during single, or limited two-viewpoint periods, compared to the three-spacecraft viewpoint period. This trend would apply to a future space weather mission at L5 or L4 as another coronagraph viewpoint to reduce CME arrival time errors compared to a single L1 viewpoint.

  13. Controlled time of arrival windows for already initiated energy-neutral continuous descent operations

    OpenAIRE

    Dalmau Codina, Ramon; Prats Menéndez, Xavier

    2017-01-01

    Continuous descent operations with controlled times of arrival at one or several metering fixes could enable environmentally friendly procedures without compromising terminal airspace capacity. This paper focuses on controlled time of arrival updates once the descent has been already initiated, assessing the feasible time window (and associated fuel consumption) of continuous descent operations requiring neither thrust nor speed-brake usage along the whole descent (i.e. only elevator control ...

  14. ARRIVAL TIME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GRAVITATIONAL WAVES AND ELECTROMAGNETIC SIGNALS DUE TO GRAVITATIONAL LENSING

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Takahashi, Ryuichi [Faculty of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, 3 Bunkyo-cho, Hirosaki, Aomori 036-8561 (Japan)

    2017-01-20

    In this study we demonstrate that general relativity predicts arrival time differences between gravitational wave (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) signals caused by the wave effects in gravitational lensing. The GW signals can arrive earlier than the EM signals in some cases if the GW/EM signals have passed through a lens, even if both signals were emitted simultaneously by a source. GW wavelengths are much larger than EM wavelengths; therefore, the propagation of the GWs does not follow the laws of geometrical optics, including the Shapiro time delay, if the lens mass is less than approximately 10{sup 5} M {sub ⊙}( f /Hz){sup −1}, where f is the GW frequency. The arrival time difference can reach ∼0.1 s ( f /Hz){sup −1} if the signals have passed by a lens of mass ∼8000 M {sub ⊙}( f /Hz){sup −1} with the impact parameter smaller than the Einstein radius; therefore, it is more prominent for lower GW frequencies. For example, when a distant supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) in a galactic center is lensed by an intervening galaxy, the time lag becomes of the order of 10 days. Future pulsar timing arrays including the Square Kilometre Array and X-ray detectors may detect several time lags by measuring the orbital phase differences between the GW/EM signals in the SMBHBs. Gravitational lensing imprints a characteristic modulation on a chirp waveform; therefore, we can deduce whether a measured arrival time lag arises from intrinsic source properties or gravitational lensing. Determination of arrival time differences would be extremely useful in multimessenger observations and tests of general relativity.

  15. Evaluating real-time air-quality data as earthquake indicator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hsu, Shih-Chieh; Huang, Yi-Tang; Huang, Jr-Chung; Tu, Jien-Yi; Engling, Guenter; Lin, Chuan-Yao; Lin, Fei-Jan; Huang, Chao-Hao

    2010-01-01

    A catastrophic earthquake, namely the 921-earthquake, occurred with a magnitude of M L = 7.3 in Taiwan on September 21, 1999, causing severe disaster. The evaluation of real-time air-quality data, obtained by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), revealed a staggering increase in ambient SO 2 concentrations by more than one order of magnitude across the island several hours prior to the earthquake, particularly at background stations. The abrupt increase in SO 2 concentrations likely resulted from seismic-triggered degassing instead of air pollution. An additional case of a large earthquake (M L = 6.8), occurring on March 31, 2002, was examined to confirm our observations of significantly enhanced SO 2 concentrations in ambient air prior to large earthquakes. The coincidence between large earthquakes and increases in trace gases during the pre-quake period (several hours) indicates the potential of employing air-quality monitoring data to forecast catastrophic earthquakes.

  16. Original Research Factors associated with hospital arrival time after ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Original Research. Factors associated with hospital arrival time after the onset of stroke symptoms: A cross-sectional study at two teaching hospitals in Harare, Zimbabwe .... hypertension causing small vessel disease which outweigh the causes of ..... Stroke Mechanism in Atherosclerotic Middle Cerebral Artery Disease:.

  17. Towards the Future "Earthquake" School in the Cloud: Near-real Time Earthquake Games Competition in Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, K. H.; Liang, W. T.; Wu, Y. F.; Yen, E.

    2014-12-01

    To prevent the future threats of natural disaster, it is important to understand how the disaster happened, why lives were lost, and what lessons have been learned. By that, the attitude of society toward natural disaster can be transformed from training to learning. The citizen-seismologists-in-Taiwan project is designed to elevate the quality of earthquake science education by means of incorporating earthquake/tsunami stories and near-real time earthquake games competition into the traditional curricula in schools. Through pilot of courses and professional development workshops, we have worked closely with teachers from elementary, junior high, and senior high schools, to design workable teaching plans through a practical operation of seismic monitoring at home or school. We will introduce how the 9-years-old do P- and S-wave picking and measure seismic intensity through interactive learning platform, how do scientists and school teachers work together, and how do we create an environment to facilitate continuous learning (i.e., near-real time earthquake games competition), to make earthquake science fun.

  18. Modelling tourists arrival using time varying parameter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suciptawati, P.; Sukarsa, K. G.; Kencana, Eka N.

    2017-06-01

    The importance of tourism and its related sectors to support economic development and poverty reduction in many countries increase researchers’ attentions to study and model tourists’ arrival. This work is aimed to demonstrate time varying parameter (TVP) technique to model the arrival of Korean’s tourists to Bali. The number of Korean tourists whom visiting Bali for period January 2010 to December 2015 were used to model the number of Korean’s tourists to Bali (KOR) as dependent variable. The predictors are the exchange rate of Won to IDR (WON), the inflation rate in Korea (INFKR), and the inflation rate in Indonesia (INFID). Observing tourists visit to Bali tend to fluctuate by their nationality, then the model was built by applying TVP and its parameters were approximated using Kalman Filter algorithm. The results showed all of predictor variables (WON, INFKR, INFID) significantly affect KOR. For in-sample and out-of-sample forecast with ARIMA’s forecasted values for the predictors, TVP model gave mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) as much as 11.24 percent and 12.86 percent, respectively.

  19. The limits of earthquake early warning: Timeliness of ground motion estimates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minson, Sarah E.; Meier, Men-Andrin; Baltay, Annemarie S.; Hanks, Thomas C.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.

    2018-01-01

    The basic physics of earthquakes is such that strong ground motion cannot be expected from an earthquake unless the earthquake itself is very close or has grown to be very large. We use simple seismological relationships to calculate the minimum time that must elapse before such ground motion can be expected at a distance from the earthquake, assuming that the earthquake magnitude is not predictable. Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems are in operation or development for many regions around the world, with the goal of providing enough warning of incoming ground shaking to allow people and automated systems to take protective actions to mitigate losses. However, the question of how much warning time is physically possible for specified levels of ground motion has not been addressed. We consider a zero-latency EEW system to determine possible warning times a user could receive in an ideal case. In this case, the only limitation on warning time is the time required for the earthquake to evolve and the time for strong ground motion to arrive at a user’s location. We find that users who wish to be alerted at lower ground motion thresholds will receive more robust warnings with longer average warning times than users who receive warnings for higher ground motion thresholds. EEW systems have the greatest potential benefit for users willing to take action at relatively low ground motion thresholds, whereas users who set relatively high thresholds for taking action are less likely to receive timely and actionable information.

  20. Limitation of the Predominant-Period Estimator for Earthquake Early Warning and the Initial Rupture of Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamada, T.; Ide, S.

    2007-12-01

    Earthquake early warning is an important and challenging issue for the reduction of the seismic damage, especially for the mitigation of human suffering. One of the most important problems in earthquake early warning systems is how immediately we can estimate the final size of an earthquake after we observe the ground motion. It is relevant to the problem whether the initial rupture of an earthquake has some information associated with its final size. Nakamura (1988) developed the Urgent Earthquake Detection and Alarm System (UrEDAS). It calculates the predominant period of the P wave (τp) and estimates the magnitude of an earthquake immediately after the P wave arrival from the value of τpmax, or the maximum value of τp. The similar approach has been adapted by other earthquake alarm systems (e.g., Allen and Kanamori (2003)). To investigate the characteristic of the parameter τp and the effect of the length of the time window (TW) in the τpmax calculation, we analyze the high-frequency recordings of earthquakes at very close distances in the Mponeng mine in South Africa. We find that values of τpmax have upper and lower limits. For larger earthquakes whose source durations are longer than TW, the values of τpmax have an upper limit which depends on TW. On the other hand, the values for smaller earthquakes have a lower limit which is proportional to the sampling interval. For intermediate earthquakes, the values of τpmax are close to their typical source durations. These two limits and the slope for intermediate earthquakes yield an artificial final size dependence of τpmax in a wide size range. The parameter τpmax is useful for detecting large earthquakes and broadcasting earthquake early warnings. However, its dependence on the final size of earthquakes does not suggest that the earthquake rupture is deterministic. This is because τpmax does not always have a direct relation to the physical quantities of an earthquake.

  1. Spectral information for detection of acoustic time to arrival

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gordon, Michael S.; Russo, Frank A.; MacDonald, Ewen

    2013-01-01

    The exponential increase of intensity for an approaching sound source provides salient information for a listener to make judgments of time to arrival (TTA). Specifically, a listener will experience a greater rate of increasing intensity for higher than for lower frequencies during a sound source...

  2. Stochastic Resonance and First Arrival Time for Excitable Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duki, Solomon Fekade; Taye, Mesfin Asfaw

    2018-06-01

    We study the noise induced thermally activated barrier crossing of Brownian particles that hop in a piecewise linear potential. Using the exact analytic solutions and via numerical simulations not only we explore the dependence for the first passage time of a single particle but also we calculate the first arrival time for one particle out of N particles. The first arrival time decreases as the number of particles increases as expected. We then explore the thermally activated barrier crossing rate of the system in the presence of time varying signal. The dependence of signal to noise ratio SNR as well as the power amplification (η ) on model parameters is explored. η and SNR depict a pronounced peak at particular noise strength. In the presence of N particles, η is considerably amplified as N steps up showing the weak periodic signal plays a vital role in controlling the noise induced dynamics of the system. Moreover, for the sake of generality, the viscous friction γ is considered to decrease exponentially when the temperature T of the medium increases (γ =Be^{-A T}) as proposed originally by Reynolds (Philos Trans R Soc Lond 177:157, 1886).

  3. Sojourn time distributions in a Markovian G-queue with batch arrival and batch removal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Woo Shin

    1999-01-01

    Full Text Available We consider a single server Markovian queue with two types of customers; positive and negative, where positive customers arrive in batches and arrivals of negative customers remove positive customers in batches. Only positive customers form a queue and negative customers just reduce the system congestion by removing positive ones upon their arrivals. We derive the LSTs of sojourn time distributions for a single server Markovian queue with positive customers and negative customers by using the first passage time arguments for Markov chains.

  4. Distribution of arrival times of muons with energy greater than 10 GeV

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Badino, G.; Bianco, P.; Dardo, M.; Fulgione, W.; Galeotti, P.; Periale, L.; Saavedra, O.

    1982-01-01

    Recent data on the arrival time distribution of EAS of primary energy >=10 14 eV, and of high energy muons detected at great depth (5000 mwe), seem to indicate an excess of short time intervals. We are using an apparatus, installed at 40 mwe underground, and a surface shower array to investigate the distributions of a) the time intervals between muon groups and b) the arrival times of muons with respect to the front of air showers. Preliminary results of this search are presented

  5. The Measurement and Interpretation of Surface Wave Group Arrival Times

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masters, G.; Kane, D.; Morrow, J.; Zhou, Y.; Tromp, J.

    2005-12-01

    We have recently developed an efficient technique for measuring the relative group arrival times of surface waves by using cross-correlation and cluster analysis of waveform envelope functions. Applying the analysis to minor arc Love and Rayleigh waves in the frequency band 7 to 35 mHz for all events over magnitude 5.5 results in a dataset of over 200,000 measurements at each frequency for long period Rayleigh waves (frequency less than 25 mHz) and about 100,000 measurements at the shorter periods. Analysis of transverse components results in about half as many Love wave measurements. Simple ray theory inversions of the relative arrival times for apparent group velocity produce maps which are accurate representations of the data (often over 90% variance reduction of the relative arrival times) and which show features strongly correlated with tectonics and crustal thickness. The apparent group velocity variations can be extremely large: 30% velocity variations for 20 mHz Rayleigh waves and 40% variations for 30 mHz Rayleigh waves and can have abrupt lateral changes. This raises the concern that non-ray theory effects could be important. Indeed, a recent analysis by Dahlen and Zhou (personal communication) suggests that the group arrival times should be a functions of both the group velocity AND the phase velocity. The simplest way to test the interpretation of the measurements is to perform the analysis on synthetic seismograms computed for a realistic model of the Earth. Here, we use the SEM with a model which incorporates realistic crust and mantle structure. We are currently computing synthetics for a suite of roughly 1000 events recorded globally that extend to a period of 18 seconds. We shall present the results of applying both ray-based and finite frequency inversions to the synthetic data as well as evaluating the effects of off path propagation at short periods using surface wave ray tracing.

  6. Preliminary results of local earthquake tomography around Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa regions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nugraha, Andri Dian, E-mail: nugraha@gf.itb.ac.id; Puspito, Nanang T; Yudistira, Tedi [Global Geophysical Reserach Group, Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Institute of Technology Bandung, JlGanesa 10, Bandung, 40132 (Indonesia); Kusnandar, Ridwan; Sakti, Artadi Pria [Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency (MCGA) of Indonesian, Jakarta (Indonesia)

    2015-04-24

    Bali, Sumbawa, and Lombok regions are located in active tectonic influence by Indo-Australia plate subducts beneath Sunda plate in southern part and local back-arc thrust in northern part the region. Some active volcanoes also lie from eastern part of Java, Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa regions. Previous studies have conducted subsurface seismic velocity imaging using regional and global earthquake data around the region. In this study, we used P-arrival time from local earthquake networks compiled by MCGA, Indonesia within time periods of 2009 up to 2013 to determine seismic velocity structure and simultaneously hypocenter adjustment by applying seismic tomography inversion method. For the tomographic inversion procedure, we started from 1-D initial velocity structure. We evaluated the resolution of tomography inversion results through checkerboard test and calculating derivative weigh sum. The preliminary results of tomography inversion show fairly clearly high seismic velocity subducting Indo-Australian and low velocity anomaly around volcano regions. The relocated hypocenters seem to cluster around the local fault system such as back-arc thrust fault in northern part of the region and around local fault in Sumbawa regions. Our local earthquake tomography results demonstrated consistent with previous studies and improved the resolution. For future works, we will determine S-wave velocity structure using S-wave arrival time to enhance our understanding of geological processes and for much better interpretation.

  7. Earthquake prediction in Japan and natural time analysis of seismicity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uyeda, S.; Varotsos, P.

    2011-12-01

    M9 super-giant earthquake with huge tsunami devastated East Japan on 11 March, causing more than 20,000 casualties and serious damage of Fukushima nuclear plant. This earthquake was predicted neither short-term nor long-term. Seismologists were shocked because it was not even considered possible to happen at the East Japan subduction zone. However, it was not the only un-predicted earthquake. In fact, throughout several decades of the National Earthquake Prediction Project, not even a single earthquake was predicted. In reality, practically no effective research has been conducted for the most important short-term prediction. This happened because the Japanese National Project was devoted for construction of elaborate seismic networks, which was not the best way for short-term prediction. After the Kobe disaster, in order to parry the mounting criticism on their no success history, they defiantly changed their policy to "stop aiming at short-term prediction because it is impossible and concentrate resources on fundamental research", that meant to obtain "more funding for no prediction research". The public were and are not informed about this change. Obviously earthquake prediction would be possible only when reliable precursory phenomena are caught and we have insisted this would be done most likely through non-seismic means such as geochemical/hydrological and electromagnetic monitoring. Admittedly, the lack of convincing precursors for the M9 super-giant earthquake has adverse effect for us, although its epicenter was far out off shore of the range of operating monitoring systems. In this presentation, we show a new possibility of finding remarkable precursory signals, ironically, from ordinary seismological catalogs. In the frame of the new time domain termed natural time, an order parameter of seismicity, κ1, has been introduced. This is the variance of natural time kai weighted by normalised energy release at χ. In the case that Seismic Electric Signals

  8. Obtaining location/arrival-time and location/outflow-quantity distributions for steady flow systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1977-01-01

    A steady, two-dimensional flow system is used to demonstrate the application of location/arrival-time and location/outflow-quantity curves in determining the environmental consequences of groundwater contamination. The subsurface geologic and hydrologic evaluations needed to obtain the arrival results involve a sequence of four phases: system identification, new potential determination, flow systems kinematics, and contaminant transport analysis. Once these phases are completed, they are effectively summarized and easily used to evaluate environmental consequences through the arrival distributions

  9. A review of the decoherent histories approach to the arrival time problem in quantum theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yearsley, James M

    2011-01-01

    We review recent progress in understanding the arrival time problem in quantum mechanics, from the point of view of the decoherent histories approach to quantum theory. We begin by discussing the arrival time problem, focussing in particular on the role of the probability current in the expected classical solution. After a brief introduction to decoherent histories we review the use of complex potentials in the construction of appropriate class operators. We then discuss the arrival time problem for a particle coupled to an environment, and review how the arrival time probability can be expressed in terms of a POVM in this case. We turn finally to the question of decoherence of the corresponding histories, and we show that this can be achieved for simple states in the case of a free particle, and for general states for a particle coupled to an environment.

  10. Earthquakes from peninsular India : data from the Gauribidanur seismic array

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gangrade, B.K.; Prasad, A.G.V.; Sharma, R.D.

    1987-01-01

    Arrival times of the P and S wave signals recorded at the Gauribidanur seismic array from earthquakes in the neighbouring areas in peninsular India have been analysed to estimate their locations (latitudes and longitudes of the epicenters), magnitudes and origin times. Considering typical inaccuracies in the observed data, uncertainties in the estimated epicentral parameters have been illustrated. Using a crustal model, which has been specifically derived for the region around the array, expected arrival times of these signals at other important seismic stations (Kodaikanal, Hyderabad, Poona, New Delhi and Shillong) have been computed for identifying events at these stations in order to determine accurate arrival times at these stations. Due to a higher signal detection capability of the Gauribidanur array, the number of events given in this catalogue is much greater than that detected by these stations. The M S magnitude estimates of events detected at the Hyderabad station have been used to obtain a magnitude scale for Gauribidanur. Origin times, epicentral locations and magnitudes of these events are listed in this report. 10 refs., 3 figures, 3 tables. (author)

  11. Sequencing games with Just-in-Time arrival, and related games

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lohmann, E.R.M.A.; Borm, P.E.M.; Slikker, M.

    2014-01-01

    In this paper sequencing situations with Just-in-Time (JiT) arrival are introduced. This new type of one-machine sequencing situations assumes that a job is available to be handled by the machine as soon as its predecessor is finished. A basic predecessor dependent set-up time is incorporated in the

  12. USGS Tweet Earthquake Dispatch (@USGSted): Using Twitter for Earthquake Detection and Characterization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, S. B.; Bouchard, B.; Bowden, D. C.; Guy, M.; Earle, P.

    2012-12-01

    desktop computer at the time of the detections. The continuously updating map displays geolocated tweets arriving after the detection and plots epicenters of recent earthquakes. When available, seismograms from nearby stations are displayed as an additional form of verification. A time series of tweets-per-minute is also shown to illustrate the volume of tweets being generated for the detected event. Future additions are being investigated to provide a more in-depth characterization of the seismic events based on an analysis of tweet text and content from other social media sources.

  13. Equilibrium arrival times to queues with general service times and non-linear utility functions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Breinbjerg, Jesper

    2017-01-01

    by a general utility function which is decreasing in the waiting time and service completion time of each customer. Applications of such queueing games range from people choosing when to arrive at a grand opening sale to travellers choosing when to line up at the gate when boarding an airplane. We develop...

  14. Three Millennia of Seemingly Time-Predictable Earthquakes, Tell Ateret

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agnon, Amotz; Marco, Shmuel; Ellenblum, Ronnie

    2014-05-01

    Among various idealized recurrence models of large earthquakes, the "time-predictable" model has a straightforward mechanical interpretation, consistent with simple friction laws. On a time-predictable fault, the time interval between an earthquake and its predecessor is proportional to the slip during the predecessor. The alternative "slip-predictable" model states that the slip during earthquake rupture is proportional to the preceding time interval. Verifying these models requires extended records of high precision data for both timing and amount of slip. The precision of paleoearthquake data can rarely confirm or rule out predictability, and recent papers argue for either time- or slip-predictable behavior. The Ateret site, on the trace of the Dead Sea fault at the Jordan Gorge segment, offers unique precision for determining space-time patterns. Five consecutive slip events, each associated with deformed and offset sets of walls, are correlated with historical earthquakes. Two correlations are based on detailed archaeological, historical, and numismatic evidence. The other three are tentative. The offsets of three of the events are determined with high precision; the other two are not as certain. Accepting all five correlations, the fault exhibits a striking time-predictable behavior, with a long term slip rate of 3 mm/yr. However, the 30 October 1759 ~0.5 m rupture predicts a subsequent rupture along the Jordan Gorge toward the end of the last century. We speculate that earthquakres on secondary faults (the 25 November 1759 on the Rachaya branch and the 1 January 1837 on the Roum branch, both M≥7) have disrupted the 3 kyr time-predictable pattern.

  15. On-line scheduling of two-machine open shops where jobs arrive over time

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Chen, B.; Vestjens, A.P.A.; Woeginger, G.J.

    1998-01-01

    We investigate the problem of on-line scheduling two-machine open shops with the objective of minimizing the makespan.Jobs arrive independently over time, and the existence of a job is not known until its arrival. In the clairvoyant on-line model, the processing requirement of every job becomes

  16. Analysis of P and Pdiff Coda Arrivals for Water Reverberations to Evaluate Shallow Slip Extent in Large Megathrust Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhode, A.; Lay, T.

    2017-12-01

    Determining the up-dip rupture extent of large megathrust ruptures is important for understanding their tsunami excitation, frictional properties of the shallow megathrust, and potential for separate tsunami earthquake occurrence. On land geodetic data have almost no resolution of the up-dip extent of faulting and teleseismic observations have limited resolution that is strongly influenced by typically poorly known shallow seismic velocity structure near the toe of the accretionary prism. The increase in ocean depth as slip on the megathrust approaches the trench has significant influence on the strength and azimuthal distribution of water reverberations in the far-field P wave coda. For broadband P waves from large earthquakes with dominant signal periods of about 10 s, water reverberations generated by shallow fault slip under deep water may persist for over a minute after the direct P phases have passed, giving a clear signal of slip near the trench. As the coda waves can be quickly evaluated following the P signal, recognition of slip extending to the trench and associated enhanced tsunamigenic potential could be achieved within a few minutes after the P arrival, potentially contributing to rapid tsunami hazard assessment. We examine the broadband P wave coda at distances from 80 to 120° for a large number of recent major and great earthquakes with independently determined slip distributions and known tsunami excitation to evaluate the prospect for rapidly constraining up-dip rupture extent of large megathrust earthquakes. Events known to have significant shallow slip, at least locally extending to the trench (e.g., 2016 Illapel, Chile; 2010 Maule, 2010 Mentawai) do have relatively enhanced coda levels at all azimuths, whereas events that do not rupture the shallow megathrust (e.g., 2007 Sumatra, 2014 Iquique, 2003 Hokkaido) do not. Some events with slip models lacking shallow slip show strong coda generation, raising questions about the up-dip resolution of

  17. Auto correlation analysis of coda waves from local earthquakes for detecting temporal changes in shallow subsurface structures - The 2011 Tohoku-Oki, Japan, earthquake -

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakahara, H.

    2013-12-01

    For monitoring temporal changes in subsurface structures, I propose to use auto correlation functions of coda waves from local earthquakes recorded at surface receivers, which probably contain more body waves than surface waves. Because the use of coda waves requires earthquakes, time resolution for monitoring decreases. But at regions with high seismicity, it may be possible to monitor subsurface structures in sufficient time resolutions. Studying the 2011 Tohoku-Oki (Mw 9.0), Japan, earthquake for which velocity changes have been already reported by previous studies, I try to validate the method. KiK-net stations in northern Honshu are used in the analysis. For each moderate earthquake, normalized auto correlation functions of surface records are stacked with respect to time windows in S-wave coda. Aligning the stacked normalized auto correlation functions with time, I search for changes in arrival times of phases. The phases at lag times of less than 1s are studied because changes at shallow depths are focused. Based on the stretching method, temporal variations in the arrival times are measured at the stations. Clear phase delays are found to be associated with the mainshock and to gradually recover with time. Amounts of the phase delays are in the order of 10% on average with the maximum of about 50% at some stations. For validation, the deconvolution analysis using surface and subsurface records at the same stations are conducted. The results show that the phase delays from the deconvolution analysis are slightly smaller than those from the auto correlation analysis, which implies that the phases on the auto correlations are caused by larger velocity changes at shallower depths. The auto correlation analysis seems to have an accuracy of about several percents, which is much larger than methods using earthquake doublets and borehole array data. So this analysis might be applicable to detect larger changes. In spite of these disadvantages, this analysis is

  18. An Erlang Loss Queue with Time-Phased Batch Arrivals as a Model for Traffic Control in Communication Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moon Ho Lee

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available A multiserver queueing model that does not have a buffer but has batch arrival of customers is considered. In contrast to the standard batch arrival, in which the entire batch arrives at the system during a single epoch, we assume that the customers of a batch (flow arrive individually in exponentially distributed times. The service time is exponentially distributed. Flows arrive according to a stationary Poisson arrival process. The flow size distribution is geometric. The number of flows that can be simultaneously admitted to the system is under control. The loss of any customer from an admitted flow, with a fixed probability, implies termination of the flow arrival. Analysis of the sojourn time and loss probability of an arbitrary flow is performed.

  19. Two-Step Time of Arrival Estimation for Pulse-Based Ultra-Wideband Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Vincent Poor

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available In cooperative localization systems, wireless nodes need to exchange accurate position-related information such as time-of-arrival (TOA and angle-of-arrival (AOA, in order to obtain accurate location information. One alternative for providing accurate position-related information is to use ultra-wideband (UWB signals. The high time resolution of UWB signals presents a potential for very accurate positioning based on TOA estimation. However, it is challenging to realize very accurate positioning systems in practical scenarios, due to both complexity/cost constraints and adverse channel conditions such as multipath propagation. In this paper, a two-step TOA estimation algorithm is proposed for UWB systems in order to provide accurate TOA estimation under practical constraints. In order to speed up the estimation process, the first step estimates a coarse TOA of the received signal based on received signal energy. Then, in the second step, the arrival time of the first signal path is estimated by considering a hypothesis testing approach. The proposed scheme uses low-rate correlation outputs and is able to perform accurate TOA estimation in reasonable time intervals. The simulation results are presented to analyze the performance of the estimator.

  20. Spatial distribution of earthquake hypocenters in the Crimea—Black Sea region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burmin, V. Yu; Shumlianska, L. O.

    2018-03-01

    Some aspects of the seismicity the Crime—Black Sea region are considered on the basis of the catalogued data on earthquakes that have occurred between 1970 and 2012. The complete list of the Crimean earthquakes for this period contains about 2140 events with magnitude ranging from -1.5 to 5.5. Bulletins contain information about compressional and shear waves arrival times regarding nearly 2000 earthquakes. A new approach to the definition of the coordinates of all of the events was applied to re-establish the hypocenters of the catalogued earthquakes. The obtained results indicate that the bulk of the earthquakes' foci in the region are located in the crust. However, some 2.5% of the foci are located at the depths ranging from 50 to 250 km. The new distribution of foci of earthquakes shows the concentration of foci in the form of two inclined branches, the center of which is located under the Yalto-Alushta seismic focal zone. The whole distribution of foci in depth corresponds to the relief of the lithosphere.

  1. Predictive analytics for truck arrival time estimation : a field study at a European distribution center

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Spoel, Sjoerd; Amrit, Chintan Amrit; van Hillegersberg, Jos

    2017-01-01

    Distribution centres (DCs) are the hubs connecting transport streams in the supply chain. The synchronisation of coming and going cargo at a DC requires reliable arrival times. To achieve this, a reliable method to predict arrival times is needed. A literature review was performed to find the

  2. Rapid estimation of the moment magnitude of large earthquake from static strain changes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itaba, S.

    2014-12-01

    The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake, of moment magnitude (Mw) 9.0, occurred on March 11, 2011. Based on the seismic wave, the prompt report of the magnitude which the Japan Meteorological Agency announced just after earthquake occurrence was 7.9, and it was considerably smaller than an actual value. On the other hand, using nine borehole strainmeters of Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, we estimated a fault model with Mw 8.7 for the earthquake on the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. This model can be estimated about seven minutes after the origin time, and five minute after wave arrival. In order to grasp the magnitude of a great earthquake earlier, several methods are now being suggested to reduce the earthquake disasters including tsunami (e.g., Ohta et al., 2012). Our simple method of using strain steps is one of the strong methods for rapid estimation of the magnitude of great earthquakes.

  3. Maximum Likelihood Time-of-Arrival Estimation of Optical Pulses via Photon-Counting Photodetectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erkmen, Baris I.; Moision, Bruce E.

    2010-01-01

    Many optical imaging, ranging, and communications systems rely on the estimation of the arrival time of an optical pulse. Recently, such systems have been increasingly employing photon-counting photodetector technology, which changes the statistics of the observed photocurrent. This requires time-of-arrival estimators to be developed and their performances characterized. The statistics of the output of an ideal photodetector, which are well modeled as a Poisson point process, were considered. An analytical model was developed for the mean-square error of the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator, demonstrating two phenomena that cause deviations from the minimum achievable error at low signal power. An approximation was derived to the threshold at which the ML estimator essentially fails to provide better than a random guess of the pulse arrival time. Comparing the analytic model performance predictions to those obtained via simulations, it was verified that the model accurately predicts the ML performance over all regimes considered. There is little prior art that attempts to understand the fundamental limitations to time-of-arrival estimation from Poisson statistics. This work establishes both a simple mathematical description of the error behavior, and the associated physical processes that yield this behavior. Previous work on mean-square error characterization for ML estimators has predominantly focused on additive Gaussian noise. This work demonstrates that the discrete nature of the Poisson noise process leads to a distinctly different error behavior.

  4. FORESHOCKS AND TIME-DEPENDENT EARTHQUAKE HAZARD ASSESSMENT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Lucile M.

    1985-01-01

    The probability that an earthquake in southern California (M greater than equivalent to 3. 0) will be followed by an earthquake of larger magnitude within 5 days and 10 km (i. e. , will be a foreshock) is 6 plus or minus 0. 5 per cent (1 S. D. ), and is not significantly dependent on the magnitude of the possible foreshock between M equals 3 and M equals 5. The probability that an earthquake will be followed by an M greater than equivalent to 5. 0 main shock, however, increases with magnitude of the foreshock from less than 1 per cent at M greater than equivalent to 3 to 6. 5 plus or minus 2. 5 per cent (1 S. D. ) at M greater than equivalent to 5. The main shock will most likely occur in the first hour after the foreshock, and the probability that a main shock will occur in the first hour decreases with elapsed time from the occurrence of the possible foreshock by approximately the inverse of time. Thus, the occurrence of an earthquake of M greater than equivalent to 3. 0 in southern California increases the earthquake hazard within a small space-time window several orders of magnitude above the normal background level.

  5. Flow time analysis of load management late arrival discrete time queueing system with dual service rate using hypo geometrical distribution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shah, S.A.; Shah, W.; Shaikh, F.K.

    2012-01-01

    Flow time analysis is a powerful concept to analyze the flow time of any arriving customer in any system at any instant. A load management mechanism can be employed very effectively in any queueing system by utilizing a system which provides probability of dual service rate. In this paper, we develop and demonstrate the flow and service processes transition diagram to determine the flow time of a customer in a load management late arrival state dependent finite discrete time queueing system with dual service rate where customers are hypo geometrically distributed. We compute the probability mass function of each starting state and total probability mass function. The obtained analytical results are validated with simulation results for varying values of arrival and service probabilities. (author)

  6. Characterization of the Virginia earthquake effects and source parameters from website traffic analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bossu, R.; Lefebvre, S.; Mazet-Roux, G.; Roussel, F.

    2012-12-01

    This paper presents an after the fact study of the Virginia earthquake of 2011 August 23 using only the traffic observed on the EMSC website within minutes of its occurrence. Although the EMSC real time information services remain poorly identified in the US, a traffic surge was observed immediately after the earthquake's occurrence. Such surges, known as flashcrowd and commonly observed on our website after felt events within the Euro-Med region are caused by eyewitnesses looking for information about the shaking they have just felt. EMSC developed an approach named flashsourcing to map the felt area, and in some circumstances, the regions affected by severe damage or network disruption. The felt area is mapped simply by locating the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the visitors to the website during these surges while the existence of network disruption is detected by the instantaneous loss at the time of earthquake's occurrence of existing Internet sessions originating from the impacted area. For the Virginia earthquake, which was felt at large distances, the effects of the waves propagation are clearly observed. We show that the visits to our website are triggered by the P waves arrival: the first visitors from a given locality reach our website 90s after their location was shaken by the P waves. From a processing point of view, eyewitnesses can then be considered as ground motion detectors. By doing so, the epicentral location is determined through a simple dedicated location algorithm within 2 min of the earthquake's occurrence and 30 km accuracy. The magnitude can be estimated in similar time frame by using existing empirical relationships between the surface of the felt area and the magnitude. Concerning the effects of the earthquake, we check whether one can discriminate localities affected by strong shaking from web traffic analysis. This is actually the case. Localities affected by strong level of shaking exhibit higher ratio of visitors to the number

  7. Combining Real-Time Seismic and GPS Data for Earthquake Early Warning (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boese, M.; Heaton, T. H.; Hudnut, K. W.

    2013-12-01

    Scientists at Caltech, UC Berkeley, the Univ. of SoCal, the Univ. of Washington, the US Geological Survey, and ETH Zurich have developed an earthquake early warning (EEW) demonstration system for California and the Pacific Northwest. To quickly determine the earthquake magnitude and location, 'ShakeAlert' currently processes and interprets real-time data-streams from ~400 seismic broadband and strong-motion stations within the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN). Based on these parameters, the 'UserDisplay' software predicts and displays the arrival and intensity of shaking at a given user site. Real-time ShakeAlert feeds are currently shared with around 160 individuals, companies, and emergency response organizations to educate potential users about EEW and to identify needs and applications of EEW in a future operational warning system. Recently, scientists at the contributing institutions have started to develop algorithms for ShakeAlert that make use of high-rate real-time GPS data to improve the magnitude estimates for large earthquakes (M>6.5) and to determine slip distributions. Knowing the fault slip in (near) real-time is crucial for users relying on or operating distributed systems, such as for power, water or transportation, especially if these networks run close to or across large faults. As shown in an earlier study, slip information is also useful to predict (in a probabilistic sense) how far a fault rupture will propagate, thus enabling more robust probabilistic ground-motion predictions at distant locations. Finally, fault slip information is needed for tsunami warning, such as in the Cascadia subduction-zone. To handle extended fault-ruptures of large earthquakes in real-time, Caltech and USGS Pasadena are currently developing and testing a two-step procedure that combines seismic and geodetic data; in the first step, high-frequency strong-motion amplitudes are used to rapidly classify near-and far-source stations. Then, the location and

  8. Time history nonlinear earthquake response analysis considering materials and geometrical nonlinearity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kobayashi, T.; Yoshikawa, K.; Takaoka, E.; Nakazawa, M.; Shikama, Y.

    2002-01-01

    A time history nonlinear earthquake response analysis method was proposed and applied to earthquake response prediction analysis for a Large Scale Seismic Test (LSST) Program in Hualien, Taiwan, in which a 1/4 scale model of a nuclear reactor containment structure was constructed on sandy gravel layer. In the analysis both of strain-dependent material nonlinearity, and geometrical nonlinearity by base mat uplift, were considered. The 'Lattice Model' for the soil-structure interaction model was employed. An earthquake record on soil surface at the site was used as control motion, and deconvoluted to the input motion of the analysis model at GL-52 m with 300 Gal of maximum acceleration. The following two analyses were considered: (A) time history nonlinear, (B) equivalent linear, and the advantage of time history nonlinear earthquake response analysis method is discussed

  9. Seismogeodesy for rapid earthquake and tsunami characterization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bock, Y.

    2016-12-01

    Rapid estimation of earthquake magnitude and fault mechanism is critical for earthquake and tsunami warning systems. Traditionally, the monitoring of earthquakes and tsunamis has been based on seismic networks for estimating earthquake magnitude and slip, and tide gauges and deep-ocean buoys for direct measurement of tsunami waves. These methods are well developed for ocean basin-wide warnings but are not timely enough to protect vulnerable populations and infrastructure from the effects of local tsunamis, where waves may arrive within 15-30 minutes of earthquake onset time. Direct measurements of displacements by GPS networks at subduction zones allow for rapid magnitude and slip estimation in the near-source region, that are not affected by instrumental limitations and magnitude saturation experienced by local seismic networks. However, GPS displacements by themselves are too noisy for strict earthquake early warning (P-wave detection). Optimally combining high-rate GPS and seismic data (in particular, accelerometers that do not clip), referred to as seismogeodesy, provides a broadband instrument that does not clip in the near field, is impervious to magnitude saturation, and provides accurate real-time static and dynamic displacements and velocities in real time. Here we describe a NASA-funded effort to integrate GPS and seismogeodetic observations as part of NOAA's Tsunami Warning Centers in Alaska and Hawaii. It consists of a series of plug-in modules that allow for a hierarchy of rapid seismogeodetic products, including automatic P-wave picking, hypocenter estimation, S-wave prediction, magnitude scaling relationships based on P-wave amplitude (Pd) and peak ground displacement (PGD), finite-source CMT solutions and fault slip models as input for tsunami warnings and models. For the NOAA/NASA project, the modules are being integrated into an existing USGS Earthworm environment, currently limited to traditional seismic data. We are focused on a network of

  10. Protecting your family from earthquakes: The seven steps to earthquake safety

    Science.gov (United States)

    Developed by American Red Cross, Asian Pacific Fund

    2007-01-01

    This book is provided here because of the importance of preparing for earthquakes before they happen. Experts say it is very likely there will be a damaging San Francisco Bay Area earthquake in the next 30 years and that it will strike without warning. It may be hard to find the supplies and services we need after this earthquake. For example, hospitals may have more patients than they can treat, and grocery stores may be closed for weeks. You will need to provide for your family until help arrives. To keep our loved ones and our community safe, we must prepare now. Some of us come from places where earthquakes are also common. However, the dangers of earthquakes in our homelands may be very different than in the Bay Area. For example, many people in Asian countries die in major earthquakes when buildings collapse or from big sea waves called tsunami. In the Bay Area, the main danger is from objects inside buildings falling on people. Take action now to make sure your family will be safe in an earthquake. The first step is to read this book carefully and follow its advice. By making your home safer, you help make our community safer. Preparing for earthquakes is important, and together we can make sure our families and community are ready. English version p. 3-13 Chinese version p. 14-24 Vietnamese version p. 25-36 Korean version p. 37-48

  11. Arrival-time picking method based on approximate negentropy for microseismic data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yue; Ni, Zhuo; Tian, Yanan

    2018-05-01

    Accurate and dependable picking of the first arrival time for microseismic data is an important part in microseismic monitoring, which directly affects analysis results of post-processing. This paper presents a new method based on approximate negentropy (AN) theory for microseismic arrival time picking in condition of much lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). According to the differences in information characteristics between microseismic data and random noise, an appropriate approximation of negentropy function is selected to minimize the effect of SNR. At the same time, a weighted function of the differences between maximum and minimum value of AN spectrum curve is designed to obtain a proper threshold function. In this way, the region of signal and noise is distinguished to pick the first arrival time accurately. To demonstrate the effectiveness of AN method, we make many experiments on a series of synthetic data with different SNR from -1 dB to -12 dB and compare it with previously published Akaike information criterion (AIC) and short/long time average ratio (STA/LTA) methods. Experimental results indicate that these three methods can achieve well picking effect when SNR is from -1 dB to -8 dB. However, when SNR is as low as -8 dB to -12 dB, the proposed AN method yields more accurate and stable picking result than AIC and STA/LTA methods. Furthermore, the application results of real three-component microseismic data also show that the new method is superior to the other two methods in accuracy and stability.

  12. A moment in time: emergency nurses and the Canterbury earthquakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richardson, S; Ardagh, M; Grainger, P; Robinson, V

    2013-06-01

    To outline the impact of the Canterbury, New Zealand (NZ) earthquakes on Christchurch Hospital, and the experiences of emergency nurses during this time. NZ has experienced earthquakes and aftershocks centred in the Canterbury region of the South Island. The location of these, around and within the major city of Christchurch, was unexpected and associated with previously unknown fault lines. While the highest magnitude quake occurred in September 2010, registering 7.1 on the Richter scale, it was the magnitude 6.3 event on 22 February 2011 which was associated with the greatest injury burden and loss of life. Staff working in the only emergency department in the city were faced with an external emergency while also being directly affected as part of the disaster. SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: This paper developed following interviews with nurses who worked during this period, and draws on literature related to healthcare responses to earthquakes and natural disasters. The establishment of an injury database allowed for an accurate picture to emerge of the injury burden, and each of the authors was present and worked in a clinical capacity during the earthquake. Nurses played a significant role in the response to the earthquakes and its aftermath. However, little is known regarding the impact of this, either in personal or professional terms. This paper presents an overview of the earthquakes and experiences of nurses working during this time, identifying a range of issues that will benefit from further exploration and research. It seeks to provide a sense of the experiences and the potential meanings that were derived from being part of this 'moment in time'. Examples of innovations in practice emerged during the earthquake response and a number of recommendations for nursing practice are identified. © 2013 The Authors. International Nursing Review © 2013 International Council of Nurses.

  13. Time series modelling of the Kobe-Osaka earthquake recordings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Singh

    2002-01-01

    generated by an earthquake. With a view of comparing these two types of waveforms, Singh (1992 developed a technique for identifying a model in time domain. Fortunately this technique has been found useful in modelling the recordings of the killer earthquake occurred in the Kobe-Osaka region of Japan at 5.46 am on 17 January, 1995. The aim of the present study is to show how well the method for identifying a model (developed by Singh (1992 can be used for describing the vibrations of the above mentioned earthquake recorded at Charters Towers in Queensland, Australia.

  14. End-User Applications of Real-Time Earthquake Information in Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cua, G. B.; Gasparini, P.; Giardini, D.; Zschau, J.; Filangieri, A. R.; Reakt Wp7 Team

    2011-12-01

    The primary objective of European FP7 project REAKT (Strategies and Tools for Real-Time Earthquake Risk Reduction) is to improve the efficiency of real-time earthquake risk mitigation methods and their capability of protecting structures, infrastructures, and populations. REAKT aims to address the issues of real-time earthquake hazard and response from end-to-end, with efforts directed along the full spectrum of methodology development in earthquake forecasting, earthquake early warning, and real-time vulnerability systems, through optimal decision-making, and engagement and cooperation of scientists and end users for the establishment of best practices for use of real-time information. Twelve strategic test cases/end users throughout Europe have been selected. This diverse group of applications/end users includes civil protection authorities, railway systems, hospitals, schools, industrial complexes, nuclear plants, lifeline systems, national seismic networks, and critical structures. The scale of target applications covers a wide range, from two school complexes in Naples, to individual critical structures, such as the Rion Antirion bridge in Patras, and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge in Istanbul, to large complexes, such as the SINES industrial complex in Portugal and the Thessaloniki port area, to distributed lifeline and transportation networks and nuclear plants. Some end-users are interested in in-depth feasibility studies for use of real-time information and development of rapid response plans, while others intend to install real-time instrumentation and develop customized automated control systems. From the onset, REAKT scientists and end-users will work together on concept development and initial implementation efforts using the data products and decision-making methodologies developed with the goal of improving end-user risk mitigation. The aim of this scientific/end-user partnership is to ensure that scientific efforts are applicable to operational

  15. Portals for Real-Time Earthquake Data and Forecasting: Challenge and Promise (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rundle, J. B.; Holliday, J. R.; Graves, W. R.; Feltstykket, R.; Donnellan, A.; Glasscoe, M. T.

    2013-12-01

    Earthquake forecasts have been computed by a variety of countries world-wide for over two decades. For the most part, forecasts have been computed for insurance, reinsurance and underwriters of catastrophe bonds. However, recent events clearly demonstrate that mitigating personal risk is becoming the responsibility of individual members of the public. Open access to a variety of web-based forecasts, tools, utilities and information is therefore required. Portals for data and forecasts present particular challenges, and require the development of both apps and the client/server architecture to deliver the basic information in real time. The basic forecast model we consider is the Natural Time Weibull (NTW) method (JBR et al., Phys. Rev. E, 86, 021106, 2012). This model uses small earthquakes (';seismicity-based models') to forecast the occurrence of large earthquakes, via data-mining algorithms combined with the ANSS earthquake catalog. This method computes large earthquake probabilities using the number of small earthquakes that have occurred in a region since the last large earthquake. Localizing these forecasts in space so that global forecasts can be computed in real time presents special algorithmic challenges, which we describe in this talk. Using 25 years of data from the ANSS California-Nevada catalog of earthquakes, we compute real-time global forecasts at a grid scale of 0.1o. We analyze and monitor the performance of these models using the standard tests, which include the Reliability/Attributes and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) tests. It is clear from much of the analysis that data quality is a major limitation on the accurate computation of earthquake probabilities. We discuss the challenges of serving up these datasets over the web on web-based platforms such as those at www.quakesim.org , www.e-decider.org , and www.openhazards.com.

  16. Application of τc*Pd for identifying damaging earthquakes for earthquake early warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, P. L.; Lin, T. L.; Wu, Y. M.

    2014-12-01

    Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) is an effective approach to mitigate earthquake damage. In this study, we used the seismic record by the Kiban Kyoshin network (KiK-net), because it has dense station coverage and co-located borehole strong-motion seismometers along with the free-surface strong-motion seismometers. We used inland earthquakes with moment magnitude (Mw) from 5.0 to 7.3 between 1998 and 2012. We choose 135 events and 10950 strong ground accelerograms recorded by the 696 strong ground accelerographs. Both the free-surface and the borehole data are used to calculate τc and Pd, respectively. The results show that τc*Pd has a good correlation with PGV and is a robust parameter for assessing the potential of damaging earthquake. We propose the value of τc*Pd determined from seconds after the arrival of P wave could be a threshold for the on-site type of EEW.

  17. Using a modified time-reverse imaging technique to locate low-frequency earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault near Cholame, California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horstmann, Tobias; Harrington, Rebecca M.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.

    2015-01-01

    We present a new method to locate low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) within tectonic tremor episodes based on time-reverse imaging techniques. The modified time-reverse imaging technique presented here is the first method that locates individual LFEs within tremor episodes within 5 km uncertainty without relying on high-amplitude P-wave arrivals and that produces similar hypocentral locations to methods that locate events by stacking hundreds of LFEs without having to assume event co-location. In contrast to classic time-reverse imaging algorithms, we implement a modification to the method that searches for phase coherence over a short time period rather than identifying the maximum amplitude of a superpositioned wavefield. The method is independent of amplitude and can help constrain event origin time. The method uses individual LFE origin times, but does not rely on a priori information on LFE templates and families.We apply the method to locate 34 individual LFEs within tremor episodes that occur between 2010 and 2011 on the San Andreas Fault, near Cholame, California. Individual LFE location accuracies range from 2.6 to 5 km horizontally and 4.8 km vertically. Other methods that have been able to locate individual LFEs with accuracy of less than 5 km have mainly used large-amplitude events where a P-phase arrival can be identified. The method described here has the potential to locate a larger number of individual low-amplitude events with only the S-phase arrival. Location accuracy is controlled by the velocity model resolution and the wavelength of the dominant energy of the signal. Location results are also dependent on the number of stations used and are negligibly correlated with other factors such as the maximum gap in azimuthal coverage, source–station distance and signal-to-noise ratio.

  18. Crustal and upper mantle velocity structure of Southern Iberia, the sea of Alboran, and the Gibraltar arc determined by local earthquake tomography

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. J. Blanco

    1997-06-01

    Full Text Available A "local earthquake tomography" of a large area encompassing the South of Iberia, the sea of Alboran, the Gibraltar arc, and Northern Morrocco, has been performed using first arrival times recorded at various Spanish and Morroccan seismic networks. A total of 52 stations and 639 earthquakes provided over 6300 first P arrivals and 4400 S arrivals. Three features of interest appear in the results: i a continuous low velocity structure which correlates with the Betics, the Gibraltar arc and the Rif; ii a high velocity feature which persists to a depth of approximately 30 km, positioned near the coast of Malaga on the northern margin of the Alboran sea; iii a low velocity feature, extending to a minimum depth of approximately 40 km, which coincides with the Granada basin and a strong negative Bouguer gravity anomaly.

  19. An analysis of the first-arrival times picked on the DSS and wide-angle seismic section recorded in Italy since 1968

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Tondi

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available We performed an analysis of refraction data recorded in Italy since 1968 in the frame of the numerous deep seismic sounding and wide-angle reflection/refraction projects. The aims of this study are to construct a parametric database including the recording geometric information relative to each profile, the phase pickings and the results of some kinematic analyses performed on the data, and to define a reference 1D velocity model for the Italian territory from all the available refraction data. As concerns the first goal, for each seismic section we picked the P-wave first-arrival-times, evaluated the uncertainties of the arrival-times pickings and determined from each travel time-offset curve the 1D velocity model. The study was performed on 419 seismic sections. Picking was carried out manually by an algorithm which includes the computation of three picking functions and the picking- error estimation. For each of the travel time-offset curves a 1D velocity model has been calculated. Actually, the 1D velocity-depth functions were estimated in three different ways which assume: a constant velocitygradient model, a varying velocity-gradient model and a layered model. As regards the second objective of this work, a mean 1D velocity model for the Italian crust was defined and compared with those used for earthquake hypocentre locations and seismic tomographic studies by different institutions operating in the Italian area, to assess the significance of the model obtained. This model can be used in future works as input for a next joint tomographic inversion of active and passive seismic data.

  20. Natural time analysis of the Centennial Earthquake Catalog

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sarlis, N. V.; Christopoulos, S.-R. G.

    2012-01-01

    By using the most recent version (1900–2007) of the Centennial Earthquake Catalog, we examine the properties of the global seismicity. Natural time analysis reveals that the fluctuations of the order parameter κ 1 of seismicity exhibit for at least three orders of magnitude a characteristic feature similar to that of the order parameter for other equilibrium or non-equilibrium critical systems—including self-organized critical systems. Moreover, we find non-trivial magnitude correlations for earthquakes of magnitude greater than or equal to 7.

  1. Earthquake Education in Prime Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Groot, R.; Abbott, P.; Benthien, M.

    2004-12-01

    Since 2001, the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) has collaborated on several video production projects that feature important topics related to earthquake science, engineering, and preparedness. These projects have also fostered many fruitful and sustained partnerships with a variety of organizations that have a stake in hazard education and preparedness. The Seismic Sleuths educational video first appeared in the spring season 2001 on Discovery Channel's Assignment Discovery. Seismic Sleuths is based on a highly successful curriculum package developed jointly by the American Geophysical Union and The Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency. The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) and the Institute for Business and Home Safety supported the video project. Summer Productions, a company with a reputation for quality science programming, produced the Seismic Sleuths program in close partnership with scientists, engineers, and preparedness experts. The program has aired on the National Geographic Channel as recently as Fall 2004. Currently, SCEC is collaborating with Pat Abbott, a geology professor at San Diego State University (SDSU) on the video project Written In Stone: Earthquake Country - Los Angeles. Partners on this project include the California Seismic Safety Commission, SDSU, SCEC, CEA, and the Insurance Information Network of California. This video incorporates live-action demonstrations, vivid animations, and a compelling host (Abbott) to tell the story about earthquakes in the Los Angeles region. The Written in Stone team has also developed a comprehensive educator package that includes the video, maps, lesson plans, and other supporting materials. We will present the process that facilitates the creation of visually effective, factually accurate, and entertaining video programs. We acknowledge the need to have a broad understanding of the literature related to communication, media studies, science education, and

  2. Electromagnetic Signals and Earthquakes 2.0: Increasing Signals and Reducing Noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunson, J. C.; Bleier, T.; Heraud, J. A.; Muller, S.; Lindholm, C.; Christman, L.; King, R.; Lemon, J.

    2013-12-01

    QuakeFinder has an international network of 150+ Magnetometers and air conductivity instruments located in California, Peru, Chile, Taiwan, and Greece. Since 2000, QuakeFinder has been collecting electromagnetic data and applying simple algorithms to identify and characterize electromagnetic signals that occur in the few weeks prior to earthquakes greater than M4.5. In this presentation, we show refinements to several aspects of our signal identification techniques that enhance detection of pre-earthquake patterns. Our magnetometers have been improved to show longer pulses, and we are now using second generation algorithms that have been refined to detect the proper shape of the earthquake-generated pulses and to allow individual site adjustments. Independent lightning strike data has also now been included to mask out lightning based on amplitude and distance from a given instrument site. Direction of arrival (Azimuth) algorithms have been added to identify patterns of pulse clustering that occur prior to nearby earthquakes. Likewise, positive and negative air ion concentration detection has been improved by building better enclosures, using stainless screens to eliminate insects and some dirt sources, conformal coating PC boards to reduce moisture contamination, and filtering out contaminated data segments based on relative humidity measurements at each site. Infra Red data from the western GOES satellite has been time-filtered, cloud-filtered, and compared to 3 year averages of each pixel's output (by seasonal month) to arrive at a relevant comparison baseline for each night's temperature/cooling slope. All these efforts have helped improve the detection of multiple, nearly simultaneous, electromagnetic signals due to earthquake preparation processes, while reducing false positive indications due to environmental noise sources.

  3. Time-dependent earthquake probability calculations for southern Kanto after the 2011 M9.0 Tohoku earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nanjo, K. Z.; Sakai, S.; Kato, A.; Tsuruoka, H.; Hirata, N.

    2013-05-01

    Seismicity in southern Kanto activated with the 2011 March 11 Tohoku earthquake of magnitude M9.0, but does this cause a significant difference in the probability of more earthquakes at the present or in the To? future answer this question, we examine the effect of a change in the seismicity rate on the probability of earthquakes. Our data set is from the Japan Meteorological Agency earthquake catalogue, downloaded on 2012 May 30. Our approach is based on time-dependent earthquake probabilistic calculations, often used for aftershock hazard assessment, and are based on two statistical laws: the Gutenberg-Richter (GR) frequency-magnitude law and the Omori-Utsu (OU) aftershock-decay law. We first confirm that the seismicity following a quake of M4 or larger is well modelled by the GR law with b ˜ 1. Then, there is good agreement with the OU law with p ˜ 0.5, which indicates that the slow decay was notably significant. Based on these results, we then calculate the most probable estimates of future M6-7-class events for various periods, all with a starting date of 2012 May 30. The estimates are higher than pre-quake levels if we consider a period of 3-yr duration or shorter. However, for statistics-based forecasting such as this, errors that arise from parameter estimation must be considered. Taking into account the contribution of these errors to the probability calculations, we conclude that any increase in the probability of earthquakes is insignificant. Although we try to avoid overstating the change in probability, our observations combined with results from previous studies support the likelihood that afterslip (fault creep) in southern Kanto will slowly relax a stress step caused by the Tohoku earthquake. This afterslip in turn reminds us of the potential for stress redistribution to the surrounding regions. We note the importance of varying hazards not only in time but also in space to improve the probabilistic seismic hazard assessment for southern Kanto.

  4. Is Your Class a Natural Disaster? It can be... The Real Time Earthquake Education (RTEE) System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitlock, J. S.; Furlong, K.

    2003-12-01

    In cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and its National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) in Golden, Colorado, we have implemented an autonomous version of the NEIC's real-time earthquake database management and earthquake alert system (Earthworm). This is the same system used professionally by the USGS in its earthquake response operations. Utilizing this system, Penn State University students participating in natural hazard classes receive real-time alerts of worldwide earthquake events on cell phones distributed to the class. The students are then responsible for reacting to actual earthquake events, in real-time, with the same data (or lack thereof) as earthquake professionals. The project was first implemented in Spring 2002, and although it had an initial high intrigue and "coolness" factor, the interest of the students waned with time. Through student feedback, we observed that scientific data presented on its own without an educational context does not foster student learning. In order to maximize the impact of real-time data and the accompanying e-media, the students need to become personally involved. Therefore, in collaboration with the Incorporated Research Institutes of Seismology (IRIS), we have begun to develop an online infrastructure that will help teachers and faculty effectively use real-time earthquake information. The Real-Time Earthquake Education (RTEE) website promotes student learning by integrating inquiry-based education modules with real-time earthquake data. The first module guides the students through an exploration of real-time and historic earthquake datasets to model the most important criteria for determining the potential impact of an earthquake. Having provided the students with content knowledge in the first module, the second module presents a more authentic, open-ended educational experience by setting up an earthquake role-play situation. Through the Earthworm system, we have the ability to "set off

  5. Automatic Earthquake Shear Stress Measurement Method Developed for Accurate Time- Prediction Analysis of Forthcoming Major Earthquakes Along Shallow Active Faults

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serata, S.

    2006-12-01

    The Serata Stressmeter has been developed to measure and monitor earthquake shear stress build-up along shallow active faults. The development work made in the past 25 years has established the Stressmeter as an automatic stress measurement system to study timing of forthcoming major earthquakes in support of the current earthquake prediction studies based on statistical analysis of seismological observations. In early 1982, a series of major Man-made earthquakes (magnitude 4.5-5.0) suddenly occurred in an area over deep underground potash mine in Saskatchewan, Canada. By measuring underground stress condition of the mine, the direct cause of the earthquake was disclosed. The cause was successfully eliminated by controlling the stress condition of the mine. The Japanese government was interested in this development and the Stressmeter was introduced to the Japanese government research program for earthquake stress studies. In Japan the Stressmeter was first utilized for direct measurement of the intrinsic lateral tectonic stress gradient G. The measurement, conducted at the Mt. Fuji Underground Research Center of the Japanese government, disclosed the constant natural gradients of maximum and minimum lateral stresses in an excellent agreement with the theoretical value, i.e., G = 0.25. All the conventional methods of overcoring, hydrofracturing and deformation, which were introduced to compete with the Serata method, failed demonstrating the fundamental difficulties of the conventional methods. The intrinsic lateral stress gradient determined by the Stressmeter for the Japanese government was found to be the same with all the other measurements made by the Stressmeter in Japan. The stress measurement results obtained by the major international stress measurement work in the Hot Dry Rock Projects conducted in USA, England and Germany are found to be in good agreement with the Stressmeter results obtained in Japan. Based on this broad agreement, a solid geomechanical

  6. Earthquake related dynamic groundwater pressure changes observed at the Kamaishi Mine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sasaki, Shunji; Yasuike, Shinji; Komada, Hiroya; Kobayashi, Yoshimasa; Kawamura, Makoto; Aoki, Kazuhiro

    1999-01-01

    From 342 seismic records observed at the Kamaishi Mine form 1990 to 1998, a total of 92 data whose acceleration is greater than 1 gal or ground water pressure is greater than 1 kPa were selected and dynamic ground water pressure changes associated with earthquakes were studied. The results obtained are as follows: (1) A total of 27 earthquakes accompanied by static ground water pressure changes were observed. Earthquake-related static ground water pressure changes are smaller than 1/10 of the annual range of ground water pressure changes. There is also a tendency that the ground water pressure changes recovers to its original trend in several weeks after earthquakes. (2) Dynamic ground water pressure changes associated with earthquakes occur when P-waves arrive. However, the largest dynamic ground water pressure changes occur on S-wave part arrivals where the amplitude of seismic wave is the largest. A positive correlation is recognized between the maximum value of velocity wave form and that of dynamic ground water pressure changes. (3) The characteristic of dynamic change in ground water pressure due to earthquakes can be explained qualitatively by mechanism in which the P-wave converted from an incident SV wave propagates along the borehole. (author)

  7. time of arrival 3-d position estimation using minimum ads-b receiver ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    HOD

    The location from which a signal is transmitted can be estimated using the time it takes to be detected at a receiver. The difference between transmission time and the detection time is known as time of arrival (TOA). In this work, an algorithm for 3-dimensional (3-D) position estimation (PE) of an emitter using the minimum ...

  8. A study on the impact of prioritising emergency department arrivals on the patient waiting time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Bockstal, Ellen; Maenhout, Broos

    2018-05-03

    In the past decade, the crowding of the emergency department has gained considerable attention of researchers as the number of medical service providers is typically insufficient to fulfil the demand for emergency care. In this paper, we solve the stochastic emergency department workforce planning problem and consider the planning of nurses and physicians simultaneously for a real-life case study in Belgium. We study the patient arrival pattern of the emergency department in depth and consider different patient acuity classes by disaggregating the arrival pattern. We determine the personnel staffing requirements and the design of the shifts based on the patient arrival rates per acuity class such that the resource staffing cost and the weighted patient waiting time are minimised. In order to solve this multi-objective optimisation problem, we construct a Pareto set of optimal solutions via the -constraints method. For a particular staffing composition, the proposed model minimises the patient waiting time subject to upper bounds on the staffing size using the Sample Average Approximation Method. In our computational experiments, we discern the impact of prioritising the emergency department arrivals. Triaging results in lower patient waiting times for higher priority acuity classes and to a higher waiting time for the lowest priority class, which does not require immediate care. Moreover, we perform a sensitivity analysis to verify the impact of the arrival and service pattern characteristics, the prioritisation weights between different acuity classes and the incorporated shift flexibility in the model.

  9. Development of a Low Cost Earthquake Early Warning System in Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Y. M.

    2017-12-01

    The National Taiwan University (NTU) developed an earthquake early warning (EEW) system for research purposes using low-cost accelerometers (P-Alert) since 2010. As of 2017, a total of 650 stations have been deployed and configured. The NTU system can provide earthquake information within 15 s of an earthquake occurrence. Thus, this system may provide early warnings for cities located more than 50 km from the epicenter. Additionally, the NTU system also has an onsite alert function that triggers a warning for incoming P-waves greater than a certain magnitude threshold, thus providing a 2-3 s lead time before peak ground acceleration (PGA) for regions close to an epicenter. Detailed shaking maps are produced by the NTU system within one or two minutes after an earthquake. Recently, a new module named ShakeAlarm has been developed. Equipped with real-time acceleration signals and the time-dependent anisotropic attenuation relationship of the PGA, ShakingAlarm can provide an accurate PGA estimation immediately before the arrival of the observed PGA. This unique advantage produces sufficient lead time for hazard assessment and emergency response, which is unavailable for traditional shakemap, which are based on only the PGA observed in real time. The performance of ShakingAlarm was tested with six M > 5.5 inland earthquakes from 2013 to 2016. Taking the 2016 M6.4 Meinong earthquake simulation as an example, the predicted PGA converges to a stable value and produces a predicted shake map and an isocontour map of the predicted PGA within 16 seconds of earthquake occurrence. Compared with traditional regional EEW system, ShakingAlarm can effectively identify possible damage regions and provide valuable early warning information (magnitude and PGA) for risk mitigation.

  10. A FIFO based neutron arrival time collection technique for assay of plutonium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parthasarathy, R.; Saisubalakshmi, D.; Venkatasubramani, C.R.

    2004-01-01

    The system assays plutonium by counting the time correlated neutrons emitted by the spontaneous fissions of the even-even Pu isotopes in the presence of random neutron background, originating principally from (a,n) reactions in the material. The correlation technique discussed in this paper utilizes twofold neutron coincidence counting but the system is proposed to be enhanced for neutron multiplicity counting. A microcontroller based data acquisition system has been developed using a couple of fast FIFO 2kX9 bit memory ICs and a 16 bit counter for identifying time-correlated neutrons. Since the neutron pulses are arriving at a rapid rate, the incoming pulses are buffered in the FIFO and then transferred to PC by the microcontroller through the parallel port. The correlation analysis based on this time arrival information is done in the PC off-line. (author)

  11. 41 CFR 301-11.10 - Am I required to record departure/arrival dates and times on my travel claim?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... departure/arrival dates and times on my travel claim? 301-11.10 Section 301-11.10 Public Contracts and... dates and times on my travel claim? You must record the date of departure from, and arrival at, the... visited. You do not have to record departure/arrival times, but you must annotate your travel claim when...

  12. Long-Term Fault Memory: A New Time-Dependent Recurrence Model for Large Earthquake Clusters on Plate Boundaries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salditch, L.; Brooks, E. M.; Stein, S.; Spencer, B. D.; Campbell, M. R.

    2017-12-01

    A challenge for earthquake hazard assessment is that geologic records often show large earthquakes occurring in temporal clusters separated by periods of quiescence. For example, in Cascadia, a paleoseismic record going back 10,000 years shows four to five clusters separated by approximately 1,000 year gaps. If we are still in the cluster that began 1700 years ago, a large earthquake is likely to happen soon. If the cluster has ended, a great earthquake is less likely. For a Gaussian distribution of recurrence times, the probability of an earthquake in the next 50 years is six times larger if we are still in the most recent cluster. Earthquake hazard assessments typically employ one of two recurrence models, neither of which directly incorporate clustering. In one, earthquake probability is time-independent and modeled as Poissonian, so an earthquake is equally likely at any time. The fault has no "memory" because when a prior earthquake occurred has no bearing on when the next will occur. The other common model is a time-dependent earthquake cycle in which the probability of an earthquake increases with time until one happens, after which the probability resets to zero. Because the probability is reset after each earthquake, the fault "remembers" only the last earthquake. This approach can be used with any assumed probability density function for recurrence times. We propose an alternative, Long-Term Fault Memory (LTFM), a modified earthquake cycle model where the probability of an earthquake increases with time until one happens, after which it decreases, but not necessarily to zero. Hence the probability of the next earthquake depends on the fault's history over multiple cycles, giving "long-term memory". Physically, this reflects an earthquake releasing only part of the elastic strain stored on the fault. We use the LTFM to simulate earthquake clustering along the San Andreas Fault and Cascadia. In some portions of the simulated earthquake history, events would

  13. Towards real-time regional earthquake simulation I: real-time moment tensor monitoring (RMT) for regional events in Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Shiann-Jong; Liang, Wen-Tzong; Cheng, Hui-Wen; Tu, Feng-Shan; Ma, Kuo-Fong; Tsuruoka, Hiroshi; Kawakatsu, Hitoshi; Huang, Bor-Shouh; Liu, Chun-Chi

    2014-01-01

    We have developed a real-time moment tensor monitoring system (RMT) which takes advantage of a grid-based moment tensor inversion technique and real-time broad-band seismic recordings to automatically monitor earthquake activities in the vicinity of Taiwan. The centroid moment tensor (CMT) inversion technique and a grid search scheme are applied to obtain the information of earthquake source parameters, including the event origin time, hypocentral location, moment magnitude and focal mechanism. All of these source parameters can be determined simultaneously within 117 s after the occurrence of an earthquake. The monitoring area involves the entire Taiwan Island and the offshore region, which covers the area of 119.3°E to 123.0°E and 21.0°N to 26.0°N, with a depth from 6 to 136 km. A 3-D grid system is implemented in the monitoring area with a uniform horizontal interval of 0.1° and a vertical interval of 10 km. The inversion procedure is based on a 1-D Green's function database calculated by the frequency-wavenumber (fk) method. We compare our results with the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) catalogue data for earthquakes occurred between 2010 and 2012. The average differences between event origin time and hypocentral location are less than 2 s and 10 km, respectively. The focal mechanisms determined by RMT are also comparable with the Broadband Array in Taiwan for Seismology (BATS) CMT solutions. These results indicate that the RMT system is realizable and efficient to monitor local seismic activities. In addition, the time needed to obtain all the point source parameters is reduced substantially compared to routine earthquake reports. By connecting RMT with a real-time online earthquake simulation (ROS) system, all the source parameters will be forwarded to the ROS to make the real-time earthquake simulation feasible. The RMT has operated offline (2010-2011) and online (since January 2012 to present) at the Institute of Earth Sciences (IES), Academia Sinica

  14. Imaging the Fine-Scale Structure of the San Andreas Fault in the Northern Gabilan Range with Explosion and Earthquake Sources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xin, H.; Thurber, C. H.; Zhang, H.; Wang, F.

    2014-12-01

    A number of geophysical studies have been carried out along the San Andreas Fault (SAF) in the Northern Gabilan Range (NGR) with the purpose of characterizing in detail the fault zone structure. Previous seismic research has revealed the complex structure of the crustal volume in the NGR region in two-dimensions (Thurber et al., 1996, 1997), and there has been some work on the three-dimensional (3D) structure at a coarser scale (Lin and Roecker, 1997). In our study we use earthquake body-wave arrival times and differential times (P and S) and explosion arrival times (only P) to image the 3D P- and S-wave velocity structure of the upper crust along the SAF in the NGR using double-difference (DD) tomography. The earthquake and explosion data types have complementary strengths - the earthquake data have good resolution at depth and resolve both Vp and Vs structure, although only where there are sufficient seismic rays between hypocenter and stations, whereas the explosions contribute very good near-surface resolution but for P waves only. The original dataset analyzed by Thurber et al. (1996, 1997) included data from 77 local earthquakes and 8 explosions. We enlarge the dataset with 114 more earthquakes that occurred in the study area, obtain improved S-wave picks using an automated picker, and include absolute and cross-correlation differential times. The inversion code we use is the algorithm tomoDD (Zhang and Thurber, 2003). We assess how the P and S velocity models and earthquake locations vary as we alter the inversion parameters and the inversion grid. The new inversion results show clearly the fine-scale structure of the SAF at depth in 3D, sharpening the image of the velocity contrast from the southwest side to the northeast side.

  15. Does winter region affect spring arrival time and body mass of king eiders in northern Alaska?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Powell, Abby N.; Oppel, Steffen

    2009-01-01

    Events during the non-breeding season may affect the body condition of migratory birds and influence performance during the following breeding season. Migratory birds nesting in the Arctic often rely on endogenous nutrients for reproductive efforts, and are thus potentially subject to such carry-over effects. We tested whether king eider (Somateria spectabilis) arrival time and body mass upon arrival at breeding grounds in northern Alaska were affected by their choice of a winter region in the Bering Sea. We captured birds shortly after arrival on breeding grounds in early June 2002–2006 at two sites in northern Alaska and determined the region in which individuals wintered using satellite telemetry or stable isotope ratios of head feathers. We used generalized linear models to assess whether winter region explained variation in arrival body mass among individuals by accounting for sex, site, annual variation, and the date a bird was captured. We found no support for our hypothesis that either arrival time or arrival body mass of king eiders differed among winter regions. We conclude that wintering in different regions in the Bering Sea is unlikely to have reproductive consequences for king eiders in our study areas.

  16. Seismoacoustic Coupled Signals From Earthquakes in Central Italy: Epicentral and Secondary Sources of Infrasound

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shani-Kadmiel, Shahar; Assink, Jelle D.; Smets, Pieter S. M.; Evers, Läslo G.

    2018-01-01

    In this study we analyze infrasound signals from three earthquakes in central Italy. The Mw 6.0 Amatrice, Mw 5.9 Visso, and Mw 6.5 Norcia earthquakes generated significant epicentral ground motions that couple to the atmosphere and produce infrasonic waves. Epicentral seismic and infrasonic signals are detected at I26DE; however, a third type of signal, which arrives after the seismic wave train and before the epicentral infrasound signal, is also detected. This peculiar signal propagates across the array at acoustic wave speeds, but the celerity associated with it is 3 times the speed of sound. Atmosphere-independent backprojections and full 3-D ray tracing using atmospheric conditions of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts are used to demonstrate that this apparently fast-arriving infrasound signal originates from ground motions more than 400 km away from the epicenter. The location of the secondary infrasound patch coincides with the closest bounce point to I26DE as depicted by ray tracing backprojections.

  17. Three-dimensional seismic velocity structure and earthquake relocations at Katmai, Alaska

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Rachel; Thurber, Clifford; Prejean, Stephanie G.; Bennington, Ninfa

    2014-01-01

    We invert arrival time data from local earthquakes occurring between September 2004 and May 2009 to determine the three-dimensional (3D) upper crustal seismic structure in the Katmai volcanic region. Waveforms for the study come from the Alaska Volcano Observatory's permanent network of 20 seismic stations in the area (predominantly single-component, short period instruments) plus a densely spaced temporary array of 11 broadband, 3-component stations. The absolute and relative arrival times are used in a double-difference seismic tomography inversion to solve for 3D P- and S-wave velocity models for an area encompassing the main volcanic centers. The relocated hypocenters provide insight into the geometry of seismogenic structures in the area, revealing clustering of events into four distinct zones associated with Martin, Mageik, Trident-Novarupta, and Mount Katmai. The seismic activity extends from about sea level to 2 km depth (all depths referenced to mean sea level) beneath Martin, is concentrated near 2 km depth beneath Mageik, and lies mainly between 2 and 4 km depth below Katmai and Trident-Novarupta. Many new features are apparent within these earthquake clusters. In particular, linear features are visible within all clusters, some associated with swarm activity, including an observation of earthquake migration near Trident in 2008. The final velocity model reveals a possible zone of magma storage beneath Mageik, but there is no clear evidence for magma beneath the Katmai-Novarupta area where the 1912 eruptive activity occurred, suggesting that the storage zone for that eruption may have largely been evacuated, or remnant magma has solidified.

  18. Quantitative estimation of time-variable earthquake hazard by using fuzzy set theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deyi, Feng; Ichikawa, M.

    1989-11-01

    In this paper, the various methods of fuzzy set theory, called fuzzy mathematics, have been applied to the quantitative estimation of the time-variable earthquake hazard. The results obtained consist of the following. (1) Quantitative estimation of the earthquake hazard on the basis of seismicity data. By using some methods of fuzzy mathematics, seismicity patterns before large earthquakes can be studied more clearly and more quantitatively, highly active periods in a given region and quiet periods of seismic activity before large earthquakes can be recognized, similarities in temporal variation of seismic activity and seismic gaps can be examined and, on the other hand, the time-variable earthquake hazard can be assessed directly on the basis of a series of statistical indices of seismicity. Two methods of fuzzy clustering analysis, the method of fuzzy similarity, and the direct method of fuzzy pattern recognition, have been studied is particular. One method of fuzzy clustering analysis is based on fuzzy netting, and another is based on the fuzzy equivalent relation. (2) Quantitative estimation of the earthquake hazard on the basis of observational data for different precursors. The direct method of fuzzy pattern recognition has been applied to research on earthquake precursors of different kinds. On the basis of the temporal and spatial characteristics of recognized precursors, earthquake hazards in different terms can be estimated. This paper mainly deals with medium-short-term precursors observed in Japan and China.

  19. Time-predictable model applicability for earthquake occurrence in northeast India and vicinity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Panthi

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Northeast India and its vicinity is one of the seismically most active regions in the world, where a few large and several moderate earthquakes have occurred in the past. In this study the region of northeast India has been considered for an earthquake generation model using earthquake data as reported by earthquake catalogues National Geophysical Data Centre, National Earthquake Information Centre, United States Geological Survey and from book prepared by Gupta et al. (1986 for the period 1906–2008. The events having a surface wave magnitude of Ms≥5.5 were considered for statistical analysis. In this region, nineteen seismogenic sources were identified by the observation of clustering of earthquakes. It is observed that the time interval between the two consecutive mainshocks depends upon the preceding mainshock magnitude (Mp and not on the following mainshock (Mf. This result corroborates the validity of time-predictable model in northeast India and its adjoining regions. A linear relation between the logarithm of repeat time (T of two consecutive events and the magnitude of the preceding mainshock is established in the form LogT = cMp+a, where "c" is a positive slope of line and "a" is function of minimum magnitude of the earthquake considered. The values of the parameters "c" and "a" are estimated to be 0.21 and 0.35 in northeast India and its adjoining regions. The less value of c than the average implies that the earthquake occurrence in this region is different from those of plate boundaries. The result derived can be used for long term seismic hazard estimation in the delineated seismogenic regions.

  20. An Arrival and Departure Time Predictor for Scheduling Communication in Opportunistic IoT

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pozza, Riccardo; Georgoulas, Stylianos; Moessner, Klaus; Nati, Michele; Gluhak, Alexander; Krco, Srdjan

    2016-01-01

    In this article, an Arrival and Departure Time Predictor (ADTP) for scheduling communication in opportunistic Internet of Things (IoT) is presented. The proposed algorithm learns about temporal patterns of encounters between IoT devices and predicts future arrival and departure times, therefore future contact durations. By relying on such predictions, a neighbour discovery scheduler is proposed, capable of jointly optimizing discovery latency and power consumption in order to maximize communication time when contacts are expected with high probability and, at the same time, saving power when contacts are expected with low probability. A comprehensive performance evaluation with different sets of synthetic and real world traces shows that ADTP performs favourably with respect to previous state of the art. This prediction framework opens opportunities for transmission planners and schedulers optimizing not only neighbour discovery, but the entire communication process. PMID:27827909

  1. An Arrival and Departure Time Predictor for Scheduling Communication in Opportunistic IoT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pozza, Riccardo; Georgoulas, Stylianos; Moessner, Klaus; Nati, Michele; Gluhak, Alexander; Krco, Srdjan

    2016-11-04

    In this article, an Arrival and Departure Time Predictor (ADTP) for scheduling communication in opportunistic Internet of Things (IoT) is presented. The proposed algorithm learns about temporal patterns of encounters between IoT devices and predicts future arrival and departure times, therefore future contact durations. By relying on such predictions, a neighbour discovery scheduler is proposed, capable of jointly optimizing discovery latency and power consumption in order to maximize communication time when contacts are expected with high probability and, at the same time, saving power when contacts are expected with low probability. A comprehensive performance evaluation with different sets of synthetic and real world traces shows that ADTP performs favourably with respect to previous state of the art. This prediction framework opens opportunities for transmission planners and schedulers optimizing not only neighbour discovery, but the entire communication process.

  2. After an Earthquake: Accessing Near Real-Time Data in the Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bravo, T. K.; Coleman, B.; Hubenthal, M.; Owens, T. J.; Taber, J.; Welti, R.; Weertman, B. R.

    2010-12-01

    One of the best ways to engage students in scientific content is to give them opportunities to work with real scientific instruments and data and enable them to experience the discovery of scientific information. In addition, newsworthy earthquakes can capture the attention and imagination of students. IRIS and collaborating partners provide a range of options to leverage that attention through access to near-real-time earthquake location and waveform data stored in the IRIS Data Management System and elsewhere via a number of web-based tools and a new Java-based application. The broadest audience is reached by the Seismic Monitor, a simple Web-based tool for observing near-real-time seismicity. The IRIS Earthquake Browser (IEB) allows users to explore recent and cataloged earthquakes and aftershock patterns online with more flexibility, and K-12 classroom activities for understanding plate tectonics and estimating seismic hazards have been designed around its use. Waveforms are easily viewed and explored on the web using the Rapid Earthquake Viewer (REV), developed by the University of South Carolina in collaboration with IRIS E&O. Data from recent well-known earthquakes available via REV are used in exercises to determine Earth’s internal structure and to locate earthquakes. Three component data is presented to the students, allowing a much more realistic analysis of the data than is presented in most textbooks. The Seismographs in Schools program uses real-time data in the classroom to interest and engage students about recent earthquakes. Through the IRIS website, schools can share event data and 24-hr images. Additionally, data is available in real-time via the API. This API allows anyone to extract data, re-purpose it, and display it however they need to, as is being done by the British Geological Survey Seismographs in Schools program. Over 350 schools throughout the US and internationally are currently registered with the IRIS Seismographs in Schools

  3. The results of the Seismic Alert System of Mexico SASMEX, during the earthquakes of 7 and 19 of September 2017

    Science.gov (United States)

    Espinosa Aranda, J. M., Sr.; Cuellar Martinez, A.

    2017-12-01

    The Seismic Alert System of Mexico, SASMEX began in 1991, is integrated by the seismic alert system of Mexico City and the seismic alert system of Oaxaca. SASMEX has 97 seismic sensors which are distributed in the seismic regions of the Pacific coast and the South of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt of states of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Puebla. The alert dissemination covers the cities of: Acapulco, Chilpancingo, Morelia, Puebla, Oaxaca, Toluca and Mexico City, reaching the earthquake warnings to more than 25 millions of people. SASMEX has detected correctly more than 5600 earthquakes and warned 156. Mexico City has different alert dissemination systems like several Radio and Tv commercial broadcasters, dedicated radio receivers, EAS-SAME-SARMEX radio receivers and more tha 6700 public loud speakers. The other cities have only some of those systems. The Mw 8.2 Chiapas earthquake on September 7, despite the epicentral distance far of the first seismic detections (more than 180 km) and the low amplitudes of the P waves, the earthquake warning time gave more than 90 seconds to Mexico City before the arrivals of S waves with minor damages to the city in contrast with high damages in towns in the coast. This earthquake offered an opportunity to show the developments and lacks to reduce the risk, such as the need to increase the seismic detection coverage and the earthquake warning dissemination in towns with high seismic vulnerability. The Mw 7.1 Morelos earthquake on September 19 caused thousands of damages and hundreds of deaths and injuries in Mexico City, this earthquake is the second with the most damages after the Mw 8.1 Michoacán earthquake of September 19 on 1985. The earthquake early warning gave 11 seconds after the arrivals of S waves, however the activation occurred few seconds after the P waves arrives to Mexico City, and due to the seismic focus was near to the city, the P waves were felt for the people. The Accelerographic Network

  4. Identification of earthquakes that generate tsunamis in Java and Nusa Tenggara using rupture duration analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pribadi, S., E-mail: sugengpribadimsc@gmail.com [Tsunami Warning Information Division, Indonesian Meteorological Climatological and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), Jalan Angkasa I No. 2, Jakarta13920 and Graduate Student of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Bandung Institute of T (Indonesia); Puspito, N. T.; Yudistira, T.; Afnimar,; Ibrahim, G. [Global Geophysics Research Group, Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Jalan Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132 (Indonesia); Laksono, B. I. [Database Maintenance Division, Indonesian Meteorological Climatological and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), Jalan Angkasa I No.2, Jakarta 13920 (Indonesia); Adnan, Z. [Database Maintenance Division, Indonesian Meteorological Climatological and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), Jalan Angkasa I No. 2, Jakarta 13920 and Graduate Student of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Bandung Institute of Technol (Indonesia)

    2014-09-25

    Java and Nusa Tenggara are the tectonically active of Sunda arc. This study discuss the rupture duration as a manifestation of the power of earthquake-generated tsunami. We use the teleseismic (30° - 90°) body waves with high-frequency energy Seismometer is from IRIS network as amount 206 broadband units. We applied the Butterworth high bandpass (1 - 2 Hz) filtered. The arrival and travel times started from wave phase of P - PP which based on Jeffrey Bullens table with TauP program. The results are that the June 2, 1994 Banyuwangi and the July 17, 2006 Pangandaran earthquakes identified as tsunami earthquakes with long rupture duration (To > 100 second), medium magnitude (7.6 < Mw < 7.9) and located near the trench. The others are 4 tsunamigenic earthquakes and 3 inland earthquakes with short rupture duration start from To > 50 second which depend on its magnitude. Those events are located far from the trench.

  5. Generation of artificial earthquake time histories for seismic design at Hanford, Washington

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salmon, M.W.; Kuilanoff, G.

    1991-01-01

    The purpose of the development of artificial time-histories is to provide the designer with ground motion estimates which will meet the requirements of the design guidelines at the Hanford site. In particular, the artificial time histories presented in this paper were prepared to assist designers of the Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant (HWVP) with time histories that envelop the requirements for both a large magnitude earthquake (MI > 6.0) and a small magnitude, near-field earthquake (MI < 5. 0). A background of the requirements for both the large magnitude and small magnitude events is presented in this paper. The work done in generating time histories which produce response spectra matching those of the design seismic events is also presented. Finally, some preliminary results from studies performed using the small-magnitude near-filed earthquake time-history are presented

  6. THE RESPONSE OF MONTEREY BAY TO THE 2010 CHILEAN EARTHQUAKE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laurence C. Breaker

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The primary frequencies contained in the arrival sequence produced by the tsunami from the Chilean earthquake of 2010 in Monterey Bay were extracted to determine the seiche modes that were produced. Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA and Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD were employed to extract the primary frequencies of interest. The wave train from the Chilean tsunami lasted for at least four days due to multipath arrivals that may not have included reflections from outside the bay but most likely did include secondary undulations, and energy trapping in the form of edge waves, inside the bay. The SSA decomposition resolved oscillations with periods of 52-57, 34-35, 26-27, and 21-22 minutes, all frequencies that have been predicted and/or observed in previous studies. The EEMD decomposition detected oscillations with periods of 50-55 and 21-22 minutes. Periods in the range of 50-57 minutes varied due to measurement uncertainties but almost certainly correspond to the first longitudinal mode of oscillation for Monterey Bay, periods of 34-35 minutes correspond to the first transverse mode of oscillation that assumes a nodal line across the entrance of the bay, a period of 26- 27 minutes, although previously observed, may not represent a fundamental oscillation, and a period of 21-22 minutes has been predicted and observed previously. A period of ~37 minutes, close to the period of 34-35 minutes, was generated by the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 in Monterey Bay and most likely represents the same mode of oscillation. The tsunamis associated with the Great Alaskan Earthquake and the Chilean Earthquake both entered Monterey Bay but initially arrived outside the bay from opposite directions. Unlike the Great Alaskan Earthquake, however, which excited only one resonant mode inside the bay, the Chilean Earthquake excited several modes suggesting that the asymmetric shape of the entrance to Monterey Bay was an important factor and that the

  7. Expanding Horizons in Mitigating Earthquake Related Disasters in Urban Areas: Global Development of Real-Time Seismology

    OpenAIRE

    Utkucu, Murat; Küyük, Hüseyin Serdar; Demir, İsmail Hakkı

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Real-time seismology is a newly developing alternative approach in seismology to mitigate earthquake hazard. It exploits up-to-date advances in seismic instrument technology, data acquisition, digital communications and computer systems for quickly transforming data into earthquake information in real-time to reduce earthquake losses and its impact on social and economic life in the earthquake prone densely populated urban and industrial areas.  Real-time seismology systems are not o...

  8. Interevent times in a new alarm-based earthquake forecasting model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Talbi, Abdelhak; Nanjo, Kazuyoshi; Zhuang, Jiancang; Satake, Kenji; Hamdache, Mohamed

    2013-09-01

    This study introduces a new earthquake forecasting model that uses the moment ratio (MR) of the first to second order moments of earthquake interevent times as a precursory alarm index to forecast large earthquake events. This MR model is based on the idea that the MR is associated with anomalous long-term changes in background seismicity prior to large earthquake events. In a given region, the MR statistic is defined as the inverse of the index of dispersion or Fano factor, with MR values (or scores) providing a biased estimate of the relative regional frequency of background events, here termed the background fraction. To test the forecasting performance of this proposed MR model, a composite Japan-wide earthquake catalogue for the years between 679 and 2012 was compiled using the Japan Meteorological Agency catalogue for the period between 1923 and 2012, and the Utsu historical seismicity records between 679 and 1922. MR values were estimated by sampling interevent times from events with magnitude M ≥ 6 using an earthquake random sampling (ERS) algorithm developed during previous research. Three retrospective tests of M ≥ 7 target earthquakes were undertaken to evaluate the long-, intermediate- and short-term performance of MR forecasting, using mainly Molchan diagrams and optimal spatial maps obtained by minimizing forecasting error defined by miss and alarm rate addition. This testing indicates that the MR forecasting technique performs well at long-, intermediate- and short-term. The MR maps produced during long-term testing indicate significant alarm levels before 15 of the 18 shallow earthquakes within the testing region during the past two decades, with an alarm region covering about 20 per cent (alarm rate) of the testing region. The number of shallow events missed by forecasting was reduced by about 60 per cent after using the MR method instead of the relative intensity (RI) forecasting method. At short term, our model succeeded in forecasting the

  9. Uncertainty in Bus Arrival Time Predictions: Treating Heteroscedasticity With a Metamodel Approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    O'Sullivan, Aidan; Pereira, Francisco Camara; Zhao, Jinhua

    2016-01-01

    Arrival time predictions for the next available bus or train are a key component of modern traveler information systems (TISs). A great deal of research has been conducted within the intelligent transportation system community in developing an assortment of different algorithms that seek...... sources. In this paper, we tackle the issue of uncertainty in bus arrival time predictions using an alternative approach. Rather than endeavor to develop a superior method for prediction, we take existing predictions from a TIS and treat the algorithm generating them as a black box. The presence...... of heteroscedasticity in the predictions is demonstrated and then a metamodel approach is deployed, which augments existing predictive systems using quantile regression to place bounds on the associated error. As a case study, this approach is applied to data from a real-world TIS in Boston. This method allows bounds...

  10. On the Distribution of Earthquake Interevent Times and the Impact of Spatial Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hristopulos, Dionissios

    2013-04-01

    The distribution of earthquake interevent times is a subject that has attracted much attention in the statistical physics literature [1-3]. A recent paper proposes that the distribution of earthquake interevent times follows from the the interplay of the crustal strength distribution and the loading function (stress versus time) of the Earth's crust locally [4]. It was also shown that the Weibull distribution describes earthquake interevent times provided that the crustal strength also follows the Weibull distribution and that the loading function follows a power-law during the loading cycle. I will discuss the implications of this work and will present supporting evidence based on the analysis of data from seismic catalogs. I will also discuss the theoretical evidence in support of the Weibull distribution based on models of statistical physics [5]. Since other-than-Weibull interevent times distributions are not excluded in [4], I will illustrate the use of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test in order to determine which probability distributions are not rejected by the data. Finally, we propose a modification of the Weibull distribution if the size of the system under investigation (i.e., the area over which the earthquake activity occurs) is finite with respect to a critical link size. keywords: hypothesis testing, modified Weibull, hazard rate, finite size References [1] Corral, A., 2004. Long-term clustering, scaling, and universality in the temporal occurrence of earthquakes, Phys. Rev. Lett., 9210) art. no. 108501. [2] Saichev, A., Sornette, D. 2007. Theory of earthquake recurrence times, J. Geophys. Res., Ser. B 112, B04313/1-26. [3] Touati, S., Naylor, M., Main, I.G., 2009. Origin and nonuniversality of the earthquake interevent time distribution Phys. Rev. Lett., 102 (16), art. no. 168501. [4] Hristopulos, D.T., 2003. Spartan Gibbs random field models for geostatistical applications, SIAM Jour. Sci. Comput., 24, 2125-2162. [5] I. Eliazar and J. Klafter, 2006

  11. Teaching with Real-time Earthquake Data in jAmaSeis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bravo, T. K.; Coleman, B.; Taber, J.

    2011-12-01

    Earthquakes can capture the attention of students and inspire them to explore the Earth. The Incorporated Research Institutions in Seismology (IRIS) and Moravian College are collaborating to develop cross-platform software (jAmaSeis) that enables students to access real-time earthquake waveform data. Users can record their own data from several different types of educational seismometers, and they can obtain data in real-time from other jAmaseis users nationwide. Additionally, the ability to stream data from the IRIS Data Management Center (DMC) is under development. Once real-time data is obtained, users of jAmaseis can study seismological concepts in the classroom. The user interface of the software is carefully designed to lead students through the steps to interrogate seismic data following a large earthquake. Users can process data to determine characteristics of seismograms such as time of occurrence, distance from the epicenter to the station, magnitude, and location (via triangulation). Along the way, the software provides graphical clues to assist student interpretations. In addition to the inherent pedagogical features of the software, IRIS provides pre-packaged data and instructional activities to help students learn the analysis steps. After using these activities, students can apply their skills to interpret seismic waves from their own real-time data.

  12. Integrating Real-time Earthquakes into Natural Hazard Courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furlong, K. P.; Benz, H. M.; Whitlock, J. S.; Bittenbinder, A. N.; Bogaert, B. B.

    2001-12-01

    Natural hazard courses are playing an increasingly important role in college and university earth science curricula. Students' intrinsic curiosity about the subject and the potential to make the course relevant to the interests of both science and non-science students make natural hazards courses popular additions to a department's offerings. However, one vital aspect of "real-life" natural hazard management that has not translated well into the classroom is the real-time nature of both events and response. The lack of a way to entrain students into the event/response mode has made implementing such real-time activities into classroom activities problematic. Although a variety of web sites provide near real-time postings of natural hazards, students essentially learn of the event after the fact. This is particularly true for earthquakes and other events with few precursors. As a result, the "time factor" and personal responsibility associated with natural hazard response is lost to the students. We have integrated the real-time aspects of earthquake response into two natural hazard courses at Penn State (a 'general education' course for non-science majors, and an upper-level course for science majors) by implementing a modification of the USGS Earthworm system. The Earthworm Database Management System (E-DBMS) catalogs current global seismic activity. It provides earthquake professionals with real-time email/cell phone alerts of global seismic activity and access to the data for review/revision purposes. We have modified this system so that real-time response can be used to address specific scientific, policy, and social questions in our classes. As a prototype of using the E-DBMS in courses, we have established an Earthworm server at Penn State. This server receives national and global seismic network data and, in turn, transmits the tailored alerts to "on-duty" students (e-mail, pager/cell phone notification). These students are responsible to react to the alarm

  13. Near-real-time and scenario earthquake loss estimates for Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wyss, M.; Zuñiga, R.

    2017-12-01

    The large earthquakes of 8 September 2017, M8.1, and 19 September 2017, M7.1 have focused attention on the dangers of Mexican seismicity. The near-real-time alerts by QLARM estimated 10 to 300 fatalities and 0 to 200 fatalities, respectively. At the time of this submission the reported death tolls are 96 and 226, respectively. These alerts were issued within 96 and 57 minutes of the occurrence times. For the M8.1 earthquake the losses due to a line model could be calculated. The line with length L=110 km extended from the initial epicenter to the NE, where the USGS had reported aftershocks. On September 19, no aftershocks were available in near-real-time, so a point source had to be used for the quick calculation of likely casualties. In both cases, the casualties were at least an order of magnitude smaller than what they could have been because on 8 September the source was relatively far offshore and on 19 September the hypocenter was relatively deep. The largest historic earthquake in Mexico occurred on 28 March 1787 and likely had a rupture length of 450 km and M8.6. Based on this event, and after verifying our tool for Mexico, we estimated the order of magnitude of a disaster, given the current population, in a maximum credible earthquake along the Pacific coast. In the countryside along the coast we expect approximately 27,000 fatalities and 480,000 injured. In the special case of Mexico City the casualties in a worst possible earthquake along the Pacific plate boundary would likely be counted as five digit numbers. The large agglomerate of the capital with its lake bed soil attracts most attention. Nevertheless, one should pay attention to the fact that the poor, rural segment of society, living in buildings of weak resistance to shaking, are likely to sustain a mortality rate about 20% larger than the population in cities on average soil.

  14. Estimated time of arrival and debiasing the time saving bias.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eriksson, Gabriella; Patten, Christopher J D; Svenson, Ola; Eriksson, Lars

    2015-01-01

    The time saving bias predicts that the time saved when increasing speed from a high speed is overestimated, and underestimated when increasing speed from a slow speed. In a questionnaire, time saving judgements were investigated when information of estimated time to arrival was provided. In an active driving task, an alternative meter indicating the inverted speed was used to debias judgements. The simulated task was to first drive a distance at a given speed, and then drive the same distance again at the speed the driver judged was required to gain exactly 3 min in travel time compared with the first drive. A control group performed the same task with a speedometer and saved less than the targeted 3 min when increasing speed from a high speed, and more than 3 min when increasing from a low speed. Participants in the alternative meter condition were closer to the target. The two studies corroborate a time saving bias and show that biased intuitive judgements can be debiased by displaying the inverted speed. Practitioner Summary: Previous studies have shown a cognitive bias in judgements of the time saved by increasing speed. This simulator study aims to improve driver judgements by introducing a speedometer indicating the inverted speed in active driving. The results show that the bias can be reduced by presenting the inverted speed and this finding can be used when designing in-car information systems.

  15. Analysis of the space, time and energy distribution of Vrancea earthquakes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radulian, M.; Popa, M.

    1995-01-01

    Statistical analysis of fractal properties of space, time and energy distributions of Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes is performed on a homogeneous and complete data set. All events with magnitudes M L >2.5 which occurred from 1974 to 1992 are considered. The 19-year time interval includes the major earthquakes of March 4, 1977, August 26, 1986 and May 30, 1990. The subducted plate, lying between 60 km and 180 km depth, is divided into four active zones with characteristic seismic activities. The correlations between the parameters defining the seismic activities in these zones are studied. The predictive properties of the parameters related to the stress distribution on the fault are analysed. The significant anomalies in time and size distributions of earthquakes are emphasized. The correlations between spatial distribution (fractal dimension), the frequency-magnitude distribution (b slope value) and the high-frequency energy radiated by the source (fall off of the displacement spectra) are studied both at the scale of the whole seismogenic volume and the scale of a specific active zone. The results of this study for the Vrancea earthquakes bring evidence in favour of the seismic source model with hierarchical inhomogeneities (Frankel, 1991) (Author) 8 Figs., 2 Tabs., 5 Refs

  16. Remotely triggered seismicity in north China following the 2008 M w 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Zhigang; Wang, Weijun; Chen, Qi-Fu; Jiang, Tao

    2010-11-01

    We conduct a systematic survey of remote triggering of earthquakes in north China following the 2008 M w 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. We identify triggered earthquakes as impulsive seismic energies with clear P and S arrivals on 5 Hz high-pass-filtered three-component velocity seismograms during and immediately after the passage of teleseismic waves. We find clearly triggered seismic activity near the Babaoshan and Huangzhuang-Gaoliying faults southwest of Beijing, and near the aftershock zone of the 1976 M W 7.6 Tangshan earthquake. While several earthquakes occur during and immediately after the teleseismic waves in the aftershock zone of the 1975 M w 7.0 Haicheng earthquake, the change of seismicity is not significant enough to establish the direct triggering relationship. Our results suggest that intraplate regions with active faults associated with major earthquakes during historic or recent times are susceptible to remote triggering. We note that this does not always guarantee the triggering to occur, indicating that other conditions are needed. Since none of these regions is associated with any active geothermal or volcanic activity, we infer that dynamic triggering could be ubiquitous and occur in a wide range of tectonic environments.

  17. Superconducting Gravimeters Detect Gravity Fluctuations Induced by Mw 5.7 Earthquake Along South Pacific Rise Few Hours Before the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keliang Zhang Jin Ma

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Gravity changes sometimes appear before a big earthquake. To determine the possible sources is important for recognizing the mechanism and further geodynamic studies. During the first two hours on March 11 before the Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, the non-tidal gravity time series of superconducting gravimeters worldwide showed low-frequency (< 0.10 Hz fluctuations with amplitude of ~1 to 4 × 10-8 ms-2 lasting ~10 - 20 minutes. Through comparing global seismicity with the arrival times of seismic waves, we find that the fluctuations were induced by the Mw 5.7 earthquake that occurred at 0:14:54.68 at (53.27°S, 118.18°W along the eastern South Pacific Rise. Several body waves such as P, S are clearly recorded in the station with ~400 km distance to the hypocenter. The fluctuations are in response to the waves that propagate with a velocity of about 4 km s-1. Their amplitudes are proportional to the inverse of the epicentral distances even though the fluctuations of European sites were overlapped with waves associated with a smaller, i.e., Mw 2.6, event in Europe during this period. That is, the Mw 5.7 earthquake induced remarkable gravity fluctuations over long distances at stations all over the world. As such, the foreshocks with larger magnitudes occurred before the Mw 9.0 earthquake would have more significant influence on the gravity recordings and the seismic-wave induced component should be removed during the analysis of anomalies prior to a great earthquake in future studies.

  18. Rapid Modeling of and Response to Large Earthquakes Using Real-Time GPS Networks (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crowell, B. W.; Bock, Y.; Squibb, M. B.

    2010-12-01

    Real-time GPS networks have the advantage of capturing motions throughout the entire earthquake cycle (interseismic, seismic, coseismic, postseismic), and because of this, are ideal for real-time monitoring of fault slip in the region. Real-time GPS networks provide the perfect supplement to seismic networks, which operate with lower noise and higher sampling rates than GPS networks, but only measure accelerations or velocities, putting them at a supreme disadvantage for ascertaining the full extent of slip during a large earthquake in real-time. Here we report on two examples of rapid modeling of recent large earthquakes near large regional real-time GPS networks. The first utilizes Japan’s GEONET consisting of about 1200 stations during the 2003 Mw 8.3 Tokachi-Oki earthquake about 100 km offshore Hokkaido Island and the second investigates the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake recorded by more than 100 stations in the California Real Time Network. The principal components of strain were computed throughout the networks and utilized as a trigger to initiate earthquake modeling. Total displacement waveforms were then computed in a simulated real-time fashion using a real-time network adjustment algorithm that fixes a station far away from the rupture to obtain a stable reference frame. Initial peak ground displacement measurements can then be used to obtain an initial size through scaling relationships. Finally, a full coseismic model of the event can be run minutes after the event, given predefined fault geometries, allowing emergency first responders and researchers to pinpoint the regions of highest damage. Furthermore, we are also investigating using total displacement waveforms for real-time moment tensor inversions to look at spatiotemporal variations in slip.

  19. Victims' time discounting 2.5 years after the Wenchuan earthquake: an ERP study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jin-Zhen; Gui, Dan-Yang; Feng, Chun-Liang; Wang, Wen-Zhong; Du, Bo-Qi; Gan, Tian; Luo, Yue-Jia

    2012-01-01

    Time discounting refers to the fact that the subjective value of a reward decreases as the delay until its occurrence increases. The present study investigated how time discounting has been affected in survivors of the magnitude-8.0 Wenchuan earthquake that occurred in China in 2008. Nineteen earthquake survivors and 22 controls, all school teachers, participated in the study. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) for time discounting tasks involving gains and losses were acquired in both the victims and controls. The behavioral data replicated our previous findings that delayed gains were discounted more steeply after a disaster. ERP results revealed that the P200 and P300 amplitudes were increased in earthquake survivors. There was a significant group (earthquake vs. non-earthquake) × task (gain vs. loss) interaction for the N300 amplitude, with a marginally significantly reduced N300 for gain tasks in the experimental group, which may suggest a deficiency in inhibitory control for gains among victims. The results suggest that post-disaster decisions might involve more emotional (System 1) and less rational thinking (System 2) in terms of a dual-process model of decision making. The implications for post-disaster intervention and management are also discussed.

  20. Harnessing the Collective Power of Eyewitnesses for Improved Earthquake Information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bossu, R.; Lefebvre, S.; Mazet-Roux, G.; Steed, R.

    2013-12-01

    The Euro-Med Seismological Centre (EMSC) operates the second global earthquake information website (www.emsc-csem.org) which attracts 2 million visits a month from about 200 different countries. We collect information about earthquakes' effects from eyewitnesses such as online questionnaires, geolocated pics to rapidly constrain impact scenario. At the beginning, the collection was purely intended to address a scientific issue: the rapid evaluation of earthquake's impact. However, it rapidly appears that the understanding of eyewitnesses' expectations and motivations in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake was essential to optimise this data collection. Crowdsourcing information on earthquake's effects does not apply to a pre-existing community. By definition, eyewitnesses only exist once the earthquake has struck. We developed a strategy on social networks (Facebook, Google+, Twitter...) to interface with spontaneously emerging online communities of eyewitnesses. The basic idea is to create a positive feedback loop: attract eyewitnesses and engage with them by providing expected earthquake information and services, collect their observations, collate them for improved earthquake information services to attract more witnesses. We will present recent examples to illustrate how important the use of social networks is to engage with eyewitnesses especially in regions of low seismic activity where people are unaware of existing Internet resources dealing with earthquakes. A second type of information collated in our information services is derived from the real time analysis of the traffic on our website in the first minutes following an earthquake occurrence, an approach named flashsourcing. We show, using the example of the Mineral, Virginia earthquake that the arrival times of eyewitnesses of our website follows the propagation of the generated seismic waves and then, that eyewitnesses can be considered as ground motion sensors. Flashsourcing discriminates felt

  1. Identification of earthquakes that generate tsunamis in Java and Nusa Tenggara using rupture duration analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pribadi, S.; Puspito, N. T.; Yudistira, T.; Afnimar,; Ibrahim, G.; Laksono, B. I.; Adnan, Z.

    2014-01-01

    Java and Nusa Tenggara are the tectonically active of Sunda arc. This study discuss the rupture duration as a manifestation of the power of earthquake-generated tsunami. We use the teleseismic (30° - 90°) body waves with high-frequency energy Seismometer is from IRIS network as amount 206 broadband units. We applied the Butterworth high bandpass (1 - 2 Hz) filtered. The arrival and travel times started from wave phase of P - PP which based on Jeffrey Bullens table with TauP program. The results are that the June 2, 1994 Banyuwangi and the July 17, 2006 Pangandaran earthquakes identified as tsunami earthquakes with long rupture duration (To > 100 second), medium magnitude (7.6 50 second which depend on its magnitude. Those events are located far from the trench

  2. Timing of initial arrival at the breeding site predicts age at first reproduction in a long-lived migratory bird

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becker, Peter H.; Dittmann, Tobias; Ludwigs, Jan-Dieter; Limmer, Bente; Ludwig, Sonja C.; Bauch, Christina; Braasch, Alexander; Wendeln, Helmut

    2008-01-01

    In long-lived vertebrates, individuals generally visit potential breeding areas or populations during one or more seasons before reproducing for the first time. During these years of prospecting, they select a future breeding site, colony, or mate and improve various skills and their physical condition to meet the requirements of reproduction. One precondition of successful reproduction is arrival in time on the breeding grounds. Here, we study the intricate links among the date of initial spring arrival, body mass, sex, and the age of first breeding in the common tern Sterna hirundo, a long-lived migratory colonial seabird. The study is based on a unique, individual-based, long-term dataset of sexed birds, marked with transponders, which allow recording their individual arrival, overall attendance, and clutch initiation remotely and automatically year by year over the entire lifetime at the natal colony site. We show that the seasonal date of initial arrival at the breeding grounds predicts the individual age at first reproduction, which mostly occurs years later. Late first-time arrivals remain delayed birds throughout subsequent years. Our findings reveal that timing of arrival at the site of reproduction and timing of reproduction itself are coherent parameters of individual quality, which are linked with the prospects of the breeding career and may have consequences for fitness. PMID:18711134

  3. The Campi Flegrei Blind Test: Evaluating the Imaging Capability of Local Earthquake Tomography in a Volcanic Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. Priolo

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available During the 1982–1984 bradyseismic crises in the Campi Flegrei area (Italy, the University of Wisconsin deployed a network of seismological stations to record local earthquakes. In order to analyse the potential of the recorded data in terms of tomographic imaging, a blind test was recently set up and carried out in the framework of a research project. A model representing a hypothetical 3D structure of the area containing the Campi Flegrei caldera was also set up, and a synthetic dataset of time arrivals was in turn computed. The synthetic dataset consists of several thousand P- and S-time arrivals, computed at about fourteen stations. The tomographic inversion was performed by four independent teams using different methods. The teams had no knowledge of either the input velocity model or the earthquake hypocenters used to create the synthetic dataset. The results obtained by the different groups were compared and analysed in light of the true model. This work provides a thorough analysis of the earthquake tomography potential of the dataset recording the seismic activity at Campi Flegrei in the 1982–1984 period. It shows that all the tested earthquake tomography methods provide reliable low-resolution images of the background velocity field of the Campi Flegrei area, but with some differences. However, none of them succeeds in detecting the hypothetical structure details (i.e. with a size smaller than about 1.5–2 km, such as a magmatic chamber 4 km deep and especially the smaller, isolated bodies, which represent possible magmatic chimneys and intrusions.

  4. Pipe Wall Thinning Evaluation through the Arrival Time Delay of A0 Lamb Wave Using Magnetostrictive Patch Transducers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cho, Seung Hyun; Kwon, Hyu Sang; Ahn, Bong Young; Lee, Seung Seok [Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2008-12-15

    Guided wave technology is advantageous for fast inspection of pipe wall thinning since the guided wave propagates long distance. In this investigation, the method to evaluate gradual wall thinning in a pipe based on the arrival time delay with magnetostrictive patch transducers is presented. Low frequency A0 Lamb waves were generated and measured by the present transducer and it was applied to arrival time delay measurement experiments on a test pipe having gradual wall thinnings artificially manufactured. From experiments, consistent results that wall thinning increases the arrival time delay of A0 waves were obtained. Consequently, the feasibility of the magnetostrictive patch transducers to evaluate wall thinning was verified

  5. Pipe Wall Thinning Evaluation through the Arrival Time Delay of A0 Lamb Wave Using Magnetostrictive Patch Transducers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cho, Seung Hyun; Kwon, Hyu Sang; Ahn, Bong Young; Lee, Seung Seok

    2008-01-01

    Guided wave technology is advantageous for fast inspection of pipe wall thinning since the guided wave propagates long distance. In this investigation, the method to evaluate gradual wall thinning in a pipe based on the arrival time delay with magnetostrictive patch transducers is presented. Low frequency A0 Lamb waves were generated and measured by the present transducer and it was applied to arrival time delay measurement experiments on a test pipe having gradual wall thinnings artificially manufactured. From experiments, consistent results that wall thinning increases the arrival time delay of A0 waves were obtained. Consequently, the feasibility of the magnetostrictive patch transducers to evaluate wall thinning was verified

  6. Retinal fluorescein contrast arrival time of young patients with the hepatosplenic form of the Schistosomiasis mansoni

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Catarina Delgado de Souza

    2002-10-01

    Full Text Available Schistosoma mansoni is responsible for lesions that can alter the hemodinamic of the portal venous circulation, lung arterial and venous sistemic systems. Therefore, hemodinamic changes in the ocular circulation of mansonic schistosomotic patients with portal hypertension and hepatofugal venous blood flow is also probable. The purpose of this study was to determine the fluorescein contrast arrival time at the retina of young patients with the hepatosplenic form of schistosomiasis, clinically and surgically treated. The control group included 36 non schistosomotic patients, mean age of 17.3 years, and the case group was represented by 25 schistosomotic patients, mean age of 18.2 years, who were cared for at The University Hospital (Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, from 1990 to 2001. They underwent digital angiofluoresceinography and were evaluated for the contrast arrival time at the early retinal venous phase of the exam. Both groups were ophthalmologically examined at the same hospital (Altino Ventura Foundation, Recife, Brazil, using the same technique. There was retardation of the retinal contrast arrival time equal or more than 70 sec in the eyes of three schistosomotic patients (12% and in none of the control group, however, the mean contrast arrival time between the two groups were not statistically different. These findings lend support to the hypothesis that there could be a delay of the eye venous blood flow drainage.

  7. Victims' time discounting 2.5 years after the Wenchuan earthquake: an ERP study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin-Zhen Li

    Full Text Available Time discounting refers to the fact that the subjective value of a reward decreases as the delay until its occurrence increases. The present study investigated how time discounting has been affected in survivors of the magnitude-8.0 Wenchuan earthquake that occurred in China in 2008.Nineteen earthquake survivors and 22 controls, all school teachers, participated in the study. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs for time discounting tasks involving gains and losses were acquired in both the victims and controls.The behavioral data replicated our previous findings that delayed gains were discounted more steeply after a disaster. ERP results revealed that the P200 and P300 amplitudes were increased in earthquake survivors. There was a significant group (earthquake vs. non-earthquake × task (gain vs. loss interaction for the N300 amplitude, with a marginally significantly reduced N300 for gain tasks in the experimental group, which may suggest a deficiency in inhibitory control for gains among victims.The results suggest that post-disaster decisions might involve more emotional (System 1 and less rational thinking (System 2 in terms of a dual-process model of decision making. The implications for post-disaster intervention and management are also discussed.

  8. Earthquake Early Warning: A Prospective User's Perspective (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishenko, S. P.; Savage, W. U.; Johnson, T.

    2009-12-01

    system, limiting the time available for an EEW-based response (i.e., slowing or stopping trains). While EEW systems are currently being tested in California, the societal benefits may be even more pronounced in other earthquake-prone parts of the United States. In the central and eastern United States, strong ground motions are felt over significantly larger areas than in California, enabling both a larger area and longer lead times for warnings ahead of the arrival of strong shaking. Because these regions are less resistant to earthquake shaking, such warnings may be even more important for safety and emergency response. However, in many areas a significant increase in the instrumentation density would be required for EEW to become a reality. Although the details of EEW systems are specific to earthquakes, the operation of sensor networks, real-time data analysis, and rapid notification to lifelines is an emerging technology that can be used for real-time detection and early warning of other types of natural and human-caused disasters and emergencies.

  9. Tightly-coupled real-time analysis of GPS and accelerometer data for translational and rotational ground motions and application to earthquake and tsunami early warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geng, J.; Bock, Y.; Melgar, D.; Hasse, J.; Crowell, B. W.

    2013-12-01

    High-rate GPS can play an important role in earthquake early warning (EEW) systems for large (>M6) events by providing permanent displacements immediately as they are achieved, to be used in source inversions that can be repeatedly updated as more information becomes available. This is most valuable to implement at a site very near the potential source rupture, where broadband seismometers are likely to clip, and accelerometer data cannot be objectively integrated to produce reliable displacements in real time. At present, more than 525 real-time GPS stations have been established in western North America, which are being integrated into EEW systems. Our analysis technique relies on a tightly-coupled combination of GPS and accelerometer data, an extension of precise point positioning with ambiguity resolution (PPP-AR). We operate a PPP service based on North American stations available through the IGS and UNAVCO/PBO. The service provides real-time satellite clock and fractional-cycle bias products that allow us to position individual client stations in the zone of deformation. The service reference stations are chosen to be further than 200 km from the primary zones of tectonic deformation in the western U.S. to avoid contamination of the satellite products during a large seismic event. At client stations, accelerometer data are applied as tight constraints on the positions between epochs in PPP-AR, which improves cycle-slip repair and rapid ambiguity resolution after GPS outages. Furthermore, we estimate site displacements, seismic velocities, and coseismic ground tilts to facilitate the analysis of ground motion characteristics and the inversion for source mechanisms. The seismogeodetic displacement and velocity waveforms preserves the detection of P wave arrivals, and provides P-wave arrival displacement that is key new information for EEW. Our innovative solution method for coseismic tilts mitigates an error source that has continually plagued strong motion

  10. Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    An earthquake happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. Earthquakes strike suddenly, violently, and without warning at any time of the day or night. If an earthquake occurs in a populated area, it may cause ...

  11. THE NANOGRAV NINE-YEAR DATA SET: EXCESS NOISE IN MILLISECOND PULSAR ARRIVAL TIMES

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lam, M. T.; Jones, M. L.; McLaughlin, M. A.; Pennucci, T. T. [Department of Physics, West Virginia University, White Hall, Morgantown, WV 26506 (United States); Cordes, J. M.; Chatterjee, S. [Department of Astronomy and Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States); Arzoumanian, Z. [Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology and X-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Crowter, K.; Fonseca, E.; Gonzalez, M. E. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 (Canada); Demorest, P. B. [National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box 0, Socorro, NM, 87801 (United States); Dolch, T. [Department of Physics, Hillsdale College, 33 E. College Street, Hillsdale, MI 49242 (United States); Ellis, J. A [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena CA, 91109 (United States); Ferdman, R. D. [Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 rue Universite, Montreal, QC H3A 2T8 (Canada); Jones, G. [Department of Physics, Columbia University, 550 W. 120th Street, New York, NY 10027 (United States); Levin, L. [Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL (United Kingdom); Madison, D. R.; Ransom, S. M. [National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States); Nice, D. J. [Department of Physics, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042 (United States); Shannon, R. M., E-mail: michael.lam@mail.wvu.edu [CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australia Telescope National Facility, Box 76, Epping NSW 1710 (Australia); and others

    2017-01-01

    Gravitational wave (GW) astronomy using a pulsar timing array requires high-quality millisecond pulsars (MSPs), correctable interstellar propagation delays, and high-precision measurements of pulse times of arrival. Here we identify noise in timing residuals that exceeds that predicted for arrival time estimation for MSPs observed by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves. We characterize the excess noise using variance and structure function analyses. We find that 26 out of 37 pulsars show inconsistencies with a white-noise-only model based on the short timescale analysis of each pulsar, and we demonstrate that the excess noise has a red power spectrum for 15 pulsars. We also decompose the excess noise into chromatic (radio-frequency-dependent) and achromatic components. Associating the achromatic red-noise component with spin noise and including additional power-spectrum-based estimates from the literature, we estimate a scaling law in terms of spin parameters (frequency and frequency derivative) and data-span length and compare it to the scaling law of Shannon and Cordes. We briefly discuss our results in terms of detection of GWs at nanohertz frequencies.

  12. Hepatic Vein Arrival Time for Diagnosis of Liver Cirrhosis: A 10-Year Single-Center Experience With Contrast-Enhanced Sonography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbattista, Teresa; Ridolfi, Francesco; Consalvo, Giovanni Traina; Brunelli, Eugenio

    2016-10-01

    To evaluate the performance of contrast-enhanced sonography with a second-generation contrast agent in assessing the severity of chronic diffuse liver disease and differentiating cirrhotic from noncirrhotic liver disease. Contrast-enhanced sonography was performed after intravenous bolus injection of a second-generation contrast agent in 14 healthy control participants and 160 consecutive patients with cirrhotic and noncirrhotic liver disease (n = 78 and 82, respectively) enrolled between March 2004 and April 2014. The intensity of enhancement in a main hepatic vein was used to determine hepatic vein arrival time, time to peak intensity, and peak contrast enhancement. The hepatic vein arrival time was lower in cirrhotic patients compared with both noncirrhotic patients and controls (mean ± SD, 15.0 ± 2.8, 21.5 ± 3.4, and 25.6 ± 4.7 seconds, respectively; P < .05). The hepatic vein arrival time in noncirrhotic patients was also significantly lower than that in controls (P < .05). The time to peak intensity was significantly lower in cirrhotic patients compared with noncirrhotic patients and controls (40.7 ± 13.7, 49.4 ± 12.8, and 51.2 ± 13.7 seconds; P < .05). A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that the hepatic vein arrival time more accurately excluded a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis than the time to peak intensity (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.953 versus 0.694). Specifically, a hepatic vein arrival time cutoff value of 17 seconds excluded liver cirrhosis with 91.1% sensitivity and 93.6% specificity. Contrast-enhanced sonography is a valid alternative method for noninvasive staging of liver diseases. The hepatic vein arrival time could be used to exclude liver cirrhosis in a clinical setting.

  13. Sex-Specific Arrival Times on the Breeding Grounds: Hybridizing Migratory Skuas Provide Empirical Support for the Role of Sex Ratios.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lisovski, Simeon; Fröhlich, Anne; von Tersch, Matthew; Klaassen, Marcel; Peter, Hans-Ulrich; Ritz, Markus S

    2016-04-01

    In migratory animals, protandry (earlier arrival of males on the breeding grounds) prevails over protogyny (females preceding males). In theory, sex differences in timing of arrival should be driven by the operational sex ratio, shifting toward protogyny in female-biased populations. However, empirical support for this hypothesis is, to date, lacking. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed arrival data from three populations of the long-distance migratory south polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki). These populations differed in their operational sex ratio caused by the unidirectional hybridization of male south polar skuas with female brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi). We found that arrival times were protandrous in allopatry, shifting toward protogyny in female-biased populations when breeding in sympatry. This unique observation is consistent with theoretical predictions that sex-specific arrival times should be influenced by sex ratio and that protogyny should be observed in populations with female-biased operational sex ratio.

  14. HYDROACOUSTIC OBSERVATIONS OF WEAK EARTHQUAKES IN SHALLOW WATERS OF THE SOUTHERN KURIL ISLANDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander S. Borisov

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Results of hydroacoustic observations of signals from weak earthquakes in natural conditions in the region of the Southern Kuril Islands are presented. Some earthquakes were registered by the the Yuzhno-Kurilsk Seismic Station, other were only recorded by hydrophone stations. The observations were specific as seismic signals were recorded in shallow waters, i.e. in high noise level conditions. Hydrophones were installed in Lake Lagunnoe (Kunashir and Khromovaya Bay (Shikotan. Our analysis of hydroacoustic records received from the hydrophone stations revealed no evident precursory response of the geological medium to weak distant events. This means that neither before the period of earthquake preparation nor during the earthquake preparation period, any geoacoustic emission was not detected. It is shown that despite the unfavourable noise level conditions, even distant weak earthquakes can be confidently registered by hydrophone stations, and pending application of proper signal processing techniques, it can be possible to determine arrival times of seismic waves and to measure parameters of seismic waves. It is also established that the frequency spectrum of acoustic signals from the weak earthquakes recordable by the hydrophone stations is continuous and of noise type in the frequency range up to 90–100 Hz. It is revealed that in some cases, weak earthquakes and microearthquakes may be forerun by low frequency signals.

  15. Diagnosis of time of increased probability of volcanic earthquakes at Mt. Vesuvius zone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rotwain, I.; Kuznetsov, I.; De Natale, G.; Peresan, A.; Panza, G.F.

    2003-06-01

    The possibility of intermediate-term earthquake prediction at Mt. Vesuvius by means of the algorithm CN is explored. CN was originally designed to identify the Times of Increased Probability (TIPs) for the occurrence of strong tectonic earthquakes, with magnitude M ≥ M 0 , within a region a priori delimited. Here the algorithm CN is applied, for the first time, to the analysis of volcanic seismicity. The earthquakes recorded at Mt. Vesuvius, during the period from February 1972 to October 2002, are considered and the magnitude threshold M 0 , selecting the events to be predicted, is varied within the range: 3.0 - 3.3. Satisfactory prediction results are obtained, by retrospective analysis, when a time scaling is introduced. In particular, when the length of the time windows is reduced by a factor 2.5 - 3, with respect to the standard version of CN algorithm, more than 90% of the events with M ≥ M 0 occur within the TIP intervals, with TIPs occupying about 30% of the total time considered. The control experiment 'Seismic History' demonstrates the stability of the obtained results and indicates that the algorithm CN can be applied to monitor the preparation of impending earthquakes with M ≥ 3.0 at Mt. Vesuvius. (author)

  16. Two-fractal overlap time series: Earthquakes and market crashes

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    velocity over the other and time series of stock prices. An anticipation method for some of the crashes have been proposed here, based on these observations. Keywords. Cantor set; time series; earthquake; market crash. PACS Nos 05.00; 02.50.-r; 64.60; 89.65.Gh; 95.75.Wx. 1. Introduction. Capturing dynamical patterns of ...

  17. Simulation studies of the information content of muon arrival time observations of high energy extensive air showers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brancus, I.; Duma, M.; Badea, A. F.; Aiftimiei, C.; Rebel, M. H.; Oehlschlaeger, J.

    2001-01-01

    By extensive Monte Carlo calculations, using the air shower simulation code CORSIKA, EAS muon arrival time distributions and EAS time profiles up to 320 m distances from the shower centre have been generated, for proton, oxygen and iron induced showers using different hadronic interaction models as Monte Carlo generators. The model dependence and mass discriminating features have been scrutinized for three energy ranges, (1-1.7783) 10 15 eV, (1.-1.78) 10 16 eV and (1.78-3.16) 10 16 eV, by use of non-parametric statistical inference method applied to multidimensional distributions, correlating the EAS time quantities with different other EAS observables. The correlations of local muon arrival times with the local muon density and the shower age indicate a good mass separation quality at larger shower distances. The best discrimination was obtained by adding the correlation with N μ tr quantity. The comparison between 'local times', with reference to the first registered muon and 'global times' with reference to the arrival time of the shower core, indicates a slightly better mass discrimination in the case of muon 'global' time distributions. (authors)

  18. Arrival time pattern and waiting time distribution of patients in the emergency outpatient department of a tertiary level health care institution of North India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yogesh Tiwari

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Emergency Department (ED of tertiary health care institute in India is mostly overcrowded, over utilized and inappropriately staffed. The challenges of overcrowded EDs and ill-managed patient flow and admission processes result in excessively long waits for patients. Aim: The objective of the present study was to analyze the patient flow system by assessing the arrival and waiting time distribution of patients in an Emergency out Patient Department (EOPD. Materials and Methods: This short cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the EOPD of a Tertiary level health care Institution in North India in the month of May, 2011. The data was obtained from 591 patients, who were present in the EOPD during the month of May, 2011. The waiting time, inter arrival time between two consecutive patients were calculated in addition to the daily census data (discharge rate, admission rate and transfer out rates etc. of the emergency. Results: Arrival time pattern of patients in the EOPD was highly stochastic with the peak arrival hours to be "9.00-12.00 h" in which around 26.3% patients arrived in the EOPD. The primary waiting areas of patients included patients "under observation" (29.6%; "waiting for routine diagnostic tests" (16.4% and "waiting for discharge" (14.6%. Around 71% patients were waiting due to reasons within emergency complex. Conclusion: The patient flow of the ED could only be addressed by multifaceted, multidisciplinary and hospital wide approach.

  19. Promise and problems in using stress triggering models for time-dependent earthquake hazard assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cocco, M.

    2001-12-01

    Earthquake stress changes can promote failures on favorably oriented faults and modify the seismicity pattern over broad regions around the causative faults. Because the induced stress perturbations modify the rate of production of earthquakes, they alter the probability of seismic events in a specified time window. Comparing the Coulomb stress changes with the seismicity rate changes and aftershock patterns can statistically test the role of stress transfer in earthquake occurrence. The interaction probability may represent a further tool to test the stress trigger or shadow model. The probability model, which incorporate stress transfer, has the main advantage to include the contributions of the induced stress perturbation (a static step in its present formulation), the loading rate and the fault constitutive properties. Because the mechanical conditions of the secondary faults at the time of application of the induced load are largely unkown, stress triggering can only be tested on fault populations and not on single earthquake pairs with a specified time delay. The interaction probability can represent the most suitable tool to test the interaction between large magnitude earthquakes. Despite these important implications and the stimulating perspectives, there exist problems in understanding earthquake interaction that should motivate future research but at the same time limit its immediate social applications. One major limitation is that we are unable to predict how and if the induced stress perturbations modify the ratio between small versus large magnitude earthquakes. In other words, we cannot distinguish between a change in this ratio in favor of small events or of large magnitude earthquakes, because the interaction probability is independent of magnitude. Another problem concerns the reconstruction of the stressing history. The interaction probability model is based on the response to a static step; however, we know that other processes contribute to

  20. Comprehensive treatment for gas gangrene of the limbs in earthquakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yue; Lu, Bo; Hao, Peng; Yan, Meng-ning; Dai, Ke-rong

    2013-10-01

    Mortality rates for patients with gas gangrene from trauma or surgery are as high as 25%, but they increase to 50%-80% for patients injured in natural hazards. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential for these patients. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics and therapeutic results of 19 patients with gas gangrene of the limbs, who were injured in the May 2008 earthquake in the Wenchuan district of China's Sichuan province and treated in our hospital, to seek how to best diagnose and treat earthquake-induced gas gangrene. Of 226 patients with limbs open injuries sustained during the earthquake, 53 patients underwent smear analysis of wound exudates and gas gangrene was diagnosed in 19 patients. The average elapsed time from injury to arrival at the hospital was 72 hours, from injury to definitive diagnosis was 4.3 days, and from diagnosis to conversion of negative findings on wound smear analysis to positive findings was 12.7 days. Anaerobic cultures were also obtained before wound closure. The average elapsed time from completion of surgery to recovery of normal vital signs was 6.3 days. Of the 19 patients, 16 were treated with open amputation, two with closed amputation, and 1 with successful limb salvage; 18 patients were successfully treated and one died. In earthquakes, rapid, accurate screening and isolation are essential to successful treatment of gas gangrene and helpful in preventing nosocomial diffusion. Early and thorough debridement, open amputation, and active supportive treatment can produce satisfactory therapeutic results.

  1. Local earthquake tomography of the Erzincan Basin and the surrounding area in Turkey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Gökalp

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available In this study, selected travel time data from the aftershock series of the Erzincan earthquake (March, 1992, Ms=6.8 were inverted simultaneously for both hypocenter locations and 3D Vp and Vs structure. The general features of the 3D velocity structure of the upper crust of Erzincan Basin and the surrounding area, one of the most tectonically and seismically active regions in Turkey were investigated. The data used for this purpose were 2215 P-wave and 547 S-wave arrival times from 350 local earthquakes recorded by temporary 15 short-period seismograph stations. Thurber’s simultaneous inversion method (1983 was applied to the arrival time data to obtain a 3D velocity structure, and hypocentral locations. Both 3D heterogeneous P and S wave velocity variations down to 12 km depth were obtained. The acquired tomographic images show that the 3D velocity structure beneath the region is heterogeneous in that low velocity appears throughout the basin and at the southeastern flank, and high velocities occur at south and east of the basin. The low velocities can be related to small and large scale fractures, thus causing rocks to weaken over a long period of the active tectonic faulting process. The ophiolitic rock units mostly occurring around the basin area are the possible reason for the high velocities. The validity of 3D inversion results was tested by performing detailed resolution analysis. The test results confirm the velocity anomalies obtained from inversion. Despite the small number of inverted S-wave arrivals, the obtained 3D S velocity model has similar anomalies with lower resolution than the 3D P-wave velocity model. Better hypocenter locations were calculated using the 3D heterogeneous model obtained from tomographic inversion.

  2. Predictability of Landslide Timing From Quasi-Periodic Precursory Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, Andrew F.

    2018-02-01

    Accelerating rates of geophysical signals are observed before a range of material failure phenomena. They provide insights into the physical processes controlling failure and the basis for failure forecasts. However, examples of accelerating seismicity before landslides are rare, and their behavior and forecasting potential are largely unknown. Here I use a Bayesian methodology to apply a novel gamma point process model to investigate a sequence of quasiperiodic repeating earthquakes preceding a large landslide at Nuugaatsiaq in Greenland in June 2017. The evolution in earthquake rate is best explained by an inverse power law increase with time toward failure, as predicted by material failure theory. However, the commonly accepted power law exponent value of 1.0 is inconsistent with the data. Instead, the mean posterior value of 0.71 indicates a particularly rapid acceleration toward failure and suggests that only relatively short warning times may be possible for similar landslides in future.

  3. Real-Time Data Processing Systems and Products at the Alaska Earthquake Information Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruppert, N. A.; Hansen, R. A.

    2007-05-01

    The Alaska Earthquake Information Center (AEIC) receives data from over 400 seismic sites located within the state boundaries and the surrounding regions and serves as a regional data center. In 2007, the AEIC reported ~20,000 seismic events, with the largest event of M6.6 in Andreanof Islands. The real-time earthquake detection and data processing systems at AEIC are based on the Antelope system from BRTT, Inc. This modular and extensible processing platform allows an integrated system complete from data acquisition to catalog production. Multiple additional modules constructed with the Antelope toolbox have been developed to fit particular needs of the AEIC. The real-time earthquake locations and magnitudes are determined within 2-5 minutes of the event occurrence. AEIC maintains a 24/7 seismologist-on-duty schedule. Earthquake alarms are based on the real- time earthquake detections. Significant events are reviewed by the seismologist on duty within 30 minutes of the occurrence with information releases issued for significant events. This information is disseminated immediately via the AEIC website, ANSS website via QDDS submissions, through e-mail, cell phone and pager notifications, via fax broadcasts and recorded voice-mail messages. In addition, automatic regional moment tensors are determined for events with M>=4.0. This information is posted on the public website. ShakeMaps are being calculated in real-time with the information currently accessible via a password-protected website. AEIC is designing an alarm system targeted for the critical lifeline operations in Alaska. AEIC maintains an extensive computer network to provide adequate support for data processing and archival. For real-time processing, AEIC operates two identical, interoperable computer systems in parallel.

  4. Time Domain Feature Extraction Technique for earth's electric field signal prior to the Earthquake

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Astuti, W; Sediono, W; Akmeliawati, R; Salami, M J E

    2013-01-01

    Earthquake is one of the most destructive of natural disasters that killed many people and destroyed a lot of properties. By considering these catastrophic effects, it is highly important of knowing ahead of earthquakes in order to reduce the number of victims and material losses. Earth's electric field is one of the features that can be used to predict earthquakes (EQs), since it has significant changes in the amplitude of the signal prior to the earthquake. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the earth's electric field due to earthquakes which occurred in Greece, between January 1, 2008 and June 30, 2008. In that period of time, 13 earthquakes had occurred. 6 of them were recorded with magnitudes greater than Ms=5R (5R), while 7 of them were recorded with magnitudes greater than Ms=6R (6R). Time domain feature extraction technique is applied to analyze the 1st significant changes in the earth's electric field prior to the earthquake. Two different time domain feature extraction techniques are applied in this work, namely Simple Square Integral (SSI) and Root Mean Square (RMS). The 1st significant change of the earth's electric field signal in each of monitoring sites is extracted using those two techniques. The feature extraction result can be used as input parameter for an earthquake prediction system

  5. Analysis of community tsunami evacuation time: An overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yunarto, Y.; Sari, A. M.

    2018-02-01

    Tsunami in Indonesia is defined as local tsunami due to its occurrences which are within a distance of 200 km from the epicenter of the earthquake. A local tsunami can be caused by an earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. Tsunami arrival time in Indonesia is generally between 10-60 minutes. As the estimated time of the tsunami waves to reach the coast is 30 minutes after the earthquake, the community should go to the vertical or horizontal evacuation in less than 30 minutes. In an evacuation, the city frequently does the evacuation after obtaining official directions from the authorities. Otherwise, they perform an independent evacuation without correct instructions from the authorities. Both of these ways have several strengths and limitations. This study analyzes these methods regarding time as well as the number of people expected to be saved.

  6. Time interval between stroke onset and hospital arrival in acute ischemic stroke patients in Shanghai, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Jing; Yan, Weihong; Jiang, Guo-Xin; Li, Wei; Cheng, Qi

    2011-02-01

    To observe the time interval between stroke onset and hospital arrival (time-to-hospital) in acute ischemic stroke patients and analyze its putatively associated factors. During the period from November 1, 2006 to August 31, 2008, patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted consecutively to the Department of Neurology, Ninth Hospital, Shanghai, were enrolled in the study. Information of the patients was registered including the time-to-hospital, demographic data, history of stroke, season at attack, neurological symptom at onset, etc. Characteristics of the patients were analyzed and logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with the time-to-hospital. There were 536 patients in the study, 290 (54.1%) males and 246 (45.9%) females. The median time-to-hospital was 8h (ranged from 0.1 to 300 h) for all patients. Within 3h after the onset of stroke, 162 patients (30.2%) arrived at our hospital; and within 6h, 278 patients (51.9%). Patients with a history of stroke, unconsciousness at onset, or a high NIHSS score at admission had significantly less time-to-hospital. The time interval between stroke onset and hospital arrival was importance of seeking immediate medical help after stroke onset of patients and their relatives could significantly influence their actions. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Latitude-Time Total Electron Content Anomalies as Precursors to Japan's Large Earthquakes Associated with Principal Component Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jyh-Woei Lin

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this study is to determine whether principal component analysis (PCA can be used to process latitude-time ionospheric TEC data on a monthly basis to identify earthquake associated TEC anomalies. PCA is applied to latitude-time (mean-of-a-month ionospheric total electron content (TEC records collected from the Japan GEONET network to detect TEC anomalies associated with 18 earthquakes in Japan (M≥6.0 from 2000 to 2005. According to the results, PCA was able to discriminate clear TEC anomalies in the months when all 18 earthquakes occurred. After reviewing months when no M≥6.0 earthquakes occurred but geomagnetic storm activity was present, it is possible that the maximal principal eigenvalues PCA returned for these 18 earthquakes indicate earthquake associated TEC anomalies. Previously PCA has been used to discriminate earthquake-associated TEC anomalies recognized by other researchers, who found that statistical association between large earthquakes and TEC anomalies could be established in the 5 days before earthquake nucleation; however, since PCA uses the characteristics of principal eigenvalues to determine earthquake related TEC anomalies, it is possible to show that such anomalies existed earlier than this 5-day statistical window.

  8. Arrival metering fuel consumption analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Arrival metering is a method of time-based traffic management that is used by the Federal Aviation Administration to plan and manage streams of arrival traffic during periods of : high demand at busy airports. The Traffic Management Advisor is an aut...

  9. An innovative method for automatic determination of time of arrival for Lamb waves excited by impact events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Junxiao; Parvasi, Seyed Mohammad; Ho, Siu Chun Michael; Patil, Devendra; Ge, Maochen; Li, Hongnan; Song, Gangbing

    2017-05-01

    Lamb waves have great potential as a diagnostic tool in the application of structural health monitoring. Propagation properties of Lamb waves are affected by the state of the structure that the waves are traveling upon. Thus Lamb waves can carry information about the structure as they travel across a structure. However, the dispersive, multimodal and attenuation characteristics of Lamb waves make it difficult to determine the time of arrival of Lamb waves. To deal with these characteristics, an innovative method to automatically determine the time of arrival for impact-induced Lamb waves without human intervention is proposed in this paper. Lead zirconate titanate sensors mounted on the surface of an aluminum plate were used to measure the Lamb waves excited by an impact. The time of arrival was determined based on wavelet decomposition, Hilbert transform and statistics (Grubbs’ test and maximum likelihood estimation). Both of numerical analysis and physical measurements have verified the accuracy of this method for impacts on an aluminum plate.

  10. Fast rise times and the physical mechanism of deep earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houston, H.; Williams, Q.

    1991-01-01

    A systematic global survey of the rise times and stress drops of deep and intermediate earthquakes is reported. When the rise times are scaled to the seismic moment release of the events, their average is nearly twice as fast for events deeper than about 450 km as for shallower events.

  11. One dimensional P wave velocity structure of the crust beneath west Java and accurate hypocentre locations from local earthquake inversion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Supardiyono; Santosa, Bagus Jaya

    2012-01-01

    A one-dimensional (1-D) velocity model and station corrections for the West Java zone were computed by inverting P-wave arrival times recorded on a local seismic network of 14 stations. A total of 61 local events with a minimum of 6 P-phases, rms 0.56 s and a maximum gap of 299° were selected. Comparison with previous earthquake locations shows an improvement for the relocated earthquakes. Tests were carried out to verify the robustness of inversion results in order to corroborate the conclusions drawn out from our reasearch. The obtained minimum 1-D velocity model can be used to improve routine earthquake locations and represents a further step toward more detailed seismotectonic studies in this area of West Java.

  12. One dimensional P wave velocity structure of the crust beneath west Java and accurate hypocentre locations from local earthquake inversion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Supardiyono; Santosa, Bagus Jaya [Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, State University of Surabaya, Surabaya (Indonesia) and Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Surabaya (Indonesia); Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Surabaya (Indonesia)

    2012-06-20

    A one-dimensional (1-D) velocity model and station corrections for the West Java zone were computed by inverting P-wave arrival times recorded on a local seismic network of 14 stations. A total of 61 local events with a minimum of 6 P-phases, rms 0.56 s and a maximum gap of 299 Degree-Sign were selected. Comparison with previous earthquake locations shows an improvement for the relocated earthquakes. Tests were carried out to verify the robustness of inversion results in order to corroborate the conclusions drawn out from our reasearch. The obtained minimum 1-D velocity model can be used to improve routine earthquake locations and represents a further step toward more detailed seismotectonic studies in this area of West Java.

  13. Diagnosis of time of increased probability of volcanic earthquakes at Mt. Vesuvius zone

    CERN Document Server

    Rotwain, I; Kuznetsov, I V; Panza, G F; Peresan, A

    2003-01-01

    The possibility of intermediate-term earthquake prediction at Mt. Vesuvius by means of the algorithm CN is explored. CN was originally designed to identify the Times of Increased Probability (TIPs) for the occurrence of strong tectonic earthquakes, with magnitude M >= M sub 0 , within a region a priori delimited. Here the algorithm CN is applied, for the first time, to the analysis of volcanic seismicity. The earthquakes recorded at Mt. Vesuvius, during the period from February 1972 to October 2002, are considered and the magnitude threshold M sub 0 , selecting the events to be predicted, is varied within the range: 3.0 - 3.3. Satisfactory prediction results are obtained, by retrospective analysis, when a time scaling is introduced. In particular, when the length of the time windows is reduced by a factor 2.5 - 3, with respect to the standard version of CN algorithm, more than 90% of the events with M >= M sub 0 occur within the TIP intervals, with TIPs occupying about 30% of the total time considered. The co...

  14. A New Tool for CME Arrival Time Prediction using Machine Learning Algorithms: CAT-PUMA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jiajia; Ye, Yudong; Shen, Chenglong; Wang, Yuming; Erdélyi, Robert

    2018-03-01

    Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are arguably the most violent eruptions in the solar system. CMEs can cause severe disturbances in interplanetary space and can even affect human activities in many aspects, causing damage to infrastructure and loss of revenue. Fast and accurate prediction of CME arrival time is vital to minimize the disruption that CMEs may cause when interacting with geospace. In this paper, we propose a new approach for partial-/full halo CME Arrival Time Prediction Using Machine learning Algorithms (CAT-PUMA). Via detailed analysis of the CME features and solar-wind parameters, we build a prediction engine taking advantage of 182 previously observed geo-effective partial-/full halo CMEs and using algorithms of the Support Vector Machine. We demonstrate that CAT-PUMA is accurate and fast. In particular, predictions made after applying CAT-PUMA to a test set unknown to the engine show a mean absolute prediction error of ∼5.9 hr within the CME arrival time, with 54% of the predictions having absolute errors less than 5.9 hr. Comparisons with other models reveal that CAT-PUMA has a more accurate prediction for 77% of the events investigated that can be carried out very quickly, i.e., within minutes of providing the necessary input parameters of a CME. A practical guide containing the CAT-PUMA engine and the source code of two examples are available in the Appendix, allowing the community to perform their own applications for prediction using CAT-PUMA.

  15. Earthquake Warning Performance in Vallejo for the South Napa Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wurman, G.; Price, M.

    2014-12-01

    In 2002 and 2003, Seismic Warning Systems, Inc. installed first-generation QuakeGuardTM earthquake warning devices at all eight fire stations in Vallejo, CA. These devices are designed to detect the P-wave of an earthquake and initiate predetermined protective actions if the impending shaking is estimated at approximately Modifed Mercalli Intensity V or greater. At the Vallejo fire stations the devices were set up to sound an audio alert over the public address system and to command the equipment bay doors to open. In August 2014, after more than 11 years of operating in the fire stations with no false alarms, the five units that were still in use triggered correctly on the MW 6.0 South Napa earthquake, less than 16 km away. The audio alert sounded in all five stations, providing fire fighters with 1.5 to 2.5 seconds of warning before the arrival of the S-wave, and the equipment bay doors opened in three of the stations. In one station the doors were disconnected from the QuakeGuard device, and another station lost power before the doors opened completely. These problems highlight just a small portion of the complexity associated with realizing actionable earthquake warnings. The issues experienced in this earthquake have already been addressed in subsequent QuakeGuard product generations, with downstream connection monitoring and backup power for critical systems. The fact that the fire fighters in Vallejo were afforded even two seconds of warning at these epicentral distances results from the design of the QuakeGuard devices, which focuses on rapid false positive rejection and ground motion estimates. We discuss the performance of the ground motion estimation algorithms, with an emphasis on the accuracy and timeliness of the estimates at close epicentral distances.

  16. A method for detecting crack wave arrival time and crack localization in a tunnel by using moving window technique

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Choi, Young Chul; Park, Tae Jin [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-05-15

    Source localization in a dispersive medium has been carried out based on the time-of-arrival-differences (TOADs) method: a triangulation method and a circle intersection technique. Recent signal processing advances have led to calculation TOAD using a joint time-frequency analysis of the signal, where a short-time Fourier transform(STFT) and wavelet transform can be included as popular algorithms. The time-frequency analysis method is able to provide various information and more reliable results such as seismic-attenuation estimation, dispersive characteristics, a wave mode analysis, and temporal energy distribution of signals compared with previous methods. These algorithms, however, have their own limitations for signal processing. In this paper, the effective use of proposed algorithm in detecting crack wave arrival time and source localization in rock masses suggest that the evaluation and real-time monitoring on the intensity of damages related to the tunnels or other underground facilities is possible. Calculation of variances resulted from moving windows as a function of their size differentiates the signature from noise and from crack signal, which lead us to determine the crack wave arrival time. Then, the source localization is determined to be where the variance of crack wave velocities from real and virtual crack localization becomes a minimum. To validate our algorithm, we have performed experiments at the tunnel, which resulted in successful determination of the wave arrival time and crack localization.

  17. Accounts of damage from historical earthquakes in the northeastern Caribbean to aid in the determination of their location and intensity magnitudes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flores, Claudia H.; ten Brink, Uri S.; Bakun, William H.

    2012-01-01

    Earthquakes have been documented in the northeastern Caribbean since the arrival of Columbus to the Americas; written accounts of these felt earthquakes exist in various parts of the world. To better understand the earthquake cycle in the Caribbean, the records of earthquakes in earlier catalogs and historical documents from various archives, which are now available online, were critically examined. This report updates previous catalogs of earthquakes, in particular earthquakes in Hispaniola, to give to the public the most comprehensive documentation of earthquake damage and to further the understanding of the earthquake cycle in the northeastern Caribbean.

  18. Determination of P – wave arrival time of acoustic events

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matěj Petružálek

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available The new approach to the P-wave arrival time determination based on acoustic emission data from loading experiments is tested.The algorithm used in this paper is built on the STA/LTA function computed by a convolution that speeds up the computation processvery much. The picking process makes use of shifting of temporary onset until certain conditions are fulfill and as a main decisioncriterion on the threshold exceeding of the STA/LTA derivation function is used. The P-wave onset time is determined in a selectedinterval that corresponds to the theoretical propagation of elastic wave in the rock sample. Results obtained by our algorithm werecorrelated with data acquired manually and a high order statistic software as well.

  19. Seismic swarm associated with the 2008 eruption of Kasatochi Volcano, Alaska: earthquake locations and source parameters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruppert, Natalia G.; Prejean, Stephanie G.; Hansen, Roger A.

    2011-01-01

    An energetic seismic swarm accompanied an eruption of Kasatochi Volcano in the central Aleutian volcanic arc in August of 2008. In retrospect, the first earthquakes in the swarm were detected about 1 month prior to the eruption onset. Activity in the swarm quickly intensified less than 48 h prior to the first large explosion and subsequently subsided with decline of eruptive activity. The largest earthquake measured as moment magnitude 5.8, and a dozen additional earthquakes were larger than magnitude 4. The swarm exhibited both tectonic and volcanic characteristics. Its shear failure earthquake features were b value = 0.9, most earthquakes with impulsive P and S arrivals and higher-frequency content, and earthquake faulting parameters consistent with regional tectonic stresses. Its volcanic or fluid-influenced seismicity features were volcanic tremor, large CLVD components in moment tensor solutions, and increasing magnitudes with time. Earthquake location tests suggest that the earthquakes occurred in a distributed volume elongated in the NS direction either directly under the volcano or within 5-10 km south of it. Following the MW 5.8 event, earthquakes occurred in a new crustal volume slightly east and north of the previous earthquakes. The central Aleutian Arc is a tectonically active region with seismicity occurring in the crusts of the Pacific and North American plates in addition to interplate events. We postulate that the Kasatochi seismic swarm was a manifestation of the complex interaction of tectonic and magmatic processes in the Earth's crust. Although magmatic intrusion triggered the earthquakes in the swarm, the earthquakes failed in context of the regional stress field.

  20. Studies of earthquakes stress drops, seismic scattering, and dynamic triggering in North America

    Science.gov (United States)

    Escudero Ayala, Christian Rene

    I use the Relative Source Time Function (RSTF) method to determine the source properties of earthquakes within southeastern Alaska-northwestern Canada in a first part of the project, and earthquakes within the Denali fault in a second part. I deconvolve a small event P-arrival signal from a larger event by the following method: select arrivals with a tapered cosine window, fast fourier transform to obtain the spectrum, apply water level deconvolution technique, and bandpass filter before inverse transforming the result to obtain the RSTF. I compare the source processes of earthquakes within the area to determine stress drop differences to determine their relation with the tectonic setting of the earthquakes location. Results show an consistency with previous results, stress drop independent of moment implying self-similarity, correlation of stress drop with tectonic regime, stress drop independent of depth, stress drop depends of focal mechanism where strike-slip present larger stress drops, and decreasing stress drop as function of time. I determine seismic wave attenuation in the central western United States using coda waves. I select approximately 40 moderate earthquakes (magnitude between 5.5 and 6.5) located alocated along the California-Baja California, California-Nevada, Eastern Idaho, Gulf of California, Hebgen Lake, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, off coast of Northern California, off coast of Oregon, southern California, southern Illinois, Vancouver Island, Washington, and Wyoming regions. These events were recorded by the EarthScope transportable array (TA) network from 2005 to 2009. We obtain the data from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). In this study we implement a method based on the assumption that coda waves are single backscattered waves from randomly distributed heterogeneities to calculate the coda Q. The frequencies studied lie between 1 and 15 Hz. The scattering attenuation is calculated for frequency bands centered

  1. Ready...go: Amplitude of the FMRI signal encodes expectation of cue arrival time.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xu Cui

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available What happens when the brain awaits a signal of uncertain arrival time, as when a sprinter waits for the starting pistol? And what happens just after the starting pistol fires? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, we have discovered a novel correlate of temporal expectations in several brain regions, most prominently in the supplementary motor area (SMA. Contrary to expectations, we found little fMRI activity during the waiting period; however, a large signal appears after the "go" signal, the amplitude of which reflects learned expectations about the distribution of possible waiting times. Specifically, the amplitude of the fMRI signal appears to encode a cumulative conditional probability, also known as the cumulative hazard function. The fMRI signal loses its dependence on waiting time in a "countdown" condition in which the arrival time of the go cue is known in advance, suggesting that the signal encodes temporal probabilities rather than simply elapsed time. The dependence of the signal on temporal expectation is present in "no-go" conditions, demonstrating that the effect is not a consequence of motor output. Finally, the encoding is not dependent on modality, operating in the same manner with auditory or visual signals. This finding extends our understanding of the relationship between temporal expectancy and measurable neural signals.

  2. Time-Dependent Crustal Deformation Associated With the 2004 Chuetsu and the 2007 Chuetsu-Oki Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meneses Gutierrez, A.; Sagiya, T.

    2013-12-01

    There is an ongoing concentrated deformation along the Japan Sea coast, which has been identified as Niigata Kobe Tectonic Zone (Sagiya et al., 2000). Large historical earthquakes have occurred in this area, and in recent years, Niigata has suffered the impact of two important events, known as the 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture earthquake (M 6.8) and The 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake (M 6.6), which considerately affected the crustal deformation pattern. For this reason, we review temporal variation of crustal deformation pattern in the mid Niigata region based on daily coordinates of 28 GPS sites from the GEONET network for three time windows: before 2004, 2004-2007 and after 2007 until March 2011, to avoid effects of crustal deformation associated with the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. We observed a migration of the deformation pattern in the East-West direction through the contraction belts for the above time windows. Before 2004, we recognize a clear shortening of 0.3ppm/yr in the area between the source regions of 2004 and 2007 quakes. After the 2004 Chuetsu earthquake, this shortening rate decreased. On the other hand, an accelerated contraction occurred to the east of this region, around the source region of the 2004 earthquake. After the 2007 earthquake, another contraction zone appeared to the northwest, near the 2007 source region. These time-dependent behaviors suggest there exists strong interaction between parallel fault segments in this area. It is crucially important to reveal such interaction to understand crustal deformation and seismogenesis in this region. We construct kinematic deformation models to interpret the time-dependent deformation pattern for each time period and to investigate mechanical interaction of coseismic as well as probably aseismic fault slips. Optimal faults parameters were established using a grid search, and computing the 95% confidence interval for each model parameter using the normalized Chi-squared distribution to

  3. ShakeAlert—An earthquake early warning system for the United States west coast

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burkett, Erin R.; Given, Douglas D.; Jones, Lucile M.

    2014-08-29

    Earthquake early warning systems use earthquake science and the technology of monitoring systems to alert devices and people when shaking waves generated by an earthquake are expected to arrive at their location. The seconds to minutes of advance warning can allow people and systems to take actions to protect life and property from destructive shaking. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with several partners, has been working to develop an early warning system for the United States. ShakeAlert, a system currently under development, is designed to cover the West Coast States of California, Oregon, and Washington.

  4. W-phase estimation of first-order rupture distribution for megathrust earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benavente, Roberto; Cummins, Phil; Dettmer, Jan

    2014-05-01

    Estimating the rupture pattern for large earthquakes during the first hour after the origin time can be crucial for rapid impact assessment and tsunami warning. However, the estimation of coseismic slip distribution models generally involves complex methodologies that are difficult to implement rapidly. Further, while model parameter uncertainty can be crucial for meaningful estimation, they are often ignored. In this work we develop a finite fault inversion for megathrust earthquakes which rapidly generates good first order estimates and uncertainties of spatial slip distributions. The algorithm uses W-phase waveforms and a linear automated regularization approach to invert for rupture models of some recent megathrust earthquakes. The W phase is a long period (100-1000 s) wave which arrives together with the P wave. Because it is fast, has small amplitude and a long-period character, the W phase is regularly used to estimate point source moment tensors by the NEIC and PTWC, among others, within an hour of earthquake occurrence. We use W-phase waveforms processed in a manner similar to that used for such point-source solutions. The inversion makes use of 3 component W-phase records retrieved from the Global Seismic Network. The inverse problem is formulated by a multiple time window method, resulting in a linear over-parametrized problem. The over-parametrization is addressed by Tikhonov regularization and regularization parameters are chosen according to the discrepancy principle by grid search. Noise on the data is addressed by estimating the data covariance matrix from data residuals. The matrix is obtained by starting with an a priori covariance matrix and then iteratively updating the matrix based on the residual errors of consecutive inversions. Then, a covariance matrix for the parameters is computed using a Bayesian approach. The application of this approach to recent megathrust earthquakes produces models which capture the most significant features of

  5. Ductile gap between the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes revealed from the two-dimensional Pg seismic tomography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pei, Shunping; Zhang, Haijiang; Su, Jinrong; Cui, Zhongxiong

    2014-09-30

    A high-resolution two-dimensional Pg-wave velocity model is obtained for the upper crust around the epicenters of the April 20, 2013 Ms7.0 Lushan earthquake and the May 12, 2008 Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, China. The tomographic inversion uses 47235 Pg arrival times from 6812 aftershocks recorded by 61 stations around the Lushan and Wenchuan earthquakes. Across the front Longmenshan fault near the Lushan earthquake, there exists a strong velocity contrast with higher velocities to the west and lower velocities to the east. Along the Longmenshan fault system, there exist two high velocity patches showing an "X" shape with an obtuse angle along the near northwest-southeast (NW-SE) direction. They correspond to the Precambrian Pengguan and Baoxing complexes on the surface but with a ~20 km shift, respectively. The aftershock gap of the 2008 Wenchuan and the 2013 Lushan earthquakes is associated with lower velocities. Based on the theory of maximum effective moment criterion, this suggests that the aftershock gap is weak and the ductile deformation is more likely to occur in the upper crust within the gap under the near NW-SE compression. Therefore our results suggest that the large earthquake may be hard to happen within the gap.

  6. Twitter earthquake detection: Earthquake monitoring in a social world

    Science.gov (United States)

    Earle, Paul S.; Bowden, Daniel C.; Guy, Michelle R.

    2011-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is investigating how the social networking site Twitter, a popular service for sending and receiving short, public text messages, can augment USGS earthquake response products and the delivery of hazard information. Rapid detection and qualitative assessment of shaking events are possible because people begin sending public Twitter messages (tweets) with in tens of seconds after feeling shaking. Here we present and evaluate an earthquake detection procedure that relies solely on Twitter data. A tweet-frequency time series constructed from tweets containing the word "earthquake" clearly shows large peaks correlated with the origin times of widely felt events. To identify possible earthquakes, we use a short-term-average, long-term-average algorithm. When tuned to a moderate sensitivity, the detector finds 48 globally-distributed earthquakes with only two false triggers in five months of data. The number of detections is small compared to the 5,175 earthquakes in the USGS global earthquake catalog for the same five-month time period, and no accurate location or magnitude can be assigned based on tweet data alone. However, Twitter earthquake detections are not without merit. The detections are generally caused by widely felt events that are of more immediate interest than those with no human impact. The detections are also fast; about 75% occur within two minutes of the origin time. This is considerably faster than seismographic detections in poorly instrumented regions of the world. The tweets triggering the detections also provided very short first-impression narratives from people who experienced the shaking.

  7. Earthquake prediction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ward, P.L.

    1978-01-01

    The state of the art of earthquake prediction is summarized, the possible responses to such prediction are examined, and some needs in the present prediction program and in research related to use of this new technology are reviewed. Three basic aspects of earthquake prediction are discussed: location of the areas where large earthquakes are most likely to occur, observation within these areas of measurable changes (earthquake precursors) and determination of the area and time over which the earthquake will occur, and development of models of the earthquake source in order to interpret the precursors reliably. 6 figures

  8. Locating Very-Low-Frequency Earthquakes in the San Andreas Fault.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peña-Castro, A. F.; Harrington, R. M.; Cochran, E. S.

    2016-12-01

    The portion of tectonic fault where rheological properties transtition from brittle to ductile hosts a variety of seismic signals suggesting a range of slip velocities. In subduction zones, the two dominantly observed seismic signals include very-low frequency earthquakes ( VLFEs), and low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) or tectonic tremor. Tremor and LFE are also commonly observed in transform faults, however, VLFEs have been reported dominantly in subduction zone environments. Here we show some of the first known observations of VLFEs occurring on a plate boundary transform fault, the San Andreas Fault (SAF) between the Cholame-Parkfield segment in California. We detect VLFEs using both permanent and temporary stations in 2010-2011 within approximately 70 km of Cholame, California. We search continous waveforms filtered from 0.02-0.05 Hz, and remove time windows containing teleseismic events and local earthquakes, as identified in the global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) and the Northern California Seismic Network (NCSN) catalog. We estimate the VLFE locations by converting the signal into envelopes, and cross-correlating them for phase-picking, similar to procedures used for locating tectonic tremor. We first perform epicentral location using a grid search method and estimate a hypocenter location using Hypoinverse and a shear-wave velocity model when the epicenter is located close to the SAF trace. We account for the velocity contrast across the fault using separate 1D velocity models for stations on each side. Estimated hypocentral VLFE depths are similar to tremor catalog depths ( 15-30 km). Only a few VLFEs produced robust hypocentral locations, presumably due to the difficulty in picking accurate phase arrivals with such a low-frequency signal. However, for events for which no location could be obtained, the moveout of phase arrivals across the stations were similar in character, suggesting that other observed VLFEs occurred in close proximity.

  9. Positioning performance analysis of the time sum of arrival algorithm with error features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, Feng-xun; Ma, Yan-qiu

    2018-03-01

    The theoretical positioning accuracy of multilateration (MLAT) with the time difference of arrival (TDOA) algorithm is very high. However, there are some problems in practical applications. Here we analyze the location performance of the time sum of arrival (TSOA) algorithm from the root mean square error ( RMSE) and geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) environment. The TSOA localization model is constructed. Using it, the distribution of location ambiguity region is presented with 4-base stations. And then, the location performance analysis is started from the 4-base stations with calculating the RMSE and GDOP variation. Subsequently, when the location parameters are changed in number of base stations, base station layout and so on, the performance changing patterns of the TSOA location algorithm are shown. So, the TSOA location characteristics and performance are revealed. From the RMSE and GDOP state changing trend, the anti-noise performance and robustness of the TSOA localization algorithm are proved. The TSOA anti-noise performance will be used for reducing the blind-zone and the false location rate of MLAT systems.

  10. Regularized inversion of controlled source and earthquake data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ramachandran, Kumar

    2012-01-01

    Estimation of the seismic velocity structure of the Earth's crust and upper mantle from travel-time data has advanced greatly in recent years. Forward modelling trial-and-error methods have been superseded by tomographic methods which allow more objective analysis of large two-dimensional and three-dimensional refraction and/or reflection data sets. The fundamental purpose of travel-time tomography is to determine the velocity structure of a medium by analysing the time it takes for a wave generated at a source point within the medium to arrive at a distribution of receiver points. Tomographic inversion of first-arrival travel-time data is a nonlinear problem since both the velocity of the medium and ray paths in the medium are unknown. The solution for such a problem is typically obtained by repeated application of linearized inversion. Regularization of the nonlinear problem reduces the ill posedness inherent in the tomographic inversion due to the under-determined nature of the problem and the inconsistencies in the observed data. This paper discusses the theory of regularized inversion for joint inversion of controlled source and earthquake data, and results from synthetic data testing and application to real data. The results obtained from tomographic inversion of synthetic data and real data from the northern Cascadia subduction zone show that the velocity model and hypocentral parameters can be efficiently estimated using this approach. (paper)

  11. Application on technique of joint time-frequency analysis of seismic signal's first arrival estimation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu Chaoyang; Liu Junmin; Fan Yanfang; Ji Guohua

    2008-01-01

    Joint time-frequency analysis is conducted to construct one joint density function of time and frequency. It can open out one signal's frequency components and their evolvements. It is the new evolvement of Fourier analysis. In this paper, according to the characteristic of seismic signal's noise, one estimation method of seismic signal's first arrival based on triple correlation of joint time-frequency spectrum is introduced, and the results of experiment and conclusion are presented. (authors)

  12. Hovsgol earthquake 5 December 2014, M W = 4.9: seismic and acoustic effects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dobrynina, Anna A.; Sankov, Vladimir A.; Tcydypova, Larisa R.; German, Victor I.; Chechelnitsky, Vladimir V.; Ulzibat, Munkhuu

    2018-03-01

    A moderate shallow earthquake occurred on 5 December 2014 ( M W = 4.9) in the north of Lake Hovsgol (northern Mongolia). The infrasonic signal with duration 140 s was recorded for this earthquake by the "Tory" infrasound array (Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Russia). Source parameters of the earthquake (seismic moment, geometrical sizes, displacement amplitudes in the focus) were determined using spectral analysis of direct body P and S waves. The spectral analysis of seismograms and amplitude variations of the surface waves allows to determine the effect of the propagation of the rupture in the earthquake focus, the azimuth of the rupture propagation direction and the velocity of displacement in the earthquake focus. The results of modelling of the surface displacements caused by the Hovsgol earthquake and high effective velocity of propagation of infrasound signal ( 625 m/s) indicate that its occurrence is not caused by the downward movement of the Earth's surface in the epicentral region but by the effect of the secondary source. The position of the secondary source of infrasound signal is defined on the northern slopes of the Khamar-Daban ridge according to the data on the azimuth and time of arrival of acoustic wave at the Tory station. The interaction of surface waves with the regional topography is proposed as the most probable mechanism of formation of the infrasound signal.

  13. Feasibility study of EEW application in Korea ; Testing different frequency bands for small earthquakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chi, H. C.; Park, J. H.; Sheen, D. H.

    2009-04-01

    At present, it seems almost impossible to predict where and how much strong a earthquake will happen within very limited time such as two or three days before it occurs. However, the advantage of modern electronic techniques can support us very fast communication tools around nation-wide area so that we can receive P- waves arrival information from seismic stations through communication lines before S-waves strike our living site. This is the key of EEW(Earthquake Early Warning) concept that is under development around world especially including Japan, United State of America, and Taiwan. In this pilot study we proposed the direction for developing Korean Earthquake Early Warning System. Considering the state of the art techniques used in Japan, USA and Taiwan, ElarmS would be more adaptable to Korea since ElarmS can work from the low limit of moderate earthquakes around magnitude 3.5, which would annually happen in Korea. Using 27 events ranging in magnitude from 2.2 to 4.9 occurring in South Korea for 2007, we investigate empirical magnitude scaling relationships in South Korea due to the variation of the duration of the P waveform. We measure the maximum predominant period and the peak displacement or velocity amplitude from the first few seconds of P wave arrivals to derive period-magnitude and amplitude-magnitude scaling relationship, respectively. We find that it is possible to determine the magnitude of earthquakes only using the first 2 seconds of the P wave and, for the period-magnitude relationship, 10 Hz low-pass filter yields better estimate than 3 Hz. This is because the magnitudes of most events used in this study are too small (<3.0). It is also shown that peak displacement for velocity instruments and peak velocity for accelerometers have their own magnitude scaling relationships, respectively. Thus, for the amplitude-magnitude relationship, like the relationships in northern California, two individual amplitude scaling relationships would be

  14. Time of arrival based location estimation for cooperative relay networks

    KAUST Repository

    Ç elebi, Hasari Burak; Abdallah, Mohamed M.; Hussain, Syed Imtiaz; Qaraqe, Khalid A.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, we investigate the performance of a cooperative relay network performing location estimation through time of arrival (TOA). We derive Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for the location estimates using the relay network. The analysis is extended to obtain average CRLB considering the signal fluctuations in both relay and direct links. The effects of the channel fading of both relay and direct links and amplification factor and location of the relay node on average CRLB are investigated. Simulation results show that the channel fading of both relay and direct links and amplification factor and location of relay node affect the accuracy of TOA based location estimation. ©2010 IEEE.

  15. Time of arrival based location estimation for cooperative relay networks

    KAUST Repository

    Çelebi, Hasari Burak

    2010-09-01

    In this paper, we investigate the performance of a cooperative relay network performing location estimation through time of arrival (TOA). We derive Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for the location estimates using the relay network. The analysis is extended to obtain average CRLB considering the signal fluctuations in both relay and direct links. The effects of the channel fading of both relay and direct links and amplification factor and location of the relay node on average CRLB are investigated. Simulation results show that the channel fading of both relay and direct links and amplification factor and location of relay node affect the accuracy of TOA based location estimation. ©2010 IEEE.

  16. Marginal Bayesian nonparametric model for time to disease arrival of threatened amphibian populations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Haiming; Hanson, Timothy; Knapp, Roland

    2015-12-01

    The global emergence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has caused the extinction of hundreds of amphibian species worldwide. It has become increasingly important to be able to precisely predict time to Bd arrival in a population. The data analyzed herein present a unique challenge in terms of modeling because there is a strong spatial component to Bd arrival time and the traditional proportional hazards assumption is grossly violated. To address these concerns, we develop a novel marginal Bayesian nonparametric survival model for spatially correlated right-censored data. This class of models assumes that the logarithm of survival times marginally follow a mixture of normal densities with a linear-dependent Dirichlet process prior as the random mixing measure, and their joint distribution is induced by a Gaussian copula model with a spatial correlation structure. To invert high-dimensional spatial correlation matrices, we adopt a full-scale approximation that can capture both large- and small-scale spatial dependence. An efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm with delayed rejection is proposed for posterior computation, and an R package spBayesSurv is provided to fit the model. This approach is first evaluated through simulations, then applied to threatened frog populations in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. © 2015, The International Biometric Society.

  17. Earthquake location determination using data from DOMERAPI and BMKG seismic networks: A preliminary result of DOMERAPI project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ramdhan, Mohamad [Study Program of Earth Science, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesa 10, Bandung, 40132 (Indonesia); Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics of Indonesia (BMKG) Jl. Angkasa 1 No. 2 Kemayoran, Jakarta Pusat, 10720 (Indonesia); Nugraha, Andri Dian; Widiyantoro, Sri [Global Geophysics Research Group, Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Institut TeknologiBandung, Jl. Ganesa 10, Bandung, 40132 (Indonesia); Métaxian, Jean-Philippe [Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) (France); Valencia, Ayunda Aulia, E-mail: mohamad.ramdhan@bmkg.go.id [Study Program of Geophysical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesa 10, Bandung, 40132 (Indonesia)

    2015-04-24

    DOMERAPI project has been conducted to comprehensively study the internal structure of Merapi volcano, especially about deep structural features beneath the volcano. DOMERAPI earthquake monitoring network consists of 46 broad-band seismometers installed around the Merapi volcano. Earthquake hypocenter determination is a very important step for further studies, such as hypocenter relocation and seismic tomographic imaging. Ray paths from earthquake events occurring outside the Merapi region can be utilized to delineate the deep magma structure. Earthquakes occurring outside the DOMERAPI seismic network will produce an azimuthal gap greater than 180{sup 0}. Owing to this situation the stations from BMKG seismic network can be used jointly to minimize the azimuthal gap. We identified earthquake events manually and carefully, and then picked arrival times of P and S waves. The data from the DOMERAPI seismic network were combined with the BMKG data catalogue to determine earthquake events outside the Merapi region. For future work, we will also use the BPPTKG (Center for Research and Development of Geological Disaster Technology) data catalogue in order to study shallow structures beneath the Merapi volcano. The application of all data catalogues will provide good information as input for further advanced studies and volcano hazards mitigation.

  18. Tomography of the 2011 Iwaki earthquake (M 7.0) and Fukushima nuclear power plant area

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tong, P. [Tohoku Univ., Sendai (Japan). Dept. of Geophysics; Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). Dept. of Mathematical Sciences; Zhao, D. [Tohoku Univ., Sendai (Japan). Dept. of Geophysics; Yang, D. [Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). Dept. of Mathematical Sciences

    2012-07-01

    High-resolution tomographic images of the crust and upper mantle in and around the area of the 2011 Iwaki earthquake (M 7.0) and the Fukushima nuclear power plant are determined by inverting a large number of high-quality arrival times with both the finite-frequency and ray tomography methods. The Iwaki earthquake and its aftershocks mainly occurred in a boundary zone with strong variations in seismic velocity and Poisson's ratio. Prominent low-velocity and high Poisson's ratio zones are revealed under the Iwaki source area and the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which may reflect fluids released from the dehydration of the subducting Pacific slab under Northeast Japan. The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw 9.0) caused static stress transfer in the overriding Okhotsk plate, resulting in the seismicity in the Iwaki source area that significantly increased immediately following the Tohoku-oki main-shock. Our results suggest that the Iwaki earthquake was triggered by the ascending fluids from the Pacific slab dehydration and the stress variation induced by the Tohoku-oki main-shock. The similar structures under the Iwaki source area and the Fukushima nuclear power plant suggest that the security of the nuclear power plant site should be strengthened to withstand potential large earthquakes in the future. (orig.)

  19. Tomography of the 2011 Iwaki earthquake (M 7.0 and Fukushima nuclear power plant area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Tong

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available High-resolution tomographic images of the crust and upper mantle in and around the area of the 2011 Iwaki earthquake (M 7.0 and the Fukushima nuclear power plant are determined by inverting a large number of high-quality arrival times with both the finite-frequency and ray tomography methods. The Iwaki earthquake and its aftershocks mainly occurred in a boundary zone with strong variations in seismic velocity and Poisson's ratio. Prominent low-velocity and high Poisson's ratio zones are revealed under the Iwaki source area and the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which may reflect fluids released from the dehydration of the subducting Pacific slab under Northeast Japan. The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw 9.0 caused static stress transfer in the overriding Okhotsk plate, resulting in the seismicity in the Iwaki source area that significantly increased immediately following the Tohoku-oki mainshock. Our results suggest that the Iwaki earthquake was triggered by the ascending fluids from the Pacific slab dehydration and the stress variation induced by the Tohoku-oki mainshock. The similar structures under the Iwaki source area and the Fukushima nuclear power plant suggest that the security of the nuclear power plant site should be strengthened to withstand potential large earthquakes in the future.

  20. Earthquake Culture: A Significant Element in Earthquake Disaster Risk Assessment and Earthquake Disaster Risk Management

    OpenAIRE

    Ibrion, Mihaela

    2018-01-01

    This book chapter brings to attention the dramatic impact of large earthquake disasters on local communities and society and highlights the necessity of building and enhancing the earthquake culture. Iran was considered as a research case study and fifteen large earthquake disasters in Iran were investigated and analyzed over more than a century-time period. It was found that the earthquake culture in Iran was and is still conditioned by many factors or parameters which are not integrated and...

  1. Physico-chemical behaviour of underground waters after October 1, 1995 Dinar earthquake, SW Turkey

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Woith, H.; Milkereit, C.; Maiwald, U.; Pekdeger, A.

    1999-01-01

    The paper reports the investigations conducted by a team of the German Earthquake Task Force arrived in the city of Dinar (SW Turkey) after the October 1, 1994 earthquake. The investigations recorded post-seismic changes in water discharge, water temperature and conductivity. In the first month after the event, the groundwater discharge increased at springs located within the down-thrown block, whereas a slight decrease was observed at sites on the hanging wall

  2. Comparison of Muon Arrival Time Distributions measured in KASCADE Experiment with Monte Carlo Simulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Badea, A.F.; Brancus, I.M.; Haeusler, R.; Rebel, H.

    2000-01-01

    The muon arrival time distributions of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) have been studied in KASCADE experiment by data collected in the period October 1997 - April 1999 with more than 3.4 millions of reconstructed showers. The radial distance of the shower center from the central detector has been selected smaller than 110 m. The experimental muon arrival time distributions are compared with simulations of the air shower development, calculated with the Monte Carlo air shower simulation program CORSIKA. The actual calculations are based on the QGSJET model and cover an energy range of 5·10 14 - 3.06·10 16 eV (divided in 7 overlapping energy bins) and a zenith angle range of 0 angle - 40 angle. They are performed for three mass groups: H = light group, O = CNO group, Fe = heavy group) with an energy distribution of a spectral index of -2.7. The simulations comprise a set of ≅ 2000$ showers for each case, except for the bins of the highest energies (6.51·10 15 - 1.82·10 16 eV with ≅1000$ simulated showers and 1.09·10 16 - 3.06·10 16 eV with ≅ 500 simulated showers). The response of the KASCADE detector system and the timing qualities have been simulated using the CRES program, dedicatedly developed by the KASCADE group on the basis of the GEANT code. The particles of the simulated EAS are tracked through the detector setup and the timing response of the detectors are recorded for various core distances from the central detector facilities. Particularly, it should be noted that the timing depends on the energy deposit in the scintillation detectors and on the multiplicities of the muon samples spanning the arrival time distributions of the single EAS. Such effects slightly distorts the measured time distributions and have been corrected by introducing a corresponding correction procedure. The dependence of the experimental and simulated median time values on the N μ tr range, as being proportional to the primary energy, is presented. The good agreement of the

  3. Twitter earthquake detection: earthquake monitoring in a social world

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel C. Bowden

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS is investigating how the social networking site Twitter, a popular service for sending and receiving short, public text messages, can augment USGS earthquake response products and the delivery of hazard information. Rapid detection and qualitative assessment of shaking events are possible because people begin sending public Twitter messages (tweets with in tens of seconds after feeling shaking. Here we present and evaluate an earthquake detection procedure that relies solely on Twitter data. A tweet-frequency time series constructed from tweets containing the word “earthquake” clearly shows large peaks correlated with the origin times of widely felt events. To identify possible earthquakes, we use a short-term-average, long-term-average algorithm. When tuned to a moderate sensitivity, the detector finds 48 globally-distributed earthquakes with only two false triggers in five months of data. The number of detections is small compared to the 5,175 earthquakes in the USGS global earthquake catalog for the same five-month time period, and no accurate location or magnitude can be assigned based on tweet data alone. However, Twitter earthquake detections are not without merit. The detections are generally caused by widely felt events that are of more immediate interest than those with no human impact. The detections are also fast; about 75% occur within two minutes of the origin time. This is considerably faster than seismographic detections in poorly instrumented regions of the world. The tweets triggering the detections also provided very short first-impression narratives from people who experienced the shaking.

  4. Foreshocks and aftershocks locations of the 2014 Pisagua, N. Chile earthquake: history of a megathrust earthquake nucleation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuenzalida Velasco, Amaya; Rietbrock, Andreas; Tavera, Hernando; Ryder, Isabelle; Ruiz, Sergio; Thomas, Reece; De Angelis, Silvio; Bondoux, Francis

    2015-04-01

    The April 2014 Mw 8.1 Pisagua earthquake occurred in the Northern Chile seismic gap: a region of the South American subduction zone lying between Arica city and the Mejillones Peninsula. It is believed that this part of the subduction zone has not experienced a large earthquake since 1877. Thanks to the identification of this seismic gap, the north of Chile was well instrumented before the Pisagua earthquake, including the Integrated Plate boundary Observatory Chile (IPOC) network and the Chilean local network installed by the Centro Sismologico Nacional (CSN). These instruments were able to record the full foreshock and aftershock sequences, allowing a unique opportunity to study the nucleation process of large megathrust earthquakes. To improve azimuthal coverage of the Pisagua seismic sequence, after the earthquake, in collaboration with the Instituto Geofisico del Peru (IGP) we installed a temporary seismic network in south of Peru. The network comprised 12 short-period stations located in the coastal area between Moquegua and Tacna and they were operative from 1st May 2014. We also installed three stations on the slopes of the Ticsiani volcano to monitor any possible change in volcanic activity following the Pisagua earthquake. In this work we analysed the continuous seismic data recorded by CSN and IPOC networks from 1 March to 30 June to obtain the catalogue of the sequence, including foreshocks and aftershocks. Using an automatic algorithm based in STA/LTA we obtained the picks for P and S waves. Association in time and space defined the events and computed an initial location using Hypo71 and the 1D local velocity model. More than 11,000 events were identified with this method for the whole period, but we selected the best resolved events that include more than 7 observed arrivals with at least 2 S picks of them, to relocate these events using NonLinLoc software. For the main events of the sequence we carefully estimate event locations and we obtained

  5. On the reliability of the geomagnetic quake as a short time earthquake's precursor for the Sofia region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Cht. Mavrodiev

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available The local 'when' for earthquake prediction is based on the connection between geomagnetic 'quakes' and the next incoming minimum or maximum of tidal gravitational potential. The probability time window for the predicted earthquake is for the tidal minimum approximately ±1 day and for the maximum ±2 days. The preliminary statistic estimation on the basis of distribution of the time difference between occurred and predicted earthquakes for the period 2002-2003 for the Sofia region is given. The possibility for creating a local 'when, where' earthquake research and prediction NETWORK is based on the accurate monitoring of the electromagnetic field with special space and time scales under, on and over the Earth's surface. The periodically upgraded information from seismic hazard maps and other standard geodetic information, as well as other precursory information, is essential.

  6. THE NANOGRAV NINE-YEAR DATA SET: OBSERVATIONS, ARRIVAL TIME MEASUREMENTS, AND ANALYSIS OF 37 MILLISECOND PULSARS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Arzoumanian, Zaven [Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology and X-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Brazier, Adam; Chatterjee, Shami; Cordes, James M.; Dolch, Timothy [Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States); Burke-Spolaor, Sarah; Demorest, Paul B. [National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States); Chamberlin, Sydney [Center for Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (United States); Christy, Brian [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Franklin and Marshall College, P.O. Box 3003, Lancaster, PA 17604 (United States); Cornish, Neil [Department of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717 (United States); Crowter, Kathryn; Fonseca, Emmanuel; Gonzalez, Marjorie E. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 (Canada); Ellis, Justin A. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr. Pasadena CA 91109 (United States); Ferdman, Robert D.; Kaspi, Victoria M. [Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 rue Universite, Montreal, QC H3A 2T8 (Canada); Garver-Daniels, Nathan; Jones, Megan L. [Department of Physics, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6315, Morgantown, WV 26505 (United States); Jenet, Fredrick A. [Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, University of Texas at Brownsville, Brownsville, TX 78520 (United States); Jones, Glenn, E-mail: pdemores@nrao.edu [Department of Physics, Columbia University, 550 W. 120th St. New York, NY 10027 (United States); Collaboration: NANOGrav Collaboration; and others

    2015-11-01

    We present high-precision timing observations spanning up to nine years for 37 millisecond pulsars monitored with the Green Bank and Arecibo radio telescopes as part of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) project. We describe the observational and instrumental setups used to collect the data, and methodology applied for calculating pulse times of arrival; these include novel methods for measuring instrumental offsets and characterizing low signal-to-noise ratio timing results. The time of arrival data are fit to a physical timing model for each source, including terms that characterize time-variable dispersion measure and frequency-dependent pulse shape evolution. In conjunction with the timing model fit, we have performed a Bayesian analysis of a parameterized timing noise model for each source, and detect evidence for excess low-frequency, or “red,” timing noise in 10 of the pulsars. For 5 of these cases this is likely due to interstellar medium propagation effects rather than intrisic spin variations. Subsequent papers in this series will present further analysis of this data set aimed at detecting or limiting the presence of nanohertz-frequency gravitational wave signals.

  7. Predicting Ambulance Time of Arrival to the Emergency Department Using Global Positioning System and Google Maps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleischman, Ross J.; Lundquist, Mark; Jui, Jonathan; Newgard, Craig D.; Warden, Craig

    2014-01-01

    Objective To derive and validate a model that accurately predicts ambulance arrival time that could be implemented as a Google Maps web application. Methods This was a retrospective study of all scene transports in Multnomah County, Oregon, from January 1 through December 31, 2008. Scene and destination hospital addresses were converted to coordinates. ArcGIS Network Analyst was used to estimate transport times based on street network speed limits. We then created a linear regression model to improve the accuracy of these street network estimates using weather, patient characteristics, use of lights and sirens, daylight, and rush-hour intervals. The model was derived from a 50% sample and validated on the remainder. Significance of the covariates was determined by p times recorded by computer-aided dispatch. We then built a Google Maps-based web application to demonstrate application in real-world EMS operations. Results There were 48,308 included transports. Street network estimates of transport time were accurate within 5 minutes of actual transport time less than 16% of the time. Actual transport times were longer during daylight and rush-hour intervals and shorter with use of lights and sirens. Age under 18 years, gender, wet weather, and trauma system entry were not significant predictors of transport time. Our model predicted arrival time within 5 minutes 73% of the time. For lights and sirens transports, accuracy was within 5 minutes 77% of the time. Accuracy was identical in the validation dataset. Lights and sirens saved an average of 3.1 minutes for transports under 8.8 minutes, and 5.3 minutes for longer transports. Conclusions An estimate of transport time based only on a street network significantly underestimated transport times. A simple model incorporating few variables can predict ambulance time of arrival to the emergency department with good accuracy. This model could be linked to global positioning system data and an automated Google Maps web

  8. Arrival-time distribution of muons in extensive air showers at energies of 1017 eV to 1018 eV

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blake, P.R.; Mann, D.M.; Nash, W.F.; O'Connell, B.; Strutt, R.B.

    1982-01-01

    The results of measurements of the rise-time of muon scintillator responses recorded from extensive air showers detected at Haverah Park are described. A high-speed storage oscilloscope recording system has been used to study both the average characteristics of muon time spreads and the fluctuations in arrival-time distributions between individual showers. The average muon time spreads are found to be a function of core distance, zenith angle and muon threshold energy. There is evidence that velocity delays are an important contribution to the muon rise-times for detectors with threshold energies < approximately 500 MeV. Significant fluctuations in the muon time spreads between individual showers are found. The average characteristics of the muon arrival-time distributions are also compared with the shower computer simulations. (author)

  9. The 1985 central chile earthquake: a repeat of previous great earthquakes in the region?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Comte, D; Eisenberg, A; Lorca, E; Pardo, M; Ponce, L; Saragoni, R; Singh, S K; Suárez, G

    1986-07-25

    A great earthquake (surface-wave magnitude, 7.8) occurred along the coast of central Chile on 3 March 1985, causing heavy damage to coastal towns. Intense foreshock activity near the epicenter of the main shock occurred for 11 days before the earthquake. The aftershocks of the 1985 earthquake define a rupture area of 170 by 110 square kilometers. The earthquake was forecast on the basis of the nearly constant repeat time (83 +/- 9 years) of great earthquakes in this region. An analysis of previous earthquakes suggests that the rupture lengths of great shocks in the region vary by a factor of about 3. The nearly constant repeat time and variable rupture lengths cannot be reconciled with time- or slip-predictable models of earthquake recurrence. The great earthquakes in the region seem to involve a variable rupture mode and yet, for unknown reasons, remain periodic. Historical data suggest that the region south of the 1985 rupture zone should now be considered a gap of high seismic potential that may rupture in a great earthquake in the next few tens of years.

  10. Observed travel times for Multiply-reflected ScS waves from a deep-focus earthquake

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. F. ESPISOSA

    1966-06-01

    Full Text Available Tlie deep-focus Argentinean earthquake of December 8
    1962, generated multiply reflected ScS phases which were recorded very
    clearly at stations of the IGY and the TJSC&GS standardized worldwide
    networks and at Canadian stations. The data gathered from this earthquake
    for the multiply-reflected ScS and sScS were used to construct the
    travel times and to extend them to shorter epicentral distances. These
    new data brought to light an error in published travel times for the 2(ScS
    phase.

  11. Class Room Exercises Using JMA-59-Type Seismograms for Earthquake Study at High-School Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okamoto, Y.; Furuta, S.; Hirota, N.

    2013-12-01

    read S-P time and maximum amplitude; 4) they also make it is easy to locate an earthquake's hypocenter. For advanced study, particularly of the source mechanisms of earthquakes, P-wave arrival phases are typically determined from wave records. In this exercise, we use displacement-based records for use by students for recognizing these arrival phases directly rather than by using velocity or acceleration records. Following are some advantages of using these JMA-59-type seismograms: 1) displacement records are easy to compare with real ground motion; 2) ink records can help young students visualize the analog images of a legacy seismograph; 3) scale dimensions such as amplitude of 100 times and time scale of 1 mm/s are easy to explain while using these seismograms as an exercise resource. We confirmed the availability of our exercises by cooperation with our high-school students. We will offer some practical examples at the conference. Keywords: JMA-59 type seismograph, seismograms, hypocenter location, magnitude estimation, educational tool, classroom exercise, high-school

  12. Real-Time Earthquake Intensity Estimation Using Streaming Data Analysis of Social and Physical Sensors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kropivnitskaya, Yelena; Tiampo, Kristy F.; Qin, Jinhui; Bauer, Michael A.

    2017-06-01

    Earthquake intensity is one of the key components of the decision-making process for disaster response and emergency services. Accurate and rapid intensity calculations can help to reduce total loss and the number of casualties after an earthquake. Modern intensity assessment procedures handle a variety of information sources, which can be divided into two main categories. The first type of data is that derived from physical sensors, such as seismographs and accelerometers, while the second type consists of data obtained from social sensors, such as witness observations of the consequences of the earthquake itself. Estimation approaches using additional data sources or that combine sources from both data types tend to increase intensity uncertainty due to human factors and inadequate procedures for temporal and spatial estimation, resulting in precision errors in both time and space. Here we present a processing approach for the real-time analysis of streams of data from both source types. The physical sensor data is acquired from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) seismic network in California and the social sensor data is based on Twitter user observations. First, empirical relationships between tweet rate and observed Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) are developed using data from the M6.0 South Napa, CAF earthquake that occurred on August 24, 2014. Second, the streams of both data types are analyzed together in simulated real-time to produce one intensity map. The second implementation is based on IBM InfoSphere Streams, a cloud platform for real-time analytics of big data. To handle large processing workloads for data from various sources, it is deployed and run on a cloud-based cluster of virtual machines. We compare the quality and evolution of intensity maps from different data sources over 10-min time intervals immediately following the earthquake. Results from the joint analysis shows that it provides more complete coverage, with better accuracy and higher

  13. Geophysical Anomalies and Earthquake Prediction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, D. D.

    2008-12-01

    Finding anomalies is easy. Predicting earthquakes convincingly from such anomalies is far from easy. Why? Why have so many beautiful geophysical abnormalities not led to successful prediction strategies? What is earthquake prediction? By my definition it is convincing information that an earthquake of specified size is temporarily much more likely than usual in a specific region for a specified time interval. We know a lot about normal earthquake behavior, including locations where earthquake rates are higher than elsewhere, with estimable rates and size distributions. We know that earthquakes have power law size distributions over large areas, that they cluster in time and space, and that aftershocks follow with power-law dependence on time. These relationships justify prudent protective measures and scientific investigation. Earthquake prediction would justify exceptional temporary measures well beyond those normal prudent actions. Convincing earthquake prediction would result from methods that have demonstrated many successes with few false alarms. Predicting earthquakes convincingly is difficult for several profound reasons. First, earthquakes start in tiny volumes at inaccessible depth. The power law size dependence means that tiny unobservable ones are frequent almost everywhere and occasionally grow to larger size. Thus prediction of important earthquakes is not about nucleation, but about identifying the conditions for growth. Second, earthquakes are complex. They derive their energy from stress, which is perniciously hard to estimate or model because it is nearly singular at the margins of cracks and faults. Physical properties vary from place to place, so the preparatory processes certainly vary as well. Thus establishing the needed track record for validation is very difficult, especially for large events with immense interval times in any one location. Third, the anomalies are generally complex as well. Electromagnetic anomalies in particular require

  14. Theory of earthquakes interevent times applied to financial markets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jagielski, Maciej; Kutner, Ryszard; Sornette, Didier

    2017-10-01

    We analyze the probability density function (PDF) of waiting times between financial loss exceedances. The empirical PDFs are fitted with the self-excited Hawkes conditional Poisson process with a long power law memory kernel. The Hawkes process is the simplest extension of the Poisson process that takes into account how past events influence the occurrence of future events. By analyzing the empirical data for 15 different financial assets, we show that the formalism of the Hawkes process used for earthquakes can successfully model the PDF of interevent times between successive market losses.

  15. Rapid estimation of the moment magnitude of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake from coseismic strain steps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itaba, S.; Matsumoto, N.; Kitagawa, Y.; Koizumi, N.

    2012-12-01

    The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake, of moment magnitude (Mw) 9.0, occurred at 14:46 Japan Standard Time (JST) on March 11, 2011. The coseismic strain steps caused by the fault slip of this earthquake were observed in the Tokai, Kii Peninsula and Shikoku by the borehole strainmeters which were carefully set by Geological Survey of Japan, AIST. Using these strain steps, we estimated a fault model for the earthquake on the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. Our model, which is estimated only from several minutes' strain data, is largely consistent with the final fault models estimated from GPS and seismic wave data. The moment magnitude can be estimated about 6 minutes after the origin time, and 4 minutes after wave arrival. According to the fault model, the moment magnitude of the earthquake is 8.7. On the other hand, based on the seismic wave, the prompt report of the magnitude which the Japan Meteorological Agency announced just after earthquake occurrence was 7.9. Generally coseismic strain steps are considered to be less reliable than seismic waves and GPS data. However our results show that the coseismic strain steps observed by the borehole strainmeters, which were carefully set and monitored, can be relied enough to decide the earthquake magnitude precisely and rapidly. In order to grasp the magnitude of a great earthquake earlier, several methods are now being suggested to reduce the earthquake disasters including tsunami. Our simple method of using strain steps is one of the strong methods for rapid estimation of the magnitude of great earthquakes.

  16. Scaling relation between earthquake magnitude and the departure time from P wave similar growth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noda, Shunta; Ellsworth, William L.

    2016-01-01

    We introduce a new scaling relation between earthquake magnitude (M) and a characteristic of initial P wave displacement. By examining Japanese K-NET data averaged in bins partitioned by Mw and hypocentral distance, we demonstrate that the P wave displacement briefly displays similar growth at the onset of rupture and that the departure time (Tdp), which is defined as the time of departure from similarity of the absolute displacement after applying a band-pass filter, correlates with the final M in a range of 4.5 ≤ Mw ≤ 7. The scaling relation between Mw and Tdp implies that useful information on the final M can be derived while the event is still in progress because Tdp occurs before the completion of rupture. We conclude that the scaling relation is important not only for earthquake early warning but also for the source physics of earthquakes.

  17. The Impact of The Energy-time Distribution of The Ms 7.0 Lushan Earthquake on Slope Dynamic Reliability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, X.; Griffiths, D.; Tang, H.

    2013-12-01

    This paper introduces a new method to evaluate the area-specific potential risk for earthquake induced slope failures, and the Lushan earthquake is used as an example. The overall framework of this paper consists of three parts. First, the energy-time distribution of the earthquake was analyzed. The Ms 7.0 Lushan earthquake occurred on April 20, 2013. The epicenter was located in Lushan County, Sichuan province, which is in the same province heavily impacted by the 2008 Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake. Compared with the Wenchuan earthquake, the records of the strong motion of the Lushan earthquake are much richer than those of the Wenchuan earthquake. Some earthquake observatories are very close to the epicenter and the closest strong motion record was collected with a spherical distance of just 34.8 km from the epicenter. This advantage stems from the fact that routine efforts of strong motion observation in this area were greatly enhanced after the Wenchuan earthquake. The energy-time distribution features of the Lushan earthquake waves were obtained from 123 groups of three-component acceleration records of the 40-second mainshock. When the 5% ~ 85% energy section is taken into account, the significant duration is presented with a start point of the first 3.0 to 4.0 seconds and the end point of the first 13.0 to 15.0 seconds. However, if the acceleration of 0.15g is taken into account, the bracketed duration is obtained with the start point of the first 4.0 to 5.0 seconds and the end point of the first 13.0 to 14.0 seconds. Second, a new reliability analysis method was proposed which considers the energy-time distribution of the earthquake. Using the significant duration and bracketed duration as certain statistical windows, the advantages of considering energy-time distribution can be involved. In this method, the dynamic critical slip surfaces and their factors of safety (FOS) are described as time series. The slope reliability evaluation criteria, such as dynamic

  18. Future of Earthquake Early Warning: Quantifying Uncertainty and Making Fast Automated Decisions for Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Stephen

    Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems have been rapidly developing over the past decade. Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has an EEW system that was operating during the 2011 M9 Tohoku earthquake in Japan, and this increased the awareness of EEW systems around the world. While longer-time earthquake prediction still faces many challenges to be practical, the availability of shorter-time EEW opens up a new door for earthquake loss mitigation. After an earthquake fault begins rupturing, an EEW system utilizes the first few seconds of recorded seismic waveform data to quickly predict the hypocenter location, magnitude, origin time and the expected shaking intensity level around the region. This early warning information is broadcast to different sites before the strong shaking arrives. The warning lead time of such a system is short, typically a few seconds to a minute or so, and the information is uncertain. These factors limit human intervention to activate mitigation actions and this must be addressed for engineering applications of EEW. This study applies a Bayesian probabilistic approach along with machine learning techniques and decision theories from economics to improve different aspects of EEW operation, including extending it to engineering applications. Existing EEW systems are often based on a deterministic approach. Often, they assume that only a single event occurs within a short period of time, which led to many false alarms after the Tohoku earthquake in Japan. This study develops a probability-based EEW algorithm based on an existing deterministic model to extend the EEW system to the case of concurrent events, which are often observed during the aftershock sequence after a large earthquake. To overcome the challenge of uncertain information and short lead time of EEW, this study also develops an earthquake probability-based automated decision-making (ePAD) framework to make robust decision for EEW mitigation applications. A cost-benefit model that

  19. Tomography of the subducting Pacific slab and the 2015 Bonin deepest earthquake (Mw 7.9)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Dapeng; Fujisawa, Moeto; Toyokuni, Genti

    2017-03-01

    On 30 May 2015 an isolated deep earthquake (~670 km, Mw 7.9) occurred to the west of the Bonin Islands. To clarify its causal mechanism and its relationship to the subducting Pacific slab, we determined a detailed P-wave tomography of the deep earthquake source zone using a large number of arrival-time data. Our results show that this large deep event occurred within the subducting Pacific slab which is penetrating into the lower mantle. In the Izu-Bonin region, the Pacific slab is split at ~28° north latitude, i.e., slightly north of the 2015 deep event hypocenter. In the north the slab becomes stagnant in the mantle transition zone, whereas in the south the slab is directly penetrating into the lower mantle. This deep earthquake was caused by joint effects of several factors, including the Pacific slab’s fast deep subduction, slab tearing, slab thermal variation, stress changes and phase transformations in the slab, and complex interactions between the slab and the ambient mantle.

  20. Earthquake Drill using the Earthquake Early Warning System at an Elementary School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oki, Satoko; Yazaki, Yoshiaki; Koketsu, Kazuki

    2010-05-01

    economic repercussion. We provide the school kids with the "World Seismicity Map" to let them realize that earthquake disasters take place unequally. Then we let the kids jump in front of the seismometer with projecting the real-time data to the wall. Grouped kids contest the largest amplitude by carefully considering how to jump high but nail the landing with their teammates. Their jumps are printed out via portable printer and compared with the real earthquake which occurred even 600km away but still huge when printed out in the same scale. Actually, a magnitude 7 earthquake recorded 600km away needs an A0 paper when scaled with a jump of 10 kids printed in an A4 paper. They've got to understand what to do not to be killed with the great big energy. We also offer earthquake drills using the Earthquake Early Warning System (EEW System). An EEW System is officially introduced in 2007 by JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) to issue prompt alerts to provide several to several ten seconds before S-wave arrives. When hearing the alarm, school kids think fast to find a place to protect themselves. It is not always when they are in their classrooms but in the chemical lab, music room which does not have any desks to protect them, or in the PE class. Then in the science class, we demonstrate how the EEW System works. A 8m long wave propagation device made with spindles connected with springs is used to visualize the P- and S-waves. In the presentation, we would like to show the paper materials and sufficient movies.

  1. Do earthquakes exhibit self-organized criticality?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang Xiaosong; Ma Jin; Du Shuming

    2004-01-01

    If earthquakes are phenomena of self-organized criticality (SOC), statistical characteristics of the earthquake time series should be invariant after the sequence of events in an earthquake catalog are randomly rearranged. In this Letter we argue that earthquakes are unlikely phenomena of SOC because our analysis of the Southern California Earthquake Catalog shows that the first-return-time probability P M (T) is apparently changed after the time series is rearranged. This suggests that the SOC theory should not be used to oppose the efforts of earthquake prediction

  2. Seismic wave triggering of nonvolcanic tremor, episodic tremor and slip, and earthquakes on Vancouver Island

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rubinstein, Justin L.; Gomberg, Joan; Vidale, John E.; Wech, Aaron G.; Kao, Honn; Creager, Kenneth C.; Rogers, Garry

    2009-02-01

    We explore the physical conditions that enable triggering of nonvolcanic tremor and earthquakes by considering local seismic activity on Vancouver Island, British Columbia during and immediately after the arrival of large-amplitude seismic waves from 30 teleseismic and 17 regional or local earthquakes. We identify tremor triggered by four of the teleseismic earthquakes. The close temporal and spatial proximity of triggered tremor to ambient tremor and aseismic slip indicates that when a fault is close to or undergoing failure, it is particularly susceptible to triggering of further events. The amplitude of the triggering waves also influences the likelihood of triggering both tremor and earthquakes such that large amplitude waves triggered tremor in the absence of detectable aseismic slip or ambient tremor. Tremor and energy radiated from regional/local earthquakes share the same frequency passband so that tremor cannot be identified during these smaller, more frequent events. We confidently identify triggered local earthquakes following only one teleseism, that with the largest amplitude, and four regional or local events that generated vigorous aftershock sequences in their immediate vicinity. Earthquakes tend to be triggered in regions different from tremor and with high ambient seismicity rates. We also note an interesting possible correlation between large teleseismic events and episodic tremor and slip (ETS) episodes, whereby ETS events that are "late" and have built up more stress than normal are susceptible to triggering by the slight nudge of the shaking from a large, distant event, while ETS events that are "early" or "on time" are not.

  3. Testing the structure of earthquake networks from multivariate time series of successive main shocks in Greece

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chorozoglou, D.; Kugiumtzis, D.; Papadimitriou, E.

    2018-06-01

    The seismic hazard assessment in the area of Greece is attempted by studying the earthquake network structure, such as small-world and random. In this network, a node represents a seismic zone in the study area and a connection between two nodes is given by the correlation of the seismic activity of two zones. To investigate the network structure, and particularly the small-world property, the earthquake correlation network is compared with randomized ones. Simulations on multivariate time series of different length and number of variables show that for the construction of randomized networks the method randomizing the time series performs better than methods randomizing directly the original network connections. Based on the appropriate randomization method, the network approach is applied to time series of earthquakes that occurred between main shocks in the territory of Greece spanning the period 1999-2015. The characterization of networks on sliding time windows revealed that small-world structure emerges in the last time interval, shortly before the main shock.

  4. Focal Mechanism of Semi-Volcanic Deep Low-Frequency Earthquakes in Eastern Shimane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aso, N.; Ohta, K.; Ide, S.

    2012-12-01

    Many deep low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) occur near the island arc Mohorovicic discontinuities and far from both active volcanoes and plate boundaries. They are quite similar to volcanic LFEs beneath active volcanoes, which infers some fluid movement in the source region, and we regard them as "semi-volcanic" LFEs [Aso et al., 2011; 2012 (submitted)]. Several previous studies determined the focal mechanisms of volcanic and semi-volcanic LFEs using a small portion of information of the waveforms. Although the estimated focal mechanisms are various, they may not necessary support the variety of the actual physical process, owing to the large determination error [e.g., Nishidomi and Takeo, 1996; Ohmi and Obara, 2002; Nakamichi et al., 2003]. Here we determine the focal mechanisms by waveform inversion for LFEs in eastern Shimane in western Japan, where many LFEs occurred in a quiet region. The locations are also close to the fault plane of the 2000 western Tottori earthquake of Mw6.6, and right beneath Yokota volcano, which is a Quaternary volcanic cluster. We estimated the focal mechanisms of semi-volcanic LFEs in eastern Shimane by moment tensor inversion. The data are velocity seismograms at five stations of Hi-net near the epicenters. For each seismogram, we extracted a 1.5-second time window beginning from 0.2 seconds before the arrivals of either P-wave in a vertical component or S-wave in a horizontal component. The arrival time of each phase is picked manually first, and then corrected to minimize the variance between observed and synthetic waveforms. The local site amplification is estimated using far-field body waves from deep intraslab earthquakes, and collected for each seismogram. The synthetic waveforms were calculated using the discrete wavenumber integration method developed by Takeo [1985] for a horizontally layered structure. For 38 LFEs, which are equal to or larger than M1.2 (JMA magnitude) and recorded at all five stations, the focal mechanisms

  5. PIXiE: an algorithm for automated ion mobility arrival time extraction and collision cross section calculation using global data association

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ma, Jian; Casey, Cameron P.; Zheng, Xueyun; Ibrahim, Yehia M.; Wilkins, Christopher S.; Renslow, Ryan S.; Thomas, Dennis G.; Payne, Samuel H.; Monroe, Matthew E.; Smith, Richard D.; Teeguarden, Justin G.; Baker, Erin S.; Metz, Thomas O.

    2017-05-15

    Motivation: Drift tube ion mobility spectrometry (DTIMS) is increasingly implemented in high throughput omics workflows, and new informatics approaches are necessary for processing the associated data. To automatically extract arrival times for molecules measured by DTIMS coupled with mass spectrometry and compute their associated collisional cross sections (CCS) we created the PNNL Ion Mobility Cross Section Extractor (PIXiE). The primary application presented for this algorithm is the extraction of information necessary to create a reference library containing accu-rate masses, DTIMS arrival times and CCSs for use in high throughput omics analyses. Results: We demonstrate the utility of this approach by automatically extracting arrival times and calculating the associated CCSs for a set of endogenous metabolites and xenobiotics. The PIXiE-generated CCS values were identical to those calculated by hand and within error of those calcu-lated using commercially available instrument vendor software.

  6. Uncovering the 2010 Haiti earthquake death toll

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniell, J. E.; Khazai, B.; Wenzel, F.

    2013-05-01

    Casualties are estimated for the 12 January 2010 earthquake in Haiti using various reports calibrated by observed building damage states from satellite imagery and reconnaissance reports on the ground. By investigating various damage reports, casualty estimates and burial figures, for a one year period from 12 January 2010 until 12 January 2011, there is also strong evidence that the official government figures of 316 000 total dead and missing, reported to have been caused by the earthquake, are significantly overestimated. The authors have examined damage and casualties report to arrive at their estimation that the median death toll is less than half of this value (±137 000). The authors show through a study of historical earthquake death tolls, that overestimates of earthquake death tolls occur in many cases, and is not unique to Haiti. As death toll is one of the key elements for determining the amount of aid and reconstruction funds that will be mobilized, scientific means to estimate death tolls should be applied. Studies of international aid in recent natural disasters reveal that large distributions of aid which do not match the respective needs may cause oversupply of help, aggravate corruption and social disruption rather than reduce them, and lead to distrust within the donor community.

  7. Locating single-point sources from arrival times containing large picking errors (LPEs): the virtual field optimization method (VFOM)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xi-Bing; Wang, Ze-Wei; Dong, Long-Jun

    2016-01-01

    Microseismic monitoring systems using local location techniques tend to be timely, automatic and stable. One basic requirement of these systems is the automatic picking of arrival times. However, arrival times generated by automated techniques always contain large picking errors (LPEs), which may make the location solution unreliable and cause the integrated system to be unstable. To overcome the LPE issue, we propose the virtual field optimization method (VFOM) for locating single-point sources. In contrast to existing approaches, the VFOM optimizes a continuous and virtually established objective function to search the space for the common intersection of the hyperboloids, which is determined by sensor pairs other than the least residual between the model-calculated and measured arrivals. The results of numerical examples and in-site blasts show that the VFOM can obtain more precise and stable solutions than traditional methods when the input data contain LPEs. Furthermore, we discuss the impact of LPEs on objective functions to determine the LPE-tolerant mechanism, velocity sensitivity and stopping criteria of the VFOM. The proposed method is also capable of locating acoustic sources using passive techniques such as passive sonar detection and acoustic emission.

  8. The UK medical response to the Sichuan earthquake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Redmond, A D; Li, J

    2011-06-01

    At 14:48 on 12 May 2008 an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck the Wenchuan area of Sichuan province, China. A decision to offer/receive UK medical assistance was agreed at a Sino/British political level and a medical team was despatched to the earthquake area. This study describes the team's experience during the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and the following 18 months, during which there have been joint developments in emergency medicine, disaster planning/preparedness and the management of spinal cord injury. The long-term disability following sudden onset natural disaster and the wider impact on healthcare delivery may prove to be a greater burden to the country than the immediate medical needs, and, accordingly, emergency international aid may need to widen its focus. Although international teams usually arrive too late to support resuscitative measures, they can respond to specific requests for specialised assistance, for example plastic and reconstructive surgery to assist with the ongoing management of complex injury, relieve those who have worked continuously through the disaster, and when required maintain routine day-to-day services while local staff continue to manage the disaster. The timing of this does not necessarily need to be immediate. To maximise its impact, the team planned from the outset to build a relationship with Chinese colleagues that would lead to a sharing of knowledge and experience that would benefit major incident responses in both countries in the future. This has been established, and the linkage of emergency humanitarian assistance to longer term development should be considered by others the next time international emergency humanitarian assistance is contemplated.

  9. Damage Level Prediction of Reinforced Concrete Building Based on Earthquake Time History Using Artificial Neural Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suryanita Reni

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The strong motion earthquake could cause the building damage in case of the building not considered in the earthquake design of the building. The study aims to predict the damage-level of building due to earthquake using Artificial Neural Networks method. The building model is a reinforced concrete building with ten floors and height between floors is 3.6 m. The model building received a load of the earthquake based on nine earthquake time history records. Each time history scaled to 0,5g, 0,75g, and 1,0g. The Artificial Neural Networks are designed in 4 architectural models using the MATLAB program. Model 1 used the displacement, velocity, and acceleration as input and Model 2 used the displacement only as the input. Model 3 used the velocity as input, and Model 4 used the acceleration just as input. The output of the Neural Networks is the damage level of the building with the category of Safe (1, Immediate Occupancy (2, Life Safety (3 or in a condition of Collapse Prevention (4. According to the results, Neural Network models have the prediction rate of the damage level between 85%-95%. Therefore, one of the solutions for analyzing the structural responses and the damage level promptly and efficiently when the earthquake occurred is by using Artificial Neural Network

  10. Tsunami waves generated by dynamically triggered aftershocks of the 2010 Haiti earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ten Brink, U. S.; Wei, Y.; Fan, W.; Miller, N. C.; Granja, J. L.

    2017-12-01

    Dynamically-triggered aftershocks, thought to be set off by the passage of surface waves, are currently not considered in tsunami warnings, yet may produce enough seafloor deformation to generate tsunamis on their own, as judged from new findings about the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake tsunami in the Caribbean Sea. This tsunami followed the Mw7.0 Haiti mainshock, which resulted from a complex rupture along the north shore of Tiburon Peninsula, not beneath the Caribbean Sea. The mainshock, moreover, had a mixed strike-slip and thrust focal mechanism. There were no recorded aftershocks in the Caribbean Sea, only small coastal landslides and rock falls on the south shore of Tiburon Peninsula. Nevertheless, a tsunami was recorded on deep-sea DART buoy 42407 south of the Dominican Republic and on the Santo Domingo tide gauge, and run-ups of ≤3 m were observed along a 90-km-long stretch of the SE Haiti coast. Three dynamically-triggered aftershocks south of Haiti have been recently identified within the coda of the mainshock (stacks, and back-projecting the arrivals to the vicinity of the main shock (50-300 km). Two of the aftershocks, coming 20-40 s and 40-60 s after the mainshock, plot along NW-SE-trending submarine ridges in the Caribbean Sea south of Haiti. The third event, 120-140 s was located along the steep eastern slope of Bahoruco Peninsula, which is delineated by a normal fault. Forward tsunami models show that the arrival times of the DART buoy and tide gauge times are best fit by the earliest of the three aftershocks, with a Caribbean source 60 km SW of the mainshock rupture zone. Preliminary inversion of the DART buoy time series for fault locations and orientations confirms the location of the first source, but requires an additional unidentified source closer to shore 40 km SW of the mainshock rupture zone. This overall agreement between earthquake and tsunami analyses suggests that land-based earthquake ruptures and/or non-thrust main shocks can

  11. Preliminary results of teleseismic double-difference relocation of earthquakes around Indonesian archipelago region

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nugraha, Andri Dian, E-mail: andridn104@gmail.com; Widiyantoro, Sri [Global Geophysical Research Group, Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung (Indonesia); Shiddiqi, Hasbi Ash [Earth Sciences Graduate Program, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung (Indonesia); Ramdhan, Mohamad; Wandono,; Sutiyono,; Handayani, Titi; Nugroho, Hendro [Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG), Jakarta (Indonesia)

    2015-04-24

    Indonesian archipelago region is located in active tectonic setting and high seismicity zone. During the last decade, Indonesian was experienced with destructive major earthquakes causing damage and victims. The information of precise earthquake location parameters are very important in partular for earthquake early warning to the society and for advance seismic studies. In this study, we attempted to improve hypocenter location compiled by BMKG for time periods of April, 2009 up to June, 2014 for about 22,000 earthquake events around Indonesian region. For the firts time, we applied teleseismic double-difference relocation algorithm (teletomoDD) to improve hypocenter region in Indonesia region combining regional and teleseismic stations. Hypocenter relocation was performed utilizing local, regional, and teleseismic P-wave arrival time data. Our relocation result show that travel-time RMS errors were greatly reduced compared to the BMKG catalog. Seismicity at shallower depth (less than 50 km) shows significantly improvement especially in depth, and refined shallow geological structures, e.g. trench and major strike slip faults. Clustered seismicity is also detected beneath volcanic region, and probably related volcano activities and also major faults nearby. In the Sunda arc region, seismicity at shallower depth centered at two major distributions parallel to the trench strike direction, i.e. around fore-arc and in mainland that related to major fault, e.g. the Sumatran fault, and volcanic fronts. Below Central Java region, relocated hypocenter result showed double seismic zone pattern. A seismic gap is detected around the Sunda-Banda transition zone where transition between oceanic subduction to continental crust collision of Australian plate occurs. In Eastern Indonesia region, shallow earthquakes are observed related to major strike slip faults, e.g. Sorong and Palu-Koro fault, volcanism, and shallow part of subduction and collision zones. We also compare our

  12. Time-history simulation of civil architecture earthquake disaster relief- based on the three-dimensional dynamic finite element method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Bing

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Earthquake action is the main external factor which influences long-term safe operation of civil construction, especially of the high-rise building. Applying time-history method to simulate earthquake response process of civil construction foundation surrounding rock is an effective method for the anti-knock study of civil buildings. Therefore, this paper develops a civil building earthquake disaster three-dimensional dynamic finite element numerical simulation system. The system adopts the explicit central difference method. Strengthening characteristics of materials under high strain rate and damage characteristics of surrounding rock under the action of cyclic loading are considered. Then, dynamic constitutive model of rock mass suitable for civil building aseismic analysis is put forward. At the same time, through the earthquake disaster of time-history simulation of Shenzhen Children’s Palace, reliability and practicability of system program is verified in the analysis of practical engineering problems.

  13. Web Services and Other Enhancements at the Northern California Earthquake Data Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuhauser, D. S.; Zuzlewski, S.; Allen, R. M.

    2012-12-01

    The Northern California Earthquake Data Center (NCEDC) provides data archive and distribution services for seismological and geophysical data sets that encompass northern California. The NCEDC is enhancing its ability to deliver rapid information through Web Services. NCEDC Web Services use well-established web server and client protocols and REST software architecture to allow users to easily make queries using web browsers or simple program interfaces and to receive the requested data in real-time rather than through batch or email-based requests. Data are returned to the user in the appropriate format such as XML, RESP, or MiniSEED depending on the service, and are compatible with the equivalent IRIS DMC web services. The NCEDC is currently providing the following Web Services: (1) Station inventory and channel response information delivered in StationXML format, (2) Channel response information delivered in RESP format, (3) Time series availability delivered in text and XML formats, (4) Single channel and bulk data request delivered in MiniSEED format. The NCEDC is also developing a rich Earthquake Catalog Web Service to allow users to query earthquake catalogs based on selection parameters such as time, location or geographic region, magnitude, depth, azimuthal gap, and rms. It will return (in QuakeML format) user-specified results that can include simple earthquake parameters, as well as observations such as phase arrivals, codas, amplitudes, and computed parameters such as first motion mechanisms, moment tensors, and rupture length. The NCEDC will work with both IRIS and the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) to define a uniform set of web service specifications that can be implemented by multiple data centers to provide users with a common data interface across data centers. The NCEDC now hosts earthquake catalogs and waveforms from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) monitoring networks. These

  14. Possibility of the real-time dynamic strain field monitoring deduced from GNSS data: case study of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake sequence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohta, Y.; Ohzono, M.; Takahashi, H.; Kawamoto, S.; Hino, R.

    2017-12-01

    A large and destructive earthquake (Mjma 7.3) occurred on April 15, 2016 in Kumamoto region, southwestern Japan. This earthquake was accompanied approximately 32 s later by an M 6 earthquake in central Oita region, which hypocenter located 80 km northeast from the hypocenter of the mainshock of the Kumamoto earthquake. This triggered earthquake also had the many aftershocks in and around the Oita region. It is important to understand how to occur such chain-reacted earthquake sequences. We used the 1Hz dual-frequency phase and range data from GEONET in Kyushu island. The data were processed using GIPSY-OASIS (version 6.4). We adopoted kinematic PPP strategy for the coordinate estimation. The reference GPS satellite orbit and 5 s clock information were obtained using the CODE product. We also applied simple sidereal filter technique for the estimated time series. Based on the obtained 1Hz GNSS time series, we estimated the areal strain and principle strain field using the method of the Shen et al. (1996). For the assessment of the dynamic strain, firstly we calculated the averaged absolute value of areal strain field between 60-85s after the origin time of the mainshock of the Kumamoto earthquake which was used as the "reference" static strain field. Secondly, we estimated the absolute value of areal strain in each time step. Finally, we calculated the strain ratio in each time step relative to the "reference". Based on this procedure, we can extract the spatial and temporal characteristic of the dynamic strain in each time step. Extracted strain ratio clearly shows the spatial and temporal dynamic strain characteristic. When an attention is paid to a region of triggered Oita earthquake, the timing of maximum dynamic strain ratio in the epicenter just corresponds to the origin time of the triggered event. It strongly suggested that the large dynamic strain may trigger the Oita event. The epicenter of the triggered earthquake located within the geothermal region. In

  15. Three-dimensional crustal structure for the Mendocino Triple Junction region from local earthquake travel times

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Verdonck, D.; Zandt, G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

    1994-12-10

    The large-scale, three-dimensional geometry of the Mendocino Triple Junction at Cape Mendocino, California, was investigated by inverting nearly 19,000 P wave arrival times from over 1400 local earthquakes to estimate the three-dimensional velocity structure and hypocentral parameters. A velocity grid 175 km (N-S) by 125 km (E-W) centered near Garberville, California, was constructed with 25 km horizontal and 5 km vertical node spacing. The model was well resolved near Cape Mendocino, where the earthquakes and stations are concentrated. At about 40.6{degrees}N latitude a high-velocity gradient between 6.5 and 7.5 km/s dips gently to the south and east from about 15 km depth near the coast. Relocated hypocenters concentrate below this high gradient which the authors interpret as the oceanic crust of the subducted Gorda Plate. Therefore the depth to the top of the Gorda Plate near Cape Mendocino is interpreted to be {approximately} 15 km. The Gorda Plate appears intact and dipping {approximately}8{degrees} eastward due to subduction and flexing downward 6{degrees}-12{degrees} to the south. Both hypocenters and velocity structure suggest that the southern edge of the plate intersects the coastline at 40.3{degrees}N latitude and maintains a linear trend 15{degrees} south of east to at least 123{degrees}W longitude. The top of a large low-velocity region at 20-30 km depth extends about 50 km N-S and 75 km E-W (roughly between Garberville and Covelo) and is located above and south of the southern edge of the Gorda Plate. The authors interpret this low velocity area to be locally thickened crust (8-10 km) due to either local compressional forces associated with north-south compression caused by the northward impingement of the rigid Pacific Plate or by underthrusting of the base of the accretionary subduction complex at the southern terminous of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. 66 refs., 11 figs., 3 tabs.

  16. Comparison of aftershock sequences between 1975 Haicheng earthquake and 1976 Tangshan earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, B.

    2017-12-01

    The 1975 ML 7.3 Haicheng earthquake and the 1976 ML 7.8 Tangshan earthquake occurred in the same tectonic unit. There are significant differences in spatial-temporal distribution, number of aftershocks and time duration for the aftershock sequence followed by these two main shocks. As we all know, aftershocks could be triggered by the regional seismicity change derived from the main shock, which was caused by the Coulomb stress perturbation. Based on the rate- and state- dependent friction law, we quantitative estimated the possible aftershock time duration with a combination of seismicity data, and compared the results from different approaches. The results indicate that, aftershock time durations from the Tangshan main shock is several times of that form the Haicheng main shock. This can be explained by the significant relationship between aftershock time duration and earthquake nucleation history, normal stressand shear stress loading rateon the fault. In fact the obvious difference of earthquake nucleation history from these two main shocks is the foreshocks. 1975 Haicheng earthquake has clear and long foreshocks, while 1976 Tangshan earthquake did not have clear foreshocks. In that case, abundant foreshocks may mean a long and active nucleation process that may have changed (weakened) the rocks in the source regions, so they should have a shorter aftershock sequences for the reason that stress in weak rocks decay faster.

  17. Earthquake hazard evaluation for Switzerland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruettener, E.

    1995-01-01

    Earthquake hazard analysis is of considerable importance for Switzerland, a country with moderate seismic activity but high economic values at risk. The evaluation of earthquake hazard, i.e. the determination of return periods versus ground motion parameters, requires a description of earthquake occurrences in space and time. In this study the seismic hazard for major cities in Switzerland is determined. The seismic hazard analysis is based on historic earthquake records as well as instrumental data. The historic earthquake data show considerable uncertainties concerning epicenter location and epicentral intensity. A specific concept is required, therefore, which permits the description of the uncertainties of each individual earthquake. This is achieved by probability distributions for earthquake size and location. Historical considerations, which indicate changes in public earthquake awareness at various times (mainly due to large historical earthquakes), as well as statistical tests have been used to identify time periods of complete earthquake reporting as a function of intensity. As a result, the catalog is judged to be complete since 1878 for all earthquakes with epicentral intensities greater than IV, since 1750 for intensities greater than VI, since 1600 for intensities greater than VIII, and since 1300 for intensities greater than IX. Instrumental data provide accurate information about the depth distribution of earthquakes in Switzerland. In the Alps, focal depths are restricted to the uppermost 15 km of the crust, whereas below the northern Alpine foreland earthquakes are distributed throughout the entire crust (30 km). This depth distribution is considered in the final hazard analysis by probability distributions. (author) figs., tabs., refs

  18. Effective Acceleration Model for the Arrival Time of Interplanetary Shocks driven by Coronal Mass Ejections

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paouris, Evangelos; Mavromichalaki, Helen

    2017-12-01

    In a previous work (Paouris and Mavromichalaki in Solar Phys. 292, 30, 2017), we presented a total of 266 interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) with as much information as possible. We developed a new empirical model for estimating the acceleration of these events in the interplanetary medium from this analysis. In this work, we present a new approach on the effective acceleration model (EAM) for predicting the arrival time of the shock that preceds a CME, using data of a total of 214 ICMEs. For the first time, the projection effects of the linear speed of CMEs are taken into account in this empirical model, which significantly improves the prediction of the arrival time of the shock. In particular, the mean value of the time difference between the observed time of the shock and the predicted time was equal to +3.03 hours with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 18.58 hours and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 22.47 hours. After the improvement of this model, the mean value of the time difference is decreased to -0.28 hours with an MAE of 17.65 hours and an RMSE of 21.55 hours. This improved version was applied to a set of three recent Earth-directed CMEs reported in May, June, and July of 2017, and we compare our results with the values predicted by other related models.

  19. Quasi-Birth-and-Death Processes with Rational Arrival Process Components

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bean, Nigel G.; Nielsen, Bo Friis

    to develop an analytic method for such a process, that parallels the analysis of a traditional QBD. We demonstrate the analysis by considering a queue where the arrival process and the sequence of service times are derived from two different RAPs that are not just Markovian Arrival processes. We also...... introduce an element of correlation between the arrival process and the sequence of service times.......In this paper we introduce the concept of a Quasi-Birth-and-Death process (QBD) with Rational Arrival Process components. We use the physical interpretation of a Rational Arrival Process (RAP), developed by Asmussen and Bladt, to consider such a Markov process. We exploit this interpretation...

  20. Connection with seismic networks and construction of real time earthquake monitoring system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chi, Heon Cheol; Lee, H. I.; Shin, I. C.; Lim, I. S.; Park, J. H.; Lee, B. K.; Whee, K. H.; Cho, C. S. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

    2000-12-15

    It is natural to use the nuclear power plant seismic network which have been operated by KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute) and local seismic network by KIGAM(Korea Institute of Geology, Mining and Material). The real time earthquake monitoring system is composed with monitoring module and data base module. Data base module plays role of seismic data storage and classification and the other, monitoring module represents the status of acceleration in the nuclear power plant area. This research placed the target on the first, networking the KIN's seismic monitoring system with KIGAM and KEPRI seismic network and the second, construction the KIN's Independent earthquake monitoring system.

  1. Connection with seismic networks and construction of real time earthquake monitoring system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chi, Heon Cheol; Lee, H. I.; Shin, I. C.; Lim, I. S.; Park, J. H.; Lee, B. K.; Whee, K. H.; Cho, C. S.

    2000-12-01

    It is natural to use the nuclear power plant seismic network which have been operated by KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute) and local seismic network by KIGAM(Korea Institute of Geology, Mining and Material). The real time earthquake monitoring system is composed with monitoring module and data base module. Data base module plays role of seismic data storage and classification and the other, monitoring module represents the status of acceleration in the nuclear power plant area. This research placed the target on the first, networking the KIN's seismic monitoring system with KIGAM and KEPRI seismic network and the second, construction the KIN's Independent earthquake monitoring system

  2. Sequence of deep-focus earthquakes beneath the Bonin Islands identified by the NIED nationwide dense seismic networks Hi-net and F-net

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takemura, Shunsuke; Saito, Tatsuhiko; Shiomi, Katsuhiko

    2017-03-01

    An M 6.8 ( Mw 6.5) deep-focus earthquake occurred beneath the Bonin Islands at 21:18 (JST) on June 23, 2015. Observed high-frequency (>1 Hz) seismograms across Japan, which contain several sets of P- and S-wave arrivals for the 10 min after the origin time, indicate that moderate-to-large earthquakes occurred sequentially around Japan. Snapshots of the seismic energy propagation illustrate that after one deep-focus earthquake occurred beneath the Sea of Japan, two deep-focus earthquakes occurred sequentially after the first ( Mw 6.5) event beneath the Bonin Islands in the next 4 min. The United States Geological Survey catalog includes three Bonin deep-focus earthquakes with similar hypocenter locations, but their estimated magnitudes are inconsistent with seismograms from across Japan. The maximum-amplitude patterns of the latter two earthquakes were similar to that of the first Bonin earthquake, which indicates similar locations and mechanisms. Furthermore, based on the ratios of the S-wave amplitudes to that of the first event, the magnitudes of the latter events are estimated as M 6.5 ± 0.02 and M 5.8 ± 0.02, respectively. Three magnitude-6-class earthquakes occurred sequentially within 4 min in the Pacific slab at 480 km depth, where complex heterogeneities exist within the slab.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

  3. Relationship between coronal holes and high speed streams at L1: arrival times, durations, and intensities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, B.; Bu, X.; Liu, S.; Gong, J.

    2017-12-01

    Coronal holes are sources of high-speed steams (HSS) of solar wind. When coronal holes appear at mid/low latitudes on the Sun, consequential HSSs may impact Earth and cause recurrent geospace environment disturbances, such as geomagnetic storms, relativistic electron enhancements at the geosynchronous orbit, and thermosphere density enhancements. Thus, it is of interests for space weather forecasters to predict when (arrival times), how long (time durations), and how severe (intensities) HSSs may impact Earth when they notice coronal holes on the sun and are anticipating their geoeffectiveness. In this study, relationship between coronal holes and high speed streams will be statistically investigated. Several coronal hole parameters, including passage times of solar central meridian, coronal hole longitudinal widths, intensities reflected by mean brightness, are derived using Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) images for years 2011 to 2016. These parameters will be correlated with in-situ solar wind measurements measured at the L1 point by the ACE spacecraft, which can give some results that are useful for space weather forecaster in predicting the arrival times, durations, and intensities of coronal hole high-speed streams in about 3 days advance.

  4. Real-Time Detection of Rupture Development: Earthquake Early Warning Using P Waves From Growing Ruptures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kodera, Yuki

    2018-01-01

    Large earthquakes with long rupture durations emit P wave energy throughout the rupture period. Incorporating late-onset P waves into earthquake early warning (EEW) algorithms could contribute to robust predictions of strong ground motion. Here I describe a technique to detect in real time P waves from growing ruptures to improve the timeliness of an EEW algorithm based on seismic wavefield estimation. The proposed P wave detector, which employs a simple polarization analysis, successfully detected P waves from strong motion generation areas of the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake rupture. An analysis using 23 large (M ≥ 7) events from Japan confirmed that seismic intensity predictions based on the P wave detector significantly increased lead times without appreciably decreasing the prediction accuracy. P waves from growing ruptures, being one of the fastest carriers of information on ongoing rupture development, have the potential to improve the performance of EEW systems.

  5. The 2011 Tohoku-oki Earthquake related to a large velocity gradient within the Pacific plate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matsubara, Makoto; Obara, Kazushige

    2015-04-01

    We conduct seismic tomography using arrival time data picked by the high sensitivity seismograph network (Hi-net) operated by National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED). We used earthquakes off the coast outside the seismic network around the source region of the 2011 Tohoku-oki Earthquake with the centroid depth estimated from moment tensor inversion by NIED F-net (broadband seismograph network) as well as earthquakes within the seismic network determined by Hi-net. The target region, 20-48N and 120-148E, covers the Japanese Islands from Hokkaido to Okinawa. A total of manually picked 4,622,346 P-wave and 3,062,846 S-wave arrival times for 100,733 earthquakes recorded at 1,212 stations from October 2000 to August 2009 is available for use in the tomographic method. In the final iteration, we estimate the P-wave slowness at 458,234 nodes and the S-wave slowness at 347,037 nodes. The inversion reduces the root mean square of the P-wave traveltime residual from 0.455 s to 0.187 s and that of the S-wave data from 0.692 s to 0.228 s after eight iterations (Matsubara and Obara, 2011). Centroid depths are determined using a Green's function approach (Okada et al., 2004) such as in NIED F-net. For the events distant from the seismic network, the centroid depth is more reliable than that determined by NIED Hi-net, since there are no stations above the hypocenter. We determine the upper boundary of the Pacific plate based on the velocity structure and earthquake hypocentral distribution. The upper boundary of the low-velocity (low-V) oceanic crust corresponds to the plate boundary where thrust earthquakes are expected to occur. Where we do not observe low-V oceanic crust, we determine the upper boundary of the upper layer of the double seismic zone within high-V Pacific plate. We assume the depth at the Japan Trench as 7 km. We can investigate the velocity structure within the Pacific plate such as 10 km beneath the plate boundary since the

  6. Relocalizing a historical earthquake using recent methods: The 10 November 1935 Earthquake near Montserrat, Lesser Antilles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niemz, P.; Amorèse, D.

    2016-03-01

    This study investigates the hypothesis of Feuillet et al. (2011) that the hypocenter of the seismic event on November 10, 1935 near Montserrat, Lesser Antilles (MS 6 1/4) (Gutenberg and Richter, 1954) was mislocated by other authors and is actually located in the Montserrat-Havers fault zone. While this proposal was based both on a Ground Motion Prediction Equation and on the assumption that earthquakes in this region are bound to prominent fault systems, our study relies on earthquake localization methods using arrival times of the International Seismological Summary (ISS). Results of our methodology suggest that the hypocenter was really located at 16.90° N, 62.53° W. This solution is about 25 km north-west of the location proposed by Feuillet et al. (2011) within the Redonda fault system, northward of the Montserrat-Havers fault zone. As depth phases that contribute valuable insights to the focal depth are not included in the ISS data set and the reassociation of these phases is difficult, the error in depth is high. Taking into account tectonic constraints and the vertical extend of NonLinLoc's uncertainty area of the preferred solution we assume that the focus is most probably in the lower crust between 20 km and the Moho. Our approach shows that the information of the ISS can lead to a reliable solution even without an exhaustive search for seismograms and station bulletins. This is encouraging for a better assessment of seismic and tsunami hazard in the Caribbean, Mexico, South and Central America, where many moderate to large earthquakes occurred in the first half of the 20th century. The limitations during this early phase of seismology which complicate such relocations are described in detail in this study.

  7. Sun, Moon and Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolvankar, V. G.

    2013-12-01

    During a study conducted to find the effect of Earth tides on the occurrence of earthquakes, for small areas [typically 1000km X1000km] of high-seismicity regions, it was noticed that the Sun's position in terms of universal time [GMT] shows links to the sum of EMD [longitude of earthquake location - longitude of Moon's foot print on earth] and SEM [Sun-Earth-Moon angle]. This paper provides the details of this relationship after studying earthquake data for over forty high-seismicity regions of the world. It was found that over 98% of the earthquakes for these different regions, examined for the period 1973-2008, show a direct relationship between the Sun's position [GMT] and [EMD+SEM]. As the time changes from 00-24 hours, the factor [EMD+SEM] changes through 360 degree, and plotting these two variables for earthquakes from different small regions reveals a simple 45 degree straight-line relationship between them. This relationship was tested for all earthquakes and earthquake sequences for magnitude 2.0 and above. This study conclusively proves how Sun and the Moon govern all earthquakes. Fig. 12 [A+B]. The left-hand figure provides a 24-hour plot for forty consecutive days including the main event (00:58:23 on 26.12.2004, Lat.+3.30, Long+95.980, Mb 9.0, EQ count 376). The right-hand figure provides an earthquake plot for (EMD+SEM) vs GMT timings for the same data. All the 376 events including the main event faithfully follow the straight-line curve.

  8. Incorporating Low-Cost Seismometers into the Central Weather Bureau Seismic Network for Earthquake Early Warning in Taiwan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Da-Yi Chen

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A dense seismic network can increase Earthquake Early Warning (EEW system capability to estimate earthquake information with higher accuracy. It is also critical for generating fast, robust earthquake alarms before strong-ground shaking hits the target area. However, building a dense seismic network via traditional seismometers is too expensive and may not be practical. Using low-cost Micro-Electro Mechanical System (MEMS accelerometers is a potential solution to quickly deploy a large number of sensors around the monitored region. An EEW system constructed using a dense seismic network with 543 MEMS sensors in Taiwan is presented. The system also incorporates the official seismic network of _ Central Weather Bureau (CWB. The real-time data streams generated by the two networks are integrated using the Earthworm software. This paper illustrates the methods used by the integrated system for estimating earthquake information and evaluates the system performance. We applied the Earthworm picker for the seismograms recorded by the MEMS sensors (Chen et al. 2015 following new picking constraints to accurately detect P-wave arrivals and use a new regression equation for estimating earthquake magnitudes. An off-line test was implemented using 46 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from ML 4.5 - 6.5 to calibrate the system. The experimental results show that the integrated system has stable source parameter results and issues alarms much faster than the current system run by the CWB seismic network (CWBSN.

  9. Time-scale invariant changes in atmospheric radon concentration and crustal strain prior to a large earthquake

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Kawada

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Prior to large earthquakes (e.g. 1995 Kobe earthquake, Japan, an increase in the atmospheric radon concentration is observed, and this increase in the rate follows a power-law of the time-to-earthquake (time-to-failure. This phenomenon corresponds to the increase in the radon migration in crust and the exhalation into atmosphere. An irreversible thermodynamic model including time-scale invariance clarifies that the increases in the pressure of the advecting radon and permeability (hydraulic conductivity in the crustal rocks are caused by the temporal changes in the power-law of the crustal strain (or cumulative Benioff strain, which is associated with damage evolution such as microcracking or changing porosity. As the result, the radon flux and the atmospheric radon concentration can show a temporal power-law increase. The concentration of atmospheric radon can be used as a proxy for the seismic precursory processes associated with crustal dynamics.

  10. Multifractal Approach to Time Clustering of Earthquakes. Application to Mt. Vesuvio Seismicity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Codano, C.; Alonzo, M. L.; Vilardo, G.

    The clustering structure of the Vesuvian earthquakes occurring is investigated by means of statistical tools: the inter-event time distribution, the running mean and the multifractal analysis. The first cannot clearly distinguish between a Poissonian process and a clustered one due to the difficulties of clearly distinguishing between an exponential distribution and a power law one. The running mean test reveals the clustering of the earthquakes, but looses information about the structure of the distribution at global scales. The multifractal approach can enlighten the clustering at small scales, while the global behaviour remains Poissonian. Subsequently the clustering of the events is interpreted in terms of diffusive processes of the stress in the earth crust.

  11. Real-time numerical shake prediction and updating for earthquake early warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Tianyun; Jin, Xing; Wei, Yongxiang; Huang, Yandan

    2017-12-01

    Ground motion prediction is important for earthquake early warning systems, because the region's peak ground motion indicates the potential disaster. In order to predict the peak ground motion quickly and precisely with limited station wave records, we propose a real-time numerical shake prediction and updating method. Our method first predicts the ground motion based on the ground motion prediction equation after P waves detection of several stations, denoted as the initial prediction. In order to correct the prediction error of the initial prediction, an updating scheme based on real-time simulation of wave propagation is designed. Data assimilation technique is incorporated to predict the distribution of seismic wave energy precisely. Radiative transfer theory and Monte Carlo simulation are used for modeling wave propagation in 2-D space, and the peak ground motion is calculated as quickly as possible. Our method has potential to predict shakemap, making the potential disaster be predicted before the real disaster happens. 2008 M S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake is studied as an example to show the validity of the proposed method.

  12. Foreshocks, aftershocks, and earthquake probabilities: Accounting for the landers earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Lucile M.

    1994-01-01

    The equation to determine the probability that an earthquake occurring near a major fault will be a foreshock to a mainshock on that fault is modified to include the case of aftershocks to a previous earthquake occurring near the fault. The addition of aftershocks to the background seismicity makes its less probable that an earthquake will be a foreshock, because nonforeshocks have become more common. As the aftershocks decay with time, the probability that an earthquake will be a foreshock increases. However, fault interactions between the first mainshock and the major fault can increase the long-term probability of a characteristic earthquake on that fault, which will, in turn, increase the probability that an event is a foreshock, compensating for the decrease caused by the aftershocks.

  13. INFLUENCE OF THE SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT OF SEISMIC DETECTORS ON THE ACCURACY OF EARTHQUAKE HYPOCENTRE DETERMINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. G. Aslanov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Objectives. To determine the coordinates of the seismic focus of an earthquake with a minimum margin of error with the use of an optimal selection of seismic sensors. Method. Seismic wave velocity data, relying on the time discrepancies between the registering of seismic waves on the seismic sensor and the defined error in determining the time difference, were used to identify errors in the location of an earthquake's hypocenter depending on the respective positions of three seismic sensors. Discrepancies between data containing an error and those without it used to determine two hypocenters provide information about the hypocenter locating error. An analysis of the influence of the respective arrangements of the seismic sensors and the earthquake epicentre on the accuracy of determination of epicentre coordinates was carried out. Results. It is established that, in order to improve the accuracy of epicenter and hypocenter earthquake coordinate determination, it is preferable to use different combinations of seismic sensors. The present recommendations are based on the desire to reduce errors in determining the earthquake source coordinates. Due to earthquake epicenter distance determination errors found in different seismic sensors both with increasing and decreasing distance, the hypocenter coordinate determining error has been found to depend on the respective arrangement of seismic sensors and on the earthquake source's geographical location. In order to determine the dependence of the source coordinate determining error on the relative position of three seismic sensors, the third seismic sensor was displaced on a horizontal plane at the location centered at the coordinate of the origin. Conclusion. When selecting seismic sensors it is essential that one of them be located perpendicular to the center of the segment formed by the other two seismic sensors. The probability of a multidirectional error of measurement at the moment of arrival of

  14. Near real-time aftershock hazard maps for earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCloskey, J.; Nalbant, S. S.

    2009-04-01

    Stress interaction modelling is routinely used to explain the spatial relationships between earthquakes and their aftershocks. On 28 October 2008 a M6.4 earthquake occurred near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border killing several hundred and causing widespread devastation. A second M6.4 event occurred 12 hours later 20km to the south east. By making some well supported assumptions concerning the source event and the geometry of any likely triggered event it was possible to map those areas most likely to experience further activity. Using Google earth, it would further have been possible to identify particular settlements in the source area which were particularly at risk and to publish their locations globally within about 3 hours of the first earthquake. Such actions could have significantly focused the initial emergency response management. We argue for routine prospective testing of such forecasts and dialogue between social and physical scientists and emergency response professionals around the practical application of these techniques.

  15. Space-time behavior of continental intraplate earthquakes and implications for hazard assessment in China and the Central U.S.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, Seth; Liu, Mian; Luo, Gang; Wang, Hui

    2014-05-01

    Earthquakes in midcontinents and those at plate boundaries behave quite differently in space and time, owing to the geometry of faults and the rate at which they are loaded. Faults at plate boundaries are loaded at constant rates by steady relative plate motion. Consequently, earthquakes concentrate along the plate boundary faults, and show quasi-periodic occurrences, although the actual temporal patterns are often complicated. However, in midcontinents, the tectonic loading is shared by a complex system of interacting faults spread over a large region, such that a large earthquake on one fault could increase the loading rates on remote faults in the system. Because the low tectonic loading rate is shared by many faults in midcontinents, individual faults may remain dormant for a long time and then become active for a short period. The resulting earthquakes are therefore episodic and spatially migrating. These effects can be seen in many areas, with a prime example being a 2000-year record from North China, which shows migration of large earthquakes between fault systems spread over a large region such that no large earthquakes rupture the same fault segment twice. Because seismic activity within mid-continents is usually much lower than that along plate boundary zones, even small earthquakes can cause widespread concerns, especially when these events occur in the source regions of previous large earthquakes. However, these small earthquakes may be aftershocks that continue for decades or even longer, because aftershock sequences often last much longer in midcontinents where tectonic loading is slow, than at plate boundaries. The recent seismicity in the Tangshan region in North China is likely aftershocks of the 1976 M7.8 Tangshan earthquake. Similarly, current seismicity in the New Madrid seismic zone in central U.S. appears to be aftershocks of a cluster of M ~7.0 events in 1811-1812. These large events and similar events in the past millennium release strain

  16. ShakeMapple : tapping laptop motion sensors to map the felt extents of an earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bossu, Remy; McGilvary, Gary; Kamb, Linus

    2010-05-01

    There is a significant pool of untapped sensor resources available in portable computer embedded motion sensors. Included primarily to detect sudden strong motion in order to park the disk heads to prevent damage to the disks in the event of a fall or other severe motion, these sensors may also be tapped for other uses as well. We have developed a system that takes advantage of the Apple Macintosh laptops' embedded Sudden Motion Sensors to record earthquake strong motion data to rapidly build maps of where and to what extent an earthquake has been felt. After an earthquake, it is vital to understand the damage caused especially in urban environments as this is often the scene for large amounts of damage caused by earthquakes. Gathering as much information from these impacts to determine where the areas that are likely to be most effected, can aid in distributing emergency services effectively. The ShakeMapple system operates in the background, continuously saving the most recent data from the motion sensors. After an earthquake has occurred, the ShakeMapple system calculates the peak acceleration within a time window around the expected arrival and sends that to servers at the EMSC. A map plotting the felt responses is then generated and presented on the web. Because large-scale testing of such an application is inherently difficult, we propose to organize a broadly distributed "simulated event" test. The software will be available for download in April, after which we plan to organize a large-scale test by the summer. At a specified time, participating testers will be asked to create their own strong motion to be registered and submitted by the ShakeMapple client. From these responses, a felt map will be produced representing the broadly-felt effects of the simulated event.

  17. NEAR REAL-TIME DETERMINATION OF EARTHQUAKE SOURCE PARAMETERS FOR TSUNAMI EARLY WARNING FROM GEODETIC OBSERVATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Manneela

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Exemplifying the tsunami source immediately after an earthquake is the most critical component of tsunami early warning, as not every earthquake generates a tsunami. After a major under sea earthquake, it is very important to determine whether or not it has actually triggered the deadly wave. The near real-time observations from near field networks such as strong motion and Global Positioning System (GPS allows rapid determination of fault geometry. Here we present a complete processing chain of Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS, starting from acquisition of geodetic raw data, processing, inversion and simulating the situation as it would be at warning center during any major earthquake. We determine the earthquake moment magnitude and generate the centroid moment tensor solution using a novel approach which are the key elements for tsunami early warning. Though the well established seismic monitoring network, numerical modeling and dissemination system are currently capable to provide tsunami warnings to most of the countries in and around the Indian Ocean, the study highlights the critical role of geodetic observations in determination of tsunami source for high-quality forecasting.

  18. Reducing process delays for real-time earthquake parameter estimation - An application of KD tree to large databases for Earthquake Early Warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Lucy; Andrews, Jennifer; Heaton, Thomas

    2018-05-01

    Earthquake parameter estimations using nearest neighbor searching among a large database of observations can lead to reliable prediction results. However, in the real-time application of Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems, the accurate prediction using a large database is penalized by a significant delay in the processing time. We propose to use a multidimensional binary search tree (KD tree) data structure to organize large seismic databases to reduce the processing time in nearest neighbor search for predictions. We evaluated the performance of KD tree on the Gutenberg Algorithm, a database-searching algorithm for EEW. We constructed an offline test to predict peak ground motions using a database with feature sets of waveform filter-bank characteristics, and compare the results with the observed seismic parameters. We concluded that large database provides more accurate predictions of the ground motion information, such as peak ground acceleration, velocity, and displacement (PGA, PGV, PGD), than source parameters, such as hypocenter distance. Application of the KD tree search to organize the database reduced the average searching process by 85% time cost of the exhaustive method, allowing the method to be feasible for real-time implementation. The algorithm is straightforward and the results will reduce the overall time of warning delivery for EEW.

  19. Earthquake prediction by Kina Method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kianoosh, H.; Keypour, H.; Naderzadeh, A.; Motlagh, H.F.

    2005-01-01

    Earthquake prediction has been one of the earliest desires of the man. Scientists have worked hard to predict earthquakes for a long time. The results of these efforts can generally be divided into two methods of prediction: 1) Statistical Method, and 2) Empirical Method. In the first method, earthquakes are predicted using statistics and probabilities, while the second method utilizes variety of precursors for earthquake prediction. The latter method is time consuming and more costly. However, the result of neither method has fully satisfied the man up to now. In this paper a new method entitled 'Kiana Method' is introduced for earthquake prediction. This method offers more accurate results yet lower cost comparing to other conventional methods. In Kiana method the electrical and magnetic precursors are measured in an area. Then, the time and the magnitude of an earthquake in the future is calculated using electrical, and in particular, electrical capacitors formulas. In this method, by daily measurement of electrical resistance in an area we make clear that the area is capable of earthquake occurrence in the future or not. If the result shows a positive sign, then the occurrence time and the magnitude can be estimated by the measured quantities. This paper explains the procedure and details of this prediction method. (authors)

  20. Order of arrival affects competition in two reef fishes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geange, Shane W; Stier, Adrian C

    2009-10-01

    Many communities experience repeated periods of colonization due to seasonally regenerating habitats or pulsed arrival of young-of-year. When an individual's persistence in a community depends upon the strength of competitive interactions, changes in the timing of arrival relative to the arrival of a competitor can modify competitive strength and, ultimately, establishment in the community. We investigated whether the strength of intracohort competitive interactions between recent settlers of the reef fishes Thalassoma hardwicke and T. quinquevittatum are dependent on the sequence and temporal separation of their arrival into communities. To achieve this, we manipulated the sequence and timing of arrival of each species onto experimental patch reefs by simulating settlement pulses and monitoring survival and aggressive interactions. Both species survived best in the absence of competitors, but when competitors were present, they did best when they arrived at the same time. Survival declined as each species entered the community progressively later than its competitor and as aggression by its competitor increased. Intraspecific effects of resident T. hardwicke were similar to interspecific effects. This study shows that the strength of competition depends not only on the identity of competitors, but also on the sequence and timing of their interactions, suggesting that when examining interaction strengths, it is important to identify temporal variability in the direction and magnitude of their effects. Furthermore, our findings provide empirical evidence for the importance of competitive lotteries in the maintenance of species diversity in demographically open marine systems.

  1. Time-lapse imaging of fault properties at seismogenic depth using repeating earthquakes, active sources and seismic ambient noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Xin

    2009-12-01

    The time-varying stress field of fault systems at seismogenic depths plays the mort important role in controlling the sequencing and nucleation of seismic events. Using seismic observations from repeating earthquakes, controlled active sources and seismic ambient noise, five studies at four different fault systems across North America, Central Japan, North and mid-West China are presented to describe our efforts to measure such time dependent structural properties. Repeating and similar earthquakes are hunted and analyzed to study the post-seismic fault relaxation at the aftershock zone of the 1984 M 6.8 western Nagano and the 1976 M 7.8 Tangshan earthquakes. The lack of observed repeating earthquakes at western Nagano is attributed to the absence of a well developed weak fault zone, suggesting that the fault damage zone has been almost completely healed. In contrast, the high percentage of similar and repeating events found at Tangshan suggest the existence of mature fault zones characterized by stable creep under steady tectonic loading. At the Parkfield region of the San Andreas Fault, repeating earthquake clusters and chemical explosions are used to construct a scatterer migration image based on the observation of systematic temporal variations in the seismic waveforms across the occurrence time of the 2004 M 6 Parkfield earthquake. Coseismic fluid charge or discharge in fractures caused by the Parkfield earthquake is used to explain the observed seismic scattering properties change at depth. In the same region, a controlled source cross-well experiment conducted at SAFOD pilot and main holes documents two large excursions in the travel time required for a shear wave to travel through the rock along a fixed pathway shortly before two rupture events, suggesting that they may be related to pre-rupture stress induced changes in crack properties. At central China, a tomographic inversion based on the theory of seismic ambient noise and coda wave interferometry

  2. Flashsourcing or Real-Time Mapping of Earthquake Effects from Instantaneous Analysis of the EMSC Website Traffic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bossu, R.; Gilles, S.; Roussel, F.

    2010-12-01

    Earthquake response efforts are often hampered by the lack of timely and reliable information on the earthquake impact. Rapid detection of damaging events and production of actionable information for emergency response personnel within minutes of their occurrence are essential to mitigate the human impacts from earthquakes. Economically developed countries deploy dense real-time accelerometric networks in regions of high seismic hazard to constrain scenarios from in-situ data. A cheaper alternative, named flashsourcing, is based on implicit data derived from the analysis of the visits by eyewitnesses, the first informed persons, to websites offering real time earthquake information. We demonstrated in 2004 that widely felt earthquakes generate a surge of traffic, known as a flashcrowd, caused by people rushing websites such as the EMSC’s to find information about the shaking they have just felt. With detailed traffic analysis and metrics, widely felt earthquakes can be detected within one minute of the earthquake’s occurrence. In addition, the geographical area where the earthquake has been felt is automatically mapped within 5 minutes by statistically analysing the IP locations of the eyewitnesses, without using any seismological data. These results have been validated on more than 150 earthquakes by comparing the automatic felt maps with the felt area derived from macroseismic questionnaires. In practice, the felt maps are available before the first location is published by the EMSC. We have also demonstrated the capacity to rapidly detect and map areas of widespread damage by detecting when visitors suddenly end their sessions on the website en masse. This has been successfully applied to time and map the massive power failure which plunged a large part of Chile into darkness in March, 2010. If damage to power and communication lines cannot be discriminated from damage to buildings, the absence of sudden session closures precludes the possibility of heavy

  3. Lateral structural variation within the overlying plate and its correlation to the Tonankai earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujie, G.; Nakanishi, A.; Park, J.; Obana, K.; Kodaira, S.; Kaneda, Y.

    2009-12-01

    Destructive interplate earthquakes have repeatedly occurred every 100-150 years beneath the Kumano-nada, off the Kii peninsula owing to the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate beneath the southwest Japan arc. The last great interplate earthquakes in this seismogenic subduction zone was the 1944 Tonankai earthquakes, and a number of coseismic slip distribution models derived from seismic and tsunami data show remarkable lateral variations along the trough axis. In 2006 and 2007, we conducted extensive wide-angle seismic refraction and reflection surveys in the entire rupture zone of the 1944 Tonankai earthquake. We designed two along-trough and two across-trench seismic survey lines and deployed a number of OBSs (Ocean Bottom Seismometers) with a spacing of 5km and fired an airgun array with a total volume of 200L at every 0.2km. The quality of the obtained wide-angle seismic record section is substantially good and we observed remarkable regional variation in the amplitude of refraction and reflection phases. For example, in some record sections, we can trace seismic signals up to the offset of more than 100 km, but in other sections, the airgun signals become dim at the offset of less than 30km. Such regional variation in the amplitude indicates the lateral variation of the seismic attenuation structure. For revealing lateral structural variation, we developed seismic structure models by the following approach. First, we applied the first arrival tomography for developing P-wave velocity structure models. Then, we imaged structural boundaries by the reflection traveltime mapping method. Finally, we developed seismic attenuation models by using raypaths and amplitude of first arrivals. Our seismic structure models showed remarkable along-trench structural variation. In the P-wave velocity models, we found a height on the subducting Philippine plate at the eastern end of the Kumano basin (south-east off Shima peninsula). In the western area (i.e. Kumano Basin

  4. Earthquake Triggering in the September 2017 Mexican Earthquake Sequence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fielding, E. J.; Gombert, B.; Duputel, Z.; Huang, M. H.; Liang, C.; Bekaert, D. P.; Moore, A. W.; Liu, Z.; Ampuero, J. P.

    2017-12-01

    Southern Mexico was struck by four earthquakes with Mw > 6 and numerous smaller earthquakes in September 2017, starting with the 8 September Mw 8.2 Tehuantepec earthquake beneath the Gulf of Tehuantepec offshore Chiapas and Oaxaca. We study whether this M8.2 earthquake triggered the three subsequent large M>6 quakes in southern Mexico to improve understanding of earthquake interactions and time-dependent risk. All four large earthquakes were extensional despite the the subduction of the Cocos plate. The traditional definition of aftershocks: likely an aftershock if it occurs within two rupture lengths of the main shock soon afterwards. Two Mw 6.1 earthquakes, one half an hour after the M8.2 beneath the Tehuantepec gulf and one on 23 September near Ixtepec in Oaxaca, both fit as traditional aftershocks, within 200 km of the main rupture. The 19 September Mw 7.1 Puebla earthquake was 600 km away from the M8.2 shock, outside the standard aftershock zone. Geodetic measurements from interferometric analysis of synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and time-series analysis of GPS station data constrain finite fault total slip models for the M8.2, M7.1, and M6.1 Ixtepec earthquakes. The early M6.1 aftershock was too close in time and space to the M8.2 to measure with InSAR or GPS. We analyzed InSAR data from Copernicus Sentinel-1A and -1B satellites and JAXA ALOS-2 satellite. Our preliminary geodetic slip model for the M8.2 quake shows significant slip extended > 150 km NW from the hypocenter, longer than slip in the v1 finite-fault model (FFM) from teleseismic waveforms posted by G. Hayes at USGS NEIC. Our slip model for the M7.1 earthquake is similar to the v2 NEIC FFM. Interferograms for the M6.1 Ixtepec quake confirm the shallow depth in the upper-plate crust and show centroid is about 30 km SW of the NEIC epicenter, a significant NEIC location bias, but consistent with cluster relocations (E. Bergman, pers. comm.) and with Mexican SSN location. Coulomb static stress

  5. Development of earthquake early warning system using real time signal of broadband seismogram

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gunawan, Hendar; Puspito, Nanang T.; Ibrahim, Gunawan; Harjadi, Prih

    2012-01-01

    Earthquake pose serious threat of live and properties for urban area near subduction zone offshore and active fault on land. Jakarta and Bandung is an example of big city that no system of Earthquake early warning (EEW) event very high urbanization, and has many important infra structure in the area. The capital city is potentially high risk ground shaking. EEW can be usefull tool for reducing earthquake hazard, if spatial relation between cities and earthquake source is favorable for such warning and their citizens are properly trained to response early warning message. An EEW and rapid response system can provide the critical information needed to minimized lost of live and property and direct rescue. Earthquake ground shaking with magnitude M>6.0 from zone of Megathrust, southern of West Java should potentially damage in the area of west java especially Bandung and Jakarta City. This research development of EEW parameter such as amplitude displacement (Pd), rapid magnitude determination (M) and Peak ground Velocity (PGV). We explore the practical approach to EEW with the use of Broadband seismogram signal. Time effective EEW which epicenter from megathrust zone has potential to provide EEW in the area of west java such as Jakarta first ground shaking more or less 60 second later and strong shaking 118 second after EEW Alarm on CISI Station. EEW notification at potentially damage in the area of west java can be predicted from the characteristic of Pd > 0.5 cm, M> 6 and PGV > 10 cm/sec. GIS as a tool for presentation of hazard mapping in the affected area.

  6. Longitudinal development of air-shower electrons studied from the arrival time distributions of atmospheric Cerenkov light measured at 5200 m above sea level

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inoue, N.; Kaneko, T.; Yoshii, H.

    1985-01-01

    The longitudinal development of electrons in extensive air showers before the maximum has been studied by measuring the arrival time distributions of atmospheric Cerenkov light from air showers, with primary energies in the range 6 x 10 15 to 2 x 10 17 eV, in the Chacaltaya air-shower array. These arrival time distributions are consistent with those calculated using a model of particle interactions which contain Feynman scaling in the fragmentation region, an Esup(1/2) multiplicity law in the pionisation region and a rising cross section for primary protons. Such a model also reproduces the arrival time distributions of Cerenkov light measured in the Akeno air-shower array as described in the preceding paper, which implies a very fast development before the maximum and a slow development after the maximum. (author)

  7. Automatic analysis of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake aftershock sequence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baillard, C.; Lyon-Caen, H.; Bollinger, L.; Rietbrock, A.; Letort, J.; Adhikari, L. B.

    2016-12-01

    The Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, that partially ruptured the Main Himalayan Thrust North of Kathmandu on the 25th April 2015, was the largest and most catastrophic earthquake striking Nepal since the great M8.4 1934 earthquake. This mainshock was followed by multiple aftershocks, among them, two notable events that occurred on the 12th May with magnitudes of 7.3 Mw and 6.3 Mw. Due to these recent events it became essential for the authorities and for the scientific community to better evaluate the seismic risk in the region through a detailed analysis of the earthquake catalog, amongst others, the spatio-temporal distribution of the Gorkha aftershock sequence. Here we complement this first study by doing a microseismic study using seismic data coming from the eastern part of the Nepalese Seismological Center network associated to one broadband station in Everest. Our primary goal is to deliver an accurate catalog of the aftershock sequence. Due to the exceptional number of events detected we performed an automatic picking/locating procedure which can be splitted in 4 steps: 1) Coarse picking of the onsets using a classical STA/LTA picker, 2) phase association of picked onsets to detect and declare seismic events, 3) Kurtosis pick refinement around theoretical arrival times to increase picking and location accuracy and, 4) local magnitude calculation based amplitude of waveforms. This procedure is time efficient ( 1 sec/event), reduces considerably the location uncertainties ( 2 to 5 km errors) and increases the number of events detected compared to manual processing. Indeed, the automatic detection rate is 10 times higher than the manual detection rate. By comparing to the USGS catalog we were able to give a new attenuation law to compute local magnitudes in the region. A detailed analysis of the seismicity shows a clear migration toward the east of the region and a sudden decrease of seismicity 100 km east of Kathmandu which may reveal the presence of a tectonic

  8. Strengthening economy through tourism sector by tourist arrival prediction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Supriatna, A.; Subartini, B.; Hertini, E.; Sukono; Rumaisha; Istiqamah, N.

    2018-03-01

    Tourism sector has a tendency to be proposed as a support for national economy to many countries with various of natural resources, such as Indonesia. The number of tourist is very related with the success rate of a tourist attraction, since it is also related with planning and strategy. Hence, it is important to predict the climate of tourism in Indonesia, especially the number of domestic or international tourist in the future. This study uses Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) time series method to predict the number of tourist arrival to tourism strategic areas in Nusa Tenggara Barat. The prediction was done using the international and domestic tourist arrival to Nusa Tenggara Barat data from January 2008 to June 2016. The established SARIMA method was (0,1,1)(0,0,2)12 with MAPE error of 15.76. The prediction for the next six time periods showed that the highest number of tourist arrival is during September 2016 with 330,516 tourist arrivals. Prediction of tourist arrival hopefully might be used as reference for local and national government to make policies to strengthen national economy for a long period of time

  9. Earthquake early Warning ShakeAlert system: West coast wide production prototype

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohler, Monica D.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.; Given, Douglas; Guiwits, Stephen; Neuhauser, Doug; Hensen, Ivan; Hartog, Renate; Bodin, Paul; Kress, Victor; Thompson, Stephen; Felizardo, Claude; Brody, Jeff; Bhadha, Rayo; Schwarz, Stan

    2017-01-01

    Earthquake early warning (EEW) is an application of seismological science that can give people, as well as mechanical and electrical systems, up to tens of seconds to take protective actions before peak earthquake shaking arrives at a location. Since 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey has been working in collaboration with several partners to develop EEW for the United States. The goal is to create and operate an EEW system, called ShakeAlert, for the highest risk areas of the United States, starting with the West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington. In early 2016, the Production Prototype v.1.0 was established for California; then, in early 2017, v.1.2 was established for the West Coast, with earthquake notifications being distributed to a group of beta users in California, Oregon, and Washington. The new ShakeAlert Production Prototype was an outgrowth from an earlier demonstration EEW system that began sending test notifications to selected users in California in January 2012. ShakeAlert leverages the considerable physical, technical, and organizational earthquake monitoring infrastructure of the Advanced National Seismic System, a nationwide federation of cooperating seismic networks. When fully implemented, the ShakeAlert system may reduce damage and injury caused by large earthquakes, improve the nation’s resilience, and speed recovery.

  10. Earthquake forewarning — A multidisciplinary challenge from the ground up to space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freund, Friedemann

    2013-08-01

    Most destructive earthquakes nucleate at between 5-7 km and about 35-40 km depth. Before earthquakes, rocks are subjected to increasing stress. Not every stress increase leads to rupture. To understand pre-earthquake phenomena we note that igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks contain defects which, upon stressing, release defect electrons in the oxygen anion sublattice, known as positive holes. These charge carriers are highly mobile, able to flow out of stressed rocks into surrounding unstressed rocks. They form electric currents, which emit electromagnetic radiation, sometimes in pulses, sometimes sustained. The arrival of positive holes at the ground-air interface can lead to air ionization, often exclusively positive. Ionized air rising upward can lead to cloud condensation. The upward flow of positive ions can lead to instabilities in the mesosphere, to mesospheric lightning, to changes in the Total Electron Content (TEC) at the lower edge of the ionosphere, and electric field turbulences. Advances in deciphering the earthquake process can only be achieved in a broadly multidisciplinary spirit.

  11. Application of Cyclostationary Signal Selectivity to the Carry-On Multi-Platform GPS Assisted Time Difference of Arrival System

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Streight, David

    1997-01-01

    .... The Applied Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT) has developed a prototype TDOA system, the Carry-on Multi-platform GPS Assisted Time Difference of Arrival System for the Naval Information Warfare Activity...

  12. Retrospective stress-forecasting of earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Yuan; Crampin, Stuart

    2015-04-01

    Observations of changes in azimuthally varying shear-wave splitting (SWS) above swarms of small earthquakes monitor stress-induced changes to the stress-aligned vertical microcracks pervading the upper crust, lower crust, and uppermost ~400km of the mantle. (The microcracks are intergranular films of hydrolysed melt in the mantle.) Earthquakes release stress, and an appropriate amount of stress for the relevant magnitude must accumulate before each event. Iceland is on an extension of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where two transform zones, uniquely run onshore. These onshore transform zones provide semi-continuous swarms of small earthquakes, which are the only place worldwide where SWS can be routinely monitored. Elsewhere SWS must be monitored above temporally-active occasional swarms of small earthquakes, or in infrequent SKS and other teleseismic reflections from the mantle. Observations of changes in SWS time-delays are attributed to stress-induced changes in crack aspect-ratios allowing stress-accumulation and stress-relaxation to be identified. Monitoring SWS in SW Iceland in 1988, stress-accumulation before an impending earthquake was recognised and emails were exchanged between the University of Edinburgh (EU) and the Iceland Meteorological Office (IMO). On 10th November 1988, EU emailed IMO that a M5 earthquake could occur soon on a seismically-active fault plane where seismicity was still continuing following a M5.1 earthquake six-months earlier. Three-days later, IMO emailed EU that a M5 earthquake had just occurred on the specified fault-plane. We suggest this is a successful earthquake stress-forecast, where we refer to the procedure as stress-forecasting earthquakes as opposed to predicting or forecasting to emphasise the different formalism. Lack of funds has prevented us monitoring SWS on Iceland seismograms, however, we have identified similar characteristic behaviour of SWS time-delays above swarms of small earthquakes which have enabled us to

  13. Connecting speeds, directions and arrival times of 22 coronal mass ejections from the sun to 1 AU

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Möstl, C.; Veronig, A. M.; Rollett, T.; Temmer, M.; Peinhart, V. [Kanzelhöhe Observatory-IGAM, Institute of Physics, University of Graz (Austria); Amla, K.; Hall, J. R.; Liewer, P. C.; De Jong, E. M. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States); Colaninno, R. C. [Space Sciences Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC (United States); Davies, J. A.; Harrison, R. A. [RAL Space, Harwell Oxford, Didcot (United Kingdom); Lugaz, N.; Farrugia, C. J.; Galvin, A. B. [Space Science Center and Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States); Liu, Y. D. [State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Luhmann, J. G. [Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Vršnak, B., E-mail: christian.moestl@uni-graz.at [Hvar Observatory, Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb, Kačićeva 26, HR-10000, Zagreb (Croatia)

    2014-06-01

    Forecasting the in situ properties of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from remote images is expected to strongly enhance predictions of space weather and is of general interest for studying the interaction of CMEs with planetary environments. We study the feasibility of using a single heliospheric imager (HI) instrument, imaging the solar wind density from the Sun to 1 AU, for connecting remote images to in situ observations of CMEs. We compare the predictions of speed and arrival time for 22 CMEs (in 2008-2012) to the corresponding interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) parameters at in situ observatories (STEREO PLASTIC/IMPACT, Wind SWE/MFI). The list consists of front- and backsided, slow and fast CMEs (up to 2700 km s{sup –1}). We track the CMEs to 34.9 ± 7.1 deg elongation from the Sun with J maps constructed using the SATPLOT tool, resulting in prediction lead times of –26.4 ± 15.3 hr. The geometrical models we use assume different CME front shapes (fixed-Φ, harmonic mean, self-similar expansion) and constant CME speed and direction. We find no significant superiority in the predictive capability of any of the three methods. The absolute difference between predicted and observed ICME arrival times is 8.1 ± 6.3 hr (rms value of 10.9 hr). Speeds are consistent to within 284 ± 288 km s{sup –1}. Empirical corrections to the predictions enhance their performance for the arrival times to 6.1 ± 5.0 hr (rms value of 7.9 hr), and for the speeds to 53 ± 50 km s{sup –1}. These results are important for Solar Orbiter and a space weather mission positioned away from the Sun-Earth line.

  14. Earthquake potential revealed by tidal influence on earthquake size-frequency statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ide, Satoshi; Yabe, Suguru; Tanaka, Yoshiyuki

    2016-11-01

    The possibility that tidal stress can trigger earthquakes is long debated. In particular, a clear causal relationship between small earthquakes and the phase of tidal stress is elusive. However, tectonic tremors deep within subduction zones are highly sensitive to tidal stress levels, with tremor rate increasing at an exponential rate with rising tidal stress. Thus, slow deformation and the possibility of earthquakes at subduction plate boundaries may be enhanced during periods of large tidal stress. Here we calculate the tidal stress history, and specifically the amplitude of tidal stress, on a fault plane in the two weeks before large earthquakes globally, based on data from the global, Japanese, and Californian earthquake catalogues. We find that very large earthquakes, including the 2004 Sumatran, 2010 Maule earthquake in Chile and the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in Japan, tend to occur near the time of maximum tidal stress amplitude. This tendency is not obvious for small earthquakes. However, we also find that the fraction of large earthquakes increases (the b-value of the Gutenberg-Richter relation decreases) as the amplitude of tidal shear stress increases. The relationship is also reasonable, considering the well-known relationship between stress and the b-value. This suggests that the probability of a tiny rock failure expanding to a gigantic rupture increases with increasing tidal stress levels. We conclude that large earthquakes are more probable during periods of high tidal stress.

  15. Earthquake swarm in the non-volcanic area north of Harrat Lunayyir, western Saudi Arabia: observations and imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Youssof, M.; Mai, P. M.; Parisi, L.; Tang, Z.; Zahran, H. M.; El-Hadidy, S. Y.; Al-Raddadi, W.; Sami, M.; El-Hadidy, M. S. Y.

    2017-12-01

    We report on an unusual earthquake swarm in a non-volcanic area of western Saudi Arabia. Since March 2017, hundreds of earthquakes were recorded, reaching magnitude Ml 3.7, which occurred within a very narrowly defined rock volume. The seismicity is shallow, mostly between 4 to 8 km depths, with some events reaching as deep as 16 km. One set of events aligns into a well-defined horizontal tube of 2 km height, 1 km width, and 4-5 km E-W extent. Other event clusters exist, but are less well-defined. The focal mechanism solutions of the largest earthquakes indicate normal faulting, which agree with the regional stress field. The earthquake swarm occurs 75 km NW of Harrat Lunayyir. However, the area of interest doesn't seem to be associated with the well-known volcanic area of Harrat Lunayyir, which experienced a magmatic dike intrusion in 2009 with intense seismic activity (including a surface rupturing Mw 5.7 earthquake). Furthermore, the study area is characterized by a complex shear system, which host gold mineralization. Therefore, the exact origin of the swarm sequence is enigmatic as it's the first of its kind in this region. By using continuous seismological data recorded by the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) that operates three permanent seismic stations and a temporary network of 11 broadband sensors, we analyze the seismic patterns in space and time. For the verified detected events, we assemble the body wave arrival times that are inverted for the velocity structures along with events hypocenters to investigate possible causes of this swarm sequence, that is, whether the activity is of tectonic- or hydro-thermal origin.

  16. Acoustic Emission Precursors of M6.0 2004 Parkfield and M7.0 1989Loma Prieta Earthquakes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Korneev, Valeri

    2005-02-01

    Two recent strike-slip earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault(SAF) in California, the M6.0 2004 Parkfield and M7.0 1989 Loma Prietaevents, revealed peaks in the acoustic emission (AE) activity in thesurrounding crust several months prior to the main events. Earthquakesdirectly within the SAF zone were intentionally excluded from theanalysis. The observed increase in AE is assumed to be a signature of theincreasing stress level in the surrounding crust, while the peak andsubsequent decrease in AE starting several months prior to the mainevents is attributed to damage-induced softening processes as discussedherein. Further, distinctive zones of low seismic activity surroundingthe epicentral regions in the pre-event time period are present for thetwo studied events. Both AE increases in the crust surrounding apotential future event and the development of a low-seismicity epicentralzone can be regarded as promising precursory information that could helpsignal the arrival of large earthquakes.

  17. Arrival time distributions of electrons in air showers with primary energies above 10 (18)eV observed at 900m above sea level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kakimoto, F.; Tsuchimoto, I.; Enoki, T.; Suga, K.; Nishi, K.

    1985-01-01

    Detection of air showers with primary energies above 10 to the 19th power eV with sufficient statistics is extremely important in an astrophysical aspect related to the Greisen cut off and the origin of such high energy cosmic rays. Recently, a method is proposed to observe such giant air showers by measuring the arrival time distributions of air-shower particles at large core distances with a mini array. Experiments to measure the arrival time distributions of muons were started in 1981 and those of electrons in early 1983 in the Akeno air-shower array (930 gcm cm squared atmospheric depth, 900m above sea level). During the time of observation, the detection area of the Akeno array was expanded from 1 sq km to sq km in 1982 and to 20 sq km in 1984. Now the arrival time distribution of electrons and muons can be measured for showers with primary energies above 1019eV at large core distances.

  18. Absolute earthquake locations using 3-D versus 1-D velocity models below a local seismic network: example from the Pyrenees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theunissen, T.; Chevrot, S.; Sylvander, M.; Monteiller, V.; Calvet, M.; Villaseñor, A.; Benahmed, S.; Pauchet, H.; Grimaud, F.

    2018-03-01

    Local seismic networks are usually designed so that earthquakes are located inside them (primary azimuthal gap 180° and distance to the first station higher than 15 km). Errors on velocity models and accuracy of absolute earthquake locations are assessed based on a reference data set made of active seismic, quarry blasts and passive temporary experiments. Solutions and uncertainties are estimated using the probabilistic approach of the NonLinLoc (NLLoc) software based on Equal Differential Time. Some updates have been added to NLLoc to better focus on the final solution (outlier exclusion, multiscale grid search, S-phases weighting). Errors in the probabilistic approach are defined to take into account errors on velocity models and on arrival times. The seismicity in the final 3-D catalogue is located with a horizontal uncertainty of about 2.0 ± 1.9 km and a vertical uncertainty of about 3.0 ± 2.0 km.

  19. Short-term volcano-tectonic earthquake forecasts based on a moving mean recurrence time algorithm: the El Hierro seismo-volcanic crisis experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    García, Alicia; De la Cruz-Reyna, Servando; Marrero, José M.; Ortiz, Ramón

    2016-05-01

    Under certain conditions, volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes may pose significant hazards to people living in or near active volcanic regions, especially on volcanic islands; however, hazard arising from VT activity caused by localized volcanic sources is rarely addressed in the literature. The evolution of VT earthquakes resulting from a magmatic intrusion shows some orderly behaviour that may allow the occurrence and magnitude of major events to be forecast. Thus governmental decision makers can be supplied with warnings of the increased probability of larger-magnitude earthquakes on the short-term timescale. We present here a methodology for forecasting the occurrence of large-magnitude VT events during volcanic crises; it is based on a mean recurrence time (MRT) algorithm that translates the Gutenberg-Richter distribution parameter fluctuations into time windows of increased probability of a major VT earthquake. The MRT forecasting algorithm was developed after observing a repetitive pattern in the seismic swarm episodes occurring between July and November 2011 at El Hierro (Canary Islands). From then on, this methodology has been applied to the consecutive seismic crises registered at El Hierro, achieving a high success rate in the real-time forecasting, within 10-day time windows, of volcano-tectonic earthquakes.

  20. Real-time 3-D space numerical shake prediction for earthquake early warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Tianyun; Jin, Xing; Huang, Yandan; Wei, Yongxiang

    2017-12-01

    In earthquake early warning systems, real-time shake prediction through wave propagation simulation is a promising approach. Compared with traditional methods, it does not suffer from the inaccurate estimation of source parameters. For computation efficiency, wave direction is assumed to propagate on the 2-D surface of the earth in these methods. In fact, since the seismic wave propagates in the 3-D sphere of the earth, the 2-D space modeling of wave direction results in inaccurate wave estimation. In this paper, we propose a 3-D space numerical shake prediction method, which simulates the wave propagation in 3-D space using radiative transfer theory, and incorporate data assimilation technique to estimate the distribution of wave energy. 2011 Tohoku earthquake is studied as an example to show the validity of the proposed model. 2-D space model and 3-D space model are compared in this article, and the prediction results show that numerical shake prediction based on 3-D space model can estimate the real-time ground motion precisely, and overprediction is alleviated when using 3-D space model.

  1. IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee-Based Time-of-Arrival Estimation for Wireless Sensor Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheon, Jeonghyeon; Hwang, Hyunsu; Kim, Dongsun; Jung, Yunho

    2016-02-05

    Precise time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation is one of the most important techniques in RF-based positioning systems that use wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Because the accuracy of TOA estimation is proportional to the RF signal bandwidth, using broad bandwidth is the most fundamental approach for achieving higher accuracy. Hence, ultra-wide-band (UWB) systems with a bandwidth of 500 MHz are commonly used. However, wireless systems with broad bandwidth suffer from the disadvantages of high complexity and high power consumption. Therefore, it is difficult to employ such systems in various WSN applications. In this paper, we present a precise time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation algorithm using an IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee system with a narrow bandwidth of 2 MHz. In order to overcome the lack of bandwidth, the proposed algorithm estimates the fractional TOA within the sampling interval. Simulation results show that the proposed TOA estimation algorithm provides an accuracy of 0.5 m at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 8 dB and achieves an SNR gain of 5 dB as compared with the existing algorithm. In addition, experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm provides accurate TOA estimation in a real indoor environment.

  2. Universal Earthquake-Occurrence Jumps, Correlations with Time, and Anomalous Diffusion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corral, Alvaro

    2006-01-01

    Spatiotemporal properties of seismicity are investigated for a worldwide (WW) catalog and for southern California in the stationary case (SC), showing a nearly universal scaling behavior. Distributions of distances between consecutive earthquakes (jumps) are magnitude independent and show two power-law regimes, separated by jump values about 200 (WW) and 15 km (SC). Distributions of waiting times conditioned to the value of jumps show that both variables are correlated, in general, but turn out to be independent when only short or long jumps are considered. Finally, diffusion profiles are found to be independent on the magnitude, contrary to what the waiting-time distributions suggest

  3. Earthquake recurrence models fail when earthquakes fail to reset the stress field

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tormann, Thessa; Wiemer, Stefan; Hardebeck, Jeanne L.

    2012-01-01

    Parkfield's regularly occurring M6 mainshocks, about every 25 years, have over two decades stoked seismologists' hopes to successfully predict an earthquake of significant size. However, with the longest known inter-event time of 38 years, the latest M6 in the series (28 Sep 2004) did not conform to any of the applied forecast models, questioning once more the predictability of earthquakes in general. Our study investigates the spatial pattern of b-values along the Parkfield segment through the seismic cycle and documents a stably stressed structure. The forecasted rate of M6 earthquakes based on Parkfield's microseismicity b-values corresponds well to observed rates. We interpret the observed b-value stability in terms of the evolution of the stress field in that area: the M6 Parkfield earthquakes do not fully unload the stress on the fault, explaining why time recurrent models fail. We present the 1989 M6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake as counter example, which did release a significant portion of the stress along its fault segment and yields a substantial change in b-values.

  4. PRECURSORS OF EARTHQUAKES: VLF SIGNALSIONOSPHERE IONOSPHERE RELATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustafa ULAS

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available lot of people have died because of earthquakes every year. Therefore It is crucial to predict the time of the earthquakes reasonable time before it had happed. This paper presents recent information published in the literature about precursors of earthquakes. The relationships between earthquakes and ionosphere are targeted to guide new researches in order to study further to find novel prediction methods.

  5. Central Asia earthquake catalogue from ancient time to 2009

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalya N. Mikhailova

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available In this work, we present the seismic catalogue compiled for Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in the framework of the Earthquake Model Central Asia (EMCA project. The catalogue from 2000 B.C. to 2009 A.D. is composed by 33,034 earthquakes in the MLH magnitude (magnitude by surface waves on horizontal components widely used in practice of the former USSR countries range from 1.5 to 8.3. The catalogue includes both macroseimic and instrumental constrained data, with about 32,793 earthquake after 1900 A.D. The main sources and procedure used to compile the catalogues are discussed, and the comparison with the ISC-GEM catalogue presented. Magnitude of completeness analysis shows that the catalogue is complete down to magnitude 4 from 1959 and to magnitude 7 from 1873, whereas the obtained regional b value is 0.805.

  6. Crustal tomography of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake area in West Japan using P and PmP data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Haibo; Zhao, Dapeng; Huang, Zhouchuan; Xu, Mingjie; Wang, Liangshu; Nishizono, Yukihisa; Inakura, Hirohito

    2018-05-01

    A high-resolution model of three-dimensional (3-D) P-wave velocity (Vp) tomography of the crust in the source area of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (M 7.3) in West Japan is determined using a large number of arrival times of first P-waves and reflected P-waves from the Moho discontinuity (PmP). The PmP data are collected from original seismograms of the Kumamoto aftershocks and other local crustal events in Kyushu. Detailed resolution tests show that the addition of the PmP data can significantly improve the resolution of the crustal tomography, especially that of the lower crust. Our results show that significant low-velocity (low-V) anomalies exist in the entire crust beneath the active arc volcanoes, which may reflect the pathway of arc magmas. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquake occurred at the edge of a small low-V zone in the upper crust. A significant low-V anomaly is revealed in the lower crust beneath the source zone, which may reflect the arc magma and fluids ascending from the mantle wedge. These results suggest that the rupture nucleation of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake was affected by fluids and arc magma.

  7. Overview of contaminant arrival distributions as general evaluation requirements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1977-01-01

    The environmental consequences of subsurface contamination problems can be completely and effectively evaluated by fulfilling the following five requirements: Determine each present or future outflow boundary of contaminated groundwater; provide the location/arrival-time distributions; provide the location/outflow-quantity distributions; provide these distributions for each individual chemical or biological constituent of environmental importance; and use the arrival distributions to determine the quantity and concentration of each contaminant that will interface with the environment as time passes. The arrival distributions on which these requirements are based provide a reference point for communication among scientists and public decision makers by enabling complicated scientific analyses to be presented as simple summary relationships

  8. Incorporating Real-time Earthquake Information into Large Enrollment Natural Disaster Course Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furlong, K. P.; Benz, H.; Hayes, G. P.; Villasenor, A.

    2010-12-01

    Although most would agree that the occurrence of natural disaster events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods can provide effective learning opportunities for natural hazards-based courses, implementing compelling materials into the large-enrollment classroom environment can be difficult. These natural hazard events derive much of their learning potential from their real-time nature, and in the modern 24/7 news-cycle where all but the most devastating events are quickly out of the public eye, the shelf life for an event is quite limited. To maximize the learning potential of these events requires that both authoritative information be available and course materials be generated as the event unfolds. Although many events such as hurricanes, flooding, and volcanic eruptions provide some precursory warnings, and thus one can prepare background materials to place the main event into context, earthquakes present a particularly confounding situation of providing no warning, but where context is critical to student learning. Attempting to implement real-time materials into large enrollment classes faces the additional hindrance of limited internet access (for students) in most lecture classrooms. In Earth 101 Natural Disasters: Hollywood vs Reality, taught as a large enrollment (150+ students) general education course at Penn State, we are collaborating with the USGS’s National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) to develop efficient means to incorporate their real-time products into learning activities in the lecture hall environment. Over time (and numerous events) we have developed a template for presenting USGS-produced real-time information in lecture mode. The event-specific materials can be quickly incorporated and updated, along with key contextual materials, to provide students with up-to-the-minute current information. In addition, we have also developed in-class activities, such as student determination of population exposure to severe ground

  9. What Can Sounds Tell Us About Earthquake Interactions?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aiken, C.; Peng, Z.

    2012-12-01

    It is important not only for seismologists but also for educators to effectively convey information about earthquakes and the influences earthquakes can have on each other. Recent studies using auditory display [e.g. Kilb et al., 2012; Peng et al. 2012] have depicted catastrophic earthquakes and the effects large earthquakes can have on other parts of the world. Auditory display of earthquakes, which combines static images with time-compressed sound of recorded seismic data, is a new approach to disseminating information to a general audience about earthquakes and earthquake interactions. Earthquake interactions are influential to understanding the underlying physics of earthquakes and other seismic phenomena such as tremors in addition to their source characteristics (e.g. frequency contents, amplitudes). Earthquake interactions can include, for example, a large, shallow earthquake followed by increased seismicity around the mainshock rupture (i.e. aftershocks) or even a large earthquake triggering earthquakes or tremors several hundreds to thousands of kilometers away [Hill and Prejean, 2007; Peng and Gomberg, 2010]. We use standard tools like MATLAB, QuickTime Pro, and Python to produce animations that illustrate earthquake interactions. Our efforts are focused on producing animations that depict cross-section (side) views of tremors triggered along the San Andreas Fault by distant earthquakes, as well as map (bird's eye) views of mainshock-aftershock sequences such as the 2011/08/23 Mw5.8 Virginia earthquake sequence. These examples of earthquake interactions include sonifying earthquake and tremor catalogs as musical notes (e.g. piano keys) as well as audifying seismic data using time-compression. Our overall goal is to use auditory display to invigorate a general interest in earthquake seismology that leads to the understanding of how earthquakes occur, how earthquakes influence one another as well as tremors, and what the musical properties of these

  10. Long-period ground motions at near-regional distances caused by the PL wave from, inland earthquakes: Observation and numerical simulation of the 2004 Mid-Niigata, Japan, Mw6.6 earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furumura, T.; Kennett, B. L. N.

    2017-12-01

    We examine the development of large, long-period ground motions at near-regional distances (D=50-200 km) generated by the PL wave from large, shallow inland earthquakes, based on the analysis of strong motion records and finite-difference method (FDM) simulations of seismic wave propagation. PL wave can be represented as leaking modes of the crustal waveguide and are commonly observed at regional distances between 300 to 1000 km as a dispersed, long-period signal with a dominant period of about 20 s. However, observations of recent earthquakes at the dense K-NET and KiK-net strong motion networks in Japan demonstrate the dominance of the PL wave at near-regional (D=50-200 km) distances as, e.g., for the 2004 Mid Niigata, Japan, earthquake (Mw6.6; h=13 km). The observed PL wave signal between P and S wave shows a large, dispersed wave packet with dominant period of about T=4-10 s with amplitude almost comparable to or larger than the later arrival of the S and surface waves. Thus, the early arrivals of the long-period PL wave immediately after P wave can enhance resonance with large-scale constructions such as high-rise buildings and large oil-storage tanks etc. with potential for disaster. Such strong effects often occurred during the 2004 Mid Niigata earthquakes and other large earthquakes which occurred nearby the Kanto (Tokyo) basin. FDM simulation of seismic wave propagation employing realistic 3-D sedimentary structure models demonstrates the process by which the PL wave develops at near-regional distances from shallow, crustal earthquakes by constructive interference of the P wave in the long-period band. The amplitude of the PL wave is very sensitive to low-velocity structure in the near-surface. Lowered velocities help to develop large SV-to-P conversion and weaken the P-to-SV conversion at the free surface. Both effects enhance the multiple P reflections in the crustal waveguide and prevent the leakage of seismic energy into the mantle. However, a very

  11. It's "Your" Fault!: An Investigation into Earthquakes, Plate Tectonics, and Geologic Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clary, Renee; Wandersee, James

    2011-01-01

    Earthquakes "have" been in the news of late--from the disastrous 2010 Haitian temblor that killed more than 300,000 people to the March 2011 earthquake and devastating tsunami in Honshu, Japan, to the unexpected August 2011 earthquake in Mineral, Virginia, felt from Alabama to Maine and as far west as Illinois. As expected, these events…

  12. Radon observation for earthquake prediction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wakita, Hiroshi [Tokyo Univ. (Japan)

    1998-12-31

    Systematic observation of groundwater radon for the purpose of earthquake prediction began in Japan in late 1973. Continuous observations are conducted at fixed stations using deep wells and springs. During the observation period, significant precursory changes including the 1978 Izu-Oshima-kinkai (M7.0) earthquake as well as numerous coseismic changes were observed. At the time of the 1995 Kobe (M7.2) earthquake, significant changes in chemical components, including radon dissolved in groundwater, were observed near the epicentral region. Precursory changes are presumably caused by permeability changes due to micro-fracturing in basement rock or migration of water from different sources during the preparation stage of earthquakes. Coseismic changes may be caused by seismic shaking and by changes in regional stress. Significant drops of radon concentration in groundwater have been observed after earthquakes at the KSM site. The occurrence of such drops appears to be time-dependent, and possibly reflects changes in the regional stress state of the observation area. The absence of radon drops seems to be correlated with periods of reduced regional seismic activity. Experience accumulated over the two past decades allows us to reach some conclusions: 1) changes in groundwater radon do occur prior to large earthquakes; 2) some sites are particularly sensitive to earthquake occurrence; and 3) the sensitivity changes over time. (author)

  13. Analysis of pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies before the global M = 7.0+ earthquakes in 2010

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. F. Peng

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available The pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies that occurred before the global M = 7.0+ earthquakes in 2010 are investigated using the total electron content (TEC from the global ionosphere map (GIM. We analyze the possible causes of the ionospheric anomalies based on the space environment and magnetic field status. Results show that some anomalies are related to the earthquakes. By analyzing the time of occurrence, duration, and spatial distribution of these ionospheric anomalies, a number of new conclusions are drawn, as follows: earthquake-related ionospheric anomalies are not bound to appear; both positive and negative anomalies are likely to occur; and the earthquake-related ionospheric anomalies discussed in the current study occurred 0–2 days before the associated earthquakes and in the afternoon to sunset (i.e. between 12:00 and 20:00 local time. Pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies occur mainly in areas near the epicenter. However, the maximum affected area in the ionosphere does not coincide with the vertical projection of the epicenter of the subsequent earthquake. The directions deviating from the epicenters do not follow a fixed rule. The corresponding ionospheric effects can also be observed in the magnetically conjugated region. However, the probability of the anomalies appearance and extent of the anomalies in the magnetically conjugated region are smaller than the anomalies near the epicenter. Deep-focus earthquakes may also exhibit very significant pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies.

  14. Earthquake engineering development before and after the March 4, 1977, Vrancea, Romania earthquake

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Georgescu, E.-S.

    2002-01-01

    At 25 years since the of the Vrancea earthquake of March, 4th 1977, we can analyze in an open and critical way its impact on the evolution of earthquake engineering codes and protection policies in Romania. The earthquake (M G-R = 7.2; M w = 7.5), produced 1,570 casualties and more than 11,300 injured persons (90% of the victims in Bucharest), seismic losses were estimated at more then USD 2 billions. The 1977 earthquake represented a significant episode of XXth century in seismic zones of Romania and neighboring countries. The INCERC seismic record of March 4, 1977 put, for the first time, in evidence the spectral content of long period seismic motions of Vrancea earthquakes, the duration, the number of cycles and values of actual accelerations, with important effects of overloading upon flexible structures. The seismic coefficients k s , the spectral curve (the dynamic coefficient β r ) and the seismic zonation map, the requirements in the antiseismic design norms were drastically, changed while the microzonation maps of the time ceased to be used, and the specific Vrancea earthquake recurrence was reconsidered based on hazard studies Thus, the paper emphasises: - the existing engineering knowledge, earthquake code and zoning maps requirements until 1977 as well as seismology and structural lessons since 1977; - recent aspects of implementing of the Earthquake Code P.100/1992 and harmonization with Eurocodes, in conjunction with the specific of urban and rural seismic risk and enforcing policies on strengthening of existing buildings; - a strategic view of disaster prevention, using earthquake scenarios and loss assessments, insurance, earthquake education and training; - the need of a closer transfer of knowledge between seismologists, engineers and officials in charge with disaster prevention public policies. (author)

  15. Connecting slow earthquakes to huge earthquakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Obara, Kazushige; Kato, Aitaro

    2016-07-15

    Slow earthquakes are characterized by a wide spectrum of fault slip behaviors and seismic radiation patterns that differ from those of traditional earthquakes. However, slow earthquakes and huge megathrust earthquakes can have common slip mechanisms and are located in neighboring regions of the seismogenic zone. The frequent occurrence of slow earthquakes may help to reveal the physics underlying megathrust events as useful analogs. Slow earthquakes may function as stress meters because of their high sensitivity to stress changes in the seismogenic zone. Episodic stress transfer to megathrust source faults leads to an increased probability of triggering huge earthquakes if the adjacent locked region is critically loaded. Careful and precise monitoring of slow earthquakes may provide new information on the likelihood of impending huge earthquakes. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  16. Connecting slow earthquakes to huge earthquakes

    OpenAIRE

    Obara, Kazushige; Kato, Aitaro

    2016-01-01

    Slow earthquakes are characterized by a wide spectrum of fault slip behaviors and seismic radiation patterns that differ from those of traditional earthquakes. However, slow earthquakes and huge megathrust earthquakes can have common slip mechanisms and are located in neighboring regions of the seismogenic zone. The frequent occurrence of slow earthquakes may help to reveal the physics underlying megathrust events as useful analogs. Slow earthquakes may function as stress meters because of th...

  17. Natural Time, Nowcasting and the Physics of Earthquakes: Estimation of Seismic Risk to Global Megacities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rundle, John B.; Luginbuhl, Molly; Giguere, Alexis; Turcotte, Donald L.

    2018-02-01

    Natural Time ("NT") refers to the concept of using small earthquake counts, for example of M > 3 events, to mark the intervals between large earthquakes, for example M > 6 events. The term was first used by Varotsos et al. (2005) and later by Holliday et al. (2006) in their studies of earthquakes. In this paper, we discuss ideas and applications arising from the use of NT to understand earthquake dynamics, in particular by use of the idea of nowcasting. Nowcasting differs from forecasting, in that the goal of nowcasting is to estimate the current state of the system, rather than the probability of a future event. Rather than focus on an individual earthquake faults, we focus on a defined local geographic region surrounding a particular location. This local region is considered to be embedded in a larger regional setting from which we accumulate the relevant statistics. We apply the nowcasting idea to the practical development of methods to estimate the current state of risk for dozens of the world's seismically exposed megacities, defined as cities having populations of over 1 million persons. We compute a ranking of these cities based on their current nowcast value, and discuss the advantages and limitations of this approach. We note explicitly that the nowcast method is not a model, in that there are no free parameters to be fit to data. Rather, the method is simply a presentation of statistical data, which the user can interpret. Among other results, we find, for example, that the current nowcast ranking of the Los Angeles region is comparable to its ranking just prior to the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake.

  18. Some performance measures for vacation models with a batch Markovian arrival process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sadrac K. Matendo

    1994-01-01

    Full Text Available We consider a single server infinite capacity queueing system, where the arrival process is a batch Markovian arrival process (BMAP. Particular BMAPs are the batch Poisson arrival process, the Markovian arrival process (MAP, many batch arrival processes with correlated interarrival times and batch sizes, and superpositions of these processes. We note that the MAP includes phase-type (PH renewal processes and non-renewal processes such as the Markov modulated Poisson process (MMPP.

  19. Augmented Lagrange Programming Neural Network for Localization Using Time-Difference-of-Arrival Measurements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Zifa; Leung, Chi Sing; So, Hing Cheung; Constantinides, Anthony George

    2017-08-15

    A commonly used measurement model for locating a mobile source is time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA). As each TDOA measurement defines a hyperbola, it is not straightforward to compute the mobile source position due to the nonlinear relationship in the measurements. This brief exploits the Lagrange programming neural network (LPNN), which provides a general framework to solve nonlinear constrained optimization problems, for the TDOA-based localization. The local stability of the proposed LPNN solution is also analyzed. Simulation results are included to evaluate the localization accuracy of the LPNN scheme by comparing with the state-of-the-art methods and the optimality benchmark of Cramér-Rao lower bound.

  20. New geological perspectives on earthquake recurrence models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwartz, D.P.

    1997-01-01

    In most areas of the world the record of historical seismicity is too short or uncertain to accurately characterize the future distribution of earthquakes of different sizes in time and space. Most faults have not ruptured once, let alone repeatedly. Ultimately, the ability to correctly forecast the magnitude, location, and probability of future earthquakes depends on how well one can quantify the past behavior of earthquake sources. Paleoseismological trenching of active faults, historical surface ruptures, liquefaction features, and shaking-induced ground deformation structures provides fundamental information on the past behavior of earthquake sources. These studies quantify (a) the timing of individual past earthquakes and fault slip rates, which lead to estimates of recurrence intervals and the development of recurrence models and (b) the amount of displacement during individual events, which allows estimates of the sizes of past earthquakes on a fault. When timing and slip per event are combined with information on fault zone geometry and structure, models that define individual rupture segments can be developed. Paleoseismicity data, in the form of timing and size of past events, provide a window into the driving mechanism of the earthquake engine--the cycle of stress build-up and release

  1. Bunch arrival time monitors; Concepts towards improving the sensitivity for low charge operation for FLASH II and XFEL

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Penirschke, Andreas; Angelovski, Aleksandar; Jakoby, Rolf [TU Darmstadt, Institut fuer Mikrowellentechnik und Photonik, Merckstr. 25, 64283 Darmstadt (Germany); Sydlo, Cezary; Bousonville, Michael; Czwalinna, Marie Kristin; Schlarb, Holger [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Kuhl, Alexander [University of Hamburg, Physics Department, Accelerator Physics Group (Germany); Weiland, Thomas [Technische Univ. Darmstadt (Germany). Inst. fuer Theorie Elektromagnetischer Felder

    2013-07-01

    High gain Free-Electron Lasers can generate ultra short X-ray pulses in the femtosecond range. For a stable operation of the FEL, the precise knowledge of the bunch arrival time is crucial. A novel high bandwidth Bunch Arrival time Monitor was recently installed at FLASH to allow a low charge operation mode with a sub-10 fs resolution for bunch charges of 20 pC or more. The BAM is equipped with cone shaped pickups for the precise measurement of both, the high and low bunch charge operation mode. For the extension of FLASH facility to FLASH II new pickups for the high bandwidth BAMs need to be developed. The new BAM needs to maximize the voltage level of the beam induced signal for low charge operation mode in order to provide sufficient signal strength for the subsequent electronics. In this talk, we present concepts to improve the signal strength at the electro-optic modulators for low charge operation at FLASH II and XFEL.

  2. Angle of arrival estimation using spectral interferometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barber, Z.W.; Harrington, C.; Thiel, C.W.; Babbitt, W.R.; Krishna Mohan, R.

    2010-01-01

    We have developed a correlative signal processing concept based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and spatial-spectral (S2) materials that enables direct mapping of RF spectral phase as well as power spectral recording. This configuration can be used for precise frequency resolved time delay estimation between signals received by a phased antenna array system that in turn could be utilized to estimate the angle of arrival. We present an analytical theoretical model and a proof-of-principle demonstration of the concept of time difference of arrival estimation with a cryogenically cooled Tm:YAG crystal that operates on microwave signals modulated onto a stabilized optical carrier at 793 nm.

  3. Angle of arrival estimation using spectral interferometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barber, Z.W.; Harrington, C.; Thiel, C.W.; Babbitt, W.R. [Spectrum Lab, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717 (United States); Krishna Mohan, R., E-mail: krishna@spectrum.montana.ed [Spectrum Lab, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717 (United States)

    2010-09-15

    We have developed a correlative signal processing concept based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and spatial-spectral (S2) materials that enables direct mapping of RF spectral phase as well as power spectral recording. This configuration can be used for precise frequency resolved time delay estimation between signals received by a phased antenna array system that in turn could be utilized to estimate the angle of arrival. We present an analytical theoretical model and a proof-of-principle demonstration of the concept of time difference of arrival estimation with a cryogenically cooled Tm:YAG crystal that operates on microwave signals modulated onto a stabilized optical carrier at 793 nm.

  4. Continuous micro-earthquake catalogue of the central Southern Alps, New Zealand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michailos, Konstantinos; Townend, John; Savage, Martha; Chamberlain, Calum

    2017-04-01

    The Alpine Fault is one of the most prominent tectonic features in the South Island, New Zealand, and is inferred to be late in its seismic cycle of M 8 earthquakes based on paleoseismological evidence. Despite this, the Alpine Fault displays low levels of contemporary seismic activity, with little documented on-fault seismicity. This low magnitude seismicity, often below the completeness level of the GeoNet national seismic catalogue, may inform us of changes in fault character along-strike and might be used for rupture simulations and hazard planning. Thus, compiling a micro-earthquake catalogue for the Southern Alps prior to an expected major earthquake is of great interest. Areas of low seismic activity, like the central part of the Alpine Fault, require data recorded over a long duration to reveal temporal and spatial seismicity patterns and provide a better understanding for the processes controlling seismogenesis. The continuity and density of the Southern Alps Microearthquake Borehole Array (SAMBA; deployed in late 2008) allows us to study seismicity in the Southern Alps over a more extended time period than has ever been done previously. Furthermore, by using data from other temporary networks (e.g. WIZARD, ALFA08, DFDP-10) we are able to extend the region covered. To generate a spatially and temporally continuous catalogue of seismicity in New Zealand's central Southern Alps, we used automatic detection and phase-picking methods. We used an automatic phase-picking method for both P- and S- wave arrivals (kPick; Rawles and Thurber, 2015). Using almost 8 years of seismic data we calculated about 9,000 preliminary earthquake. The seismicity is clustered and scattered and a previously observed seismic gap between the Wanganui and Whataroa rivers is also identified.

  5. Knowledge-based scheduling of arrival aircraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krzeczowski, K.; Davis, T.; Erzberger, H.; Lev-Ram, I.; Bergh, C.

    1995-01-01

    A knowledge-based method for scheduling arrival aircraft in the terminal area has been implemented and tested in real-time simulation. The scheduling system automatically sequences, assigns landing times, and assigns runways to arrival aircraft by utilizing continuous updates of aircraft radar data and controller inputs. The scheduling algorithms is driven by a knowledge base which was obtained in over two thousand hours of controller-in-the-loop real-time simulation. The knowledge base contains a series of hierarchical 'rules' and decision logic that examines both performance criteria, such as delay reduction, as well as workload reduction criteria, such as conflict avoidance. The objective of the algorithms is to devise an efficient plan to land the aircraft in a manner acceptable to the air traffic controllers. This paper will describe the scheduling algorithms, give examples of their use, and present data regarding their potential benefits to the air traffic system.

  6. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's Response to the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weinstein, S. A.; Becker, N. C.; Shiro, B.; Koyanagi, K. K.; Sardina, V.; Walsh, D.; Wang, D.; McCreery, C. S.; Fryer, G. J.; Cessaro, R. K.; Hirshorn, B. F.; Hsu, V.

    2011-12-01

    The largest Pacific basin earthquake in 47 years, and also the largest magnitude earthquake since the Sumatra 2004 earthquake, struck off of the east coast of the Tohoku region of Honshu, Japan at 5:46 UTC on 11 March 2011. The Tohoku earthquake (Mw 9.0) generated a massive tsunami with runups of up to 40m along the Tohoku coast. The tsunami waves crossed the Pacific Ocean causing significant damage as far away as Hawaii, California, and Chile, thereby becoming the largest, most destructive tsunami in the Pacific Basin since 1960. Triggers on the seismic stations at Erimo, Hokkaido (ERM) and Matsushiro, Honshu (MAJO), alerted Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) scientists 90 seconds after the earthquake began. Four minutes after its origin, and about one minute after the earthquake's rupture ended, PTWC issued an observatory message reporting a preliminary magnitude of 7.5. Eight minutes after origin time, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued its first international tsunami message in its capacity as the Northwest Pacific Tsunami Advisory Center. In accordance with international tsunami warning system protocols, PTWC then followed with its first international tsunami warning message using JMA's earthquake parameters, including an Mw of 7.8. Additional Mwp, mantle wave, and W-phase magnitude estimations based on the analysis of later-arriving seismic data at PTWC revealed that the earthquake magnitude reached at least 8.8, and that a destructive tsunami would likely be crossing the Pacific Ocean. The earthquake damaged the nearest coastal sea-level station located 90 km from the epicenter in Ofunato, Japan. The NOAA DART sensor situated 600 km off the coast of Sendai, Japan, at a depth of 5.6 km recorded a tsunami wave amplitude of nearly two meters, making it by far the largest tsunami wave ever recorded by a DART sensor. Thirty minutes later, a coastal sea-level station at Hanasaki, Japan, 600 km from the epicenter, recorded a tsunami wave amplitude of

  7. Regional seismic-wave propagation from the M5.8 23 August 2011, Mineral, Virginia, earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pollitz, Fred; Mooney, Walter D.

    2015-01-01

    The M5.8 23 August 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake was felt over nearly the entire eastern United States and was recorded by a wide array of seismic broadband instruments. The earthquake occurred ~200 km southeast of the boundary between two distinct geologic belts, the Piedmont and Blue Ridge terranes to the southeast and the Valley and Ridge Province to the northwest. At a dominant period of 3 s, coherent postcritical P-wave (i.e., direct longitudinal waves trapped in the crustal waveguide) arrivals persist to a much greater distance for propagation paths toward the northwest quadrant than toward other directions; this is probably related to the relatively high crustal thickness beneath and west of the Appalachian Mountains. The seismic surface-wave arrivals comprise two distinct classes: those with weakly dispersed Rayleigh waves and those with strongly dispersed Rayleigh waves. We attribute the character of Rayleigh wave arrivals in the first class to wave propagation through a predominantly crystalline crust (Blue Ridge Mountains and Piedmont terranes) with a relatively thin veneer of sedimentary rock, whereas the temporal extent of the Rayleigh wave arrivals in the second class are well explained as the effect of the thick sedimentary cover of the Valley and Ridge Province and adjacent Appalachian Plateau province to its northwest. Broadband surface-wave ground velocity is amplified along both north-northwest and northeast azimuths from the Mineral, Virginia, source. The former may arise from lateral focusing effects arising from locally thick sedimentary cover in the Appalachian Basin, and the latter may result from directivity effects due to a northeast rupture propagation along the finite fault plane.

  8. Microearthquake detection at 2012 M4.9 Qiaojia earthquake source area , the north of the Xiaojiang Fault in Yunnan, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Y.; Yang, H.; Zhou, S.; Yan, C.

    2016-12-01

    We perform a comprehensive analysis in Yunnan area based on continuous seismic data of 38 stations of Qiaojia Network in Xiaojiang Fault from 2012.3 to 2015.2. We use an effective method: Match and Locate (M&L, Zhang&Wen, 2015) to detect and locate microearthquakes to conduct our research. We first study dynamic triggering around the Xiaojiang Fault in Yunnan. The triggered earthquakes are identified as two impulsive seismic arrivals in 2Hz-highpass-filtered velocity seismograms during the passage of surface waves of large teleseismic earthquakes. We only find two earthquakes that may have triggered regional earthquakes through inspecting their spectrograms: Mexico Mw7.4 earthquake in 03/20/2012 and El Salvador Mw7.3 earthquake in 10/14/2014. To confirm the two earthquakes are triggered instead of coincidence, we use M&L to search if there are any repeating earthquakes. The result of the coefficients shows that it is a coincidence during the surface waves of El Salvador earthquake and whether 2012 Mexico have triggered earthquake is under discussion. We then visually inspect the 2-8Hz-bandpass-filterd velocity envelopes of these years to search for non-volcanic tremor. We haven't detected any signals similar to non-volcanic tremors yet. In the following months, we are going to study the 2012 M4.9 Qiaojia earthquake. It occurred only 30km west of the epicenter of the 2014 M6.5 Ludian earthquake. We use Match and Locate (M&L) technique to detect and relocate microearthquakes that occurred 2 days before and 3 days after the mainshock. Through this, we could obtain several times more events than listed in the catalogs provided by NEIC and reduce the magnitude of completeness Mc. We will also detect microearthquakes along Xiaojiang Fault using template earthquakes listed in the catalogs to learn more about fault shape and other properties of Xiaojiang Fault. Analyzing seismicity near Xiaojiang Fault systematically may cast insight on our understanding of the features of

  9. Earthquake Early Warning: Real-time Testing of an On-site Method Using Waveform Data from the Southern California Seismic Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solanki, K.; Hauksson, E.; Kanamori, H.; Wu, Y.; Heaton, T.; Boese, M.

    2007-12-01

    We have implemented an on-site early warning algorithm using the infrastructure of the Caltech/USGS Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN). We are evaluating the real-time performance of the software system and the algorithm for rapid assessment of earthquakes. In addition, we are interested in understanding what parts of the SCSN need to be improved to make early warning practical. Our EEW processing system is composed of many independent programs that process waveforms in real-time. The codes were generated by using a software framework. The Pd (maximum displacement amplitude of P wave during the first 3sec) and Tau-c (a period parameter during the first 3 sec) values determined during the EEW processing are being forwarded to the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) web page for independent evaluation of the results. The on-site algorithm measures the amplitude of the P-wave (Pd) and the frequency content of the P-wave during the first three seconds (Tau-c). The Pd and the Tau-c values make it possible to discriminate between a variety of events such as large distant events, nearby small events, and potentially damaging nearby events. The Pd can be used to infer the expected maximum ground shaking. The method relies on data from a single station although it will become more reliable if readings from several stations are associated. To eliminate false triggers from stations with high background noise level, we have created per station Pd threshold configuration for the Pd/Tau-c algorithm. To determine appropriate values for the Pd threshold we calculate Pd thresholds for stations based on the information from the EEW logs. We have operated our EEW test system for about a year and recorded numerous earthquakes in the magnitude range from M3 to M5. Two recent examples are a M4.5 earthquake near Chatsworth and a M4.7 earthquake near Elsinore. In both cases, the Pd and Tau-c parameters were determined successfully within 10 to 20 sec of the arrival of the

  10. Slab Geometry and Deformation in the Northern Nazca Subduction Zone Inferred From The Relocation and Focal mechanisms of Intermediate-Depth Earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Y.; Warren, L. M.; Prieto, G. A.

    2015-12-01

    In the northern Nazca subduction zone, the Nazca plate is subducting to the east beneath the South American Plate. At ~5.6ºN, the subducting plate has a 240-km east-west offset associated with a slab tear, called the Caldas tear, that separates the northern and southern segments. Our study seeks to better define the slab geometry and deformation in the southern segment, which has a high rate of intermediate-depth earthquakes (50-300 km) between 3.6ºN and 5.2ºN in the Cauca cluster. From Jan 2010 to Mar 2014, 228 intermediate-depth earthquakes in the Cauca cluster with local magnitude Ml 2.5-4.7 were recorded by 65 seismic stations of the Colombian National Seismic Network. We review and, if necessary, adjust the catalog P and S wave arrival picks. We use the travel times to relocate the earthquakes using a double difference relocation method. For earthquakes with Ml ≥3.8, we also use waveform modeling to compute moment tensors . The distribution of earthquake relocations shows an ~15-km-thick slab dipping to the SE. The dip angle increases from 20º at the northern edge of the cluster to 38º at the southern edge. Two concentrated groups of earthquakes extend ~40 km vertically above the general downdip trend, with a 20 km quiet gap between them at ~100 km depth. The earthquakes in the general downdip seismic zone have downdip compressional axes, while earthquakes close to the quiet gap and in the concentrated groups have an oblique component. The general decrease in slab dip angle to the north may be caused by mantle flow through the Caldas tear. The seismicity gap in the slab may be associated with an active deformation zone and the concentrated groups of earthquakes with oblique focal mechanisms could be due to a slab fold.

  11. Joint inversion of GNSS and teleseismic data for the rupture process of the 2017 M w6.5 Jiuzhaigou, China, earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Qi; Tan, Kai; Wang, Dong Zhen; Zhao, Bin; Zhang, Rui; Li, Yu; Qi, Yu Jie

    2018-05-01

    The spatio-temporal slip distribution of the earthquake that occurred on 8 August 2017 in Jiuzhaigou, China, was estimated from the teleseismic body wave and near-field Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data (coseismic displacements and high-rate GPS data) based on a finite fault model. Compared with the inversion results from the teleseismic body waves, the near-field GNSS data can better restrain the rupture area, the maximum slip, the source time function, and the surface rupture. The results show that the maximum slip of the earthquake approaches 1.4 m, the scalar seismic moment is 8.0 × 1018 N·m ( M w ≈ 6.5), and the centroid depth is 15 km. The slip is mainly driven by the left-lateral strike-slip and it is initially inferred that the seismogenic fault occurs in the south branch of the Tazang fault or an undetectable fault, a NW-trending left-lateral strike-slip fault, and belongs to one of the tail structures at the easternmost end of the eastern Kunlun fault zone. The earthquake rupture is mainly concentrated at depths of 5-15 km, which results in the complete rupture of the seismic gap left by the previous four earthquakes with magnitudes > 6.0 in 1973 and 1976. Therefore, the possibility of a strong aftershock on the Huya fault is low. The source duration is 30 s and there are two major ruptures. The main rupture occurs in the first 10 s, 4 s after the earthquake; the second rupture peak arrives in 17 s. In addition, the Coulomb stress study shows that the epicenter of the earthquake is located in the area where the static Coulomb stress change increased because of the 12 May 2017 M w7.9 Wenchuan, China, earthquake. Therefore, the Wenchuan earthquake promoted the occurrence of the 8 August 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake.

  12. Historic Eastern Canadian earthquakes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asmis, G.J.K.; Atchinson, R.J.

    1981-01-01

    Nuclear power plants licensed in Canada have been designed to resist earthquakes: not all plants, however, have been explicitly designed to the same level of earthquake induced forces. Understanding the nature of strong ground motion near the source of the earthquake is still very tentative. This paper reviews historical and scientific accounts of the three strongest earthquakes - St. Lawrence (1925), Temiskaming (1935), Cornwall (1944) - that have occurred in Canada in 'modern' times, field studies of near-field strong ground motion records and their resultant damage or non-damage to industrial facilities, and numerical modelling of earthquake sources and resultant wave propagation to produce accelerograms consistent with the above historical record and field studies. It is concluded that for future construction of NPP's near-field strong motion must be explicitly considered in design

  13. Method for forecasting an earthquake from precursor signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farnworth, D.F.

    1996-01-01

    A method for forecasting an earthquake from precursor signals by employing characteristic first electromagnetic signals, second, seismically induced electromagnetic signals, seismically induced mechanical signals, and infrasonic acoustic signals which have been observed to precede an earthquake. From a first electromagnetic signal, a magnitude, depth beneath the surface of the earth, distance, latitude, longitude, and first and second forecasts of the time of occurrence of the impending earthquake may be derived. From a second, seismically induced electromagnetic signal and the mechanical signal, third and fourth forecasts of the time of occurrence of an impending earthquake determined from the analysis above, a magnitude, depth beneath the surface of the earth and fourth and fifth forecasts of the time of occurrence of the impending earthquake may be derived. The forecasts of time available from the above analyses range from up to five weeks to substantially within one hour in advance of the earthquake. (author)

  14. Locating Microseism Sources Using Spurious Arrivals in Intercontinental Noise Correlations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Retailleau, Lise; Boué, Pierre; Stehly, Laurent; Campillo, Michel

    2017-10-01

    The accuracy of Green's functions retrieved from seismic noise correlations in the microseism frequency band is limited by the uneven distribution of microseism sources at the surface of the Earth. As a result, correlation functions are often biased as compared to the expected Green's functions, and they can include spurious arrivals. These spurious arrivals are seismic arrivals that are visible on the correlation and do not belong to the theoretical impulse response. In this article, we propose to use Rayleigh wave spurious arrivals detected on correlation functions computed between European and United States seismic stations to locate microseism sources in the Atlantic Ocean. We perform a slant stack on a time distance gather of correlations obtained from an array of stations that comprises a regional deployment and a distant station. The arrival times and the apparent slowness of the spurious arrivals lead to the location of their source, which is obtained through a grid search procedure. We discuss improvements in the location through this methodology as compared to classical back projection of microseism energy. This method is interesting because it only requires an array and a distant station on each side of an ocean, conditions that can be met relatively easily.

  15. Improvement to Airport Throughput Using Intelligent Arrival Scheduling and an Expanded Planning Horizon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glaab, Patricia C.

    2012-01-01

    The first phase of this study investigated the amount of time a flight can be delayed or expedited within the Terminal Airspace using only speed changes. The Arrival Capacity Calculator analysis tool was used to predict the time adjustment envelope for standard descent arrivals and then for CDA arrivals. Results ranged from 0.77 to 5.38 minutes. STAR routes were configured for the ACES simulation, and a validation of the ACC results was conducted comparing the maximum predicted time adjustments to those seen in ACES. The final phase investigated full runway-to-runway trajectories using ACES. The radial distance used by the arrival scheduler was incrementally increased from 50 to 150 nautical miles (nmi). The increased Planning Horizon radii allowed the arrival scheduler to arrange, path stretch, and speed-adjust flights to more fully load the arrival stream. The average throughput for the high volume portion of the day increased from 30 aircraft per runway for the 50 nmi radius to 40 aircraft per runway for the 150 nmi radius for a traffic set representative of high volume 2018. The recommended radius for the arrival scheduler s Planning Horizon was found to be 130 nmi, which allowed more than 95% loading of the arrival stream.

  16. Earthquake casualty models within the USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaiswal, Kishor; Wald, David J.; Earle, Paul S.; Porter, Keith A.; Hearne, Mike

    2011-01-01

    Since the launch of the USGS’s Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system in fall of 2007, the time needed for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to determine and comprehend the scope of any major earthquake disaster anywhere in the world has been dramatically reduced to less than 30 min. PAGER alerts consist of estimated shaking hazard from the ShakeMap system, estimates of population exposure at various shaking intensities, and a list of the most severely shaken cities in the epicentral area. These estimates help government, scientific, and relief agencies to guide their responses in the immediate aftermath of a significant earthquake. To account for wide variability and uncertainty associated with inventory, structural vulnerability and casualty data, PAGER employs three different global earthquake fatality/loss computation models. This article describes the development of the models and demonstrates the loss estimation capability for earthquakes that have occurred since 2007. The empirical model relies on country-specific earthquake loss data from past earthquakes and makes use of calibrated casualty rates for future prediction. The semi-empirical and analytical models are engineering-based and rely on complex datasets including building inventories, time-dependent population distributions within different occupancies, the vulnerability of regional building stocks, and casualty rates given structural collapse.

  17. Time-lapse changes in velocity and anisotropy in Japan's near surface after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snieder, R.; Nakata, N.

    2012-12-01

    A strong-motion recording network, KiK-net, helps us to monitor temporal changes in the near surface in Japan. Each KiK-net station has two seismometers at the free surface and in a borehole a few hundred meters deep, and we can retrieve a traveling wave from the borehole receiver to the surface receiver by applying deconvolution based seismic interferometry. KiK-net recorded the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, which is one of the largest earthquakes in recent history, and seismicity around the time of the main shock. Using records of these seismicity and computing mean values of near-surface shear-wave velocities in the periods of January 1--March 10 and March 12--May 26 in 2011, we detect about a 5% reduction in the velocity after the Tohoku earthquake. The area of the velocity reduction is about 1,200 km wide, which is much wider than earlier studies reporting velocity reductions after larger earthquakes. The reduction partly recovers with time. We can also estimate the azimuthal anisotropy by detecting shear-wave splitting after applying seismic interferometry. Estimating mean values over the same periods as the velocity, we find the strength of anisotropy increased in most parts of northeastern Japan, but fast shear-wave polarization directions in the near surface did not significantly change. The changes in anisotropy and velocity are generally correlated, especially in the northeastern Honshu (the main island in Japan).

  18. Overestimation of the earthquake hazard along the Himalaya: constraints in bracketing of medieval earthquakes from paleoseismic studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arora, Shreya; Malik, Javed N.

    2017-12-01

    The Himalaya is one of the most seismically active regions of the world. The occurrence of several large magnitude earthquakes viz. 1905 Kangra earthquake (Mw 7.8), 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake (Mw 8.2), 1950 Assam earthquake (Mw 8.4), 2005 Kashmir (Mw 7.6), and 2015 Gorkha (Mw 7.8) are the testimony to ongoing tectonic activity. In the last few decades, tremendous efforts have been made along the Himalayan arc to understand the patterns of earthquake occurrences, size, extent, and return periods. Some of the large magnitude earthquakes produced surface rupture, while some remained blind. Furthermore, due to the incompleteness of the earthquake catalogue, a very few events can be correlated with medieval earthquakes. Based on the existing paleoseismic data certainly, there exists a complexity to precisely determine the extent of surface rupture of these earthquakes and also for those events, which occurred during historic times. In this paper, we have compiled the paleo-seismological data and recalibrated the radiocarbon ages from the trenches excavated by previous workers along the entire Himalaya and compared earthquake scenario with the past. Our studies suggest that there were multiple earthquake events with overlapping surface ruptures in small patches with an average rupture length of 300 km limiting Mw 7.8-8.0 for the Himalayan arc, rather than two or three giant earthquakes rupturing the whole front. It has been identified that the large magnitude Himalayan earthquakes, such as 1905 Kangra, 1934 Bihar-Nepal, and 1950 Assam, that have occurred within a time frame of 45 years. Now, if these events are dated, there is a high possibility that within the range of ±50 years, they may be considered as the remnant of one giant earthquake rupturing the entire Himalayan arc. Therefore, leading to an overestimation of seismic hazard scenario in Himalaya.

  19. OMG Earthquake! Can Twitter improve earthquake response?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Earle, P. S.; Guy, M.; Ostrum, C.; Horvath, S.; Buckmaster, R. A.

    2009-12-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is investigating how the social networking site Twitter, a popular service for sending and receiving short, public, text messages, can augment its earthquake response products and the delivery of hazard information. The goal is to gather near real-time, earthquake-related messages (tweets) and provide geo-located earthquake detections and rough maps of the corresponding felt areas. Twitter and other social Internet technologies are providing the general public with anecdotal earthquake hazard information before scientific information has been published from authoritative sources. People local to an event often publish information within seconds via these technologies. In contrast, depending on the location of the earthquake, scientific alerts take between 2 to 20 minutes. Examining the tweets following the March 30, 2009, M4.3 Morgan Hill earthquake shows it is possible (in some cases) to rapidly detect and map the felt area of an earthquake using Twitter responses. Within a minute of the earthquake, the frequency of “earthquake” tweets rose above the background level of less than 1 per hour to about 150 per minute. Using the tweets submitted in the first minute, a rough map of the felt area can be obtained by plotting the tweet locations. Mapping the tweets from the first six minutes shows observations extending from Monterey to Sacramento, similar to the perceived shaking region mapped by the USGS “Did You Feel It” system. The tweets submitted after the earthquake also provided (very) short first-impression narratives from people who experienced the shaking. Accurately assessing the potential and robustness of a Twitter-based system is difficult because only tweets spanning the previous seven days can be searched, making a historical study impossible. We have, however, been archiving tweets for several months, and it is clear that significant limitations do exist. The main drawback is the lack of quantitative information

  20. The HayWired Earthquake Scenario—Earthquake Hazards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Detweiler, Shane T.; Wein, Anne M.

    2017-04-24

    The HayWired scenario is a hypothetical earthquake sequence that is being used to better understand hazards for the San Francisco Bay region during and after an earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Hayward Fault. The 2014 Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities calculated that there is a 33-percent likelihood of a large (magnitude 6.7 or greater) earthquake occurring on the Hayward Fault within three decades. A large Hayward Fault earthquake will produce strong ground shaking, permanent displacement of the Earth’s surface, landslides, liquefaction (soils becoming liquid-like during shaking), and subsequent fault slip, known as afterslip, and earthquakes, known as aftershocks. The most recent large earthquake on the Hayward Fault occurred on October 21, 1868, and it ruptured the southern part of the fault. The 1868 magnitude-6.8 earthquake occurred when the San Francisco Bay region had far fewer people, buildings, and infrastructure (roads, communication lines, and utilities) than it does today, yet the strong ground shaking from the earthquake still caused significant building damage and loss of life. The next large Hayward Fault earthquake is anticipated to affect thousands of structures and disrupt the lives of millions of people. Earthquake risk in the San Francisco Bay region has been greatly reduced as a result of previous concerted efforts; for example, tens of billions of dollars of investment in strengthening infrastructure was motivated in large part by the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake. To build on efforts to reduce earthquake risk in the San Francisco Bay region, the HayWired earthquake scenario comprehensively examines the earthquake hazards to help provide the crucial scientific information that the San Francisco Bay region can use to prepare for the next large earthquake, The HayWired Earthquake Scenario—Earthquake Hazards volume describes the strong ground shaking modeled in the scenario and the hazardous movements of

  1. Seismicity map tools for earthquake studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boucouvalas, Anthony; Kaskebes, Athanasios; Tselikas, Nikos

    2014-05-01

    We report on the development of new and online set of tools for use within Google Maps, for earthquake research. We demonstrate this server based and online platform (developped with PHP, Javascript, MySQL) with the new tools using a database system with earthquake data. The platform allows us to carry out statistical and deterministic analysis on earthquake data use of Google Maps and plot various seismicity graphs. The tool box has been extended to draw on the map line segments, multiple straight lines horizontally and vertically as well as multiple circles, including geodesic lines. The application is demonstrated using localized seismic data from the geographic region of Greece as well as other global earthquake data. The application also offers regional segmentation (NxN) which allows the studying earthquake clustering, and earthquake cluster shift within the segments in space. The platform offers many filters such for plotting selected magnitude ranges or time periods. The plotting facility allows statistically based plots such as cumulative earthquake magnitude plots and earthquake magnitude histograms, calculation of 'b' etc. What is novel for the platform is the additional deterministic tools. Using the newly developed horizontal and vertical line and circle tools we have studied the spatial distribution trends of many earthquakes and we here show for the first time the link between Fibonacci Numbers and spatiotemporal location of some earthquakes. The new tools are valuable for examining visualizing trends in earthquake research as it allows calculation of statistics as well as deterministic precursors. We plan to show many new results based on our newly developed platform.

  2. Systematic Analysis of Dynamic Earthquake Triggering Using the EarthScope's USArray Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerda, I.; Gonzalez-Huizar, H.; Velasco, A. A.; Kilb, D. L.; Pankow, K. L.

    2011-12-01

    Advances are continually made in our understanding of the physics governing earthquake triggering, yet many questions remain. Here, we investigate if there exists a minimum dynamic stress threshold (i.e., in amplitude, frequency or both) required to trigger remote earthquakes using data collected by >400 stations in EarthScope's USArray Transportable Array (USArray TA) network, supplemented by data from ~100 local seismic network stations when available. We also assess if remote triggering is enhanced if the orientation of the passing seismic waves aligns favorably with the local stress field and/or orientation of faults in the local triggered region. The uniform spacing of the USArray TA stations across the contiguous USA allows us to examine these types of characteristics of remote triggering within a variety of tectonic provinces, background seismicity rates, and within regions of both documented cases of triggered earthquakes and areas of no known triggered earthquakes. Our work focuses on assessing remote triggering capabilities of two teleseismic megatrust events (Japan M=9.0 2011 and Chile M=8.8 2010) and two large regional events (Baja California M=7.2 2010 and Wells Nevada M=6.0 2008). These events provide a range of seismic wave amplitudes and orientations across the footprint of the USArray TA stations. We use the Antelope software to develop an automated detection algorithm that computes the short-term (1 s) average (STA) to long-term (10 s) average (LTA) ratio, which we apply to 5 Hz high pass filtered data. Using a threshold ratio of 3.5 we apply this algorithm to data spanning ±5 hours from the mainshock's P-wave arrival time. We find that for each of our four mainshocks our algorithm nets, on average, hundreds of detections within the 10 hour time windows. Results suggest the orientation of the passing seismic waves can play a role in the high (or low) number of detections in select regions (e.g., western part of Texas), but in other regions there

  3. Excel, Earthquakes, and Moneyball: exploring Cascadia earthquake probabilities using spreadsheets and baseball analogies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, M. R.; Salditch, L.; Brooks, E. M.; Stein, S.; Spencer, B. D.

    2017-12-01

    Much recent media attention focuses on Cascadia's earthquake hazard. A widely cited magazine article starts "An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when." Stories include statements like "a massive earthquake is overdue", "in the next 50 years, there is a 1-in-10 chance a "really big one" will erupt," or "the odds of the big Cascadia earthquake happening in the next fifty years are roughly one in three." These lead students to ask where the quoted probabilities come from and what they mean. These probability estimates involve two primary choices: what data are used to describe when past earthquakes happened and what models are used to forecast when future earthquakes will happen. The data come from a 10,000-year record of large paleoearthquakes compiled from subsidence data on land and turbidites, offshore deposits recording submarine slope failure. Earthquakes seem to have happened in clusters of four or five events, separated by gaps. Earthquakes within a cluster occur more frequently and regularly than in the full record. Hence the next earthquake is more likely if we assume that we are in the recent cluster that started about 1700 years ago, than if we assume the cluster is over. Students can explore how changing assumptions drastically changes probability estimates using easy-to-write and display spreadsheets, like those shown below. Insight can also come from baseball analogies. The cluster issue is like deciding whether to assume that a hitter's performance in the next game is better described by his lifetime record, or by the past few games, since he may be hitting unusually well or in a slump. The other big choice is whether to assume that the probability of an earthquake is constant with time, or is small immediately after one occurs and then grows with time. This is like whether to assume that a player's performance is the same from year to year, or changes over their career. Thus saying "the chance of

  4. Arrival and Departure Patterns of Public Sector Employees before and after Implementation of Flexitime.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ronen, Simcha

    1981-01-01

    Examined the effects of a flexible working hours schedule on the arrival and departure times of 162 public sector employees. Results indicated that workers, when scheduling their own workday, deviate only moderately from their preflexitime arrival/departure times; and they tend to develop relatively stable arrival/departure patterns. (Author/RC)

  5. GPS Time Series Analysis of Southern California Associated with the 2010 M7.2 El Mayor/Cucapah Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granat, Robert; Donnellan, Andrea

    2011-01-01

    The Magnitude 7.2 El-Mayor/Cucapah earthquake the occurred in Mexico on April 4, 2012 was well instrumented with continuous GPS stations in California. Large Offsets were observed at the GPS stations as a result of deformation from the earthquake providing information about the co-seismic fault slip as well as fault slip from large aftershocks. Information can also be obtained from the position time series at each station.

  6. Investigation of relative arrival time distributions of EAS electron and muon component with the KASCADE central detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hafemann, W.; Haeusler, R.; Rebel, H.; Mathes, H.J.

    2000-01-01

    The central detector of the KASCADE experiment is equipped with two layers of scintillation detectors with different area coverage. The scintillators of both detector systems have a good timing resolution of about 1.6 ns. With these two arrangements we performed extensive measurements of the arrival time differences at different energy thresholds of the electron and the muon component of EAS. The observed time structure of the shower profile is classified according to different EAS parameters. We furthermore present an analysis and comparism based on detailed MC simulations of the shower development. This comparism shows good agreement between experimental data and the expected behaviour of the different time distributions. (orig.)

  7. Meeting of the Central and Eastern U.S. (CEUS) Earthquake Hazards Program October 28–29, 2009

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuttle, Martitia; Boyd, Oliver; McCallister, Natasha

    2013-01-01

    On October 28th and 29th, 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program held a meeting of Central and Eastern United States investigators and interested parties in Memphis, Tennessee. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together the Central and Eastern United States earthquake-hazards community to present and discuss recent research results, to promote communication and collaboration, to garner input regarding future research priorities, to inform the community about research opportunities afforded by the 2010–2012 arrival of EarthScope/USArray in the central United States, and to discuss plans for the upcoming bicentennial of the 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes. The two-day meeting included several keynote speakers, oral and poster presentations by attendees, and breakout sessions. The meeting is summarized in this report and can be subdivided into four primary sections: (1) summaries of breakout discussion groups; (2) list of meeting participants; (3) submitted abstracts; and (4) slide presentations. The abstracts and slides are included “as submitted” by the meeting participants and have not been subject to any formal peer review process; information contained in these sections reflects the opinions of the presenter at the time of the meeting and does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.

  8. QuakeUp: An advanced tool for a network-based Earthquake Early Warning system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zollo, Aldo; Colombelli, Simona; Caruso, Alessandro; Elia, Luca; Brondi, Piero; Emolo, Antonio; Festa, Gaetano; Martino, Claudio; Picozzi, Matteo

    2017-04-01

    predicted P-wave amplitude at a dense spatial grid, including the nodes of the accelerometer/velocimeter array deployed in the earthquake source area. Within times of the order of ten seconds from the earthquake origin, the information about the area where moderate to strong ground shaking is expected to occur, can be sent to inner and outer sites, allowing the activation of emergency measurements to protect people , secure industrial facilities and optimize the site resilience after the disaster. Depending of the network density and spatial source coverage, this method naturally accounts for effects related to the earthquake rupture extent (e.g. source directivity) and spatial variability of strong ground motion related to crustal wave propagation and site amplification. In QuakeUp, the P-wave parameters are continuously measured, using progressively expanded P-wave time windows, and providing evolutionary and reliable estimates of the ground shaking distribution, especially in the case of very large events. Furthermore, to minimize the S-wave contamination on the P-wave signal portion, an efficient algorithm, based on the real-time polarization analysis of the three-component seismogram, for the automatic detection of the S-wave arrival time has been included. The final output of QuakeUp will be an automatic alert message that is transmitted to sites to be secured during the earthquake emergency. The message contains all relevant information about the expected potential damage at the site and the time available for security actions (lead-time) after the warning. A global view of the system performance during and after the event (in play-back mode) is obtained through an end-user visual display, where the most relevant pieces of information will be displayed and updated as soon as new data are available. The software platform Quake-Up is essentially aimed at improving the reliability and the accuracy in terms of parameter estimation, minimizing the uncertainties in the

  9. Time-Reversal Study of the Hemet (CA) Tremor Source

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larmat, C. S.; Johnson, P. A.; Guyer, R. A.

    2010-12-01

    Since its first observation by Nadeau & Dolenc (2005) and Gomberg et al. (2008), tremor along the San Andreas fault system is thought to be a probe into the frictional state of the deep part of the fault (e.g. Shelly et al., 2007). Tremor is associated with slow, otherwise deep, aseismic slip events that may be triggered by faint signals such as passing waves from remote earthquakes or solid Earth tides.Well resolved tremor source location is key to constrain frictional models of the fault. However, tremor source location is challenging because of the high-frequency and highly-scattered nature of tremor signal characterized by the lack of isolated phase arrivals. Time Reversal (TR) methods are emerging as a useful tool for location. The unique requirement is a good velocity model for the different time-reversed phases to arrive coherently onto the source point. We present results of location for a tremor source near the town of Hemet, CA, which was triggered by the 2002 M 7.9 Denali Fault earthquake (Gomberg et al., 2008) and by the 2009 M 6.9 Gulf of California earthquake. We performed TR in a volume model of 88 (N-S) x 70 (W-E) x 60 km (Z) using the full-wave 3D wave-propagation package SPECFEM3D (Komatitsch et al., 2002). The results for the 2009 episode indicate a deep source (at about 22km) which is about 4km SW the fault surface scarp. We perform STA/SLA and correlation analysis in order to have independent confirmation of the Hemet tremor source. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the U. S. Department of Energy through the LANL/LDRD Program for this work.

  10. Earthquake Clusters and Spatio-temporal Migration of earthquakes in Northeastern Tibetan Plateau: a Finite Element Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Y.; Luo, G.

    2017-12-01

    Seismicity in a region is usually characterized by earthquake clusters and earthquake migration along its major fault zones. However, we do not fully understand why and how earthquake clusters and spatio-temporal migration of earthquakes occur. The northeastern Tibetan Plateau is a good example for us to investigate these problems. In this study, we construct and use a three-dimensional viscoelastoplastic finite-element model to simulate earthquake cycles and spatio-temporal migration of earthquakes along major fault zones in northeastern Tibetan Plateau. We calculate stress evolution and fault interactions, and explore effects of topographic loading and viscosity of middle-lower crust and upper mantle on model results. Model results show that earthquakes and fault interactions increase Coulomb stress on the neighboring faults or segments, accelerating the future earthquakes in this region. Thus, earthquakes occur sequentially in a short time, leading to regional earthquake clusters. Through long-term evolution, stresses on some seismogenic faults, which are far apart, may almost simultaneously reach the critical state of fault failure, probably also leading to regional earthquake clusters and earthquake migration. Based on our model synthetic seismic catalog and paleoseismic data, we analyze probability of earthquake migration between major faults in northeastern Tibetan Plateau. We find that following the 1920 M 8.5 Haiyuan earthquake and the 1927 M 8.0 Gulang earthquake, the next big event (M≥7) in northeastern Tibetan Plateau would be most likely to occur on the Haiyuan fault.

  11. Electro-optic sampling at 90 degree interaction geometry for time-of-arrival stamping of ultrafast relativistic electron diffraction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. M. Scoby

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we study a new geometry setup for electro-optic sampling (EOS where the electron beam runs parallel to the ⟨110⟩ face of a ZnTe crystal and the probe laser is perpendicular to it and to the beam path. The simple setup is used to encode the time-of-arrival information of a 3.5  MeV<10  pC electron bunch on the spatial profile of the laser pulse. The electric field lines inside the dielectric bend at an angle due to a relatively large (n∼3 index of refraction of the ZnTe crystal. We found theoretically and experimentally that the EOS signal can be maximized with a proper choice of incoming laser polarization angle. We achieved single-shot nondestructive measurement of the relative time of arrival between the pump and the probe beams thus improving the temporal resolution of ultrafast relativistic electron diffraction experiments.

  12. Post-earthquake building safety inspection: Lessons from the Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquakes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marshall, J.; Jaiswal, Kishor; Gould, N.; Turner, F.; Lizundia, B.; Barnes, J.

    2013-01-01

    The authors discuss some of the unique aspects and lessons of the New Zealand post-earthquake building safety inspection program that was implemented following the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010–2011. The post-event safety assessment program was one of the largest and longest programs undertaken in recent times anywhere in the world. The effort engaged hundreds of engineering professionals throughout the country, and also sought expertise from outside, to perform post-earthquake structural safety inspections of more than 100,000 buildings in the city of Christchurch and the surrounding suburbs. While the building safety inspection procedure implemented was analogous to the ATC 20 program in the United States, many modifications were proposed and implemented in order to assess the large number of buildings that were subjected to strong and variable shaking during a period of two years. This note discusses some of the key aspects of the post-earthquake building safety inspection program and summarizes important lessons that can improve future earthquake response.

  13. Earthquake resistant design of structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Chang Geun; Kim, Gyu Seok; Lee, Dong Geun

    1990-02-01

    This book tells of occurrence of earthquake and damage analysis of earthquake, equivalent static analysis method, application of equivalent static analysis method, dynamic analysis method like time history analysis by mode superposition method and direct integration method, design spectrum analysis considering an earthquake-resistant design in Korea. Such as analysis model and vibration mode, calculation of base shear, calculation of story seismic load and combine of analysis results.

  14. Geodetic Finite-Fault-based Earthquake Early Warning Performance for Great Earthquakes Worldwide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruhl, C. J.; Melgar, D.; Grapenthin, R.; Allen, R. M.

    2017-12-01

    GNSS-based earthquake early warning (EEW) algorithms estimate fault-finiteness and unsaturated moment magnitude for the largest, most damaging earthquakes. Because large events are infrequent, algorithms are not regularly exercised and insufficiently tested on few available datasets. The Geodetic Alarm System (G-larmS) is a GNSS-based finite-fault algorithm developed as part of the ShakeAlert EEW system in the western US. Performance evaluations using synthetic earthquakes offshore Cascadia showed that G-larmS satisfactorily recovers magnitude and fault length, providing useful alerts 30-40 s after origin time and timely warnings of ground motion for onshore urban areas. An end-to-end test of the ShakeAlert system demonstrated the need for GNSS data to accurately estimate ground motions in real-time. We replay real data from several subduction-zone earthquakes worldwide to demonstrate the value of GNSS-based EEW for the largest, most damaging events. We compare predicted ground acceleration (PGA) from first-alert-solutions with those recorded in major urban areas. In addition, where applicable, we compare observed tsunami heights to those predicted from the G-larmS solutions. We show that finite-fault inversion based on GNSS-data is essential to achieving the goals of EEW.

  15. Two parallel finite queues with simultaneous services and Markovian arrivals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. R. Chakravarthy

    1997-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we consider a finite capacity single server queueing model with two buffers, A and B, of sizes K and N respectively. Messages arrive one at a time according to a Markovian arrival process. Messages that arrive at buffer A are of a different type from the messages that arrive at buffer B. Messages are processed according to the following rules: 1. When buffer A(B has a message and buffer B(A is empty, then one message from A(B is processed by the server. 2. When both buffers, A and B, have messages, then two messages, one from A and one from B, are processed simultaneously by the server. The service times are assumed to be exponentially distributed with parameters that may depend on the type of service. This queueing model is studied as a Markov process with a large state space and efficient algorithmic procedures for computing various system performance measures are given. Some numerical examples are discussed.

  16. Control and synchronisation in switched arrival systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rem, B.; Armbruster, H.D.

    2003-01-01

    A chaotic model of a production flow called the switched arrival system is extended to include switching times and maintenance. The probability distribution of the chaotic return times is calculated. Scheduling maintenance, loss of production due to switching, and control of the chaotic dynamics is

  17. Napa earthquake: An earthquake in a highly connected world

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bossu, R.; Steed, R.; Mazet-Roux, G.; Roussel, F.

    2014-12-01

    The Napa earthquake recently occurred close to Silicon Valley. This makes it a good candidate to study what social networks, wearable objects and website traffic analysis (flashsourcing) can tell us about the way eyewitnesses react to ground shaking. In the first part, we compare the ratio of people publishing tweets and with the ratio of people visiting EMSC (European Mediterranean Seismological Centre) real time information website in the first minutes following the earthquake occurrence to the results published by Jawbone, which show that the proportion of people waking up depends (naturally) on the epicentral distance. The key question to evaluate is whether the proportions of inhabitants tweeting or visiting the EMSC website are similar to the proportion of people waking up as shown by the Jawbone data. If so, this supports the premise that all methods provide a reliable image of the relative ratio of people waking up. The second part of the study focuses on the reaction time for both Twitter and EMSC website access. We show, similarly to what was demonstrated for the Mineral, Virginia, earthquake (Bossu et al., 2014), that hit times on the EMSC website follow the propagation of the P waves and that 2 minutes of website traffic is sufficient to determine the epicentral location of an earthquake on the other side of the Atlantic. We also compare with the publication time of messages on Twitter. Finally, we check whether the number of tweets and the number of visitors relative to the number of inhabitants is correlated to the local level of shaking. Together these results will tell us whether the reaction of eyewitnesses to ground shaking as observed through Twitter and the EMSC website analysis is tool specific (i.e. specific to Twitter or EMSC website) or whether they do reflect people's actual reactions.

  18. Centrality in earthquake multiplex networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lotfi, Nastaran; Darooneh, Amir Hossein; Rodrigues, Francisco A.

    2018-06-01

    Seismic time series has been mapped as a complex network, where a geographical region is divided into square cells that represent the nodes and connections are defined according to the sequence of earthquakes. In this paper, we map a seismic time series to a temporal network, described by a multiplex network, and characterize the evolution of the network structure in terms of the eigenvector centrality measure. We generalize previous works that considered the single layer representation of earthquake networks. Our results suggest that the multiplex representation captures better earthquake activity than methods based on single layer networks. We also verify that the regions with highest seismological activities in Iran and California can be identified from the network centrality analysis. The temporal modeling of seismic data provided here may open new possibilities for a better comprehension of the physics of earthquakes.

  19. Spectral encoding method for measuring the relative arrival time between x-ray/optical pulses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bionta, M. R.; Hartmann, N.; Weaver, M.; French, D.; Glownia, J. M.; Bostedt, C.; Chollet, M.; Ding, Y.; Fritz, D. M.; Fry, A. R.; Krzywinski, J.; Lemke, H. T.; Messerschmidt, M.; Schorb, S.; Zhu, D.; White, W. E.; Nicholson, D. J.; Cryan, J. P.; Baker, K.; Kane, D. J.

    2014-01-01

    The advent of few femtosecond x-ray light sources brings promise of x-ray/optical pump-probe experiments that can measure chemical and structural changes in the 10–100 fs time regime. Widely distributed timing systems used at x-ray Free-Electron Laser facilities are typically limited to above 50 fs fwhm jitter in active x-ray/optical synchronization. The approach of single-shot timing measurements is used to sort results in the event processing stage. This has seen wide use to accommodate the insufficient precision of active stabilization schemes. In this article, we review the current technique for “measure-and-sort” at the Linac Coherent Light Source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The relative arrival time between an x-ray pulse and an optical pulse is measured near the experimental interaction region as a spectrally encoded cross-correlation signal. The cross-correlation provides a time-stamp for filter-and-sort algorithms used for real-time sorting. Sub-10 fs rms resolution is common in this technique, placing timing precision at the same scale as the duration of the shortest achievable x-ray pulses

  20. Aftershock stress analysis of the April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake from the NAMASTE project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pant, M.; Velasco, A. A.; Karplus, M. S.; Patlan, E.; Ghosh, A.; Nabelek, J.; Kuna, V. M.; Sapkota, S. N.; Adhikari, L. B.; Klemperer, S. L.

    2016-12-01

    Continental collision between the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate, converging at 45 mm/yr, has uplifted the northern part of Nepal forming the Himalaya. Because of this convergence, the region has experienced large, devastating earthquakes, including the 1934 Mw 8.4 Nepal-Bihar earthquake and two recent earthquakes on April 25, 2015 Mw 7.8 (Gorkha earthquake) and May 12, 2015 Mw 7.2. These quakes killed thousands of people and caused billion dollars of property loss. Despite some recent geologic and geophysical studies of this area, many tectonic questions remain unanswered. Shortly after the Gorkha earthquake, we deployed a seismic network, NAMASTE (Nepal Array Measuring Aftershock Seismicity Trailing Earthquake), to study the aftershocks of these two large events. Our network included 45 different seismic stations (16 short period, 25 broadband, and 4 strong motion sensors) that spanned the Gorkha rupture area. The deployment extends from south of the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT) to the Main Central Thrust region (MCT), and it to recorded aftershocks for more than ten months from June 2015 to May 2016. We are leveraging high-precision earthquake locations by measuring and picking P-wave first-motion arrival polarity to develop a catalog of focal mechanisms for the larger aftershocks. We will use this catalog to correlate the seismicity and stress related of the Indo-Eurasian plate margin, hoping to address questions regarding the complex fault geometries and future earthquake hazards at this plate margin.

  1. Application of the region-time-length algorithm to study of earthquake precursors in the Thailand-Laos-Myanmar borders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Puangjaktha, P.; Pailoplee, S.

    2018-04-01

    In order to examine the precursory seismic quiescence of upcoming hazardous earthquakes, the seismicity data available in the vicinity of the Thailand-Laos-Myanmar borders was analyzed using the Region-Time-Length (RTL) algorithm based statistical technique. The utilized earthquake data were obtained from the International Seismological Centre. Thereafter, the homogeneity and completeness of the catalogue were improved. After performing iterative tests with different values of the r0 and t0 parameters, those of r0 = 120 km and t0 = 2 yr yielded reasonable estimates of the anomalous RTL scores, in both temporal variation and spatial distribution, of a few years prior to five out of eight strong-to-major recognized earthquakes. Statistical evaluation of both the correlation coefficient and stochastic process for the RTL were checked and revealed that the RTL score obtained here excluded artificial or random phenomena. Therefore, the prospective earthquake sources mentioned here should be recognized and effective mitigation plans should be provided.

  2. Arrival times of Flare/Halo CME associated shocks at the Earth: comparison of the predictions of three numerical models with these observations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. M. P. McKenna-Lawlor

    2002-07-01

    Full Text Available The arrival times at L1 of eleven travelling shocks associated both with X-ray flaring and with halo CMEs recorded aboard SOHO/LASCO have been considered. Close to the Sun the velocities of these events were estimated using either Type II radio records or CME speeds. Close to the Earth the shocks were detected in the data of various solar wind plasma, interplanetary magnetic field (IMF and energetic particle experiments aboard SOHO, ACE, WIND, INTERBALL-1 and IMP-8. The real-time shock arrival predictions of three numerical models, namely the Shock Time of Arrival Model (STOA, the Interplanetary Shock Propagation Model (ISPM and the Hakamada-Akasofu-Fry Solar Wind Model (HAFv.2 were tested against these observations. This is the first time that energetic protons (tens of keV to a few MeV have been used to complement plasma and IMF data in validating shock propagation models. The models were all generally successful in predicting shock arrivals. STOA provided the smallest values of the "predicted minus measured" arrival times and displayed a typical predictive precision better than about 8 h. The ratio of the calculated standard deviation of the transit times to Earth to the standard deviation of the measurements was estimated for each model (treating interacting events as composite shocks and these ratios turned out to be 0.60, 1.15 and 1.02 for STOA, ISPM and HAFv.2, respectively. If an event in the sample for which the shock velocity was not well known is omitted from consideration, these ratios become 0.36, 0.76 and 0.81, respectively. Larger statistical samples should now be tested. The ratio of the in situ shock velocity and the "Sun to L1" transit velocity (Vsh /Vtr was in the range of 0.7–0.9 for individual, non-interacting, shock events. HAFv.2 uniquely provided information on those changes in the COBpoint (the moving Connection point on the shock along the IMF to the OBserver which directly influenced energetic particle rise times

  3. Earthquake Hazard Analysis Methods: A Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sari, A. M.; Fakhrurrozi, A.

    2018-02-01

    One of natural disasters that have significantly impacted on risks and damage is an earthquake. World countries such as China, Japan, and Indonesia are countries located on the active movement of continental plates with more frequent earthquake occurrence compared to other countries. Several methods of earthquake hazard analysis have been done, for example by analyzing seismic zone and earthquake hazard micro-zonation, by using Neo-Deterministic Seismic Hazard Analysis (N-DSHA) method, and by using Remote Sensing. In its application, it is necessary to review the effectiveness of each technique in advance. Considering the efficiency of time and the accuracy of data, remote sensing is used as a reference to the assess earthquake hazard accurately and quickly as it only takes a limited time required in the right decision-making shortly after the disaster. Exposed areas and possibly vulnerable areas due to earthquake hazards can be easily analyzed using remote sensing. Technological developments in remote sensing such as GeoEye-1 provide added value and excellence in the use of remote sensing as one of the methods in the assessment of earthquake risk and damage. Furthermore, the use of this technique is expected to be considered in designing policies for disaster management in particular and can reduce the risk of natural disasters such as earthquakes in Indonesia.

  4. Uniform California earthquake rupture forecast, version 3 (UCERF3): the time-independent model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Edward H.; Biasi, Glenn P.; Bird, Peter; Dawson, Timothy E.; Felzer, Karen R.; Jackson, David D.; Johnson, Kaj M.; Jordan, Thomas H.; Madden, Christopher; Michael, Andrew J.; Milner, Kevin R.; Page, Morgan T.; Parsons, Thomas; Powers, Peter M.; Shaw, Bruce E.; Thatcher, Wayne R.; Weldon, Ray J.; Zeng, Yuehua; ,

    2013-01-01

    In this report we present the time-independent component of the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, Version 3 (UCERF3), which provides authoritative estimates of the magnitude, location, and time-averaged frequency of potentially damaging earthquakes in California. The primary achievements have been to relax fault segmentation assumptions and to include multifault ruptures, both limitations of the previous model (UCERF2). The rates of all earthquakes are solved for simultaneously, and from a broader range of data, using a system-level "grand inversion" that is both conceptually simple and extensible. The inverse problem is large and underdetermined, so a range of models is sampled using an efficient simulated annealing algorithm. The approach is more derivative than prescriptive (for example, magnitude-frequency distributions are no longer assumed), so new analysis tools were developed for exploring solutions. Epistemic uncertainties were also accounted for using 1,440 alternative logic tree branches, necessitating access to supercomputers. The most influential uncertainties include alternative deformation models (fault slip rates), a new smoothed seismicity algorithm, alternative values for the total rate of M≥5 events, and different scaling relationships, virtually all of which are new. As a notable first, three deformation models are based on kinematically consistent inversions of geodetic and geologic data, also providing slip-rate constraints on faults previously excluded because of lack of geologic data. The grand inversion constitutes a system-level framework for testing hypotheses and balancing the influence of different experts. For example, we demonstrate serious challenges with the Gutenberg-Richter hypothesis for individual faults. UCERF3 is still an approximation of the system, however, and the range of models is limited (for example, constrained to stay close to UCERF2). Nevertheless, UCERF3 removes the apparent UCERF2 overprediction of

  5. Risk factors associated with short term mortality changes over time, after arrival to the emergency department

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bech, Camilla Nørgaard; Brabrand, Mikkel; Mikkelsen, Søren

    2018-01-01

    , 0-2 day, 3-7 day and 8-30 day mortality. The degree of acuteness at arrival defined by urgency-level, physician-assisted transfer to the Emergency Department and abnormal vital parameters are associated with 0-2 day mortality. High temperature at arrival shows no association in either mortality...

  6. Complex Non-volcanic Tremor in Guerrero Mexico Triggered by the 2010 Mw 8.8 Chilean Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zigone, D.; Campillo, M.; Husker, A. L.; Kostoglodov, V.; Payero, J. S.; Frank, W.; Shapiro, N. M.; Voisin, C.; Cougoulat, G.; Cotte, N.

    2010-12-01

    In this study we analyze the tremors triggered in Guerrero region (Mexico) by the 2010 magnitude 8.8 Chilean Earthquake using mini-seismic array data from the French-Mexican G-GAP project and broadband data from the Servicio Sismologico Nacional of Mexico. The strong dynamic shaking by the earthquake produced the first observed triggered non-volcanic tremors (NVT) in Mexico so far with at least 3 different types of tremors at different time scales. There was a slow slip event (SSE) occurring at the time of the earthquake, which may have increased the probability of tremor triggering in the region. The first type of observed triggered tremors occurred during the S waves, Love waves and Rayleigh waves as already reported in other subductions zones and continental faults (Miyazawa and Mori, 2005, 2006; Rubinstein et al., 2007; Gomberg et al., 2008; Peng et al, 2009…). The greatest amount of energy and duration accompanies the long-period Rayleigh waves, with smaller bursts during the S and Love waves. For this particular tremor we observed the dispersion of Rayleigh waves in the envelopes of triggered tremors, which indicates a very strong modulation of the source by the passing surface wave. An unexpected short-term tremor occurred approximately one hour later of the arrival of the surface waves on the coastal stations. The NVT has only been previously observed at distances > 100 km inland. It also has a shorter frequency range (3-6 Hz) than other NVT (1-10 Hz) observed in the region. Finally, we observed a significant increase of so-called ambient tremor activity with higher intensity than all triggered NVT during the days after the earthquake. This study adds new types of tremors to the lexicon of triggered NVT observed in the world.

  7. A recent Mw 4.3 earthquake proving activity of a shallow strike-slip fault in the northern part of the Western Desert, Egypt

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ezzelarab, Mohamed; Ebraheem, Mohamed O.; Zahradník, Jiří

    2018-03-01

    The Mw 4.3 earthquake of September 2015 is the first felt earthquake since 1900 A.D in the northern part of the Western Desert, Egypt, south of the El-Alamein City. The available waveform data observed at epicentral distances 52-391 km was collected and carefully evaluated. Nine broad-band stations were selected to invert full waveforms for the centroid position (horizontal and vertical) and for the focal mechanism solution. The first-arrival travel times, polarities and low-frequency full waveforms (0.03-0.08 Hz) are consistently explained in this paper as caused by a shallow source of the strike-slip mechanism. This finding indicates causal relation of this earthquake to the W-E trending South El-Alamein fault, which developed in Late Cretaceous as dextral strike slip fault. Recent activity of this fault, proven by the studied rare earthquake, is of fundamental importance for future seismic hazard evaluations, underlined by proximity (∼65 km) of the source zone to the first nuclear power plant planned site in Egypt. Safe exploration and possible future exploitation of hydrocarbon reserves, reported around El-Alamein fault in the last decade, cannot be made without considering the seismic potential of this fault.

  8. Simulated earthquake ground motions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vanmarcke, E.H.; Gasparini, D.A.

    1977-01-01

    The paper reviews current methods for generating synthetic earthquake ground motions. Emphasis is on the special requirements demanded of procedures to generate motions for use in nuclear power plant seismic response analysis. Specifically, very close agreement is usually sought between the response spectra of the simulated motions and prescribed, smooth design response spectra. The features and capabilities of the computer program SIMQKE, which has been widely used in power plant seismic work are described. Problems and pitfalls associated with the use of synthetic ground motions in seismic safety assessment are also pointed out. The limitations and paucity of recorded accelerograms together with the widespread use of time-history dynamic analysis for obtaining structural and secondary systems' response have motivated the development of earthquake simulation capabilities. A common model for synthesizing earthquakes is that of superposing sinusoidal components with random phase angles. The input parameters for such a model are, then, the amplitudes and phase angles of the contributing sinusoids as well as the characteristics of the variation of motion intensity with time, especially the duration of the motion. The amplitudes are determined from estimates of the Fourier spectrum or the spectral density function of the ground motion. These amplitudes may be assumed to be varying in time or constant for the duration of the earthquake. In the nuclear industry, the common procedure is to specify a set of smooth response spectra for use in aseismic design. This development and the need for time histories have generated much practical interest in synthesizing earthquakes whose response spectra 'match', or are compatible with a set of specified smooth response spectra

  9. Bayesian inference of earthquake parameters from buoy data using a polynomial chaos-based surrogate

    KAUST Repository

    Giraldi, Loic

    2017-04-07

    This work addresses the estimation of the parameters of an earthquake model by the consequent tsunami, with an application to the Chile 2010 event. We are particularly interested in the Bayesian inference of the location, the orientation, and the slip of an Okada-based model of the earthquake ocean floor displacement. The tsunami numerical model is based on the GeoClaw software while the observational data is provided by a single DARTⓇ buoy. We propose in this paper a methodology based on polynomial chaos expansion to construct a surrogate model of the wave height at the buoy location. A correlated noise model is first proposed in order to represent the discrepancy between the computational model and the data. This step is necessary, as a classical independent Gaussian noise is shown to be unsuitable for modeling the error, and to prevent convergence of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampler. Second, the polynomial chaos model is subsequently improved to handle the variability of the arrival time of the wave, using a preconditioned non-intrusive spectral method. Finally, the construction of a reduced model dedicated to Bayesian inference is proposed. Numerical results are presented and discussed.

  10. A Model of Bus Bunching under Reliability-based Passenger Arrival Patterns

    OpenAIRE

    Fonzone, Achille; Schmöcker, Jan-Dirk; Liu, Ronghui

    2015-01-01

    If bus service departure times are not completely unknown to the passengers, non-uniform passenger arrival patterns can be expected. We propose that passengers decide their arrival time at stops based on a continuous logit model that considers the risk of missing services. Expected passenger waiting times are derived in a bus system that allows also for overtaking between bus services. We then propose an algorithm to derive the dwell time of subsequent buses serving a stop in order to illustr...

  11. Sex differences in accuracy and precision when judging time to arrival: data from two Internet studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanders, Geoff; Sinclair, Kamila

    2011-12-01

    We report two Internet studies that investigated sex differences in the accuracy and precision of judging time to arrival. We used accuracy to mean the ability to match the actual time to arrival and precision to mean the consistency with which each participant made their judgments. Our task was presented as a computer game in which a toy UFO moved obliquely towards the participant through a virtual three-dimensional space on route to a docking station. The UFO disappeared before docking and participants pressed their space bar at the precise moment they thought the UFO would have docked. Study 1 showed it was possible to conduct quantitative studies of spatiotemporal judgments in virtual reality via the Internet and confirmed reports that men are more accurate because women underestimate, but found no difference in precision measured as intra-participant variation. Study 2 repeated Study 1 with five additional presentations of one condition to provide a better measure of precision. Again, men were more accurate than women but there were no sex differences in precision. However, within the coincidence-anticipation timing (CAT) literature, of those studies that report sex differences, a majority found that males are both more accurate and more precise than females. Noting that many CAT studies report no sex differences, we discuss appropriate interpretations of such null findings. While acknowledging that CAT performance may be influenced by experience we suggest that the sex difference may have originated among our ancestors with the evolutionary selection of men for hunting and women for gathering.

  12. Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER): A System for Rapidly Determining the Impact of Earthquakes Worldwide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Earle, Paul S.; Wald, David J.; Jaiswal, Kishor S.; Allen, Trevor I.; Hearne, Michael G.; Marano, Kristin D.; Hotovec, Alicia J.; Fee, Jeremy

    2009-01-01

    Within minutes of a significant earthquake anywhere on the globe, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system assesses its potential societal impact. PAGER automatically estimates the number of people exposed to severe ground shaking and the shaking intensity at affected cities. Accompanying maps of the epicentral region show the population distribution and estimated ground-shaking intensity. A regionally specific comment describes the inferred vulnerability of the regional building inventory and, when available, lists recent nearby earthquakes and their effects. PAGER's results are posted on the USGS Earthquake Program Web site (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/), consolidated in a concise one-page report, and sent in near real-time to emergency responders, government agencies, and the media. Both rapid and accurate results are obtained through manual and automatic updates of PAGER's content in the hours following significant earthquakes. These updates incorporate the most recent estimates of earthquake location, magnitude, faulting geometry, and first-hand accounts of shaking. PAGER relies on a rich set of earthquake analysis and assessment tools operated by the USGS and contributing Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) regional networks. A focused research effort is underway to extend PAGER's near real-time capabilities beyond population exposure to quantitative estimates of fatalities, injuries, and displaced population.

  13. Implications of fault constitutive properties for earthquake prediction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dieterich, J H; Kilgore, B

    1996-04-30

    The rate- and state-dependent constitutive formulation for fault slip characterizes an exceptional variety of materials over a wide range of sliding conditions. This formulation provides a unified representation of diverse sliding phenomena including slip weakening over a characteristic sliding distance Dc, apparent fracture energy at a rupture front, time-dependent healing after rapid slip, and various other transient and slip rate effects. Laboratory observations and theoretical models both indicate that earthquake nucleation is accompanied by long intervals of accelerating slip. Strains from the nucleation process on buried faults generally could not be detected if laboratory values of Dc apply to faults in nature. However, scaling of Dc is presently an open question and the possibility exists that measurable premonitory creep may precede some earthquakes. Earthquake activity is modeled as a sequence of earthquake nucleation events. In this model, earthquake clustering arises from sensitivity of nucleation times to the stress changes induced by prior earthquakes. The model gives the characteristic Omori aftershock decay law and assigns physical interpretation to aftershock parameters. The seismicity formulation predicts large changes of earthquake probabilities result from stress changes. Two mechanisms for foreshocks are proposed that describe observed frequency of occurrence of foreshock-mainshock pairs by time and magnitude. With the first mechanism, foreshocks represent a manifestation of earthquake clustering in which the stress change at the time of the foreshock increases the probability of earthquakes at all magnitudes including the eventual mainshock. With the second model, accelerating fault slip on the mainshock nucleation zone triggers foreshocks.

  14. A finite capacity queue with Markovian arrivals and two servers with group services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Chakravarthy

    1994-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we consider a finite capacity queuing system in which arrivals are governed by a Markovian arrival process. The system is attended by two exponential servers, who offer services in groups of varying sizes. The service rates may depend on the number of customers in service. Using Markov theory, we study this finite capacity queuing model in detail by obtaining numerically stable expressions for (a the steady-state queue length densities at arrivals and at arbitrary time points; (b the Laplace-Stieltjes transform of the stationary waiting time distribution of an admitted customer at points of arrivals. The stationary waiting time distribution is shown to be of phase type when the interarrival times are of phase type. Efficient algorithmic procedures for computing the steady-state queue length densities and other system performance measures are discussed. A conjecture on the nature of the mean waiting time is proposed. Some illustrative numerical examples are presented.

  15. An Earthquake Source Sensitivity Analysis for Tsunami Propagation in the Eastern Mediterranean

    Science.gov (United States)

    Necmioglu, Ocal; Meral Ozel, Nurcan

    2013-04-01

    An earthquake source parameter sensitivity analysis for tsunami propagation in the Eastern Mediterranean has been performed based on 8 August 1303 Crete and Dodecanese Islands earthquake resulting in destructive inundation in the Eastern Mediterranean. The analysis involves 23 cases describing different sets of strike, dip, rake and focal depth, while keeping the fault area and displacement, thus the magnitude, same. The main conclusions of the evaluation are drawn from the investigation of the wave height distributions at Tsunami Forecast Points (TFP). The earthquake vs. initial tsunami source parameters comparison indicated that the maximum initial wave height values correspond in general to the changes in rake angle. No clear depth dependency is observed within the depth range considered and no strike angle dependency is observed in terms of amplitude change. Directivity sensitivity analysis indicated that for the same strike and dip, 180° shift in rake may lead to 20% change in the calculated tsunami wave height. Moreover, an approximately 10 min difference in the arrival time of the initial wave has been observed. These differences are, however, greatly reduced in the far field. The dip sensitivity analysis, performed separately for thrust and normal faulting, has both indicated that an increase in the dip angle results in the decrease of the tsunami wave amplitude in the near field approximately 40%. While a positive phase shift is observed, the period and the shape of the initial wave stays nearly the same for all dip angles at respective TFPs. These affects are, however, not observed at the far field. The resolution of the bathymetry, on the other hand, is a limiting factor for further evaluation. Four different cases were considered for the depth sensitivity indicating that within the depth ranges considered (15-60 km), the increase of the depth has only a smoothing effect on the synthetic tsunami wave height measurements at the selected TFPs. The strike

  16. Countermeasures to earthquakes in nuclear plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sato, Kazuhide

    1979-01-01

    The contribution of atomic energy to mankind is unmeasured, but the danger of radioactivity is a special thing. Therefore in the design of nuclear power plants, the safety has been regarded as important, and in Japan where earthquakes occur frequently, the countermeasures to earthquakes have been incorporated in the examination of safety naturally. The radioactive substances handled in nuclear power stations and spent fuel reprocessing plants are briefly explained. The occurrence of earthquakes cannot be predicted effectively, and the disaster due to earthquakes is apt to be remarkably large. In nuclear plants, the prevention of damage in the facilities and the maintenance of the functions are required at the time of earthquakes. Regarding the location of nuclear plants, the history of earthquakes, the possible magnitude of earthquakes, the properties of ground and the position of nuclear plants should be examined. After the place of installation has been decided, the earthquake used for design is selected, evaluating live faults and determining the standard earthquakes. As the fundamentals of aseismatic design, the classification according to importance, the earthquakes for design corresponding to the classes of importance, the combination of loads and allowable stress are explained. (Kako, I.)

  17. Meeting the Challenge of Earthquake Risk Globalisation: Towards the Global Earthquake Model GEM (Sergey Soloviev Medal Lecture)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zschau, J.

    2009-04-01

    Earthquake risk, like natural risks in general, has become a highly dynamic and globally interdependent phenomenon. Due to the "urban explosion" in the Third World, an increasingly complex cross linking of critical infrastructure and lifelines in the industrial nations and a growing globalisation of the world's economies, we are presently facing a dramatic increase of our society's vulnerability to earthquakes in practically all seismic regions on our globe. Such fast and global changes cannot be captured with conventional earthquake risk models anymore. The sciences in this field are, therefore, asked to come up with new solutions that are no longer exclusively aiming at the best possible quantification of the present risks but also keep an eye on their changes with time and allow to project these into the future. This does not apply to the vulnerablity component of earthquake risk alone, but also to its hazard component which has been realized to be time-dependent, too. The challenges of earthquake risk dynamics and -globalisation have recently been accepted by the Global Science Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD - GSF) who initiated the "Global Earthquake Model (GEM)", a public-private partnership for establishing an independent standard to calculate, monitor and communicate earthquake risk globally, raise awareness and promote mitigation.

  18. Urban sprawl and delayed ambulance arrival in the U.S.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trowbridge, Matthew J; Gurka, Matthew J; O'Connor, Robert E

    2009-11-01

    Minimizing emergency medical service (EMS) response time is a central objective of prehospital care, yet the potential influence of built environment features such as urban sprawl on EMS system performance is often not considered. This study measures the association between urban sprawl and EMS response time to test the hypothesis that features of sprawling development increase the probability of delayed ambulance arrival. In 2008, EMS response times for 43,424 motor-vehicle crashes were obtained from the Fatal Analysis Reporting System, a national census of crashes involving > or =1 fatality. Sprawl at each crash location was measured using a continuous county-level index previously developed by Ewing et al. The association between sprawl and the probability of a delayed ambulance arrival (> or =8 minutes) was then measured using generalized linear mixed modeling to account for correlation among crashes from the same county. Urban sprawl is significantly associated with increased EMS response time and a higher probability of delayed ambulance arrival (p=0.03). This probability increases quadratically as the severity of sprawl increases while controlling for nighttime crash occurrence, road conditions, and presence of construction. For example, in sprawling counties (e.g., Fayette County GA), the probability of a delayed ambulance arrival for daytime crashes in dry conditions without construction was 69% (95% CI=66%, 72%) compared with 31% (95% CI=28%, 35%) in counties with prominent smart-growth characteristics (e.g., Delaware County PA). Urban sprawl is significantly associated with increased EMS response time and a higher probability of delayed ambulance arrival following motor-vehicle crashes in the U.S. The results of this study suggest that promotion of community design and development that follows smart-growth principles and regulates urban sprawl may improve EMS performance and reliability.

  19. Conceptualizing ¬the Abstractions of Earthquakes Through an Instructional Sequence Using SeisMac and the Rapid Earthquake Viewer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taber, J.; Hubenthal, M.; Wysession, M.

    2007-12-01

    because they have a physical sense of what the wiggles indicate. As a result students are better positioned to identify S and P arrivals within the complexity of real data available through REV rather than using the canned or artificial data normally associated with a location exercise. REV provides easy access to recent and noteworthy earthquake data via a simple Web interface. Earthquake locations and near-real time ground motion data are accessed via the IRIS Data Management System, and data are automatically processed and selected so that only events with "good" data are presented within REV. Once students have completed the learning sequence using SeisMac, they will be better able to relate the trace of a seismogram to the physical motion of the ground. This can then lead to better understanding of more advanced exercises including detecting the core and finding the Moho. Building on an understanding of the basics of a seismogram, SeisMac can next be used to help student further understand earthquakes by provide a kinesthetic experience to model how hard the Earth shakes during earthquakes. Through another guided exploration students discover that the SeisMac display is calibrated in units of acceleration and can be related to the Modified Mercalli scale. They then compare shaking during an earthquake via video clips and ground shaking maps from the USGS "Did you feel it" Web site to the shaking of personal objects and the laptop.

  20. 4D stress evolution models of the San Andreas Fault System: Investigating time- and depth-dependent stress thresholds over multiple earthquake cycles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burkhard, L. M.; Smith-Konter, B. R.

    2017-12-01

    4D simulations of stress evolution provide a rare insight into earthquake cycle crustal stress variations at seismogenic depths where earthquake ruptures nucleate. Paleoseismic estimates of earthquake offset and chronology, spanning multiple earthquakes cycles, are available for many well-studied segments of the San Andreas Fault System (SAFS). Here we construct new 4D earthquake cycle time-series simulations to further study the temporally and spatially varying stress threshold conditions of the SAFS throughout the paleoseismic record. Interseismic strain accumulation, co-seismic stress drop, and postseismic viscoelastic relaxation processes are evaluated as a function of variable slip and locking depths along 42 major fault segments. Paleoseismic earthquake rupture histories provide a slip chronology dating back over 1000 years. Using GAGE Facility GPS and new Sentinel-1A InSAR data, we tune model locking depths and slip rates to compute the 4D stress accumulation within the seismogenic crust. Revised estimates of stress accumulation rate are most significant along the Imperial (2.8 MPa/100yr) and Coachella (1.2 MPa/100yr) faults, with a maximum change in stress rate along some segments of 11-17% in comparison with our previous estimates. Revised estimates of earthquake cycle stress accumulation are most significant along the Imperial (2.25 MPa), Coachella (2.9 MPa), and Carrizo (3.2 MPa) segments, with a 15-29% decrease in stress due to locking depth and slip rate updates, and also postseismic relaxation from the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake. Because stress drops of major strike-slip earthquakes rarely exceed 10 MPa, these models may provide a lower bound on estimates of stress evolution throughout the historical era, and perhaps an upper bound on the expected recurrence interval of a particular fault segment. Furthermore, time-series stress models reveal temporally varying stress concentrations at 5-10 km depths, due to the interaction of neighboring fault

  1. A Proton Flare Triggered the Mw 8.1 Chiapos Mexican Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elfaki, H.; Yousef, S.

    2017-12-01

    In a 2015 Cairo University M.Sc. thesis by Sarah Khodairy, very strong earthquakes were found to be highly correlated with proton flares. Strange blue and green bright flashes of light across Mexico accompanied the 8th of September 2017 Mw 1.8 Chiapas earthquake. Those lights were contemporary with a solar proton flare. Those green and blue lights are indicative of the arrival of proton streams over Mexico and their interaction with atmospheric Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms respectively in analogy with aurora lights. The proton streams attacked the weak spots of tectonic plates where the Coscos plate is being subducted below the North American plate. It is suggested that they induced telluric electric currents in the ground and in the magma thus caused motion and more subduction in the tectonic plates. Such motion immediately trigged the Chiapas earthquake in the near vicinity. The Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field was highly negative, a door was opened in the magnetosphere and the proton stream easily leaked inside and targeted Mexico. This proton flare was accompanied by coronal mass ejection and extremely strong X.9.3- class X-ray flare as well as magnetic storms. On the other hand, the 19th of September Mw 7.1 Puebla central Mexico earthquake was initiated by fast solar wind coronal hole stream. Such stream if they hit ground they cause earthquakes, if they hit narrow seas like the Red Sea they cause flash floods. However if they target Oceans they initiate hurricanes.

  2. Ground Water Chemistry Changes before Major Earthquakes and Possible Effects on Animals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, Rachel A.; Halliday, Tim; Balderer, Werner P.; Leuenberger, Fanny; Newcomer, Michelle; Cyr, Gary; Freund, Friedemann T.

    2011-01-01

    Prior to major earthquakes many changes in the environment have been documented. Though often subtle and fleeting, these changes are noticeable at the land surface, in water, in the air, and in the ionosphere. Key to understanding these diverse pre-earthquake phenomena has been the discovery that, when tectonic stresses build up in the Earth’s crust, highly mobile electronic charge carriers are activated. These charge carriers are defect electrons on the oxygen anion sublattice of silicate minerals, known as positive holes, chemically equivalent to O− in a matrix of O2−. They are remarkable inasmuch as they can flow out of the stressed rock volume and spread into the surrounding unstressed rocks. Travelling fast and far the positive holes cause a range of follow-on reactions when they arrive at the Earth’s surface, where they cause air ionization, injecting massive amounts of primarily positive air ions into the lower atmosphere. When they arrive at the rock-water interface, they act as •O radicals, oxidizing water to hydrogen peroxide. Other reactions at the rock-water interface include the oxidation or partial oxidation of dissolved organic compounds, leading to changes of their fluorescence spectra. Some compounds thus formed may be irritants or toxins to certain species of animals. Common toads, Bufo bufo, were observed to exhibit a highly unusual behavior prior to a M6.3 earthquake that hit L’Aquila, Italy, on April 06, 2009: a few days before the seismic event the toads suddenly disappeared from their breeding site in a small lake about 75 km from the epicenter and did not return until after the aftershock series. In this paper we discuss potential changes in groundwater chemistry prior to seismic events and their possible effects on animals. PMID:21776211

  3. Ground Water Chemistry Changes before Major Earthquakes and Possible Effects on Animals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Friedemann T. Freund

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Prior to major earthquakes many changes in the environment have been documented. Though often subtle and fleeting, these changes are noticeable at the land surface, in water, in the air, and in the ionosphere. Key to understanding these diverse pre-earthquake phenomena has been the discovery that, when tectonic stresses build up in the Earth’s crust, highly mobile electronic charge carriers are activated. These charge carriers are defect electrons on the oxygen anion sublattice of silicate minerals, known as positive holes, chemically equivalent to O– in a matrix of O2–. They are remarkable inasmuch as they can flow out of the stressed rock volume and spread into the surrounding unstressed rocks. Travelling fast and far the positive holes cause a range of follow-on reactions when they arrive at the Earth’s surface, where they cause air ionization, injecting massive amounts of primarily positive air ions into the lower atmosphere. When they arrive at the rock-water interface, they act as •O radicals, oxidizing water to hydrogen peroxide. Other reactions at the rock-water interface include the oxidation or partial oxidation of dissolved organic compounds, leading to changes of their fluorescence spectra. Some compounds thus formed may be irritants or toxins to certain species of animals. Common toads, Bufo bufo, were observed to exhibit a highly unusual behavior prior to a M6.3 earthquake that hit L’Aquila, Italy, on April 06, 2009: a few days before the seismic event the toads suddenly disappeared from their breeding site in a small lake about 75 km from the epicenter and did not return until after the aftershock series. In this paper we discuss potential changes in groundwater chemistry prior to seismic events and their possible effects on animals.

  4. An Adjoint Sensitivity Method Applied to Time Reverse Imaging of Tsunami Source for the 2009 Samoa Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hossen, M. Jakir; Gusman, Aditya; Satake, Kenji; Cummins, Phil R.

    2018-01-01

    We have previously developed a tsunami source inversion method based on "Time Reverse Imaging" and demonstrated that it is computationally very efficient and has the ability to reproduce the tsunami source model with good accuracy using tsunami data of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunami. In this paper, we implemented this approach in the 2009 Samoa earthquake tsunami triggered by a doublet earthquake consisting of both normal and thrust faulting. Our result showed that the method is quite capable of recovering the source model associated with normal and thrust faulting. We found that the inversion result is highly sensitive to some stations that must be removed from the inversion. We applied an adjoint sensitivity method to find the optimal set of stations in order to estimate a realistic source model. We found that the inversion result is improved significantly once the optimal set of stations is used. In addition, from the reconstructed source model we estimated the slip distribution of the fault from which we successfully determined the dipping orientation of the fault plane for the normal fault earthquake. Our result suggests that the fault plane dip toward the northeast.

  5. Real-Time Science on Social Media: The Example of Twitter in the Minutes, Hours, Days after the 2015 M7.8 Nepal Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lomax, A.; Bossu, R.; Mazet-Roux, G.

    2015-12-01

    Scientific information on disasters such as earthquakes typically comes firstly from official organizations, news reports and interviews with experts, and later from scientific presentations and peer-reviewed articles. With the advent of the Internet and social media, this information is available in real-time from automated systems and within a dynamic, collaborative interaction between scientific experts, responders and the public. After the 2015 M7.8 Nepal earthquake, Twitter Tweets from earth scientists* included information, analysis, commentary and discussion on earthquake parameters (location, size, mechanism, rupture extent, high-frequency radiation, …), earthquake effects (distribution of felt shaking and damage, triggered seismicity, landslides, …), earthquake rumors (e.g. the imminence of a larger event) and other earthquake information and observations (aftershock forecasts, statistics and maps, source and regional tectonics, seismograms, GPS, InSAR, photos/videos, …).In the future (while taking into account security, false or erroneous information and identity verification), collaborative, real-time science on social media after a disaster will give earlier and better scientific understanding and dissemination of public information, and enable improved emergency response and disaster management.* A sample of scientific Tweets after the 2015 Nepal earthquake: In the first minutes: "mb5.9 Mwp7.4 earthquake Nepal 2015.04.25-06:11:25UTC", "Major earthquake shakes Nepal 8 min ago", "Epicenter between Pokhara and Kathmandu", "Major earthquake shakes Nepal 18 min ago. Effects derived from witnesses' reports". In the first hour: "shallow thrust faulting to North under Himalayas", "a very large and shallow event ... Mw7.6-7.7", "aftershocks extend east and south of Kathmandu, so likely ruptured beneath city", "Valley-blocking landslides must be a very real worry". In the first day: "M7.8 earthquake in Nepal 2hr ago: destructive in Kathmandu Valley and

  6. Rapid earthquake characterization using MEMS accelerometers and volunteer hosts following the M 7.2 Darfield, New Zealand, Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawrence, J. F.; Cochran, E.S.; Chung, A.; Kaiser, A.; Christensen, C. M.; Allen, R.; Baker, J.W.; Fry, B.; Heaton, T.; Kilb, Debi; Kohler, M.D.; Taufer, M.

    2014-01-01

    We test the feasibility of rapidly detecting and characterizing earthquakes with the Quake‐Catcher Network (QCN) that connects low‐cost microelectromechanical systems accelerometers to a network of volunteer‐owned, Internet‐connected computers. Following the 3 September 2010 M 7.2 Darfield, New Zealand, earthquake we installed over 180 QCN sensors in the Christchurch region to record the aftershock sequence. The sensors are monitored continuously by the host computer and send trigger reports to the central server. The central server correlates incoming triggers to detect when an earthquake has occurred. The location and magnitude are then rapidly estimated from a minimal set of received ground‐motion parameters. Full seismic time series are typically not retrieved for tens of minutes or even hours after an event. We benchmark the QCN real‐time detection performance against the GNS Science GeoNet earthquake catalog. Under normal network operations, QCN detects and characterizes earthquakes within 9.1 s of the earthquake rupture and determines the magnitude within 1 magnitude unit of that reported in the GNS catalog for 90% of the detections.

  7. Timing analysis for embedded systems using non-preemptive EDF scheduling under bounded error arrivals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Short

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Embedded systems consist of one or more processing units which are completely encapsulated by the devices under their control, and they often have stringent timing constraints associated with their functional specification. Previous research has considered the performance of different types of task scheduling algorithm and developed associated timing analysis techniques for such systems. Although preemptive scheduling techniques have traditionally been favored, rapid increases in processor speeds combined with improved insights into the behavior of non-preemptive scheduling techniques have seen an increased interest in their use for real-time applications such as multimedia, automation and control. However when non-preemptive scheduling techniques are employed there is a potential lack of error confinement should any timing errors occur in individual software tasks. In this paper, the focus is upon adding fault tolerance in systems using non-preemptive deadline-driven scheduling. Schedulability conditions are derived for fault-tolerant periodic and sporadic task sets experiencing bounded error arrivals under non-preemptive deadline scheduling. A timing analysis algorithm is presented based upon these conditions and its run-time properties are studied. Computational experiments show it to be highly efficient in terms of run-time complexity and competitive ratio when compared to previous approaches.

  8. Thermal, atmospheric and ionospheric anomalies around the time of the Colima M7.8 earthquake of 21 January 2003

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. A. Pulinets

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available The paper examines the possible relationship of anomalous variations of different atmospheric and ionospheric parameters observed around the time of a strong earthquake (Mw 7.8 which occurred in Mexico (state of Colima on 21 January 2003. These variations are interpreted within the framework of the developed model of the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere coupling. The main attention is focused on the processes in the near ground layer of the atmosphere involving the ionization of air by radon, the water molecules' attachment to the formed ions, and the corresponding changes in the latent heat. Model considerations are supported by experimental measurements showing the local diminution of air humidity one week prior to the earthquake, accompanied by the anomalous thermal infrared (TIR signals and surface latent heat flux (SLHF and anomalous variations of the total electron content (TEC registered over the epicenter of the impending earthquake three days prior to the main earthquake event. Statistical processing of the data of the GPS receivers network, together with various other atmospheric parameters demonstrate the possibility of an early warning of an impending strong earthquake.

  9. Arrival times of Flare/Halo CME associated shocks at the Earth: comparison of the predictions of three numerical models with these observations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. M. P. McKenna-Lawlor

    Full Text Available The arrival times at L1 of eleven travelling shocks associated both with X-ray flaring and with halo CMEs recorded aboard SOHO/LASCO have been considered. Close to the Sun the velocities of these events were estimated using either Type II radio records or CME speeds. Close to the Earth the shocks were detected in the data of various solar wind plasma, interplanetary magnetic field (IMF and energetic particle experiments aboard SOHO, ACE, WIND, INTERBALL-1 and IMP-8. The real-time shock arrival predictions of three numerical models, namely the Shock Time of Arrival Model (STOA, the Interplanetary Shock Propagation Model (ISPM and the Hakamada-Akasofu-Fry Solar Wind Model (HAFv.2 were tested against these observations. This is the first time that energetic protons (tens of keV to a few MeV have been used to complement plasma and IMF data in validating shock propagation models. The models were all generally successful in predicting shock arrivals. STOA provided the smallest values of the "predicted minus measured" arrival times and displayed a typical predictive precision better than about 8 h. The ratio of the calculated standard deviation of the transit times to Earth to the standard deviation of the measurements was estimated for each model (treating interacting events as composite shocks and these ratios turned out to be 0.60, 1.15 and 1.02 for STOA, ISPM and HAFv.2, respectively. If an event in the sample for which the shock velocity was not well known is omitted from consideration, these ratios become 0.36, 0.76 and 0.81, respectively. Larger statistical samples should now be tested. The ratio of the in situ shock velocity and the "Sun to L1" transit velocity (Vsh /Vtr was in the range of 0.7–0.9 for individual, non-interacting, shock events. HAFv.2 uniquely provided information on those changes in the COBpoint (the moving Connection point on the shock along the IMF to the OBserver which directly influenced energetic

  10. Real-time forecasting of ICME shock arrivals at L1 during the "April Fool’s Day" epoch: 28 March – 21 April 2001

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Sun

    Full Text Available The Sun was extremely active during the "April Fool’s Day" epoch of 2001. We chose this period between a solar flare on 28 March 2001 to a final shock arrival at Earth on 21 April 2001. The activity consisted of two presumed helmet-streamer blowouts, seven M-class flares, and nine X-class flares, the last of which was behind the west limb. We have been experimenting since February 1997 with real-time, end-to-end forecasting of interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME shock arrival times. Since August 1998, these forecasts have been distributed in real-time by e-mail to a list of interested scientists and operational USAF and NOAA forecasters. They are made using three different solar wind models. We describe here the solar events observed during the April Fool’s 2001 epoch, along with the predicted and actual shock arrival times, and the ex post facto correction to the real-time coronal shock speed observations. It appears that the initial estimates of coronal shock speeds from Type II radio burst observations and coronal mass ejections were too high by as much as 30%. We conclude that a 3-dimensional coronal density model should be developed for application to observations of solar flares and their Type II radio burst observations.

    Key words. Interplanetary physics (flare and stream dynamics; interplanetary shocks – Magnetosheric physics (storms and substorms

  11. Performance of JMA Earthquake Early Warning for the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake (Mw9.0)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoshiba, M.; Wakayama, A.; Ishigaki, Y.; Doi, K.

    2011-12-01

    This presentation outlines the Earthquake Early Warning of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) for the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake (Mw9.0). EEW has been operational nationwide in Japan by JMA since October, 2007. For JMA EEW, the hypocenter is determined by a combination of several techniques, using approximately 1,100 stations from the JMA network and the Hi-net network of NIED; magnitude is mainly from maximum displacement amplitudes. JMA EEWs are updated as available data increases with elapsed time. Accordingly EEWs are issued repeatedly with improving accuracy for a single earthquake. JMA EEWs are divided into two grades depending on the expected intensities. The JMA intensity scale is based on instrumental measurements in which not only the amplitude but also the frequency and duration of the shaking are considered. The 10-degree JMA intensity scale rounds off the instrumental intensity value to the integer. Intensities of 5 and 6 are divided into two degrees, namely 5-lower, 5-upper, 6-lower and 6-upper, respectively. Intensity 1 corresponds to ground motion that people can barely detect, and 7 is the upper limit. JMA EEWs are announced to general public when intensity 5-lower (or greater) is expected. The JMA EEW system was triggered for the Mw 9.0 earthquake when station OURI (138km from the epicenter) detected the initial P wave at 14:46:40.2 (Japan Standard Time). The first EEW, the first of 15 announcements, was issued 5.4 s later. The waveform started with small amplitude, which was comparable to noise level for displacement. The small amplitude does not indicate that the initial rupture of the Mw 9.0 event is large, and does not suggest a large magnitude event. By the fourth EEW, 8.6 s after the first trigger, the expected intensity exceeded the criteria of the warning to the general public. JMA issued the fourth EEW announcements to the general public of the Tohoku district, and then the warning was automatically broadcast

  12. Earthquake hazard assessment and small earthquakes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reiter, L.

    1987-01-01

    The significance of small earthquakes and their treatment in nuclear power plant seismic hazard assessment is an issue which has received increased attention over the past few years. In probabilistic studies, sensitivity studies showed that the choice of the lower bound magnitude used in hazard calculations can have a larger than expected effect on the calculated hazard. Of particular interest is the fact that some of the difference in seismic hazard calculations between the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) studies can be attributed to this choice. The LLNL study assumed a lower bound magnitude of 3.75 while the EPRI study assumed a lower bound magnitude of 5.0. The magnitudes used were assumed to be body wave magnitudes or their equivalents. In deterministic studies recent ground motion recordings of small to moderate earthquakes at or near nuclear power plants have shown that the high frequencies of design response spectra may be exceeded. These exceedances became important issues in the licensing of the Summer and Perry nuclear power plants. At various times in the past particular concerns have been raised with respect to the hazard and damage potential of small to moderate earthquakes occurring at very shallow depths. In this paper a closer look is taken at these issues. Emphasis is given to the impact of lower bound magnitude on probabilistic hazard calculations and the historical record of damage from small to moderate earthquakes. Limited recommendations are made as to how these issues should be viewed

  13. The Young-Feynman two-slits experiment with single electrons: Build-up of the interference pattern and arrival-time distribution using a fast-readout pixel detector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Frabboni, Stefano [Department of Physics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via G. Campi 213/a, 41125 Modena (Italy); CNR-Institute of Nanoscience-S3, Via G. Campi 213/a, 41125 Modena (Italy); Gabrielli, Alessandro [Department of Physics, University of Bologna, Viale B. Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy); INFN, Viale B. Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy); Carlo Gazzadi, Gian [CNR-Institute of Nanoscience-S3, Via G. Campi 213/a, 41125 Modena (Italy); Giorgi, Filippo [Department of Physics, University of Bologna, Viale B. Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy); INFN, Viale B. Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy); Matteucci, Giorgio [Department of Physics, University of Bologna, Viale B. Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy); Pozzi, Giulio, E-mail: giulio.pozzi@unibo.it [Department of Physics, University of Bologna, Viale B. Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy); Cesari, Nicola Semprini; Villa, Mauro; Zoccoli, Antonio [Department of Physics, University of Bologna, Viale B. Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy); INFN, Viale B. Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy)

    2012-05-15

    The two-slits experiment for single electrons has been carried out by inserting in a conventional transmission electron microscope a thick sample with two nano-slits fabricated by Focused Ion Beam technique and a fast recording system able to measure the electron arrival-time. The detector, designed for experiments in future colliders, is based on a custom CMOS chip equipped with a fast readout chain able to manage up to 10{sup 6} frames per second. In this way, high statistic samples of single electron events can be collected within a time interval short enough to measure the distribution of the electron arrival-times and to observe the build-up of the interference pattern. -- Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We present the first results obtained regarding the two-slits Young-Feynman experiment with single electrons. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We use two nano-slits fabricated by Focused Ion Beam technique. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We insert in the transmission electron microscope a detector, designed for experiments in future colliders. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We record the build-up of high statistic single electron interference patterns. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We measure the time distribution of electron arrivals.

  14. Earthquake acceleration amplification based on single microtremor test

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaya Syahbana, Arifan; Kurniawan, Rahmat; Soebowo, Eko

    2018-02-01

    Understanding soil dynamics is needed to understand soil behaviour, including the parameters of earthquake acceleration amplification. Many researchers now conduct single microtremor tests to obtain amplification of velocity and natural periods of soil at test sites. However, these amplification parameters are rarely used, so a method is needed to convert the velocity amplification to acceleration amplification. This paper will discuss the proposed process of changing the value of amplification. The proposed method is to integrate the time histories of the synthetic earthquake acceleration of the soil surface under the deaggregation at that location so the time histories of the velocity earthquake will be obtained. Next is to conduct a “fitting curve” between amplification by a single microtremor test with amplification of the synthetic earthquake velocity time histories. After obtaining the fitting curve time histories of velocity, differentiation will be conducted to obtain fitting curve acceleration time histories. The final step after obtaining the fitting curve is to compare the acceleration of the “fitting curve” against the histories time of the acceleration of synthetic earthquake at bedrocks to obtain single microtremor acceleration amplification factor.

  15. Pn-waves Travel-time Anomaly beneath Taiwan from Dense Seismic Array Observations and its Possible Tectonic Implications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Y. Y.; Huang, B. S.; Ma, K. F.; Hsieh, M. C.

    2015-12-01

    We investigated travel times of Pn waves, which are of great important for understanding the Moho structure in Taiwan region. Although several high quality tomographic studies had been carried out, observations of Pn waves are still the most comprehensive way to elucidate the Moho structure. Mapping the Moho structure of Taiwan had been a challenging due to the small spatial dimension of Taiwan island with two subduction systems. To decipher the tectonic structure and understanding of earthquake hazard, the island of Taiwan have been implemented by several high density seismic stations, including 71 short-period stations of Central Weather Bureau Seismic Network (CWBSN) and 42 broardband stations of Broadband Array in Taiwan for Seismology (BATS). High quality seismic records of these stations would be used to identify precise Pn-wave arrival times. After station-elevation correction, we measure the difference between the observed and theoretical Pn arrivals from the IASPI 91 model for each station. For correcting uncertainties of earthquake location and origin time, we estimate relative Pn anomaly, ΔtPn , between each station and a reference station. The pattern of ΔtPn reflects the depth anomaly of Moho beneath Taiwan. In general, Pn waves are commonly observed from shallow earthquake at epicentral distance larger than 120 km. We search the global catalog since 2005 and the criteria are M > 5.5, focal depth 150 km. The 12 medium earthquakes from north Luzon are considered for analysis. We choose a station, TWKB, in the most southern point of Taiwan as the reference station due to that all events are from the south. The results indicate obvious different patterns of ΔtPn from different back-azimuths. The ΔtPn pattern of the events in the first group from the south south-east indicates that the Pn arrivals delay suddenly when the Pn waves pass through the Central Range, suggesting the Moho becomes deep rapidly. However, we cannot recognize the same pattern when

  16. Sounding the Alert: Designing an Effective Voice for Earthquake Early Warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burkett, E. R.; Given, D. D.

    2015-12-01

    The USGS is working with partners to develop the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system (http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3083/) to protect life and property along the U.S. West Coast, where the highest national seismic hazard is concentrated. EEW sends an alert that shaking from an earthquake is on its way (in seconds to tens of seconds) to allow recipients or automated systems to take appropriate actions at their location to protect themselves and/or sensitive equipment. ShakeAlert is transitioning toward a production prototype phase in which test users might begin testing applications of the technology. While a subset of uses will be automated (e.g., opening fire house doors), other applications will alert individuals by radio or cellphone notifications and require behavioral decisions to protect themselves (e.g., "Drop, Cover, Hold On"). The project needs to select and move forward with a consistent alert sound to be widely and quickly recognized as an earthquake alert. In this study we combine EEW science and capabilities with an understanding of human behavior from the social and psychological sciences to provide insight toward the design of effective sounds to help best motivate proper action by alert recipients. We present a review of existing research and literature, compiled as considerations and recommendations for alert sound characteristics optimized for EEW. We do not yet address wording of an audible message about the earthquake (e.g., intensity and timing until arrival of shaking or possible actions), although it will be a future component to accompany the sound. We consider pitch(es), loudness, rhythm, tempo, duration, and harmony. Important behavioral responses to sound to take into account include that people respond to discordant sounds with anxiety, can be calmed by harmony and softness, and are innately alerted by loud and abrupt sounds, although levels high enough to be auditory stressors can negatively impact human judgment.

  17. The Pocatello Valley, Idaho, earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, A. M.; Langer, C.J.; Bucknam, R.C.

    1975-01-01

    A Richter magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurred at 8:31 p.m mountain daylight time on March 27, 1975, near the Utah-Idaho border in Pocatello Valley. The epicenter of the main shock was located at 42.094° N, 112.478° W, and had a focal depth of 5.5 km. This earthquake was the largest in the continental United States since the destructive San Fernando earthquake of February 1971. The main shock was preceded by a magnitude 4.5 foreshock on March 26. 

  18. Prediction of the Critical Curvature for LX-17 with the Time of Arrival Data from DNS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yao, Jin [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Fried, Laurence E. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Moss, William C. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

    2017-01-10

    We extract the detonation shock front velocity, curvature and acceleration from time of arrival data measured at grid points from direct numerical simulations of a 50mm rate-stick lit by a disk-source, with the ignition and growth reaction model and a JWL equation of state calibrated for LX-17. We compute the quasi-steady (D, κ) relation based on the extracted properties and predicted the critical curvatures of LX-17. We also proposed an explicit formula that contains the failure turning point, obtained from optimization for the (D, κ) relation of LX-17.

  19. Relationship of heat and cold to earthquakes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chen, Y.

    1980-06-26

    An analysis of 54 earthquakes of magnitude 7 and above, including 13 of magnitude 8 and above, between 780 BC and the present, shows that the vast majority of them fell in the four major cool periods during this time span, or on the boundaries of these periods. Between 1800 and 1876, four periods of earthquake activity in China can be recognized, and these tend to correspond to relatively cold periods over that time span. An analysis of earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above over the period 1951 to 1965 gives the following results: earthquakes in north and southwest China tended to occur when the preceding year had an above-average annual temperature and winter temperature; in the northeast they tended to occur in a year after a year with an above-average winter temperature; in the northwest there was also a connection with a preceding warm winter, but to a less pronounced degree. The few earthquakes in South China seemed to follow cold winters. Both the Tangshan and Yongshan Pass earthquakes were preceded by unusually warm years and relatively high winter temperatures.

  20. Healthcare System Information at Language Schools for Newly Arrived Immigrants: A Pertinent Setting in Times of Austerity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tynell, Lena Lyngholt; Wimmelmann, Camilla Lawaetz; Jervelund, Signe Smith

    2017-01-01

    Objective: In most European countries, immigrants do not systematically learn about the host countries' healthcare system when arriving. This study investigated how newly arrived immigrants perceived the information they received about the Danish healthcare system. Methods: Immigrants attending a language school in Copenhagen in 2012 received…

  1. Earthquake recovery of historic buildings: exploring cost and time needs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Nammari, Fatima M; Lindell, Michael K

    2009-07-01

    Disaster recovery of historic buildings has rarely been investigated even though the available literature indicates that they face special challenges. This study examines buildings' recovery time and cost to determine whether their functions (that is, their use) and their status (historic or non-historic) affect these outcomes. The study uses data from the city of San Francisco after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to examine the recovery of historic buildings owned by public agencies and non-governmental organisations. The results show that recovery cost is affected by damage level, construction type and historic status, whereas recovery time is affected by the same variables and also by building function. The study points to the importance of pre-incident recovery planning, especially for building functions that have shown delayed recovery. Also, the study calls attention to the importance of further investigations into the challenges facing historic building recovery.

  2. Climate and the complexity of migratory phenology: sexes, migratory distance, and arrival distributions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macmynowski, Dena P.; Root, Terry L.

    2007-05-01

    The intra- and inter-season complexity of bird migration has received limited attention in climatic change research. Our phenological analysis of 22 species collected in Chicago, USA, (1979 2002) evaluates the relationship between multi-scalar climate variables and differences (1) in arrival timing between sexes, (2) in arrival distributions among species, and (3) between spring and fall migration. The early migratory period for earliest arriving species (i.e., short-distance migrants) and earliest arriving individuals of a species (i.e., males) most frequently correlate with climate variables. Compared to long-distance migrant species, four times as many short-distance migrants correlate with spring temperature, while 8 of 11 (73%) of long-distance migrant species’ arrival is correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). While migratory phenology has been correlated with NAO in Europe, we believe that this is the first documentation of a significant association in North America. Geographically proximate conditions apparently influence migratory timing for short-distance migrants while continental-scale climate (e.g., NAO) seemingly influences the phenology of Neotropical migrants. The preponderance of climate correlations is with the early migratory period, not the median of arrival, suggesting that early spring conditions constrain the onset or rate of migration for some species. The seasonal arrival distribution provides considerable information about migratory passage beyond what is apparent from statistical analyses of phenology. A relationship between climate and fall phenology is not detected at this location. Analysis of the within-season complexity of migration, including multiple metrics of arrival, is essential to detect species’ responses to changing climate as well as evaluate the underlying biological mechanisms.

  3. A minimalist model of characteristic earthquakes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vázquez-Prada, M.; González, Á.; Gómez, J.B.

    2002-01-01

    In a spirit akin to the sandpile model of self- organized criticality, we present a simple statistical model of the cellular-automaton type which simulates the role of an asperity in the dynamics of a one-dimensional fault. This model produces an earthquake spectrum similar to the characteristic-earthquake...... behaviour of some seismic faults. This model, that has no parameter, is amenable to an algebraic description as a Markov Chain. This possibility illuminates some important results, obtained by Monte Carlo simulations, such as the earthquake size-frequency relation and the recurrence time...... of the characteristic earthquake....

  4. Earthquake Complex Network Analysis Before and After the Mw 8.2 Earthquake in Iquique, Chile

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasten, D.

    2017-12-01

    The earthquake complex networks have shown that they are abble to find specific features in seismic data set. In space, this networkshave shown a scale-free behavior for the probability distribution of connectivity, in directed networks and theyhave shown a small-world behavior, for the undirected networks.In this work, we present an earthquake complex network analysis for the large earthquake Mw 8.2 in the north ofChile (near to Iquique) in April, 2014. An earthquake complex network is made dividing the three dimensional space intocubic cells, if one of this cells contain an hypocenter, we name this cell like a node. The connections between nodes aregenerated in time. We follow the time sequence of seismic events and we are making the connections betweennodes. Now, we have two different networks: a directed and an undirected network. Thedirected network takes in consideration the time-direction of the connections, that is very important for the connectivityof the network: we are considering the connectivity, ki of the i-th node, like the number of connections going out ofthe node i plus the self-connections (if two seismic events occurred successive in time in the same cubic cell, we havea self-connection). The undirected network is made removing the direction of the connections and the self-connectionsfrom the directed network. For undirected networks, we are considering only if two nodes are or not connected.We have built a directed complex network and an undirected complex network, before and after the large earthquake in Iquique. We have used magnitudes greater than Mw = 1.0 and Mw = 3.0. We found that this method can recognize the influence of thissmall seismic events in the behavior of the network and we found that the size of the cell used to build the network isanother important factor to recognize the influence of the large earthquake in this complex system. This method alsoshows a difference in the values of the critical exponent γ (for the probability

  5. Large earthquakes and creeping faults

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Ruth A.

    2017-01-01

    Faults are ubiquitous throughout the Earth's crust. The majority are silent for decades to centuries, until they suddenly rupture and produce earthquakes. With a focus on shallow continental active-tectonic regions, this paper reviews a subset of faults that have a different behavior. These unusual faults slowly creep for long periods of time and produce many small earthquakes. The presence of fault creep and the related microseismicity helps illuminate faults that might not otherwise be located in fine detail, but there is also the question of how creeping faults contribute to seismic hazard. It appears that well-recorded creeping fault earthquakes of up to magnitude 6.6 that have occurred in shallow continental regions produce similar fault-surface rupture areas and similar peak ground shaking as their locked fault counterparts of the same earthquake magnitude. The behavior of much larger earthquakes on shallow creeping continental faults is less well known, because there is a dearth of comprehensive observations. Computational simulations provide an opportunity to fill the gaps in our understanding, particularly of the dynamic processes that occur during large earthquake rupture and arrest.

  6. Seven years of postseismic deformation following the 2003 Mw = 6.8 Zemmouri earthquake (Algeria) from InSAR time series

    KAUST Repository

    Cetin, Esra

    2012-05-28

    We study the postseismic surface deformation of the Mw 6.8, 2003 Zemmouri earthquake (northern Algeria) using the Multi-Temporal Small Baseline InSAR technique. InSAR time series obtained from 31 Envisat ASAR images from 2003 to 2010 reveal sub-cm coastline ground movements between Cap Matifou and Dellys. Two regions display subsidence at a maximum rate of 2 mm/yr in Cap Djenet and 3.5 mm/yr in Boumerdes. These regions correlate well with areas of maximum coseismic uplifts, and their association with two rupture segments. Inverse modeling suggest that subsidence in the areas of high coseismic uplift can be explained by afterslip on shallow sections (<5 km) of the fault above the areas of coseismic slip, in agreement with previous GPS observations. The earthquake impact on soft sediments and the ground water table southwest of the earthquake area, characterizes ground deformation of non-tectonic origin. The cumulative postseismic moment due to 7 years afterslip is equivalent to an Mw 6.3 earthquake. Therefore, the postseismic deformation and stress buildup has significant implications on the earthquake cycle models and recurrence intervals of large earthquakes in the Algiers area.

  7. Seven years of postseismic deformation following the 2003 Mw = 6.8 Zemmouri earthquake (Algeria) from InSAR time series

    KAUST Repository

    Cetin, Esra; Meghraoui, Mustapha; Cakir, Ziyadin; Akoglu, Ahmet M.; Mimouni, Omar; Chebbah, Mouloud

    2012-01-01

    We study the postseismic surface deformation of the Mw 6.8, 2003 Zemmouri earthquake (northern Algeria) using the Multi-Temporal Small Baseline InSAR technique. InSAR time series obtained from 31 Envisat ASAR images from 2003 to 2010 reveal sub-cm coastline ground movements between Cap Matifou and Dellys. Two regions display subsidence at a maximum rate of 2 mm/yr in Cap Djenet and 3.5 mm/yr in Boumerdes. These regions correlate well with areas of maximum coseismic uplifts, and their association with two rupture segments. Inverse modeling suggest that subsidence in the areas of high coseismic uplift can be explained by afterslip on shallow sections (<5 km) of the fault above the areas of coseismic slip, in agreement with previous GPS observations. The earthquake impact on soft sediments and the ground water table southwest of the earthquake area, characterizes ground deformation of non-tectonic origin. The cumulative postseismic moment due to 7 years afterslip is equivalent to an Mw 6.3 earthquake. Therefore, the postseismic deformation and stress buildup has significant implications on the earthquake cycle models and recurrence intervals of large earthquakes in the Algiers area.

  8. Pickup design for high bandwidth bunch arrival-time monitors in free-electron lasers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Angelovski, Aleksandar; Penirschke, Andreas; Jakoby, Rolf [TU Darmstadt (Germany). Institut fuer Mikrowellentechnik und Photonik; Kuhl, Alexander; Schnepp, Sascha [TU Darmstadt (Germany). Graduate School of Computational Engineering; Bock, Marie Kristin; Bousonville, Michael; Schlarb, Holger [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Weiland, Thomas [TU Darmstadt (Germany). Institut fuer Theorie Elektromagnetischer Felder

    2012-07-01

    The increased demands for low bunch charge operation mode in the free-electron lasers (FELs) require an upgrade of the existing synchronization equipment. As a part of the laser-based synchronization system, the bunch arrival-time monitors (BAMs) should have a sub-10 femtosecond precision for high and low bunch charge operation. In order to fulfill the resolution demands for both modes of operation, the bandwidth of such a BAM should be increased up to a cutoff frequency of 40 GHz. In this talk, we present the design and the realization of high bandwidth cone-shaped pickup electrodes as a part of the BAM for the FEL in Hamburg (FLASH) and the European X-ray free-electron laser (European XFEL). The proposed pickup was simulated with CST STUDIO SUITE, and a non-hermetic model was built up for radio frequency (rf) measurements.

  9. Teleseismic and regional data analysis for estimating depth, mechanism and rupture process of the 3 April 2017 MW 6.5 Botswana earthquake and its aftershock (5 April 2017, MW 4.5)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Letort, J.; Guilhem Trilla, A.; Ford, S. R.; Sèbe, O.; Causse, M.; Cotton, F.; Campillo, M.; Letort, G.

    2017-12-01

    We constrain the source, depth, and rupture process of the Botswana earthquake of April 3, 2017, as well as its largest aftershock (5 April 2017, Mw 4.5). This earthquake is the largest recorded event (Mw 6.5) in the East African rift system since 1970, making one important case study to better understand source processes in stable continental regions. For the two events an automatic cepstrum analysis (Letort et al., 2015) is first applied on respectively 215 and 219 teleseismic records, in order to detect depth phase arrivals (pP, sP) in the P-coda. Coherent detections of depth phases for different azimuths allow us to estimate the hypocentral depths respectively at 28 and 23 km, suggesting that the events are located in the lower crust. A same cepstrum analysis is conducted on five other earthquakes with mb>4 in this area (from 2002 to 2017), and confirms a deep crustal seismicity cluster (around 20-30 km). The source mechanisms are then characterized using a joint inversion method by fitting both regional long-period surface-waves and teleseismic high-frequency body-waves. Combining regional and teleseismic data (as well as systematic comparisons between theoretical and observed regional surface-waves dispersion curves prior to the inversion) allows us to decrease epistemic uncertainties due to lack of regional data and poor knowledge about the local velocity structure. Focal mechanisms are both constrained as normal faulting with a northwest trending, and hypocentral depths are confirmed at 28 and 24 km. Finally, in order to study the mainshock rupture process, we originally apply a kymograph analysis method (an image processing method, commonly used in the field of cell biology for identifying motions of molecular motors, e.g. Mangeol et al., 2016). Here, the kymograph allows us to better identify high-frequency teleseismic P-arrivals inside the P-coda by tracking both reflected depth phase and direct P-wave arrivals radiated from secondary sources during the

  10. The Effect of Integration Policies on the Time until Regular Employment of Newly Arrived Immigrants:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clausen, Jens; Heinesen, Eskil; Hummelgaard, Hans

    We analyse the effect of active labour-market programmes on the hazard rate into regular employment for newly arrived immigrants using the timing-of-events duration model. We take account of language course participation and progression in destination country language skills. We use rich...... administrative data from Denmark. We find substantial lock-in effects of participation in active labour-market programmes. Post programme effects on the hazard rate to regular employment are significantly positive for wage subsidy programmes, but not for other types of programmes. For language course...... participants, improvement in language proficiency has significant and substantial positive effects on the hazard rate to employment....

  11. A smartphone application for earthquakes that matter!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bossu, Rémy; Etivant, Caroline; Roussel, Fréderic; Mazet-Roux, Gilles; Steed, Robert

    2014-05-01

    Smartphone applications have swiftly become one of the most popular tools for rapid reception of earthquake information for the public, some of them having been downloaded more than 1 million times! The advantages are obvious: wherever someone's own location is, they can be automatically informed when an earthquake has struck. Just by setting a magnitude threshold and an area of interest, there is no longer the need to browse the internet as the information reaches you automatically and instantaneously! One question remains: are the provided earthquake notifications always relevant for the public? What are the earthquakes that really matters to laypeople? One clue may be derived from some newspaper reports that show that a while after damaging earthquakes many eyewitnesses scrap the application they installed just after the mainshock. Why? Because either the magnitude threshold is set too high and many felt earthquakes are missed, or it is set too low and the majority of the notifications are related to unfelt earthquakes thereby only increasing anxiety among the population at each new update. Felt and damaging earthquakes are the ones that matter the most for the public (and authorities). They are the ones of societal importance even when of small magnitude. A smartphone application developed by EMSC (Euro-Med Seismological Centre) with the financial support of the Fondation MAIF aims at providing suitable notifications for earthquakes by collating different information threads covering tsunamigenic, potentially damaging and felt earthquakes. Tsunamigenic earthquakes are considered here to be those ones that are the subject of alert or information messages from the PTWC (Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre). While potentially damaging earthquakes are identified through an automated system called EQIA (Earthquake Qualitative Impact Assessment) developed and operated at EMSC. This rapidly assesses earthquake impact by comparing the population exposed to each expected

  12. The Challenge of Centennial Earthquakes to Improve Modern Earthquake Engineering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saragoni, G. Rodolfo

    2008-01-01

    The recent commemoration of the centennial of the San Francisco and Valparaiso 1906 earthquakes has given the opportunity to reanalyze their damages from modern earthquake engineering perspective. These two earthquakes plus Messina Reggio Calabria 1908 had a strong impact in the birth and developing of earthquake engineering. The study of the seismic performance of some up today existing buildings, that survive centennial earthquakes, represent a challenge to better understand the limitations of our in use earthquake design methods. Only Valparaiso 1906 earthquake, of the three considered centennial earthquakes, has been repeated again as the Central Chile, 1985, Ms = 7.8 earthquake. In this paper a comparative study of the damage produced by 1906 and 1985 Valparaiso earthquakes is done in the neighborhood of Valparaiso harbor. In this study the only three centennial buildings of 3 stories that survived both earthquakes almost undamaged were identified. Since for 1985 earthquake accelerogram at El Almendral soil conditions as well as in rock were recoded, the vulnerability analysis of these building is done considering instrumental measurements of the demand. The study concludes that good performance of these buildings in the epicentral zone of large earthquakes can not be well explained by modern earthquake engineering methods. Therefore, it is recommended to use in the future of more suitable instrumental parameters, such as the destructiveness potential factor, to describe earthquake demand

  13. Megathrust Earthquake Swarms Contemporaneous to Slow Slip and Non-Volcanic Tremor in Southern Mexico, Detected and Analyzed through a Template Matching Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holtkamp, S.; Brudzinski, M. R.; Cabral-Cano, E.; Arciniega-Ceballos, A.

    2012-12-01

    An outstanding question in geophysics is the degree to which the newly discovered types of slow fault slip are related to their destructive cousin - the earthquake. Here, we utilize a local network along the Oaxacan segment of the Middle American subduction zone to investigate the potential relationship between slow slip, non-volcanic tremor (NVT), and earthquakes along the subduction megathrust. We have developed a multi-station "template matching" waveform cross correlation technique which is able to detect and locate events several orders of magnitude smaller than would be possible using more traditional techniques. Also, our template matching procedure is capable of consistently locate events which occur during periods of increased background activity (e.g., during productive NVT, loud cultural noise, or after larger earthquakes) because the multi-station detector is finely tuned to events with similar hypocentral location and focal mechanism. The local network in the Oaxaca region allows us to focus on documented megathrust earthquake swarms, which we focus on because slow slip is hypothesized to be the cause for earthquake swarms in some tectonic environments. We identify a productive earthquake swarm in July 2006 (~600 similar earthquakes detected), which occurred during a week-long episode of productive tremor and slow slip. Families of events in this sequence were also active during larger and longer slow slip events, which provides a potential link between slow slip in the transition zone and earthquakes at the downdip end of the seismogenic portion of the megathrust. Because template matching techniques only detect similar signals, detected waveforms can be stacked together to produce higher signal to noise ratios or cross correlated against each other to produce precise relative phase arrival times. We are using the refined signals to look for evidence of expansion or propagation of hypocenters during these earthquake swarms, which could be used as a

  14. Earthquake number forecasts testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kagan, Yan Y.

    2017-10-01

    and kurtosis both tend to zero for large earthquake rates: for the Gaussian law, these values are identically zero. A calculation of the NBD skewness and kurtosis levels based on the values of the first two statistical moments of the distribution, shows rapid increase of these upper moments levels. However, the observed catalogue values of skewness and kurtosis are rising even faster. This means that for small time intervals, the earthquake number distribution is even more heavy-tailed than the NBD predicts. Therefore for small time intervals, we propose using empirical number distributions appropriately smoothed for testing forecasted earthquake numbers.

  15. The study of key issues about integration of GNSS and strong-motion records for real-time earthquake monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tu, Rui; Zhang, Pengfei; Zhang, Rui; Liu, Jinhai

    2016-08-01

    This paper has studied the key issues about integration of GNSS and strong-motion records for real-time earthquake monitoring. The validations show that the consistence of the coordinate system must be considered firstly to exclude the system bias between GNSS and strong-motion. The GNSS sampling rate is suggested about 1-5 Hz, and we should give the strong-motion's baseline shift with a larger dynamic noise as its variation is very swift. The initialization time of solving the baseline shift is less than one minute, and ambiguity resolution strategy is not greatly improved the solution. The data quality is very important for the solution, we advised to use multi-frequency and multi-system observations. These ideas give an important guide for real-time earthquake monitoring and early warning by the tight integration of GNSS and strong-motion records.

  16. An autocorrelation method to detect low frequency earthquakes within tremor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, J.R.; Beroza, G.C.; Shelly, D.R.

    2008-01-01

    Recent studies have shown that deep tremor in the Nankai Trough under western Shikoku consists of a swarm of low frequency earthquakes (LFEs) that occur as slow shear slip on the down-dip extension of the primary seismogenic zone of the plate interface. The similarity of tremor in other locations suggests a similar mechanism, but the absence of cataloged low frequency earthquakes prevents a similar analysis. In this study, we develop a method for identifying LFEs within tremor. The method employs a matched-filter algorithm, similar to the technique used to infer that tremor in parts of Shikoku is comprised of LFEs; however, in this case we do not assume the origin times or locations of any LFEs a priori. We search for LFEs using the running autocorrelation of tremor waveforms for 6 Hi-Net stations in the vicinity of the tremor source. Time lags showing strong similarity in the autocorrelation represent either repeats, or near repeats, of LFEs within the tremor. We test the method on an hour of Hi-Net recordings of tremor and demonstrates that it extracts both known and previously unidentified LFEs. Once identified, we cross correlate waveforms to measure relative arrival times and locate the LFEs. The results are able to explain most of the tremor as a swarm of LFEs and the locations of newly identified events appear to fill a gap in the spatial distribution of known LFEs. This method should allow us to extend the analysis of Shelly et al. (2007a) to parts of the Nankai Trough in Shikoku that have sparse LFE coverage, and may also allow us to extend our analysis to other regions that experience deep tremor, but where LFEs have not yet been identified. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

  17. Contribution of the Surface and Down-Hole Seismic Networks to the Location of Earthquakes at the Soultz-sous-Forêts Geothermal Site (France)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kinnaert, X.; Gaucher, E.; Kohl, T.; Achauer, U.

    2018-03-01

    Seismicity induced in geo-reservoirs can be a valuable observation to image fractured reservoirs, to characterize hydrological properties, or to mitigate seismic hazard. However, this requires accurate location of the seismicity, which is nowadays an important seismological task in reservoir engineering. The earthquake location (determination of the hypocentres) depends on the model used to represent the medium in which the seismic waves propagate and on the seismic monitoring network. In this work, location uncertainties and location inaccuracies are modeled to investigate the impact of several parameters on the determination of the hypocentres: the picking uncertainty, the numerical precision of picked arrival times, a velocity perturbation and the seismic network configuration. The method is applied to the geothermal site of Soultz-sous-Forêts, which is located in the Upper Rhine Graben (France) and which was subject to detailed scientific investigations. We focus on a massive water injection performed in the year 2000 to enhance the productivity of the well GPK2 in the granitic basement, at approximately 5 km depth, and which induced more than 7000 earthquakes recorded by down-hole and surface seismic networks. We compare the location errors obtained from the joint or the separate use of the down-hole and surface networks. Besides the quantification of location uncertainties caused by picking uncertainties, the impact of the numerical precision of the picked arrival times as provided in a reference catalogue is investigated. The velocity model is also modified to mimic possible effects of a massive water injection and to evaluate its impact on earthquake hypocentres. It is shown that the use of the down-hole network in addition to the surface network provides smaller location uncertainties but can also lead to larger inaccuracies. Hence, location uncertainties would not be well representative of the location errors and interpretation of the seismicity

  18. Indoor radon and earthquake

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saghatelyan, E.; Petrosyan, L.; Aghbalyan, Yu.; Baburyan, M.; Araratyan, L.

    2004-01-01

    For the first time on the basis of the Spitak earthquake of December 1988 (Armenia, December 1988) experience it is found out that the earthquake causes intensive and prolonged radon splashes which, rapidly dispersing in the open space of close-to-earth atmosphere, are contrastingly displayed in covered premises (dwellings, schools, kindergartens) even if they are at considerable distance from the earthquake epicenter, and this multiplies the radiation influence on the population. The interval of splashes includes the period from the first fore-shock to the last after-shock, i.e. several months. The area affected by radiation is larger vs. Armenia's territory. The scale of this impact on population is 12 times higher than the number of people injured in Spitak, Leninakan and other settlements (toll of injured - 25 000 people, radiation-induced diseases in people - over 300 000). The influence of radiation directly correlates with the earthquake force. Such a conclusion is underpinned by indoor radon monitoring data for Yerevan since 1987 (120 km from epicenter) 5450 measurements and multivariate analysis with identification of cause-and-effect linkages between geo dynamics of indoor radon under stable and conditions of Earth crust, behavior of radon in different geological mediums during earthquakes, levels of room radon concentrations and effective equivalent dose of radiation impact of radiation dose on health and statistical data on public health provided by the Ministry of Health. The following hitherto unexplained facts can be considered as consequences of prolonged radiation influence on human organism: long-lasting state of apathy and indifference typical of the population of Armenia during the period of more than a year after the earthquake, prevalence of malignant cancer forms in disaster zones, dominating lung cancer and so on. All urban territories of seismically active regions are exposed to the threat of natural earthquake-provoked radiation influence

  19. Modified-Fibonacci-Dual-Lucas method for earthquake prediction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boucouvalas, A. C.; Gkasios, M.; Tselikas, N. T.; Drakatos, G.

    2015-06-01

    The FDL method makes use of Fibonacci, Dual and Lucas numbers and has shown considerable success in predicting earthquake events locally as well as globally. Predicting the location of the epicenter of an earthquake is one difficult challenge the other being the timing and magnitude. One technique for predicting the onset of earthquakes is the use of cycles, and the discovery of periodicity. Part of this category is the reported FDL method. The basis of the reported FDL method is the creation of FDL future dates based on the onset date of significant earthquakes. The assumption being that each occurred earthquake discontinuity can be thought of as a generating source of FDL time series The connection between past earthquakes and future earthquakes based on FDL numbers has also been reported with sample earthquakes since 1900. Using clustering methods it has been shown that significant earthquakes (conjunct Sun, Moon opposite Sun, Moon conjunct or opposite North or South Modes. In order to test improvement of the method we used all +8R earthquakes recorded since 1900, (86 earthquakes from USGS data). We have developed the FDL numbers for each of those seeds, and examined the earthquake hit rates (for a window of 3, i.e. +-1 day of target date) and for <6.5R. The successes are counted for each one of the 86 earthquake seeds and we compare the MFDL method with the FDL method. In every case we find improvement when the starting seed date is on the planetary trigger date prior to the earthquake. We observe no improvement only when a planetary trigger coincided with the earthquake date and in this case the FDL method coincides with the MFDL. Based on the MDFL method we present the prediction method capable of predicting global events or localized earthquakes and we will discuss the accuracy of the method in as far as the prediction and location parts of the method. We show example calendar style predictions for global events as well as for the Greek region using

  20. Cyclic migration of weak earthquakes between Lunigiana earthquake of October 10, 1995 and Reggio Emilia earthquake of October 15, 1996 (Northern Italy)

    Science.gov (United States)

    di Giovambattista, R.; Tyupkin, Yu

    The cyclic migration of weak earthquakes (M 2.2) which occurred during the yearprior to the October 15, 1996 (M = 4.9) Reggio Emilia earthquake isdiscussed in this paper. The onset of this migration was associated with theoccurrence of the October 10, 1995 (M = 4.8) Lunigiana earthquakeabout 90 km southwest from the epicenter of the Reggio Emiliaearthquake. At least three series of earthquakes migrating from theepicentral area of the Lunigiana earthquake in the northeast direction wereobserved. The migration of earthquakes of the first series terminated at adistance of about 30 km from the epicenter of the Reggio Emiliaearthquake. The earthquake migration of the other two series halted atabout 10 km from the Reggio Emilia epicenter. The average rate ofearthquake migration was about 200-300 km/year, while the time ofrecurrence of the observed cycles varied from 68 to 178 days. Weakearthquakes migrated along the transversal fault zones and sometimesjumped from one fault to another. A correlation between the migratingearthquakes and tidal variations is analysed. We discuss the hypothesis thatthe analyzed area is in a state of stress approaching the limit of thelong-term durability of crustal rocks and that the observed cyclic migrationis a result of a combination of a more or less regular evolution of tectonicand tidal variations.

  1. 1/f and the Earthquake Problem: Scaling constraints that facilitate operational earthquake forecasting

    Science.gov (United States)

    yoder, M. R.; Rundle, J. B.; Turcotte, D. L.

    2012-12-01

    The difficulty of forecasting earthquakes can fundamentally be attributed to the self-similar, or "1/f", nature of seismic sequences. Specifically, the rate of occurrence of earthquakes is inversely proportional to their magnitude m, or more accurately to their scalar moment M. With respect to this "1/f problem," it can be argued that catalog selection (or equivalently, determining catalog constraints) constitutes the most significant challenge to seismicity based earthquake forecasting. Here, we address and introduce a potential solution to this most daunting problem. Specifically, we introduce a framework to constrain, or partition, an earthquake catalog (a study region) in order to resolve local seismicity. In particular, we combine Gutenberg-Richter (GR), rupture length, and Omori scaling with various empirical measurements to relate the size (spatial and temporal extents) of a study area (or bins within a study area) to the local earthquake magnitude potential - the magnitude of earthquake the region is expected to experience. From this, we introduce a new type of time dependent hazard map for which the tuning parameter space is nearly fully constrained. In a similar fashion, by combining various scaling relations and also by incorporating finite extents (rupture length, area, and duration) as constraints, we develop a method to estimate the Omori (temporal) and spatial aftershock decay parameters as a function of the parent earthquake's magnitude m. From this formulation, we develop an ETAS type model that overcomes many point-source limitations of contemporary ETAS. These models demonstrate promise with respect to earthquake forecasting applications. Moreover, the methods employed suggest a general framework whereby earthquake and other complex-system, 1/f type, problems can be constrained from scaling relations and finite extents.; Record-breaking hazard map of southern California, 2012-08-06. "Warm" colors indicate local acceleration (elevated hazard

  2. Quasi-Birth-and-Death Processes with Rational Arrival Process Components

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bean, Nigel G.; Nielsen, Bo Friis

    2010-01-01

    This paper introduces the concept of a Quasi-Birth-and-Death process (QBD) with Rational Arrival Process (RAP) components. We use the physical interpretation of the prediction process of the RAP, developed by Asmussen and Bladt, and develop an analysis that parallels the analysis of a traditional...... QBD. Further, we present an algorithm for the numerical evaluation of the matrix G. As an example, we consider two queues where the arrival process and the sequence of service times are taken from two dependent RAPs, that are not Markovian Arrival Processes......This paper introduces the concept of a Quasi-Birth-and-Death process (QBD) with Rational Arrival Process (RAP) components. We use the physical interpretation of the prediction process of the RAP, developed by Asmussen and Bladt, and develop an analysis that parallels the analysis of a traditional...

  3. Hong-Ou-Mandel effect in terms of the temporal biphoton wave function with two arrival-time variables

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fedorov, M. V.; Sysoeva, A. A.; Vintskevich, S. V.; Grigoriev, D. A.

    2018-03-01

    The well-known Hong-Ou-Mandel effect is revisited. Two physical reasons are discussed for the effect to be less pronounced or even to disappear: differing polarizations of photons coming to the beamsplitter and delay time of photons in one of two channels. For the latter we use the concepts of biphoton frequency and temporal wave functions depending, correspondingly, on two frequency continuous variables of photons and on two time variables t 1 and t 2 interpreted as the arrival times of photons to the beamsplitter. Explicit expressions are found for the probability densities and total probabilities for photon pairs to be split between two channels after the beamsplitter and to be unsplit, when two photons appear together in one of two channels.

  4. Synergistic combination of systems for structural health monitoring and earthquake early warning for structural health prognosis and diagnosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Stephen; Beck, James L.

    2012-04-01

    Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems are currently operating nationwide in Japan and are in beta-testing in California. Such a system detects an earthquake initiation using online signals from a seismic sensor network and broadcasts a warning of the predicted location and magnitude a few seconds to a minute or so before an earthquake hits a site. Such a system can be used synergistically with installed structural health monitoring (SHM) systems to enhance pre-event prognosis and post-event diagnosis of structural health. For pre-event prognosis, the EEW system information can be used to make probabilistic predictions of the anticipated damage to a structure using seismic loss estimation methodologies from performance-based earthquake engineering. These predictions can support decision-making regarding the activation of appropriate mitigation systems, such as stopping traffic from entering a bridge that has a predicted high probability of damage. Since the time between warning and arrival of the strong shaking is very short, probabilistic predictions must be rapidly calculated and the decision making automated for the mitigation actions. For post-event diagnosis, the SHM sensor data can be used in Bayesian updating of the probabilistic damage predictions with the EEW predictions as a prior. Appropriate Bayesian methods for SHM have been published. In this paper, we use pre-trained surrogate models (or emulators) based on machine learning methods to make fast damage and loss predictions that are then used in a cost-benefit decision framework for activation of a mitigation measure. A simple illustrative example of an infrastructure application is presented.

  5. Prediction of late/early arrivals in container terminals - A qualitative approach

    OpenAIRE

    Pani, C.; Vanelslander, T.; Fancello, G.; Cannas, M.

    2015-01-01

    Vessel arrival uncertainty in ports has become a very common problem worldwide. Although ship operators have to notify the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) at predetermined time intervals, they frequently have to update the latest ETA due to unforeseen circumstances. This causes a series of inconveniences that often impact on the efficiency of terminal operations, especially in the daily planning scenario. Thus, for our study we adopted a machine learning approach in order to provide a qualita...

  6. Quasi real-time estimation of the moment magnitude of large earthquake from static strain changes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itaba, S.

    2016-12-01

    The 2011 Tohoku-Oki (off the Pacific coast of Tohoku) earthquake, of moment magnitude 9.0, was accompanied by large static strain changes (10-7), as measured by borehole strainmeters operated by the Geological Survey of Japan in the Tokai, Kii Peninsula, and Shikoku regions. A fault model for the earthquake on the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates, based on these borehole strainmeter data, yielded a moment magnitude of 8.7. On the other hand, based on the seismic wave, the prompt report of the magnitude which the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced just after earthquake occurrence was 7.9. Such geodetic moment magnitudes, derived from static strain changes, can be estimated almost as rapidly as determinations using seismic waves. I have to verify the validity of this method in some cases. In the case of this earthquake's largest aftershock, which occurred 29 minutes after the mainshock. The prompt report issued by JMA assigned this aftershock a magnitude of 7.3, whereas the moment magnitude derived from borehole strain data is 7.6, which is much closer to the actual moment magnitude of 7.7. In order to grasp the magnitude of a great earthquake earlier, several methods are now being suggested to reduce the earthquake disasters including tsunami. Our simple method of using static strain changes is one of the strong methods for rapid estimation of the magnitude of large earthquakes, and useful to improve the accuracy of Earthquake Early Warning.

  7. The 2010 Chile Earthquake: Rapid Assessments of Tsunami

    OpenAIRE

    Michelini, A.; Lauciani, V.; Selvaggi, G.; Lomax, A.

    2010-01-01

    After an earthquake underwater, rapid real-time assessment of earthquake parameters is important for emergency response related to infrastructure damage and, perhaps more exigently, for issuing warnings of the possibility of an impending tsunami. Since 2005, the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) has worked on the rapid quantification of earthquake magnitude and tsunami potential, especially for the Mediterranean area. This work includes quantification of earthquake size fr...

  8. Effects in Morocco of the Lisboa earthquake 1 November 1755

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Levret, A.

    1988-05-01

    Within the framework of a cooperative agreement Sofratome/Office National d'Electricite of Morocco and Sofratome/Electricidade de Portugal, a study has been conducted as to the effects of the November 1, 1755 Lisbon earthquake in Morocco. This event, the effects of which have been described at length in Portugal, was likewise strongly felt in Morocco, especially on the Atlantic coast, which was laid waste not only through the direct agency of seismic waves, but also through that of a formidable tsunami. In old texts, the descriptions of these conjugate effects has been rendered with varying degrees of overstatement. The procedure adopted in order to arrive at a precise identification of the effects and their origin and an evaluation of intensity involves three stages: a) an assessment of the reliability of the documents used; b) a thoroughgoing analysis of the descriptions with the object of discriminating between the direct effects of the earthquake and those ascribable to the action of the tidal wave: c) a readjustment of the intensities by analysis of the global effects of the earthquake not only in Morocco but also in Portugal and Spain. Then a comparison of these with the well- documented effects of the recent, February 28, 1969 earthquake, originating at the same source. Extrapolated isoseismals for the effects in Morocco of the 1755 event derived from this study are then assigned. In the light of current knowledge concerning the historical seismicity of the Iberian African collision zone, an outline of the maximum observed intensities is proposed [fr

  9. Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Y. Kagan

    1994-01-01

    Full Text Available Theoretical calculations, simulations and measurements of rotation of earthquake focal mechanisms suggest that the stress in earthquake focal zones follows the Cauchy distribution which is one of the stable probability distributions (with the value of the exponent α equal to 1. We review the properties of the stable distributions and show that the Cauchy distribution is expected to approximate the stress caused by earthquakes occurring over geologically long intervals of a fault zone development. However, the stress caused by recent earthquakes recorded in instrumental catalogues, should follow symmetric stable distributions with the value of α significantly less than one. This is explained by a fractal distribution of earthquake hypocentres: the dimension of a hypocentre set, ��, is close to zero for short-term earthquake catalogues and asymptotically approaches 2¼ for long-time intervals. We use the Harvard catalogue of seismic moment tensor solutions to investigate the distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes. The stress measured in the focal zone of each event is approximated by stable distributions. In agreement with theoretical considerations, the exponent value of the distribution approaches zero as the time span of an earthquake catalogue (ΔT decreases. For large stress values α increases. We surmise that it is caused by the δ increase for small inter-earthquake distances due to location errors.

  10. Real-Time GPS Monitoring for Earthquake Rapid Assessment in the San Francisco Bay Area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guillemot, C.; Langbein, J. O.; Murray, J. R.

    2012-12-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center has deployed a network of eight real-time Global Positioning System (GPS) stations in the San Francisco Bay area and is implementing software applications to continuously evaluate the status of the deformation within the network. Real-time monitoring of the station positions is expected to provide valuable information for rapidly estimating source parameters should a large earthquake occur in the San Francisco Bay area. Because earthquake response applications require robust data access, as a first step we have developed a suite of web-based applications which are now routinely used to monitor the network's operational status and data streaming performance. The web tools provide continuously updated displays of important telemetry parameters such as data latency and receive rates, as well as source voltage and temperature information within each instrument enclosure. Automated software on the backend uses the streaming performance data to mitigate the impact of outages, radio interference and bandwidth congestion on deformation monitoring operations. A separate set of software applications manages the recovery of lost data due to faulty communication links. Displacement estimates are computed in real-time for various combinations of USGS, Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) and Bay Area Regional Deformation (BARD) network stations. We are currently comparing results from two software packages (one commercial and one open-source) used to process 1-Hz data on the fly and produce estimates of differential positions. The continuous monitoring of telemetry makes it possible to tune the network to minimize the impact of transient interruptions of the data flow, from one or more stations, on the estimated positions. Ongoing work is focused on using data streaming performance history to optimize the quality of the position, reduce drift and outliers by switching to the best set of stations within the network, and

  11. Earthquake precursors: spatial-temporal gravity changes before the great earthquakes in the Sichuan-Yunnan area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Yi-Qing; Liang, Wei-Feng; Zhang, Song

    2018-01-01

    Using multiple-scale mobile gravity data in the Sichuan-Yunnan area, we systematically analyzed the relationships between spatial-temporal gravity changes and the 2014 Ludian, Yunnan Province Ms6.5 earthquake and the 2014 Kangding Ms6.3, 2013 Lushan Ms7.0, and 2008 Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquakes in Sichuan Province. Our main results are as follows. (1) Before the occurrence of large earthquakes, gravity anomalies occur in a large area around the epicenters. The directions of gravity change gradient belts usually agree roughly with the directions of the main fault zones of the study area. Such gravity changes might reflect the increase of crustal stress, as well as the significant active tectonic movements and surface deformations along fault zones, during the period of gestation of great earthquakes. (2) Continuous significant changes of the multiple-scale gravity fields, as well as greater gravity changes with larger time scales, can be regarded as medium-range precursors of large earthquakes. The subsequent large earthquakes always occur in the area where the gravity changes greatly. (3) The spatial-temporal gravity changes are very useful in determining the epicenter of coming large earthquakes. The large gravity networks are useful to determine the general areas of coming large earthquakes. However, the local gravity networks with high spatial-temporal resolution are suitable for determining the location of epicenters. Therefore, denser gravity observation networks are necessary for better forecasts of the epicenters of large earthquakes. (4) Using gravity changes from mobile observation data, we made medium-range forecasts of the Kangding, Ludian, Lushan, and Wenchuan earthquakes, with especially successful forecasts of the location of their epicenters. Based on the above discussions, we emphasize that medium-/long-term potential for large earthquakes might exist nowadays in some areas with significant gravity anomalies in the study region. Thus, the monitoring

  12. Sub-fs electron bunch generation with sub-10-fs bunch arrival-time jitter via bunch slicing in a magnetic chicane

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Zhu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The generation of ultrashort electron bunches with ultrasmall bunch arrival-time jitter is of vital importance for laser-plasma wakefield acceleration with external injection. We study the production of 100-MeV electron bunches with bunch durations of subfemtosecond (fs and bunch arrival-time jitters of less than 10 fs, in an S-band photoinjector by using a weak magnetic chicane with a slit collimator. The beam dynamics inside the chicane is simulated by using two codes with different self-force models. The first code separates the self-force into a three-dimensional (3D quasistatic space-charge model and a one-dimensional coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR model, while the other one starts from the first principle with a so-called 3D sub-bunch method. The simulations indicate that the CSR effect dominates the horizontal emittance growth and the 1D CSR model underestimates the final bunch duration and emittance because of the very large transverse-to-longitudinal aspect ratio of the sub-fs bunch. Particularly, the CSR effect is also strongly affected by the vertical bunch size. Due to the coupling between the horizontal and longitudinal phase spaces, the bunch duration at the entrance of the last dipole magnet of the chicane is still significantly longer than that at the exit of the chicane, which considerably mitigates the impact of space charge and CSR effects on the beam quality. Exploiting this effect, a bunch charge of up to 4.8 pC in a sub-fs bunch could be simulated. In addition, we analytically and numerically investigate the impact of different jitter sources on the bunch arrival-time jitter downstream of the chicane, and define the tolerance budgets assuming realistic values of the stability of the linac for different bunch charges and compression schemes.

  13. Earthquakes, fluid pressures and rapid subduction zone metamorphism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viete, D. R.

    2013-12-01

    High-pressure/low-temperature (HP/LT) metamorphism is commonly incomplete, meaning that large tracts of rock can remain metastable at blueschist- and eclogite-facies conditions for timescales up to millions of years [1]. When HP/LT metamorphism does take place, it can occur over extremely short durations (the role of fluids in providing heat for metamorphism [2] or catalyzing metamorphic reactions [1]. Earthquakes in subduction zone settings can occur to depths of 100s of km. Metamorphic dehydration and the associated development of elevated pore pressures in HP/LT metamorphic rocks has been identified as a cause of earthquake activity at such great depths [3-4]. The process of fracturing/faulting significantly increases rock permeability, causing channelized fluid flow and dissipation of pore pressures [3-4]. Thus, deep subduction zone earthquakes are thought to reflect an evolution in fluid pressure, involving: (1) an initial increase in pore pressure by heating-related dehydration of subduction zone rocks, and (2) rapid relief of pore pressures by faulting and channelized flow. Models for earthquakes at depth in subduction zones have focussed on the in situ effects of dehydration and then sudden escape of fluids from the rock mass following fracturing [3-4]. On the other hand, existing models for rapid and incomplete metamorphism in subduction zones have focussed only on the effects of heating and/or hydration with the arrival of external fluids [1-2]. Significant changes in pressure over very short timescales should result in rapid mineral growth and/or disequilibrium texture development in response to overstepping of mineral reaction boundaries. The repeated process of dehydration-pore pressure development-earthquake-pore pressure relief could conceivably produce a record of episodic HP/LT metamorphism driven by rapid pressure pulses. A new hypothesis is presented for the origins of HP/LT metamorphism: that HP/LT metamorphism is driven by effective pressure

  14. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Web Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fee, J.; Martinez, E.

    2015-12-01

    USGS Earthquake web applications provide access to earthquake information from USGS and other Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) contributors. One of the primary goals of these applications is to provide a consistent experience for accessing both near-real time information as soon as it is available and historic information after it is thoroughly reviewed. Millions of people use these applications every month including people who feel an earthquake, emergency responders looking for the latest information about a recent event, and scientists researching historic earthquakes and their effects. Information from multiple catalogs and contributors is combined by the ANSS Comprehensive Catalog into one composite catalog, identifying the most preferred information from any source for each event. A web service and near-real time feeds provide access to all contributed data, and are used by a number of users and software packages. The Latest Earthquakes application displays summaries of many events, either near-real time feeds or custom searches, and the Event Page application shows detailed information for each event. Because all data is accessed through the web service, it can also be downloaded by users. The applications are maintained as open source projects on github, and use mobile-first and responsive-web-design approaches to work well on both mobile devices and desktop computers. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/

  15. Rapid modeling of complex multi-fault ruptures with simplistic models from real-time GPS: Perspectives from the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crowell, B.; Melgar, D.

    2017-12-01

    The 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake is one of the most complex earthquakes in recent history, rupturing across at least 10 disparate faults with varying faulting styles, and exhibiting intricate surface deformation patterns. The complexity of this event has motivated the need for multidisciplinary geophysical studies to get at the underlying source physics to better inform earthquake hazards models in the future. However, events like Kaikoura beg the question of how well (or how poorly) such earthquakes can be modeled automatically in real-time and still satisfy the general public and emergency managers. To investigate this question, we perform a retrospective real-time GPS analysis of the Kaikoura earthquake with the G-FAST early warning module. We first perform simple point source models of the earthquake using peak ground displacement scaling and a coseismic offset based centroid moment tensor (CMT) inversion. We predict ground motions based on these point sources as well as simple finite faults determined from source scaling studies, and validate against true recordings of peak ground acceleration and velocity. Secondly, we perform a slip inversion based upon the CMT fault orientations and forward model near-field tsunami maximum expected wave heights to compare against available tide gauge records. We find remarkably good agreement between recorded and predicted ground motions when using a simple fault plane, with the majority of disagreement in ground motions being attributable to local site effects, not earthquake source complexity. Similarly, the near-field tsunami maximum amplitude predictions match tide gauge records well. We conclude that even though our models for the Kaikoura earthquake are devoid of rich source complexities, the CMT driven finite fault is a good enough "average" source and provides useful constraints for rapid forecasting of ground motion and near-field tsunami amplitudes.

  16. Comparison of the CME-associated shock arrival times at the earth using the WSA-ENLIL model with three cone models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jang, S.; Moon, Y.; Na, H.

    2012-12-01

    We have made a comparison of CME-associated shock arrival times at the earth based on the WSA-ENLIL model with three cone models using 29 halo CMEs from 2001 to 2002. These halo CMEs have cone model parameters from Michalek et al. (2007) as well as their associated interplanetary (IP) shocks. For this study we consider three different cone models (an asymmetric cone model, an ice-cream cone model and an elliptical cone model) to determine CME cone parameters (radial velocity, angular width and source location), which are used for input parameters of the WSA-ENLIL model. The mean absolute error (MAE) of the arrival times for the elliptical cone model is 10 hours, which is about 2 hours smaller than those of the other models. However, this value is still larger than that (8.7 hours) of an empirical model by Kim et al. (2007). We are investigating several possibilities on relatively large errors of the WSA-ENLIL cone model, which may be caused by CME-CME interaction, background solar wind speed, and/or CME density enhancement.

  17. The effect of patients’ time of arrival at the hospital on the rate of Thrombolytic therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Toba Kazemi

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The honorable editor-in-chief of the Journal of ARYA We read with interest the article of Dr. Maleki that has recently been published.1 We conducted a similar study in Birjand Vali-e-Asr Hospital in 2009-2010. This study was done on 125 patients with STEMI with a mean age of 59.2 ± 11.9 years. In this study, 65.6% of patients underwent thrombolytic therapy. This showed a crucial increase compared to the previous study in Birjand in 2003 that showed 17.3% of patients underwent thrombolytic therapy.2 Mean door to needle time was 74.8 ± 42.7 minutes (median 60 minutes. Thrombolytic therapy showed no difference for difference in sex (69.4% in males, and 51.9% in females, P = 0.08. However, in working staff (86.7% in employees, and 51.2% in farmers/workers, P = 0.003, in highly educated individuals (92.3% at university level, and 45.5% illiterate, P < 0.001, and in citizens (73.2% in urban, and 51.2% in rural citizens, P = 0.01 there was a higher percentage of thrombolytic therapy. The main reason for this difference between them is earlier arrival to the hospital since the onset of symptoms. The arrival time in the city's residents was 166.7 ± 179.6 minutes, but for villagers it was 221.6 ± 112 minutes (P = 0.001. Furthermore, the rate of thrombolytic therapy during the night was not significantly different compared to the rest of the day (73% during morning, 62.9% during afternoon, and 62.3% during night, P = 0.52. The patient's arrival time to the hospital at night was not different compared to the rest of the day (166.9 ± 174.7 minutes in the morning shift, and 148.2 ± 85.2 minutes during the night shift, P = 0.63. Visiting patients during the night shift was similar to other shifts; visit by intern was 12.3 ± 9.1 minutes during the morning shift, and 14.1 ± 9.3 minutes during the night shift (P = 0.73. The rate of thrombolytic therapy in our study was similar to the study by Dr. Maleki;1 however, door to needle time was longer. In our

  18. Source Mechanism of May 30, 2015 Bonin Islands, Japan Deep Earthquake (Mw7.8) Estimated by Broadband Waveform Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsuboi, S.; Nakamura, T.; Miyoshi, T.

    2015-12-01

    May 30, 2015 Bonin Islands, Japan earthquake (Mw 7.8, depth 679.9km GCMT) was one of the deepest earthquakes ever recorded. We apply the waveform inversion technique (Kikuchi & Kanamori, 1991) to obtain slip distribution in the source fault of this earthquake in the same manner as our previous work (Nakamura et al., 2010). We use 60 broadband seismograms of IRIS GSN seismic stations with epicentral distance between 30 and 90 degrees. The broadband original data are integrated into ground displacement and band-pass filtered in the frequency band 0.002-1 Hz. We use the velocity structure model IASP91 to calculate the wavefield near source and stations. We assume that the fault is squared with the length 50 km. We obtain source rupture model for both nodal planes with high dip angle (74 degree) and low dip angle (26 degree) and compare the synthetic seismograms with the observations to determine which source rupture model would explain the observations better. We calculate broadband synthetic seismograms with these source propagation models using the spectral-element method (Komatitsch & Tromp, 2001). We use new Earth Simulator system in JAMSTEC to compute synthetic seismograms using the spectral-element method. The simulations are performed on 7,776 processors, which require 1,944 nodes of the Earth Simulator. On this number of nodes, a simulation of 50 minutes of wave propagation accurate at periods of 3.8 seconds and longer requires about 5 hours of CPU time. Comparisons of the synthetic waveforms with the observation at teleseismic stations show that the arrival time of pP wave calculated for depth 679km matches well with the observation, which demonstrates that the earthquake really happened below the 660 km discontinuity. In our present forward simulations, the source rupture model with the low-angle fault dipping is likely to better explain the observations.

  19. Electro-optic sampling at 90 degree interaction geometry for time-of-arrival stamping of ultrafast relativistic electron diffraction

    OpenAIRE

    C. M. Scoby; P. Musumeci; J. T. Moody; M. S. Gutierrez

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we study a new geometry setup for electro-optic sampling (EOS) where the electron beam runs parallel to the ⟨110⟩ face of a ZnTe crystal and the probe laser is perpendicular to it and to the beam path. The simple setup is used to encode the time-of-arrival information of a 3.5  MeV

  20. Method for Establishing Direction of Arrival by Use of Signals of Opportunity

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-08-29

    digital converter (ADC). The analog-to-digital converter sampling process that locks the relative time features of the digital signal processing...path and is sampled by the ADC. The ADC sampling process locks the relative time properties of the individual signals components arriving at...that signal. For each wave vector, the angles that define the direction of arrival are assumed to be identical at each RF port phase center in the

  1. Earthquake correlations and networks: A comparative study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krishna Mohan, T. R.; Revathi, P. G.

    2011-01-01

    We quantify the correlation between earthquakes and use the same to extract causally connected earthquake pairs. Our correlation metric is a variation on the one introduced by Baiesi and Paczuski [M. Baiesi and M. Paczuski, Phys. Rev. E 69, 066106 (2004)]. A network of earthquakes is then constructed from the time-ordered catalog and with links between the more correlated ones. A list of recurrences to each of the earthquakes is identified employing correlation thresholds to demarcate the most meaningful ones in each cluster. Data pertaining to three different seismic regions (viz., California, Japan, and the Himalayas) are comparatively analyzed using such a network model. The distribution of recurrence lengths and recurrence times are two of the key features analyzed to draw conclusions about the universal aspects of such a network model. We find that the unimodal feature of recurrence length distribution, which helps to associate typical rupture lengths with different magnitude earthquakes, is robust across the different seismic regions. The out-degree of the networks shows a hub structure rooted on the large magnitude earthquakes. In-degree distribution is seen to be dependent on the density of events in the neighborhood. Power laws, with two regimes having different exponents, are obtained with recurrence time distribution. The first regime confirms the Omori law for aftershocks while the second regime, with a faster falloff for the larger recurrence times, establishes that pure spatial recurrences also follow a power-law distribution. The crossover to the second power-law regime can be taken to be signaling the end of the aftershock regime in an objective fashion.

  2. Comprehensive understanding of a deep transition zone from an unstable- to stable-slip regime of the megathrust interplate earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kato, A.; Iidaka, T.; Ikuta, R.; Yoshida, Y.; Katsumata, K.; Iwasaki, T.; Sakai, S.; Yamaoka, K.; Watanabe, T.; Kunitomo, T.; Yamazaki, F.; Tsumura, N.; Nozaki, K.; Okubo, M.; Suzuki, S.; Hirata, N.; Zhang, H.; Thurber, C. H.

    2009-12-01

    Most slow slips have occurred in the deep transition zone from an unstable- to stable-slip regime. Detailed knowledge about a deep transition zone is essentially important to understand the mechanism of the slow slips, and the stress concentration process to the source region of the megathrust interplate earthquake. We have conducted a very dense seismic observation in the Tokai-region from the April to the August in 2008 through a linear deployment of 75 portable stations, in Japan. The array extended from the bottom part of the source region of the Tokai earthquake to deep low-frequency earthquakes (LFE, ~ 35 km depth) including the long-term slow-slip region (~ 25 km depth). Here we present a high-resolution tomographic imaging of seismic velocities and highly-accurate hypocenters including LFEs, using first arrival data from the dense seismograph deployment. We manually picked the first arrivals of P- and S- waves from each waveform for about 700 earthquakes including about 20 LFEs observed by the dense array. Then, we applied the TomoDD-code [Zhang and Thurber, 2003] to the arrival data set, adding an accurate double-difference data estimated by a waveform cross-correlation technique. A low velocity (Vp, Vs) layer with high Poisson’s ratio is clearly imaged, and tilts to the northwestward with a low dip angle, which corresponds to the subducting oceanic crust of the Philippine Sea Slab. Although seismicity within the oceanic crust is significantly low, few earthquakes occur within the oceanic crust. The LFEs are linearly aligned along the top surface of the subducting oceanic crust at depths from 30 to 40 km. The Poisson’s ratio within the oceanic crust does not show significant depth-dependent increase beneath the linear alignment of LFEs. This result argues against a depth section of Poisson’s ratio obtained in the SW Japan [Shelly et al., 2006]. Beneath the LFEs, active cluster of slab earthquakes are horizontally distributed. At the depths greater

  3. Global volcanic earthquake swarm database and preliminary analysis of volcanic earthquake swarm duration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. R. McNutt

    1996-06-01

    Full Text Available Global data from 1979 to 1989 pertaining to volcanic earthquake swarms have been compiled into a custom-designed relational database. The database is composed of three sections: 1 a section containing general information on volcanoes, 2 a section containing earthquake swarm data (such as dates of swarm occurrence and durations, and 3 a section containing eruption information. The most abundant and reliable parameter, duration of volcanic earthquake swarms, was chosen for preliminary analysis. The distribution of all swarm durations was found to have a geometric mean of 5.5 days. Precursory swarms were then separated from those not associated with eruptions. The geometric mean precursory swarm duration was 8 days whereas the geometric mean duration of swarms not associated with eruptive activity was 3.5 days. Two groups of precursory swarms are apparent when duration is compared with the eruption repose time. Swarms with durations shorter than 4 months showed no clear relationship with the eruption repose time. However, the second group, lasting longer than 4 months, showed a significant positive correlation with the log10 of the eruption repose period. The two groups suggest that different suites of physical processes are involved in the generation of volcanic earthquake swarms.

  4. Mapping Tectonic Stress Using Earthquakes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arnold, Richard; Townend, John; Vignaux, Tony

    2005-01-01

    An earthquakes occurs when the forces acting on a fault overcome its intrinsic strength and cause it to slip abruptly. Understanding more specifically why earthquakes occur at particular locations and times is complicated because in many cases we do not know what these forces actually are, or indeed what processes ultimately trigger slip. The goal of this study is to develop, test, and implement a Bayesian method of reliably determining tectonic stresses using the most abundant stress gauges available - earthquakes themselves.Existing algorithms produce reasonable estimates of the principal stress directions, but yield unreliable error bounds as a consequence of the generally weak constraint on stress imposed by any single earthquake, observational errors, and an unavoidable ambiguity between the fault normal and the slip vector.A statistical treatment of the problem can take into account observational errors, combine data from multiple earthquakes in a consistent manner, and provide realistic error bounds on the estimated principal stress directions.We have developed a realistic physical framework for modelling multiple earthquakes and show how the strong physical and geometrical constraints present in this problem allow inference to be made about the orientation of the principal axes of stress in the earth's crust

  5. Improved location of regional earthquakes by reduction of azimuthal bias in S-P travel time differences observed at Gauribidanur array, India

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhadauria, Y.S.; Roy, Falguni; Unnikrishnan, E.

    2008-02-01

    The observed S-P time differences, T ( S-P) , at Gauribidanur array (GBA), India, from a large number of regional earthquakes covering a wide azimuth range showed significant bias in comparison to S-P time differences that are available in the standard travel time tables of Jeffreys-Bullen and IASP91. The bias is found larger particularly for the signals that originate from shallow earthquakes in the upper mantle distance range of 12 deg (S-P) at GBA using Jeffreys-Bullen tables falls short of the standard epicentral distance, Δ s , computed from the USGS reported locations, on an average by 128 km, 121 km and 72 km respectively for NE, SE and NW regions. In contrast to these, for the earthquakes from North of GBA whose signals traversed purely continental paths in the azimuth range of - 35 deg (S-P) bias for the mixed oceanic-continental paths may be attributed to the oceanic crystal structure at the source and upper mantle path effects between GBA and these source locations. (author)

  6. Post-Earthquake Reconstruction — in Context of Housing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarkar, Raju

    Comprehensive rescue and relief operations are always launched with no loss of time with active participation of the Army, Governmental agencies, Donor agencies, NGOs, and other Voluntary organizations after each Natural Disaster. There are several natural disasters occurring throughout the world round the year and one of them is Earthquake. More than any other natural catastrophe, an earthquake represents the undoing of our most basic pre-conceptions of the earth as the source of stability or the first distressing factor due to earthquake is the collapse of our dwelling units. Earthquake has affected buildings since people began constructing them. So after each earthquake a reconstruction of housing program is very much essential since housing is referred to as shelter satisfying one of the so-called basic needs next to food and clothing. It is a well-known fact that resettlement (after an earthquake) is often accompanied by the creation of ghettos and ensuing problems in the provision of infrastructure and employment. In fact a housing project after Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat, India, illustrates all the negative aspects of resettlement in the context of reconstruction. The main theme of this paper is to consider few issues associated with post-earthquake reconstruction in context of housing, all of which are significant to communities that have had to rebuild after catastrophe or that will face such a need in the future. Few of them are as follows: (1) Why rebuilding opportunities are time consuming? (2) What are the causes of failure in post-earthquake resettlement? (3) How can holistic planning after an earthquake be planned? (4) What are the criteria to be checked for sustainable building materials? (5) What are the criteria for success in post-earthquake resettlement? (6) How mitigation in post-earthquake housing can be made using appropriate repair, restoration, and strengthening concepts?

  7. The CATDAT damaging earthquakes database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniell, J. E.; Khazai, B.; Wenzel, F.; Vervaeck, A.

    2011-08-01

    The global CATDAT damaging earthquakes and secondary effects (tsunami, fire, landslides, liquefaction and fault rupture) database was developed to validate, remove discrepancies, and expand greatly upon existing global databases; and to better understand the trends in vulnerability, exposure, and possible future impacts of such historic earthquakes. Lack of consistency and errors in other earthquake loss databases frequently cited and used in analyses was a major shortcoming in the view of the authors which needed to be improved upon. Over 17 000 sources of information have been utilised, primarily in the last few years, to present data from over 12 200 damaging earthquakes historically, with over 7000 earthquakes since 1900 examined and validated before insertion into the database. Each validated earthquake includes seismological information, building damage, ranges of social losses to account for varying sources (deaths, injuries, homeless, and affected), and economic losses (direct, indirect, aid, and insured). Globally, a slightly increasing trend in economic damage due to earthquakes is not consistent with the greatly increasing exposure. The 1923 Great Kanto (214 billion USD damage; 2011 HNDECI-adjusted dollars) compared to the 2011 Tohoku (>300 billion USD at time of writing), 2008 Sichuan and 1995 Kobe earthquakes show the increasing concern for economic loss in urban areas as the trend should be expected to increase. Many economic and social loss values not reported in existing databases have been collected. Historical GDP (Gross Domestic Product), exchange rate, wage information, population, HDI (Human Development Index), and insurance information have been collected globally to form comparisons. This catalogue is the largest known cross-checked global historic damaging earthquake database and should have far-reaching consequences for earthquake loss estimation, socio-economic analysis, and the global reinsurance field.

  8. The CATDAT damaging earthquakes database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. E. Daniell

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available The global CATDAT damaging earthquakes and secondary effects (tsunami, fire, landslides, liquefaction and fault rupture database was developed to validate, remove discrepancies, and expand greatly upon existing global databases; and to better understand the trends in vulnerability, exposure, and possible future impacts of such historic earthquakes.

    Lack of consistency and errors in other earthquake loss databases frequently cited and used in analyses was a major shortcoming in the view of the authors which needed to be improved upon.

    Over 17 000 sources of information have been utilised, primarily in the last few years, to present data from over 12 200 damaging earthquakes historically, with over 7000 earthquakes since 1900 examined and validated before insertion into the database. Each validated earthquake includes seismological information, building damage, ranges of social losses to account for varying sources (deaths, injuries, homeless, and affected, and economic losses (direct, indirect, aid, and insured.

    Globally, a slightly increasing trend in economic damage due to earthquakes is not consistent with the greatly increasing exposure. The 1923 Great Kanto ($214 billion USD damage; 2011 HNDECI-adjusted dollars compared to the 2011 Tohoku (>$300 billion USD at time of writing, 2008 Sichuan and 1995 Kobe earthquakes show the increasing concern for economic loss in urban areas as the trend should be expected to increase. Many economic and social loss values not reported in existing databases have been collected. Historical GDP (Gross Domestic Product, exchange rate, wage information, population, HDI (Human Development Index, and insurance information have been collected globally to form comparisons.

    This catalogue is the largest known cross-checked global historic damaging earthquake database and should have far-reaching consequences for earthquake loss estimation, socio-economic analysis, and the global

  9. Extending the ISC-GEM Global Earthquake Instrumental Catalogue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Giacomo, Domenico; Engdhal, Bob; Storchak, Dmitry; Villaseñor, Antonio; Harris, James

    2015-04-01

    After a 27-month project funded by the GEM Foundation (www.globalquakemodel.org), in January 2013 we released the ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900 2009) (www.isc.ac.uk/iscgem/index.php) as a special product to use for seismic hazard studies. The new catalogue was necessary as improved seismic hazard studies necessitate that earthquake catalogues are homogeneous (to the largest extent possible) over time in their fundamental parameters, such as location and magnitude. Due to time and resource limitation, the ISC-GEM catalogue (1900-2009) included earthquakes selected according to the following time-variable cut-off magnitudes: Ms=7.5 for earthquakes occurring before 1918; Ms=6.25 between 1918 and 1963; and Ms=5.5 from 1964 onwards. Because of the importance of having a reliable seismic input for seismic hazard studies, funding from GEM and two commercial companies in the US and UK allowed us to start working on the extension of the ISC-GEM catalogue both for earthquakes that occurred beyond 2009 and for earthquakes listed in the International Seismological Summary (ISS) which fell below the cut-off magnitude of 6.25. This extension is part of a four-year program that aims at including in the ISC-GEM catalogue large global earthquakes that occurred before the beginning of the ISC Bulletin in 1964. In this contribution we present the updated ISC GEM catalogue, which will include over 1000 more earthquakes that occurred in 2010 2011 and several hundreds more between 1950 and 1959. The catalogue extension between 1935 and 1949 is currently underway. The extension of the ISC-GEM catalogue will also be helpful for regional cross border seismic hazard studies as the ISC-GEM catalogue should be used as basis for cross-checking the consistency in location and magnitude of those earthquakes listed both in the ISC GEM global catalogue and regional catalogues.

  10. Obtaining and utilizing contaminant arrival distributions in transient flow systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1977-01-01

    The versatility of the new contaminant arrival distributions for determining environmental consequences of subsurface pollution problems is demonstrated through application to a transient flow system. Though some of the four phases of the hydrologic evaluations are more complicated because of the time-dependence of the flow and input contaminant concentrations, the arrival distributions still effectively summarize the data required to determine the environmental implications. These arrival distributions yield two graphs or tabular sets of data giving the consequences of the subsurface pollution problems in a simple and direct form. Accordingly, the public control authorities would be able to use these results to choose alternatives or initiate corrective actions, depending on the indicated environmental consequences

  11. Amplitude and angle of arrival measurements on a 28.56 GHz Earth-space path

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devasirvatham, D. M. J.; Hodge, D. B.

    1981-01-01

    The amplitude and angle of arrival measurements on an Earth-space path using the 28.56 GHz COMSTAR D3 satellite beacon are described. These measurements were made by the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory during the period September 1978 to September 1979. Monthly, quarterly, and annual distributions of attenuation, angle of arrival, and variance of both these parameters are reported. During this period, fades exceeding 29 dB for .00% of the time and angle of arrival fluctuations exceeding .12 degrees for .01% of the time were observed.

  12. Safety and survival in an earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    ,

    1969-01-01

    Many earth scientists in this country and abroad are focusing their studies on the search for means of predicting impending earthquakes, but, as yet, an accurate prediction of the time and place of such an event cannot be made. From past experience, however, one can assume that earthquakes will continue to harass mankind and that they will occur most frequently in the areas where they have been relatively common in the past. In the United States, earthquakes can be expected to occur most frequently in the western states, particularly in Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Montana. The danger, however, is not confined to any one part of the country; major earthquakes have occurred at widely scattered locations.

  13. Incorporating human-triggered earthquake risks into energy and water policies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klose, C. D.; Seeber, L.; Jacob, K. H.

    2010-12-01

    A comprehensive understanding of earthquake risks in urbanized regions requires an accurate assessment of both urban vulnerabilities and hazards from earthquakes, including ones whose timing might be affected by human activities. Socioeconomic risks associated with human-triggered earthquakes are often misconstrued and receive little scientific, legal, and public attention. Worldwide, more than 200 damaging earthquakes, associated with industrialization and urbanization, were documented since the 20th century. Geomechanical pollution due to large-scale geoengineering activities can advance the clock of earthquakes, trigger new seismic events or even shot down natural background seismicity. Activities include mining, hydrocarbon production, fluid injections, water reservoir impoundments and deep-well geothermal energy production. This type of geohazard has impacts on human security on a regional and national level. Some planned or considered future engineering projects raise particularly strong concerns about triggered earthquakes, such as for instance, sequestration of carbon dioxide by injecting it deep underground and large-scale natural gas production in the Marcellus shale in the Appalacian basin. Worldwide examples of earthquakes are discussed, including their associated losses of human life and monetary losses (e.g., 1989 Newcastle and Volkershausen earthquakes, 2001 Killari earthquake, 2006 Basel earthquake, 2010 Wenchuan earthquake). An overview is given on global statistics of human-triggered earthquakes, including depths and time delay of triggering. Lastly, strategies are described, including risk mitigation measures such as urban planning adaptations and seismic hazard mapping.

  14. Parallel Earthquake Simulations on Large-Scale Multicore Supercomputers

    KAUST Repository

    Wu, Xingfu

    2011-01-01

    Earthquakes are one of the most destructive natural hazards on our planet Earth. Hugh earthquakes striking offshore may cause devastating tsunamis, as evidenced by the 11 March 2011 Japan (moment magnitude Mw9.0) and the 26 December 2004 Sumatra (Mw9.1) earthquakes. Earthquake prediction (in terms of the precise time, place, and magnitude of a coming earthquake) is arguably unfeasible in the foreseeable future. To mitigate seismic hazards from future earthquakes in earthquake-prone areas, such as California and Japan, scientists have been using numerical simulations to study earthquake rupture propagation along faults and seismic wave propagation in the surrounding media on ever-advancing modern computers over past several decades. In particular, ground motion simulations for past and future (possible) significant earthquakes have been performed to understand factors that affect ground shaking in populated areas, and to provide ground shaking characteristics and synthetic seismograms for emergency preparation and design of earthquake-resistant structures. These simulation results can guide the development of more rational seismic provisions for leading to safer, more efficient, and economical50pt]Please provide V. Taylor author e-mail ID. structures in earthquake-prone regions.

  15. High Frequency Infrasonic Radiation from the 11 March 2011 Tohoku Mw 9.0 Earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, K. T.; Le Pichon, A.; Degroot-Hedlin, C. D.; Che, I.

    2011-12-01

    The tragic March 11 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake ruptured the Wadati-Benioff zone beneath northeast Japan, generating a damaging seismic wavetrain and triggering a tsunami that devastated the nearby coastal areas. Centroid moment tensors, aftershocks, and the geometry of the trench suggest the rupture occurred on a plane roughly 400 km long by 200 km wide. Because the Earth's surface is effectively a speaker, the seismic wavetrain generated infrasonic emissions from northeast Japan that were recorded by seven infrasound arrays within 5600 km of the epicenter. Using a time progressive beamforming method and the Progressive Multi-Channel Correlation method, we detect and calculate back azimuths for the 0.3 to 3 Hz infrasonic signals at these stations. After application of predicted wind corrections, these back azimuths point to Honshu and Hokkaido, with the majority of detections illuminating a north-south elongated area near Sendai, where the USGS ShakeMap predicts the greatest intensity of surface shaking. An array near Tokyo (IS30) provides the first recording of locally generated infrasound from a very large dip-slip earthquake. At IS30 a six-minute arrival in the 0.3 to 1.5 Hz band is observed from northeast Japan spanning an 18° back azimuth range. Two shorter events originate from a source to the west, likely Mt. Fuji. Using constraints from propagation modeling, we back project the infrasonic amplitudes recorded at IS30 to a relatively localized area. The maximum amplitude of 1 Pa originates from surface shaking along the coast. This location is also just west of the epicenter and adjacent to the location of maximum P-wave radiation from back projection studies. Noise at IS30 after the mainshock limits the detection of additional signals. A more pronounced infrasonic wavetrain at IS44 (Kamchatka) illuminates the entire Honshu and Hokkaido region, especially along the east coast near Sendai. In agreement with propagation modeling predictions using global

  16. Quantitative Earthquake Prediction on Global and Regional Scales

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kossobokov, Vladimir G.

    2006-01-01

    The Earth is a hierarchy of volumes of different size. Driven by planetary convection these volumes are involved into joint and relative movement. The movement is controlled by a wide variety of processes on and around the fractal mesh of boundary zones, and does produce earthquakes. This hierarchy of movable volumes composes a large non-linear dynamical system. Prediction of such a system in a sense of extrapolation of trajectory into the future is futile. However, upon coarse-graining the integral empirical regularities emerge opening possibilities of prediction in a sense of the commonly accepted consensus definition worked out in 1976 by the US National Research Council. Implications of the understanding hierarchical nature of lithosphere and its dynamics based on systematic monitoring and evidence of its unified space-energy similarity at different scales help avoiding basic errors in earthquake prediction claims. They suggest rules and recipes of adequate earthquake prediction classification, comparison and optimization. The approach has already led to the design of reproducible intermediate-term middle-range earthquake prediction technique. Its real-time testing aimed at prediction of the largest earthquakes worldwide has proved beyond any reasonable doubt the effectiveness of practical earthquake forecasting. In the first approximation, the accuracy is about 1-5 years and 5-10 times the anticipated source dimension. Further analysis allows reducing spatial uncertainty down to 1-3 source dimensions, although at a cost of additional failures-to-predict. Despite of limited accuracy a considerable damage could be prevented by timely knowledgeable use of the existing predictions and earthquake prediction strategies. The December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean Disaster seems to be the first indication that the methodology, designed for prediction of M8.0+ earthquakes can be rescaled for prediction of both smaller magnitude earthquakes (e.g., down to M5.5+ in Italy) and

  17. Quantitative Earthquake Prediction on Global and Regional Scales

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kossobokov, Vladimir G.

    2006-03-01

    The Earth is a hierarchy of volumes of different size. Driven by planetary convection these volumes are involved into joint and relative movement. The movement is controlled by a wide variety of processes on and around the fractal mesh of boundary zones, and does produce earthquakes. This hierarchy of movable volumes composes a large non-linear dynamical system. Prediction of such a system in a sense of extrapolation of trajectory into the future is futile. However, upon coarse-graining the integral empirical regularities emerge opening possibilities of prediction in a sense of the commonly accepted consensus definition worked out in 1976 by the US National Research Council. Implications of the understanding hierarchical nature of lithosphere and its dynamics based on systematic monitoring and evidence of its unified space-energy similarity at different scales help avoiding basic errors in earthquake prediction claims. They suggest rules and recipes of adequate earthquake prediction classification, comparison and optimization. The approach has already led to the design of reproducible intermediate-term middle-range earthquake prediction technique. Its real-time testing aimed at prediction of the largest earthquakes worldwide has proved beyond any reasonable doubt the effectiveness of practical earthquake forecasting. In the first approximation, the accuracy is about 1-5 years and 5-10 times the anticipated source dimension. Further analysis allows reducing spatial uncertainty down to 1-3 source dimensions, although at a cost of additional failures-to-predict. Despite of limited accuracy a considerable damage could be prevented by timely knowledgeable use of the existing predictions and earthquake prediction strategies. The December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean Disaster seems to be the first indication that the methodology, designed for prediction of M8.0+ earthquakes can be rescaled for prediction of both smaller magnitude earthquakes (e.g., down to M5.5+ in Italy) and

  18. Chilean megathrust earthquake recurrence linked to frictional contrast at depth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moreno, M.; Li, S.; Melnick, D.; Bedford, J. R.; Baez, J. C.; Motagh, M.; Metzger, S.; Vajedian, S.; Sippl, C.; Gutknecht, B. D.; Contreras-Reyes, E.; Deng, Z.; Tassara, A.; Oncken, O.

    2018-04-01

    Fundamental processes of the seismic cycle in subduction zones, including those controlling the recurrence and size of great earthquakes, are still poorly understood. Here, by studying the 2016 earthquake in southern Chile—the first large event within the rupture zone of the 1960 earthquake (moment magnitude (Mw) = 9.5)—we show that the frictional zonation of the plate interface fault at depth mechanically controls the timing of more frequent, moderate-size deep events (Mw shallow earthquakes (Mw > 8.5). We model the evolution of stress build-up for a seismogenic zone with heterogeneous friction to examine the link between the 2016 and 1960 earthquakes. Our results suggest that the deeper segments of the seismogenic megathrust are weaker and interseismically loaded by a more strongly coupled, shallower asperity. Deeper segments fail earlier ( 60 yr recurrence), producing moderate-size events that precede the failure of the shallower region, which fails in a great earthquake (recurrence >110 yr). We interpret the contrasting frictional strength and lag time between deeper and shallower earthquakes to be controlled by variations in pore fluid pressure. Our integrated analysis strengthens understanding of the mechanics and timing of great megathrust earthquakes, and therefore could aid in the seismic hazard assessment of other subduction zones.

  19. Memory effect in M ≥ 7 earthquakes of Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jeen-Hwa

    2014-07-01

    The M ≥ 7 earthquakes that occurred in the Taiwan region during 1906-2006 are taken to study the possibility of memory effect existing in the sequence of those large earthquakes. Those events are all mainshocks. The fluctuation analysis technique is applied to analyze two sequences in terms of earthquake magnitude and inter-event time represented in the natural time domain. For both magnitude and inter-event time, the calculations are made for three data sets, i.e., the original order data, the reverse-order data, and that of the mean values. Calculated results show that the exponents of scaling law of fluctuation versus window length are less than 0.5 for the sequences of both magnitude and inter-event time data. In addition, the phase portraits of two sequent magnitudes and two sequent inter-event times are also applied to explore if large (or small) earthquakes are followed by large (or small) events. Results lead to a negative answer. Together with all types of information in study, we make a conclusion that the earthquake sequence in study is short-term corrected and thus the short-term memory effect would be operative.

  20. Prospective testing of Coulomb short-term earthquake forecasts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, D. D.; Kagan, Y. Y.; Schorlemmer, D.; Zechar, J. D.; Wang, Q.; Wong, K.

    2009-12-01

    Earthquake induced Coulomb stresses, whether static or dynamic, suddenly change the probability of future earthquakes. Models to estimate stress and the resulting seismicity changes could help to illuminate earthquake physics and guide appropriate precautionary response. But do these models have improved forecasting power compared to empirical statistical models? The best answer lies in prospective testing in which a fully specified model, with no subsequent parameter adjustments, is evaluated against future earthquakes. The Center of Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP) facilitates such prospective testing of earthquake forecasts, including several short term forecasts. Formulating Coulomb stress models for formal testing involves several practical problems, mostly shared with other short-term models. First, earthquake probabilities must be calculated after each “perpetrator” earthquake but before the triggered earthquakes, or “victims”. The time interval between a perpetrator and its victims may be very short, as characterized by the Omori law for aftershocks. CSEP evaluates short term models daily, and allows daily updates of the models. However, lots can happen in a day. An alternative is to test and update models on the occurrence of each earthquake over a certain magnitude. To make such updates rapidly enough and to qualify as prospective, earthquake focal mechanisms, slip distributions, stress patterns, and earthquake probabilities would have to be made by computer without human intervention. This scheme would be more appropriate for evaluating scientific ideas, but it may be less useful for practical applications than daily updates. Second, triggered earthquakes are imperfectly recorded following larger events because their seismic waves are buried in the coda of the earlier event. To solve this problem, testing methods need to allow for “censoring” of early aftershock data, and a quantitative model for detection threshold as a function of

  1. Earthquake correlations and networks: A comparative study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krishna Mohan, T. R.; Revathi, P. G.

    2011-04-01

    We quantify the correlation between earthquakes and use the same to extract causally connected earthquake pairs. Our correlation metric is a variation on the one introduced by Baiesi and Paczuski [M. Baiesi and M. Paczuski, Phys. Rev. E EULEEJ1539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.69.06610669, 066106 (2004)]. A network of earthquakes is then constructed from the time-ordered catalog and with links between the more correlated ones. A list of recurrences to each of the earthquakes is identified employing correlation thresholds to demarcate the most meaningful ones in each cluster. Data pertaining to three different seismic regions (viz., California, Japan, and the Himalayas) are comparatively analyzed using such a network model. The distribution of recurrence lengths and recurrence times are two of the key features analyzed to draw conclusions about the universal aspects of such a network model. We find that the unimodal feature of recurrence length distribution, which helps to associate typical rupture lengths with different magnitude earthquakes, is robust across the different seismic regions. The out-degree of the networks shows a hub structure rooted on the large magnitude earthquakes. In-degree distribution is seen to be dependent on the density of events in the neighborhood. Power laws, with two regimes having different exponents, are obtained with recurrence time distribution. The first regime confirms the Omori law for aftershocks while the second regime, with a faster falloff for the larger recurrence times, establishes that pure spatial recurrences also follow a power-law distribution. The crossover to the second power-law regime can be taken to be signaling the end of the aftershock regime in an objective fashion.

  2. Parallelization of the Coupled Earthquake Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Block, Gary; Li, P. Peggy; Song, Yuhe T.

    2007-01-01

    This Web-based tsunami simulation system allows users to remotely run a model on JPL s supercomputers for a given undersea earthquake. At the time of this reporting, predicting tsunamis on the Internet has never happened before. This new code directly couples the earthquake model and the ocean model on parallel computers and improves simulation speed. Seismometers can only detect information from earthquakes; they cannot detect whether or not a tsunami may occur as a result of the earthquake. When earthquake-tsunami models are coupled with the improved computational speed of modern, high-performance computers and constrained by remotely sensed data, they are able to provide early warnings for those coastal regions at risk. The software is capable of testing NASA s satellite observations of tsunamis. It has been successfully tested for several historical tsunamis, has passed all alpha and beta testing, and is well documented for users.

  3. Ionospheric Anomaly before Kyushu|Japan Earthquake

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    YANG Li

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available GIM data released by IGS is used in the article and a new method of combining the Sliding Time Window Method and the Ionospheric TEC correlation analysis method of adjacent grid points is proposed to study the relationship between pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies and earthquake. By analyzing the abnormal change of TEC in the 5 grid points around the seismic region, the abnormal change of ionospheric TEC is found before the earthquake and the correlation between the TEC sequences of lattice points is significantly affected by earthquake. Based on the analysis of the spatial distribution of TEC anomaly, anomalies of 6 h, 12 h and 6 h were found near the epicenter three days before the earthquake. Finally, ionospheric tomographic technology is used to do tomographic inversion on electron density. And the distribution of the electron density in the ionospheric anomaly is further analyzed.

  4. Assigning probability gain for precursors of four large Chinese earthquakes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cao, T.; Aki, K.

    1983-03-10

    We extend the concept of probability gain associated with a precursor (Aki, 1981) to a set of precursors which may be mutually dependent. Making use of a new formula, we derive a criterion for selecting precursors from a given data set in order to calculate the probability gain. The probabilities per unit time immediately before four large Chinese earthquakes are calculated. They are approximately 0.09, 0.09, 0.07 and 0.08 per day for 1975 Haicheng (M = 7.3), 1976 Tangshan (M = 7.8), 1976 Longling (M = 7.6), and Songpan (M = 7.2) earthquakes, respectively. These results are encouraging because they suggest that the investigated precursory phenomena may have included the complete information for earthquake prediction, at least for the above earthquakes. With this method, the step-by-step approach to prediction used in China may be quantified in terms of the probability of earthquake occurrence. The ln P versus t curve (where P is the probability of earthquake occurrence at time t) shows that ln P does not increase with t linearly but more rapidly as the time of earthquake approaches.

  5. Possible scenarios for occurrence of M ~ 7 interplate earthquakes prior to and following the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake based on numerical simulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakata, Ryoko; Hori, Takane; Hyodo, Mamoru; Ariyoshi, Keisuke

    2016-05-10

    We show possible scenarios for the occurrence of M ~ 7 interplate earthquakes prior to and following the M ~ 9 earthquake along the Japan Trench, such as the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. One such M ~ 7 earthquake is so-called the Miyagi-ken-Oki earthquake, for which we conducted numerical simulations of earthquake generation cycles by using realistic three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the subducting Pacific Plate. In a number of scenarios, the time interval between the M ~ 9 earthquake and the subsequent Miyagi-ken-Oki earthquake was equal to or shorter than the average recurrence interval during the later stage of the M ~ 9 earthquake cycle. The scenarios successfully reproduced important characteristics such as the recurrence of M ~ 7 earthquakes, coseismic slip distribution, afterslip distribution, the largest foreshock, and the largest aftershock of the 2011 earthquake. Thus, these results suggest that we should prepare for future M ~ 7 earthquakes in the Miyagi-ken-Oki segment even though this segment recently experienced large coseismic slip in 2011.

  6. Possible scenarios for occurrence of M ~ 7 interplate earthquakes prior to and following the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake based on numerical simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakata, Ryoko; Hori, Takane; Hyodo, Mamoru; Ariyoshi, Keisuke

    2016-01-01

    We show possible scenarios for the occurrence of M ~ 7 interplate earthquakes prior to and following the M ~ 9 earthquake along the Japan Trench, such as the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. One such M ~ 7 earthquake is so-called the Miyagi-ken-Oki earthquake, for which we conducted numerical simulations of earthquake generation cycles by using realistic three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the subducting Pacific Plate. In a number of scenarios, the time interval between the M ~ 9 earthquake and the subsequent Miyagi-ken-Oki earthquake was equal to or shorter than the average recurrence interval during the later stage of the M ~ 9 earthquake cycle. The scenarios successfully reproduced important characteristics such as the recurrence of M ~ 7 earthquakes, coseismic slip distribution, afterslip distribution, the largest foreshock, and the largest aftershock of the 2011 earthquake. Thus, these results suggest that we should prepare for future M ~ 7 earthquakes in the Miyagi-ken-Oki segment even though this segment recently experienced large coseismic slip in 2011. PMID:27161897

  7. Predictors of early arrival at the emergency department in acute ischaemic stroke.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Curran, C

    2012-01-31

    BACKGROUND: A requirement of an effective acute stroke service is the early arrival of patients to the hospital emergency department (ED). This will allow the possible use of thrombolytic therapy or other acute interventions within a limited time window. AIMS: We investigated the predictors of early arrival in a single hospital serving a mixed urban and rural catchment area. METHODS: A retrospective review of all case notes for 1 year was performed. RESULTS: Of 105 acute strokes, 91 were cerebral infarcts and a total of 71 cases presenting initially to the ED had timing available for analysis. 39.4% presented within 3 h, and 12.7% were potentially suitable for thrombolysis. Those living closer to the hospital were not more likely to arrive within 3 h (Z = -0.411, p = 0.68). Presenting directly to the hospital by emergency services (or private transport) was significantly associated with early arrival in a univariate comparison (p < 0.001), and in a multivariate model. CONCLUSION: The only independent predictor of early arrival to the ED is direct presentation. Improved public education of the importance of recognition of stroke symptoms and rapid contact with the emergency services will improve the early attendance following acute stroke, allowing increased use of acute stroke treatments.

  8. Artificial earthquake record generation using cascade neural network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bani-Hani Khaldoon A.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of using artificial neural networks (ANN in an inverse mapping problem for earthquake accelerograms generation. This study comprises of two parts: 1-D site response analysis; performed for Dubai Emirate at UAE, where eight earthquakes records are selected and spectral matching are performed to match Dubai response spectrum using SeismoMatch software. Site classification of Dubai soil is being considered for two classes C and D based on shear wave velocity of soil profiles. Amplifications factors are estimated to quantify Dubai soil effect. Dubai’s design response spectra are developed for site classes C & D according to International Buildings Code (IBC -2012. In the second part, ANN is employed to solve inverse mapping problem to generate time history earthquake record. Thirty earthquakes records and their design response spectrum with 5% damping are used to train two cascade forward backward neural networks (ANN1, ANN2. ANN1 is trained to map the design response spectrum to time history and ANN2 is trained to map time history records to the design response spectrum. Generalized time history earthquake records are generated using ANN1 for Dubai’s site classes C and D, and ANN2 is used to evaluate the performance of ANN1.

  9. Seismic-electromagnetic precursors of Romania's Vrancea earthquakes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Enescu, B.D.; Enescu, C.; Constantin, A. P.

    1999-01-01

    Diagrams were plotted from electromagnetic data that were recorded at Muntele Rosu Observatory during December 1996 to January 1997, and December 1997 to September 1998. The times when Vrancea earthquakes of magnitudes M ≥ 3.9 occurred within these periods are marked on the diagrams.The parameters of the earthquakes are given in a table which also includes information on the magnetic and electric anomalies (perturbations) preceding these earthquakes. The magnetic data prove that Vrancea earthquakes are preceded by magnetic perturbations that may be regarded as their short-term precursors. Perturbations, which could likewise be seen as short-term precursors of Vrancea earthquakes, are also noticed in the electric records. Still, a number of electric data do cast a doubt on their forerunning nature. Some suggestions are made in the end of the paper on how electromagnetic research should go ahead to be of use for Vrancea earthquake prediction. (authors)

  10. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Wang

    1979-01-01

    The Tangshan earthquake of 1976 was one of the largest earthquakes in recent years. It occurred on July 28 at 3:42 a.m, Beijing (Peking) local time, and had magnitude 7.8, focal depth of 15 kilometers, and an epicentral intensity of XI on the New Chinese Seismic Intensity Scale; it caused serious damage and loss of life in this densely populated industrial city. Now, with the help of people from all over China, the city of Tangshan is being rebuild. 

  11. Thermal infrared anomalies of several strong earthquakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Congxin; Zhang, Yuansheng; Guo, Xiao; Hui, Shaoxing; Qin, Manzhong; Zhang, Ying

    2013-01-01

    In the history of earthquake thermal infrared research, it is undeniable that before and after strong earthquakes there are significant thermal infrared anomalies which have been interpreted as preseismic precursor in earthquake prediction and forecasting. In this paper, we studied the characteristics of thermal radiation observed before and after the 8 great earthquakes with magnitude up to Ms7.0 by using the satellite infrared remote sensing information. We used new types of data and method to extract the useful anomaly information. Based on the analyses of 8 earthquakes, we got the results as follows. (1) There are significant thermal radiation anomalies before and after earthquakes for all cases. The overall performance of anomalies includes two main stages: expanding first and narrowing later. We easily extracted and identified such seismic anomalies by method of "time-frequency relative power spectrum." (2) There exist evident and different characteristic periods and magnitudes of thermal abnormal radiation for each case. (3) Thermal radiation anomalies are closely related to the geological structure. (4) Thermal radiation has obvious characteristics in abnormal duration, range, and morphology. In summary, we should be sure that earthquake thermal infrared anomalies as useful earthquake precursor can be used in earthquake prediction and forecasting.

  12. Napa Earthquake impact on water systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, J.

    2014-12-01

    South Napa earthquake occurred in Napa, California on August 24 at 3am, local time, and the magnitude is 6.0. The earthquake was the largest in SF Bay Area since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Economic loss topped $ 1 billion. Wine makers cleaning up and estimated the damage on tourism. Around 15,000 cases of lovely cabernet were pouring into the garden at the Hess Collection. Earthquake potentially raise water pollution risks, could cause water crisis. CA suffered water shortage recent years, and it could be helpful on how to prevent underground/surface water pollution from earthquake. This research gives a clear view on drinking water system in CA, pollution on river systems, as well as estimation on earthquake impact on water supply. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta (close to Napa), is the center of the state's water distribution system, delivering fresh water to more than 25 million residents and 3 million acres of farmland. Delta water conveyed through a network of levees is crucial to Southern California. The drought has significantly curtailed water export, and salt water intrusion reduced fresh water outflows. Strong shaking from a nearby earthquake can cause saturated, loose, sandy soils liquefaction, and could potentially damage major delta levee systems near Napa. Napa earthquake is a wake-up call for Southern California. It could potentially damage freshwater supply system.

  13. The USGS Earthquake Notification Service (ENS): Customizable notifications of earthquakes around the globe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wald, Lisa A.; Wald, David J.; Schwarz, Stan; Presgrave, Bruce; Earle, Paul S.; Martinez, Eric; Oppenheimer, David

    2008-01-01

    At the beginning of 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program (EHP) introduced a new automated Earthquake Notification Service (ENS) to take the place of the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) "Bigquake" system and the various other individual EHP e-mail list-servers for separate regions in the United States. These included northern California, southern California, and the central and eastern United States. ENS is a "one-stop shopping" system that allows Internet users to subscribe to flexible and customizable notifications for earthquakes anywhere in the world. The customization capability allows users to define the what (magnitude threshold), the when (day and night thresholds), and the where (specific regions) for their notifications. Customization is achieved by employing a per-user based request profile, allowing the notifications to be tailored for each individual's requirements. Such earthquake-parameter-specific custom delivery was not possible with simple e-mail list-servers. Now that event and user profiles are in a structured query language (SQL) database, additional flexibility is possible. At the time of this writing, ENS had more than 114,000 subscribers, with more than 200,000 separate user profiles. On a typical day, more than 188,000 messages get sent to a variety of widely distributed users for a wide range of earthquake locations and magnitudes. The purpose of this article is to describe how ENS works, highlight the features it offers, and summarize plans for future developments.

  14. The plan to coordinate NEHRP post-earthquake investigations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holzer, Thomas L.; Borcherdt, Roger D.; Comartin, Craig D.; Hanson, Robert D.; Scawthorn, Charles R.; Tierney, Kathleen; Youd, T. Leslie

    2003-01-01

    This is the plan to coordinate domestic and foreign post-earthquake investigations supported by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). The plan addresses coordination of both the NEHRP agencies—Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Science Foundation (NSF), and U. S. Geological Survey (USGS)—and their partners. The plan is a framework for both coordinating what is going to be done and identifying responsibilities for post-earthquake investigations. It does not specify what will be done. Coordination is addressed in various time frames ranging from hours to years after an earthquake. The plan includes measures for (1) gaining rapid and general agreement on high-priority research opportunities, and (2) conducting the data gathering and fi eld studies in a coordinated manner. It deals with identifi cation, collection, processing, documentation, archiving, and dissemination of the results of post-earthquake work in a timely manner and easily accessible format.

  15. Seismic-resistant design of nuclear power stations in Japan, earthquake country. Lessons learned from Chuetsu-oki earthquake

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Irikura, Kojiro

    2008-01-01

    The new assessment (back-check) of earthquake-proof safety was being conducted at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plants, Tokyo Electric Co. in response to a request based on the guideline for reactor evaluation for seismic-resistant design code, revised in 2006, when the 2007 Chuetsu-oki Earthquake occurred and brought about an unexpectedly huge tremor in this area, although the magnitude of the earthquake was only 6.8 but the intensity of earthquake motion exceeded 2.5-fold more than supposed. This paper introduces how and why the guideline for seismic-resistant design of nuclear facilities was revised in 2006, the outline of the Chuetsu-oki Earthquake, and preliminary findings and lessons learned from the Earthquake. The paper specifically discusses on (1) how we may specify in advance geologic active faults as has been overlooked this time, (2) how we can make adequate models for seismic origin from which we can extract its characteristics, and (3) how the estimation of strong ground motion simulation may be possible for ground vibration level of a possibly overlooked fault. (S. Ohno)

  16. USGS approach to real-time estimation of earthquake-triggered ground failure - Results of 2015 workshop

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allstadt, Kate E.; Thompson, Eric M.; Wald, David J.; Hamburger, Michael W.; Godt, Jonathan W.; Knudsen, Keith L.; Jibson, Randall W.; Jessee, M. Anna; Zhu, Jing; Hearne, Michael; Baise, Laurie G.; Tanyas, Hakan; Marano, Kristin D.

    2016-03-30

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards and Landslide Hazards Programs are developing plans to add quantitative hazard assessments of earthquake-triggered landsliding and liquefaction to existing real-time earthquake products (ShakeMap, ShakeCast, PAGER) using open and readily available methodologies and products. To date, prototype global statistical models have been developed and are being refined, improved, and tested. These models are a good foundation, but much work remains to achieve robust and defensible models that meet the needs of end users. In order to establish an implementation plan and identify research priorities, the USGS convened a workshop in Golden, Colorado, in October 2015. This document summarizes current (as of early 2016) capabilities, research and operational priorities, and plans for further studies that were established at this workshop. Specific priorities established during the meeting include (1) developing a suite of alternative models; (2) making use of higher resolution and higher quality data where possible; (3) incorporating newer global and regional datasets and inventories; (4) reducing barriers to accessing inventory datasets; (5) developing methods for using inconsistent or incomplete datasets in aggregate; (6) developing standardized model testing and evaluation methods; (7) improving ShakeMap shaking estimates, particularly as relevant to ground failure, such as including topographic amplification and accounting for spatial variability; and (8) developing vulnerability functions for loss estimates.

  17. Stress Drops of Earthquakes on the Subducting Pacific Plate in the South-East off Hokkaido, Japan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saito, Y.; Yamada, T.

    2013-12-01

    Large earthquakes have been occurring repeatedly in the South-East of Hokkaido, Japan, where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Okhotsk Plate in the north-west direction. For example, the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake (Mw8.3 determined by USGS) took place in the region on September 26, 2003. Yamanaka and Kikuchi (2003) analyzed the slip distribution of the earthquake and concluded that the 2003 earthquake had ruptured the deeper half of the fault plane of the 1952 Tokachi-oki earthquake. Miyazaki et al. (2004) reported that a notable afterslip was observed at adjacent areas to the coseismic rupture zone of the 2003 earthquake, which suggests that there would be significant heterogeneities of strength, stress and frictional properties on the surface of the Pacific Plate in the region. In addition, some previous studies suggest that the region with a large slip in large earthquakes permanently have large difference of strength and the dynamic frictional stress level and that it would be able to predict the spatial pattern of slip in the next large earthquake by analyzing the stress drop of small earthquakes (e.g. Allmann and Shearer, 2007 and Yamada et al., 2010). We estimated stress drops of 150 earthquakes (4.2 ≤ M ≤ 5.0), using S-coda waves, or the waveforms from 4.00 to 9.11 seconds after the S wave arrivals, of Hi-net data. The 150 earthquakes were the ones that occurred from June, 2002 to December, 2010 in south-east of Hokkaido, Japan, from 40.5N to 43.5N and from 141.0E to 146.5E. First we selected waveforms of the closest earthquakes with magnitudes between 3.0 and 3.2 to individual 150 earthquakes as empirical Green's functions. We then calculated source spectral ratios of the 150 pairs of interested earthquakes and EGFs by deconvolving the individual S-coda waves. We finally estimated corner frequencies of earthquakes from the spectral ratios by assuming the omega-squared model of Boatwright (1978) and calculated stress drops of the earthquakes by

  18. Earthquake likelihood model testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schorlemmer, D.; Gerstenberger, M.C.; Wiemer, S.; Jackson, D.D.; Rhoades, D.A.

    2007-01-01

    INTRODUCTIONThe Regional Earthquake Likelihood Models (RELM) project aims to produce and evaluate alternate models of earthquake potential (probability per unit volume, magnitude, and time) for California. Based on differing assumptions, these models are produced to test the validity of their assumptions and to explore which models should be incorporated in seismic hazard and risk evaluation. Tests based on physical and geological criteria are useful but we focus on statistical methods using future earthquake catalog data only. We envision two evaluations: a test of consistency with observed data and a comparison of all pairs of models for relative consistency. Both tests are based on the likelihood method, and both are fully prospective (i.e., the models are not adjusted to fit the test data). To be tested, each model must assign a probability to any possible event within a specified region of space, time, and magnitude. For our tests the models must use a common format: earthquake rates in specified “bins” with location, magnitude, time, and focal mechanism limits.Seismology cannot yet deterministically predict individual earthquakes; however, it should seek the best possible models for forecasting earthquake occurrence. This paper describes the statistical rules of an experiment to examine and test earthquake forecasts. The primary purposes of the tests described below are to evaluate physical models for earthquakes, assure that source models used in seismic hazard and risk studies are consistent with earthquake data, and provide quantitative measures by which models can be assigned weights in a consensus model or be judged as suitable for particular regions.In this paper we develop a statistical method for testing earthquake likelihood models. A companion paper (Schorlemmer and Gerstenberger 2007, this issue) discusses the actual implementation of these tests in the framework of the RELM initiative.Statistical testing of hypotheses is a common task and a

  19. A Comparison of Geodetic and Geologic Rates Prior to Large Strike-Slip Earthquakes: A Diversity of Earthquake-Cycle Behaviors?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolan, James F.; Meade, Brendan J.

    2017-12-01

    Comparison of preevent geodetic and geologic rates in three large-magnitude (Mw = 7.6-7.9) strike-slip earthquakes reveals a wide range of behaviors. Specifically, geodetic rates of 26-28 mm/yr for the North Anatolian fault along the 1999 MW = 7.6 Izmit rupture are ˜40% faster than Holocene geologic rates. In contrast, geodetic rates of ˜6-8 mm/yr along the Denali fault prior to the 2002 MW = 7.9 Denali earthquake are only approximately half as fast as the latest Pleistocene-Holocene geologic rate of ˜12 mm/yr. In the third example where a sufficiently long pre-earthquake geodetic time series exists, the geodetic and geologic rates along the 2001 MW = 7.8 Kokoxili rupture on the Kunlun fault are approximately equal at ˜11 mm/yr. These results are not readily explicable with extant earthquake-cycle modeling, suggesting that they may instead be due to some combination of regional kinematic fault interactions, temporal variations in the strength of lithospheric-scale shear zones, and/or variations in local relative plate motion rate. Whatever the exact causes of these variable behaviors, these observations indicate that either the ratio of geodetic to geologic rates before an earthquake may not be diagnostic of the time to the next earthquake, as predicted by many rheologically based geodynamic models of earthquake-cycle behavior, or different behaviors characterize different fault systems in a manner that is not yet understood or predictable.

  20. GIS BASED SYSTEM FOR POST-EARTHQUAKE CRISIS MANAGMENT USING CELLULAR NETWORK

    OpenAIRE

    Raeesi, M.; Sadeghi-Niaraki, A.

    2013-01-01

    Earthquakes are among the most destructive natural disasters. Earthquakes happen mainly near the edges of tectonic plates, but they may happen just about anywhere. Earthquakes cannot be predicted. Quick response after disasters, like earthquake, decreases loss of life and costs. Massive earthquakes often cause structures to collapse, trapping victims under dense rubble for long periods of time. After the earthquake and destroyed some areas, several teams are sent to find the location of the d...