Influence of superstition on the date of hospital discharge and medical cost in Japan: retrospective and descriptive study.

Science.gov (United States)

Hira, K; Fukui, T; Endoh, A; Rahman, M; Maekawa, M

To determine the influence of superstition about Taian (a lucky day)-Butsumetsu (an unlucky day) on decision to leave hospital. To estimate the costs of the effect of this superstition. Retrospective and descriptive study. University hospital in Kyoto, Japan. Patients who were discharged alive from Kyoto University Hospital from 1 April 1992 to 31 March 1995. Mean number, age, and hospital stay of patients discharged on each day of six day cycle. The mean number, age, and hospital stay of discharged patients were highest on Taian and lowest on Butsumetsu (25.8 v 19.3 patients/day, P=0.0001; 43.9 v 41.4 years, P=0.0001; and 43.1 v 33.3 days, P=0.0001 respectively). The effect of this difference on the hospital's costs was estimated to be 7.4 million yen (¿31 000). The superstition influenced the decision to leave hospital, contributing to higher medical care costs in Japan. Although hospital stays need to be kept as short as possible to minimise costs, doctors should not ignore the possible psychological effects on patients' health caused by dismissing the superstition.

STUDYING OF THE PROBLEM SUPERSTITION STUDENTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORK RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN RESEARCHERS IN XX – XXI CENTURIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulyanchenko Anton Leonidovich

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In given article due to studies a number of scientists (sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists is done attempt to mark main purpose of superstition in our modern culture, where students faces with lacking of time, which does not give the student properly to prepare the material for passing of the session. The students have to apply by superstition in order to reduce the psychological pressure, study the culture of folk past, be prepared by session in order to pass all exams more successfully. Among patterns for analyzing of problem superstitious perception the gender aspect was chosen in our society. It is important to underline in article a general features both man superstitions and female superstitions of student environment, mentioned in work. Female (girl student superstitious views are horoscopes, fortune-telling, predicting of dreams. Man (youth is prohibition at shaving of beard before session, anecdotes, «money superstitions». It is importantly to notice in article a contribution not only Russian researches (Kondrya, Razumova, Mezencev and etc. in development of problem contemporary superstitions, but also and foreign researchers – Mark Griffiths, Carolyn Bingham, Vyse. This problem is brilliantly described by Mark Griffiths, Carolyn Bingham, who concern life of people, superstitious perception of players «bingo». Student life in during passing of exams is also «gambling». Before exam students don’t know numbers of tickets, which they will take. This procedure is lot, «gambling». Here isn’t importantly knowledge of student. It is important a fortune and chance, which will be beside with student in minutes of exam. All students have to take tickets. «To catch a fortune for tail» is a main task of student in passing of exams.

STUDYING OF THE PROBLEM SUPERSTITION STUDENTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORK RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN RESEARCHERS IN XX – XXI CENTURIES

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Антон Леонидович Ульянченко

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In given article due to studies a number of scientists (sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists is done attempt to mark main purpose of superstition in our modern culture, where students faces with lacking of time, which does not give the student properly to prepare the material for passing of the session. The students have to apply by superstition in order to reduce the psychological pressure, study the culture of folk past, be prepared by session in order to pass all exams more successfully. Among patterns for analyzing of problem superstitious perception the gender aspect was chosen in our society. It is important to underline in article a general features both man superstitions and female superstitions of student environment, mentioned in work. Female (girl student superstitious views are horoscopes, fortune-telling, predicting of dreams. Man (youth is prohibition at shaving of beard before session, anecdotes, «money superstitions». It is importantly to notice in article a contribution not only Russian researches (Kondrya, Razumova, Mezencev and etc. in development of problem contemporary superstitions, but also and foreign researchers – Mark Griffiths, Carolyn Bingham, Vyse. This problem is brilliantly described by Mark Griffiths, Carolyn Bingham, who concern life of people, superstitious perception of players «bingo». Student life in during passing of exams is also «gambling». Before exam students don’t know numbers of tickets, which they will take. This procedure is lot, «gambling». Here isn’t importantly knowledge of student. It is important a fortune and chance, which will be beside with student in minutes of exam. All students have to take tickets. «To catch a fortune for tail» is a main task of student in passing of exams.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-1-7

Techno-Optimism and Rational Superstition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wilson, Alexander

2017-01-01

our common understanding of reason and rationality? To adopt rational expectations about the world, after all, should we not attempt to avoid the emotional over-determination of our assessments? I show that applied reason is conceptually entangled with this superstitious optimism in the continued...... of retro-causation, where the future is held to somehow have a retroactive effect on the past. This suggests, I argue, that the underlying mechanism by which techno-optimism is supposed to be instrumental in bringing about the future is fundamentally superstitious. But does this superstition not go against...... successes of technology. The article thus reveals a curious sense in which reason is intrinsically superstitious. I offer an evolutionary explanation for this, showing that the biological origins of reason will by nature tend to produce rational agents which are superstitiously bound to realism...

Faith and Superstitions in the Frontline and in the Rear in Wartime (1941-1945

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Evgeny F. Krinko

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the faith and superstitions of the Soviet citizens in the frontline and in the rear during the Great Patriotic War. The study of the religion history in the USSR in 1941-1945 was significantly influenced by ideology. This theme has been thoroughly studied in recent years, but the attention is mainly attached to its institutional aspects and the role of religion in lives of Soviet citizens is still little-studied. Nevertheless, by the start of war, considerable part of the population maintained its religious beliefs, despite the anti-religious policy of the Soviet authorities. The war increased the faith of Soviet citizens in the frontline, in the rear and within the occupied territory. It was mainly caused by the extreme wartime situation. Different superstitions and omens gained a wide circulation. Despite the fact that they had different content, both rites and prayers, acknowledged by the church and the omens and superstitions, rejected by the church have become the necessary ways of people psychological adaptation to wartime severities and hardships. The conclusions, which were made with the help of different sources, such as official documents, statistical data, both published and collected in the course of work under the theme of participants and eyewitnesses’ recollections, help us to imagine the collective consciousness of the Soviet society during the Great Patriotic War.

“Better do not touch” and other superstitions concerning melanoma: the cross-sectional web-based survey

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Maksymilian Gajda

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction :To the authors’ best knowledge, there are no data regarding the prevalence of superstitions concerning melanoma among internet users. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence and identify reasons for superstitions associated with excision of pigmented skin lesions as well as to assess the frequency of this procedure. Material and methods : Readers of the scientific portal were invited to complete a fully anonymous e-questionnaire. After collection of questionnaires (5,154 and eliminating incomplete ones, 4,919 surveys were analysed. Results : A total of 4,104 (83.4% respondents have been aware that the total surgical excision is the only efficient way of melanoma treatment. This familiarity was related to increased skin cancer awareness but was not linked to regular skin self-examination. Over half of the surveyed agreed that “it is better not to touch naevi”. Moreover, 3,510 (71.3% individuals believed that naevi located in “harmed places” may turn into melanoma. Conclusions : Superstitions associated with surgical treatment of melanoma are widespread. Conducting educational campaigns is necessary, particularly among young people, whose dangerous tanning behaviours are important risk factors for melanoma occurrence in their later life.

Seismicity associated with dome growth and collapse at the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, A.D.; Stewart, R.C.; White, R.A.; Luckett, R.; Baptie, B.J.; Aspinall, W.P.; Latchman, J.L.; Lynch, L.L.; Voight, B.

1998-01-01

Varied seismicity has accompanied growth and collapse of the lava dome of the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat. Earthquakes have been classified as either volcano-tectonic, long-period or hybrid, and daily variations in the numbers of events have mapped changes in the style of eruption. Repetitive hybrid earthquakes were common during the first months of dome growth. In July 1996 the style of seismicity changed and regular short-lived hybrid earthquake swarms became common. This change was probably caused by an increase in the magma flux. Earthquake swarms have preceded almost all major dome collapses, and have accompanied cyclical deformation, thought to be due to a built-up of pressure in the upper conduit which is later released by magma moving into the dome.Varied seismicity has accompanied growth and collapse of the lava dome of the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat. Earthquakes have been classified as either volcano-tectonic, long-period or hybrid, and daily variations in the numbers of events have mapped changes in the style of eruption. Repetitive hybrid earthquakes were common during the first months of dome growth. In July 1996 the style of seismicity changed and regular, short-lived hybrid earthquake swarms became common. This change was probably caused by an increase in the magma flux. Earthquake swarms have preceded almost all major dome collapses, and have accompanied cyclical deformation, thought to be due to a build-up of pressure in the upper conduit which is later released by magma moving into the dome.

Fault failure with moderate earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, M. J. S.; Linde, A. T.; Gladwin, M. T.; Borcherdt, R. D.

1987-12-01

High resolution strain and tilt recordings were made in the near-field of, and prior to, the May 1983 Coalinga earthquake ( ML = 6.7, Δ = 51 km), the August 4, 1985, Kettleman Hills earthquake ( ML = 5.5, Δ = 34 km), the April 1984 Morgan Hill earthquake ( ML = 6.1, Δ = 55 km), the November 1984 Round Valley earthquake ( ML = 5.8, Δ = 54 km), the January 14, 1978, Izu, Japan earthquake ( ML = 7.0, Δ = 28 km), and several other smaller magnitude earthquakes. These recordings were made with near-surface instruments (resolution 10 -8), with borehole dilatometers (resolution 10 -10) and a 3-component borehole strainmeter (resolution 10 -9). While observed coseismic offsets are generally in good agreement with expectations from elastic dislocation theory, and while post-seismic deformation continued, in some cases, with a moment comparable to that of the main shock, preseismic strain or tilt perturbations from hours to seconds (or less) before the main shock are not apparent above the present resolution. Precursory slip for these events, if any occurred, must have had a moment less than a few percent of that of the main event. To the extent that these records reflect general fault behavior, the strong constraint on the size and amount of slip triggering major rupture makes prediction of the onset times and final magnitudes of the rupture zones a difficult task unless the instruments are fortuitously installed near the rupture initiation point. These data are best explained by an inhomogeneous failure model for which various areas of the fault plane have either different stress-slip constitutive laws or spatially varying constitutive parameters. Other work on seismic waveform analysis and synthetic waveforms indicates that the rupturing process is inhomogeneous and controlled by points of higher strength. These models indicate that rupture initiation occurs at smaller regions of higher strength which, when broken, allow runaway catastrophic failure.

Religion without fear. Plutarch on superstition and Early Christian Literature

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H-J Klauck

1997-08-01

Full Text Available After some introductory remarks on the role of fear in religious discourse. Plutarch�s treatise On Superstition is analysed according to its rhetorical outline. Questions of authenticity are discussed and answered by locating the essay in Plutarch�s early career. Then we ask for the place of �fear of God� in biblical teaching and theology, compare it to Plutarch and show some limits in Plutarch�s youthful thinking, which doesn't yet pay due respect to the life values of myth. We conclude with two New Testament passages, Romans 8:15, masterfully interpreted by Martin Luther, and 1 John 4:17f excellently explained by 20th century�s Swiss theologian and psychologian Oskar Pfister, and we show that these texts are propagating �belief without fear�.

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

Urban Landslides Induced by the 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Kamai, T.; Trandafir, A. C.; Sidle, R. C.

2005-05-01

Landslides triggered by the Chuetsu earthquake occurred in artificial slopes of some new developments in suburban Nagaoka, the largest city in the affected area. The landslides occurred in hilly terrain of the eastern part of Nagaoka between the alluvial plain and Tertiary folded mountains of Yamakoshi. Although the extent of landslides in urban Nagaoka was small compared with landslides on natural slopes (especially near Yamakoshi), they represent an important case study for urban landslide disasters. Slope instabilities in urban residential areas were classified as: A) landslides in steep embankments; B) landslides in gently sloping artificial valley fills; C) re-activation of old landslides; and D) liquefaction in deep artificial valley fills. All these failures occurred in relatively uniform suburban landscapes, which were significantly modified from the original landforms. Recent destructive earthquakes in Japan caused similar types of slope failures in urban regions, suggesting that lessons from past earthquakes were not implemented. The greatest damage due to type-A failures occurred in the 25-yr old Takamachi residential area, where about 70 of 522 homes were judged to be uninhabitable. Before development, this area was an isolated hill (90 m elevation) with an adjacent terrace (60 m elevation) consisting of gravel, sand, and silt of the lower to middle Pleistocene deposits. Development earthworks removed the hill crest and created a wide plateau (70 m elevation); excavated soil was placed on the perimeter as an embankment. During the earthquake, the embankment slope collapsed, including retaining walls, perimeter road, and homes. The most serious damage occurred in five places around the margin of the plateau corresponding to shallow valley fills (5 to 8 m thick). Earthquake response analyses using an equivalent linear model indicated the amplification of seismic waves at the surface of embankment slopes, and the peak earthquake acceleration exceeded 1 G

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

Interpretation of shallow crustal structure of the Imperial Valley, California, from seismic reflection profiles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Severson, L.K.

1987-05-01

Eight seismic reflection profiles (285 km total length) from the Imperial Valley, California, were provided to CALCRUST for reprocessing and interpretation. Two profiles were located along the western margin of the valley, five profiles were situated along the eastern margin and one traversed the deepest portion of the basin. These data reveal that the central basin contains a wedge of highly faulted sediments that thins to the east. Most of the faulting is strike-slip but there is evidence for block rotations on the scale of 5 to 10 kilometers within the Brawley Seismic Zone. These lines provide insight into the nature of the east and west edges of the Imperial Valley. The basement at the northwestern margin of the valley, to the north of the Superstition Hills, has been normal-faulted and blocks of basement material have ''calved'' into the trough. A blanket of sediments has been deposited on this margin. To the south of the Superstition Hills and Superstition Mountain, the top of the basement is a detachment surface that dips gently into the basin. This margin is also covered by a thick sequence sediments. The basement of the eastern margin consists of metamorphic rocks of the upper plate of the Chocolate Mountain Thrust system underlain by the Orocopia Schist. These rocks dip to the southeast and extend westward to the Sand Hills Fault but do not appear to cross it. Thus, the Sand Hills Fault is interpreted to be the southern extension of the San Andreas Fault. North of the Sand Hills Fault the East Highline Canal seismicity lineament is associated with a strike-slip fault and is probably linked to the Sand Hills Fault. Six geothermal areas crossed by these lines, in agreement with previous studies of geothermal reservoirs, are associated with ''faded'' zones, Bouguer gravity and heat flow maxima, and with higher seismic velocities than surrounding terranes.

Triggered surface slips in the Coachella Valley area associated with the 1992 Joshua Tree and Landers, California, Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Rymer, M.J.

2000-01-01

The Coachella Valley area was strongly shaken by the 1992 Joshua Tree (23 April) and Landers (28 June) earthquakes, and both events caused triggered slip on active faults within the area. Triggered slip associated with the Joshua Tree earthquake was on a newly recognized fault, the East Wide Canyon fault, near the southwestern edge of the Little San Bernardino Mountains. Slip associated with the Landers earthquake formed along the San Andreas fault in the southeastern Coachella Valley. Surface fractures formed along the East Wide Canyon fault in association with the Joshua Tree earthquake. The fractures extended discontinuously over a 1.5-km stretch of the fault, near its southern end. Sense of slip was consistently right-oblique, west side down, similar to the long-term style of faulting. Measured offset values were small, with right-lateral and vertical components of slip ranging from 1 to 6 mm and 1 to 4 mm, respectively. This is the first documented historic slip on the East Wide Canyon fault, which was first mapped only months before the Joshua Tree earthquake. Surface slip associated with the Joshua Tree earthquake most likely developed as triggered slip given its 5 km distance from the Joshua Tree epicenter and aftershocks. As revealed in a trench investigation, slip formed in an area with only a thin (Salton Trough. A paleoseismic trench study in an area of 1992 surface slip revealed evidence of two and possibly three surface faulting events on the East Wide Canyon fault during the late Quaternary, probably latest Pleistocene (first event) and mid- to late Holocene (second two events). About two months after the Joshua Tree earthquake, the Landers earthquake then triggered slip on many faults, including the San Andreas fault in the southeastern Coachella Valley. Surface fractures associated with this event formed discontinuous breaks over a 54-km-long stretch of the fault, from the Indio Hills southeastward to Durmid Hill. Sense of slip was right

The effects of religion, superstition, and perceived gender inequality on the degree of suicide intent: a study of serious attempters in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jie; Xu, Huilan

2007-01-01

Previous studies have tried to account for the uniqueness of gender ratios in Chinese suicide through physiological and psychological differences between men and women, and the means employed in the fatal act. From the point of view of the socio-psychological traits, this study examines the effects of religion (religiosity), superstition, and perceived gender inequality among Chinese women on the degree of their suicide intent. A four-page structured interviews were performed to the consecutively sampled serious attempters of suicide hospitalized to emergency rooms immediately after the suicidal act in Dalian areas, China. Both univariate analyses and the multiple regression model have found that the higher the degree the religiosity and superstition on metempsychosis, the stronger the suicide intent Chinese women had. The perceived gender inequality is positively correlated with suicide intent, and it is especially true for Chinese women. The socio-psychological traits and traditional culture values and norms have important impacts on suicide patterns in Chinese societies.

Variations of local seismic response in Benevento (Southern Italy) using earthquakes and ambient noise recordings

Science.gov (United States)

Improta, Luigi; di Giulio, Giuseppe; Rovelli, Antonio

The city of Benevento (Southern Italy) has been repeatedly struck by large historical earthquakes. A heterogeneous geologic structure and widespread soft soil conditions make the estimation of site effects crucial for the seismic hazard assessment of the city. From 2000 until 2004, we installed seismic stations to collect earthquake data over zones with different geological conditions. Despite the high level of urban noise, we recorded more than 150 earthquakes at twelve sites. This data set yields the first, well documented experimental evidence for weak to moderate local amplifications. We investigated site effects primarily by the classical spectral ratio technique (CSR) using a rock station placed on the Benevento hill as reference. All sites in the Calore river valley and in the eastern part of the Benevento hill show a moderate high-frequency (f > 4 Hz) amplification peak. Conversely, sites in the Sabato river valley share weak-to-moderate amplification in a wide frequency band (from 1-2 to 7-10 Hz), without evident frequency peaks. Application of no-reference-site techniques to earthquake and noise data confirms the results of the CSRs in the sites of the Calore river valley and of the eastern part of the Benevento hill, but fails in providing indications for site effects in the Sabato river valley, being the H/V ratios nearly flat. One-dimensional modeling indicates that the ground motion amplification can be essentially explained in terms of a vertically varying geologic structure. High-frequency narrow peaks are caused by the strong impedance contrast existing between near-surface soft deposits and stiff cemented conglomerates. Conversely, broad-band amplifications in the Sabato river valley are likely due to a more complex layering with weak impedance contrasts both in the shallow and deep structure of the valley.

Site Effect Assessment of the Gros-Morne Hill Area in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Part A: Geophysical-Seismological Survey Results

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Sophia Ulysse

2018-04-01

Full Text Available After the M = 7.0 Haiti earthquake in 2010, many teams completed seismic risk studies in Port-au-Prince to better understand why this not extraordinarily strong event had induced one of the most severe earthquake disasters in history (at least in the Western World. Most highlighted the low construction quality as the main cause for the disaster, but some also pointed to possible soil and topographic amplification effects, especially in the lower and central parts of Port-au-Prince (e.g., close to the harbor. However, very detailed local studies of such site effects have not been completed yet. A Belgian-Haitian collaboration project was established in order to develop a detailed local seismic hazard study for Gros-Morne hill located in the district of Pétion-Ville, southeast of Port-au-Prince. In order to have a better understanding of the amplification on the Gros-Morne hill, in the southeastern part of Port-au-Prince, site effects were investigated by using near surface geophysical methods. The horizontal to vertical spectral ratio technique was applied to ambient vibrations and earthquake data, and multichannel analysis of surface waves and P-wave refraction tomography calculation were applied to seismic data. Standard spectral ratios were computed for the S-wave windows of the earthquake data recorded by a small temporary seismic network. Electrical resistivity tomography profiles were also performed in order to image the structure of the subsurface and detect the presence of water, if any. The spectral ratio results generally show low to medium (1.5–6 resonance amplitudes at one or several different resonance frequencies (for the same site, between 0.5 and 25 Hz. At most of the investigated sites, the fundamental resonance frequency varies between 7 and 10 Hz. By using the multichannel surface wave analyses of the seismic data, we were able to determine shear wave velocities ranging between 200 and 850 m/s, up to a depth of about 15–20

Uganda's participation in CTBT activities and earthquake monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tugume, F.A.

2002-01-01

Earthquake occurrence in Uganda is mostly related to East Africa Rift System. The country's western border lies within the Western branch of this system while the Eastern branch is only 200 km from its eastern border. The two tectonic features contribute to seismicity in Uganda. These are the Aswar shear zone running from Nimule at the border of Uganda and Sudan, to Mount Elgon on the Eastern border and Katonga fault break which cuts across the country from the foot hills of mount Rwenzori to the Western side of Lake Victoria. This unique tectonic setting makes Uganda one of most seismically active countries on the African continet as exemplified by some destructive earthquakes that have hit the country. For this reason the Government of uganda is in the process of setting up an earthquake monitoring system, the National Seismological Network, with efficient detectability, efficient data transmission and processing facilities so that earthquakes in Uganda can be properly assessed and seismic hazard studies of the country cunducted. The objectives of the said network, the seismic developments for the last two decades and its current satus are described

Parks of Chapel Hill

Data.gov (United States)

Town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina — Hours, location, and amenity information for Chapel Hill parks as shown on the Town of Chapel Hill's website. Includes a map with points for each park location.

Crustal structure, evolution, and volcanic unrest of the Alban Hills, Central Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Chiarabba, C.; Amato, A.; Delaney, P.T.

1997-01-01

The Alban Hills, a Quaternary volcanic center lying west of the central Apennines, 15-25 km southeast of Rome, last erupted 19ka and has produced approximately 290 km3 of eruptive deposits since the inception of volcanism at 580 ka. Earthquakes of moderate intensity have been generated there at least since the Roman age. Modern observations show that intermittent periods of swarm activity originate primarily beneath the youngest features, the phreatomagmatic craters on the west side of the volcano. Results from seismic tomography allow identification of a low-velocity region, perhaps still hot or partially molten, more than 6 km beneath the youngest craters and a high-velocity region, probably a solidified magma body, beneath the older central volcanic construct. Thirty centimeters of uplift measured by releveling supports the contention that high levels of seismicity during the 1980s and 1990s resulted from accumulation of magma beneath these craters. The volume of magma accumulation and the amount of maximum uplift was probably at least 40 ?? 106 m3 and 40 cm, respectively. Comparison of newer levelings with those completed in 1891 and 1927 suggests earlier episodes of uplift. The magma chamber beneath the western Alban Hills is probably responsible for much of the past 200 ka of eruptive activity, is still receiving intermittent batches of magma, and is, therefore, continuing to generate modest levels of volcanic unrest. Bending of overburden is the most likely cause of the persistent earthquakes, which generally have hypocenters above the 6-km-deep top of the magma reservoir. In this view, the most recent uplift and seismicity are probably characteristic and not precursors of more intense activity.

IMPLEMENTASI SANDI HILL UNTUK PENYANDIAN CITRA

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JJ Siang

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Hill's code is one of text encoding technique. In this research, Hill's code is extended to image encoding. The image used is BMP 24 bit format. 2x2 and 3x3 matrices is used as a key. The results show that Hill's code is suitable for image whose RGB values vary highly. On the contrary, it is not suitable for less varied RGB images since its original pattern is still persisted in encrypted image. Hill's code for image encoding has also disadvantage in the case that the key matrix is not unique. However, for daily application, with good key matrix, Hill's code can be applied to encode image since it's process only deals with simple matrix operation so it become fast. Abstract in Bahasa Indonesia : Sandi Hill merupakan salah satu teknik penyandian teks. Dalam penelitian ini, pemakaian sandi Hill diperluas dari teks ke citra bertipe BMP 24 bit. Matriks yang dipakai berordo 2x2 dan 3x3. Hasil percobaan menunjukkan bahwa sandi Hill cocok untuk enkripsi citra dengan variasi nilai RGB antar piksel berdekatan yang tinggi (seperti foto, tapi tidak cocok untuk citra dengan variasi nilai RGB yang rendah (seperti gambar kartun karena pola citra asli masih tampak dalam citra sandi. Sandi Hill juga memiliki kelemahan dalam hal tidak tunggalnya matriks kunci yang dapat dipakai. Akan tetapi untuk pemakaian biasa, dengan pemilihan matriks kunci yang baik, sandi Hill dapat dipakai untuk penyandian karena hanya melibatkan operasi matriks biasa sehingga prosesnya relatif cepat. Kata kunci: Sandi Hill, Citra, Relatif Prima.

THE EFFECTS OF RELIGION, SUPERSTITION, AND PERCEIVED GENDER INEQUALITY ON THE DEGREE OF SUICIDE INTENT: A STUDY OF SERIOUS ATTEMPTERS IN CHINA

OpenAIRE

ZHANG, JIE; XU, HUILAN

2007-01-01

Previous studies have tried to account for the uniqueness of gender ratios in Chinese suicide through physiological and psychological differences between men and women, and the means employed in the fatal act. From the point of view of the socio-psychological traits, this study examines the effects of religion (religiosity), superstition, and perceived gender inequality among Chinese women on the degree of their suicide intent. A four-page structured interviews were performed to the consecuti...

Hill's formula

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bolotin, Sergey V [Steklov Mathematical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation); Treschev, Dmitrii V [M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow (Russian Federation)

2010-07-27

In his study of periodic orbits of the three-body problem, Hill obtained a formula connecting the characteristic polynomial of the monodromy matrix of a periodic orbit with the infinite determinant of the Hessian of the action functional. A mathematically rigorous definition of the Hill determinant and a proof of Hill's formula were obtained later by Poincare. Here two multidimensional generalizations of Hill's formula are given: for discrete Lagrangian systems (symplectic twist maps) and for continuous Lagrangian systems. Additional aspects appearing in the presence of symmetries or reversibility are discussed. Also studied is the change of the Morse index of a periodic trajectory upon reduction of order in a system with symmetries. Applications are given to the problem of stability of periodic orbits. Bibliography: 34 titles.

The Origin of the Columbia Hills

Science.gov (United States)

Rice, J. W.

2005-12-01

The Columbia Hills form a rugged ridge complex comprised of 7 peaks spanning some 3.5 km in length and reaching a maximum height of 106 m (Husband Hill) above the plains of Spirit's landing site. As of this writing Spirit has been exploring the Columbia Hills for over 440 sols (since sol 156 on June 11, 2004). Thus far the origin of the Columbia Hills has remained elusive despite detailed analysis of numerous rock and soil targets, including outcrops. The chemical differences among the 6 distinct rock classes attest to the lithologic diversity and geologic complexity of the Hills. Origin of the Columbia Hills Several hypothesis have been put forth to explain the origin of the Columbia Hills: Old eroded partially buried impact crater rim(s), central peak, residual intracrater fill material, volcanic construct, wrinkle ridge, delta and or combinations of the above. Observations that support various aspects of these multiple hypotheses will be discussed. Numerous buried craters are observed on the floor of Gusev lending credence to the idea that the Columbia Hills are the remains of an ancient impact crater rim or possibly a central peak. Morphologic evidence of the rim of Thira crater and the Columbia Hills appears to support this hypothesis. The Aeolis region contains numerous craters that contain layered materials in the absence of any major fluvial systems. This could imply that the Columbia Hills are the remnants of a formerly extensive unit(s). Gusev contains many hills scattered across its floor such as Grissom, White, Chaffee and numerous other buttes and mesas that may be remnants of a former extensive intracrater deposit. Another possibility is that the Columbia Hills are composed of volcanic materials (cinder cones and associated ash and lava flows) derived either locally or from Apollinaris Patera located 300 km to the north. Several depressions are located in the Columbia Hills. These features could be calderas but are most likely impact craters. The most

The Hill Chart Calculation for Pelton Runner Models using the HydroHillChart - Pelton Module Software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adelina Bostan

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The Pelton turbines industrial design is based on the hill chart characteristics obtained by measuring the models. Primary data measurements used to obtain the hill chart can be processed graphically, by hand or by using graphic programs respectively CAD programs; the HydroHillChart - Pelton module software is a specialized tool in achieving the hill chart, using interpolation cubic spline functions. Thereby, based on measurements of several models of Pelton turbines, a computerized library, used to design industrial Pelton turbines can be created. The paper presents the universal characteristics calculated by using the HydroHillChart - Pelton module software for a series of Pelton runners.

Quantifying rockfall risk on roads in the Port Hills, Christchurch, New Zealand

Science.gov (United States)

Unterrader, Stefan; Fuchs, Sven

2016-04-01

The Canterbury earthquake sequence starting on 22 September 2010 triggered widespread mass movements in the Port Hills area of Christchurch, the largest agglomeration of New Zealand's South Island. The MW 6.2 Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011 in particular generated the largest ground motions ever recorded in New Zealand and as a result initiated several thousands of rockfalls. Over 6,000 boulders were released and mapped shortly after the event. The risk from rockfall to residents in the Port Hills was quantitatively assessed by the regulatory authorities in order to develop an adjusted land zoning policy. Apart from damaging residential buildings many of these boulders also hit several road sections across the Port Hills. Due to the inherent differences between identifying hazard and risk to people in static structures and in moving objects, a recently carried out risk assessment of rockfall was limited to exposed properties. However, given the importance of local road infrastructure for commuter traffic, local risk management strategies would clearly benefit from quantifying the threat of boulders endangering traffic lines. For this study, existing datasets describing the hazard including recently estimated frequency-magnitude bands for earthquakes and non-seismic triggering events, boulder production rates, boulder size distribution and associated run-out distances, were used. These data were provided by the Christchurch City Council's (CCC) GIS web service. A digital layer of the local road network as well as a detailed dataset of traffic counts was used for GIS analysis, and the probability of individuals being hit by boulders was calculated for each road segment that intersects one or more rockfall hazard zones. Finally, risk was computed. The method applied follows a state-of-the-art approach in risk assessment which is generally based on the risk equation defining risk as the probability of occurrence of an event times the expected loss. More

Loess Hills of Iowa

Data.gov (United States)

Iowa State University GIS Support and Research Facility — This coverage outlines the boundary of the Loess Hills in Iowa at 1:100,000 scale. Criteria applied to the delineation of the Loess Hills included drainage density,...

Antigravity hills are visual illusions.

Science.gov (United States)

Bressan, Paola; Garlaschelli, Luigi; Barracano, Monica

2003-09-01

Antigravity hills, also known as spook hills or magnetic hills, are natural places where cars put into neutral are seen to move uphill on a slightly sloping road, apparently defying the law of gravity. We show that these effects, popularly attributed to gravitational anomalies, are in fact visual illusions. We re-created all the known types of antigravity spots in our laboratory using tabletop models; the number of visible stretches of road, their slant, and the height of the visible horizon were systematically varied in four experiments. We conclude that antigravity-hill effects follow from a misperception of the eye level relative to gravity, caused by the presence of either contextual inclines or a false horizon line.

Magma flow instability and cyclic activity at soufriere hills volcano, montserrat, british west indies

Science.gov (United States)

Voight; Sparks; Miller; Stewart; Hoblitt; Clarke; Ewart; Aspinall; Baptie; Calder; Cole; Druitt; Hartford; Herd; Jackson; Lejeune; Lockhart; Loughlin; Luckett; Lynch; Norton; Robertson; Watson; Watts; Young

1999-02-19

Dome growth at the Soufriere Hills volcano (1996 to 1998) was frequently accompanied by repetitive cycles of earthquakes, ground deformation, degassing, and explosive eruptions. The cycles reflected unsteady conduit flow of volatile-charged magma resulting from gas exsolution, rheological stiffening, and pressurization. The cycles, over hours to days, initiated when degassed stiff magma retarded flow in the upper conduit. Conduit pressure built with gas exsolution, causing shallow seismicity and edifice inflation. Magma and gas were then expelled and the edifice deflated. The repeat time-scale is controlled by magma ascent rates, degassing, and microlite crystallization kinetics. Cyclic behavior allows short-term forecasting of timing, and of eruption style related to explosivity potential.

The 1911 M ~6.6 Calaveras earthquake: Source parameters and the role of static, viscoelastic, and dynamic coulomb stress changes imparted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Doser, D.I.; Olsen, K.B.; Pollitz, F.F.; Stein, R.S.; Toda, S.

2009-01-01

The occurrence of a right-lateral strike-slip earthquake in 1911 is inconsistent with the calculated 0.2-2.5 bar static stress decrease imparted by the 1906 rupture at that location on the Calaveras fault, and 5 yr of calculated post-1906 viscoelastic rebound does little to reload the fault. We have used all available first-motion, body-wave, and surface-wave data to explore possible focal mechanisms for the 1911 earthquake. We find that the event was most likely a right-lateral strikeslip event on the Calaveras fault, larger than, but otherwise resembling, the 1984 Mw 6.1 Morgan Hill earthquake in roughly the same location. Unfortunately, we could recover no unambiguous surface fault offset or geodetic strain data to corroborate the seismic analysis despite an exhaustive archival search. We calculated the static and dynamic Coulomb stress changes for three 1906 source models to understand stress transfer to the 1911 site. In contrast to the static stress shadow, the peak dynamic Coulomb stress imparted by the 1906 rupture promoted failure at the site of the 1911 earthquake by 1.4-5.8 bar. Perhaps because the sample is small and the aftershocks are poorly located, we find no correlation of 1906 aftershock frequency or magnitude with the peak dynamic stress, although all aftershocks sustained a calculated dynamic stress of ???3 bar. Just 20 km to the south of the 1911 epicenter, we find that surface creep of the Calaveras fault at Hollister paused for ~17 yr after 1906, about the expected delay for the calculated static stress drop imparted by the 1906 earthquake when San Andreas fault postseismic creep and viscoelastic relaxation are included. Thus, the 1911 earthquake may have been promoted by the transient dynamic stresses, while Calaveras fault creep 20 km to the south appears to have been inhibited by the static stress changes.

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.

Mitigating mass movement caused by earthquakes and typhoons: a case study of central Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jiun-Chuan

2013-04-01

Typhoons caused huge damages to Taiwan at the average of 3.8 times a year in the last 100 years, according to Central Weather Bureau data. After the Chi-Chi earthquake of 1999 at the magnitude of Richard Scale 7.3, typhoons with huge rainfall would cause huge debris flow and deposits at river channels. As a result of earthquakes, loose debris falls and flows became significant hazards in central Taiwan. Analysis of rainfall data and data about the sites of slope failure show that damage from natural hazards was enhanced in the last 20 years, as a result of the Chi-Chi earthquake. There are three main types of mass movement in Central Taiwan: landslides, debris flows and gully erosion. Landslides occurred mainly along hill slopes and river channel banks. Many dams, check dams, housing structures and even river channels can be raised to as high as 60 meters as a result of stacking up floating materials of landslides. Debris flows occurred mainly through typhoon periods and activated ancient debris deposition. New gullies were thus developed from deposits loosened and shaken up by earthquakes. Extreme earthquakes and typhoon events occurred frequently in the last 20 years. This paper analyzes the geological and geomorphologic background for the precarious areas and typhoons in central Taiwan, to make a systematic understanding of mass movement harzards. The mechanism and relations of debris flows and rainfall data in central Taiwan are analyzed. Ways for mitigating mass movement threats are also proposed in this paper. Keywords: mass movement, earthquakes, typhoons, hazard mitigation, central Ta

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...

HydroHillChart – Francis module. Software used to Calculate the Hill Chart of the Francis Hydraulic Turbines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorian Nedelcu

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the Hydro Hill Chart - Francis module application, used to calculate the hill chart of the Pelton, Francis and Kaplan hydraulic turbine models, by processing the data measured on the stand. After describing the interface and menu, the input data is graphically presented and the universal characteristic for measuring scenarios ao=const. and n11=const is calculated. Finally, the two calculated hill charts are compared through a graphical superimposition of the isolines.

27 CFR 9.190 - Red Hill Douglas County, Oregon.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 27 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Red Hill Douglas County... Areas § 9.190 Red Hill Douglas County, Oregon. (a) Name. The name of the viticultural area described in this section is “Red Hill Douglas County, Oregon”. For purposes of part 4 of this chapter, “Red Hill...

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

Earthquake vulnerability assessment of buildings of ward no. 8 of Haldwani-Kathgodam Municipal Corporation, Uttarakhand, India

Science.gov (United States)

Bora, Kritika; Pande, Ravindra K.

2017-07-01

"Earthquake does not kill people; it is the building which kills people". Earthquake is a sudden event below the surface of the earth which results in vertical and horizontal waves that causes destruction. The main aim of this research is to bring into light the unplanned and non-engineered construction practices growing in the Urban areas. Lack of space and continuous migration from hills has resulted in Multistorey construction. The present study is based on primary data collection through Rapid Visual Screening for the assessment of vulnerability of buildings. "Haldwani-Kathgodam being a new Municipal Corporation located in the foot hills of Himalayas is facing same problem. The seismic zonation brings this area into zone 4 of damage risk. Therefore an assessment to estimate the risk of the built up environment is important. This paper presents a systematic and useful way of assessing physical vulnerability of buildings. The present paper will show how the growing pressure on urban area tends to make the built up environment vulnerable towards seismic activities. The challenge today is to make our living environment safe for living. The day by day growing population pressure on urban area as a migration trend in developing countries is leading to high rise building, no planning and reckless construction. For the sake of saving some money people usually do not take the approval from structural engineer. This unplanned and haphazard construction proves non-resistant towards earthquake and brings lives and properties to death and a stand still. The total no. of household in the current study area is 543 whereas the total population is 2497 (2011). The recent formation of Himalayas makes the area more sensitive towards seismic event. The closeness to the Main Boundary thrust brings it to zone 4 in the Seismic Zonation of India i.e., High Damage Risk Zone

Directional topographic site response at Tarzana observed in aftershocks of the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake: Implications for mainshock motions

Science.gov (United States)

Spudich, P.; Hellweg, M.; Lee, W.H.K.

1996-01-01

The Northridge earthquake caused 1.78 g acceleration in the east-west direction at a site in Tarzana, California, located about 6 km south of the mainshock epicenter. The accelerograph was located atop a hill about 15-m high, 500-m long, and 130-m wide, striking about N78??E. During the aftershock sequence, a temporary array of 21 three-component geophones was deployed in six radial lines centered on the accelerograph, with an average sensor spacing of 35 m. Station COO was located about 2 m from the accelerograph. We inverted aftershock spectra to obtain average relative site response at each station as a function of direction of ground motion. We identified a 3.2-Hz resonance that is a transverse oscillation of the hill (a directional topographic effect). The top/base amplification ratio at 3.2 Hz is about 4.5 for horizontal ground motions oriented approximately perpendicular to the long axis of the hill and about 2 for motions parallel to the hill. This resonance is seen most strongly within 50 m of COO. Other resonant frequencies were also observed. A strong lateral variation in attenuation, probably associated with a fault, caused substantially lower motion at frequencies above 6 Hz at the east end of the hill. There may be some additional scattered waves associated with the fault zone and seen at both the base and top of the hill, causing particle motions (not spectral ratios) at the top of the hill to be rotated about 20?? away from the direction transverse to the hill. The resonant frequency, but not the amplitude, of our observed topographic resonance agrees well with theory, even for such a low hill. Comparisons of our observations with theoretical results indicate that the 3D shape of the hill and its internal structure are important factors affecting its response. The strong transverse resonance of the hill does not account for the large east-west mainshock motions. Assuming linear soil response, mainshock east-west motions at the Tarzana accelerograph

Stress transfer by the 1988-1989 M=5.3 and 5.4 Lake Elsman foreshocks to the Loma Prieta fault: Unclamping at the site of peak mainshock slip

Science.gov (United States)

Perfettini, H.; Stein, R.S.; Simpson, R.; Cocco, M.

1999-01-01

We study the stress transferred by the June 27, 1988, M=5.3 and August 8, 1989, M=5.4 Lake Elsman earthquakes, the largest events to strike within 15 km of the future Loma Prieta rupture zone during 74 years before the 1989 M=6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake. We find that the first Lake Elsman event brought the rupture plane of the second event 0.3-1.6 bars (0.03-0.16 MPa) closer to Coulomb failure but that the Lake Elsman events did not bring the future Loma Prieta hypocentral zone closer to failure. Instead, the Lake Elsman earthquakes are calculated to have reduced the normal stress on (or "undamped") the Loma Prieta rupture surface by 0.5-1.0 bar (0.05-0.10 MPa) at the site where the greatest slip subsequently occurred in the Loma Prieta earthquake. This association between the sites of peak unclamping and slip suggests that the Lake Elsman events did indeed influence the Loma Prieta rupture process. Unclamping the fault would have locally lowered the resistance to sliding. Such an effect could have been enhanced if the lowered normal stress permitted fluid infusion into the undamped part of the fault. Although less well recorded, the ML=5.0 1964 and ML=5.3 1967 Corralitos events struck within 10 km of the southwest end of the future Loma Prieta rupture. No similar relationship between the normal stress change and subsequent Loma Prieta slip is observed, although the high-slip patch southwest of the Loma Prieta epicenter corresponds roughly to the site of calculated Coulomb stress increase for a low coefficient of friction. The Lake Elsman-Loma Prieta result is similar to that for the 1987 M=6.2 Elmore Ranch and M=6.7 Superstition Hills earthquakes, suggesting that foreshocks might influence the distribution of mainshock slip rather than the site of mainshock nucleation. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.

Coulomb stress analysis of the 21 February 2008 Mw= 6.0 Wells, Nevada, earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Sevilgen, Volkan

2011-01-01

Static Coulomb stress changes imparted by the February 21, 2008 Wells, Nevada earthquake are calculated, using an 8 x 6 km rectangular patch with a uniform slip as a source fault. Stress changes are resolved on nearby active faults using their rake, dip, and strike direction, assuming a fault friction of 0.4. The largest Coulomb stress increase (0.2 bars) imparted to surrounding major active faults from the Wells earthquake occurs on the Clover Hill fault, which may be the southern continuation of the ruptured fault. A 0.1 bar Coulomb stress increase is calculated on the western Snake Mountains fault. Coulomb stress decreases of 0.5 bars are calculated for the northern parts of the Independence and Ruby Mountains faults. The Coulomb stress change is calculated on relocated aftershocks assuming that they have the same strike, dip, and rake, as the source fault. Under this assumption, 75% of the aftershocks received a Coulomb stress increase.

HydroHillChart – Pelton module. Software used to Calculate the Hill Chart of the Pelton Hydraulic Turbines

OpenAIRE

Dorian Nedelcu; Adelina Bostan; Florin Peris-Bendu

2015-01-01

The paper presents the HydroHillChart - Pelton module application, used to calculate the hill chart of the Pelton hydraulic turbine models, by processing the data measured on the stand. In addition, the tools offered by the application such as: interface, menu, input data, numerical and graphical results, etc. are described.

Sources of Increased Spring and Streamflow Caused by the 2014 South Napa Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Rytuba, J. J.; Holzer, T. L.

2014-12-01

Seasonally dry springs and creeks began flowing over a broad region in the hills around Napa following the M6.0 South Napa earthquake on August 24, 2014. Flows in hillside creek beds, which were dry before the earthquake, were reported from 19 km west, to 6 km east, and 18 km north of Napa and the epicenter, an area that shook at MMI≥VI. The exact timing of the increased flow is unknown because the earthquake occurred at 3:20 AM PDT. A gaging station on the Napa River, which is downstream from several tributaries that began flowing after the earthquake, showed a sudden increase of flow rate within 45 minutes following the earthquake. The sudden increase at the gaging station suggests flows initiated either contemporaneously with or very soon after the strong shaking. This timing is consistent with eyewitness accounts of other streams and springs at daylight, a few hours after the earthquake. One of the largest increases of streamflow was in Green Valley, where a streamflow rate of about 100 cubic hectometers per day was measured in Wild Horse Creek. Two types of waters are being discharged in the Wild Horse Creek drainage: 1) water with low iron concentration that has exchanged with rhyolitic flows and tuffs in the upper part of the drainage; and 2) high iron concentration water that has exchanged with basaltic andesite in the middle part of drainage (vertical interval of about 75 meters). The high iron waters are depositing FeOOH other iron phases. Mixing of the two water types results in water with pH 6.9 and conductivity of 0.197 mS. This water is used by the Vallejo Water District for domestic purposes after it is mixed with recent surface water runoff stored in Lake Frey reservoir in order to improve its quality. Other drainages that have increased flow since the earthquake have water chemistry consistent with exchange with rhyolitic flows and tuffs that are the dominant rock type in these drainages.

Confidence Hills Mineralogy and Chemin Results from Base of Mt. Sharp, Pahrump Hills, Gale Crater, Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Cavanagh, P. D.; Bish, D. L.; Blake, D. F.; Vaniman, D. T.; Morris, R. V.; Ming, D. W.; Rampe, E. B.; Achilles, C. N.; Chipera, S. J.; Treiman, A. H.;

The Bradford Hill considerations on causality: a counterfactual perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Höfler Michael

2005-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Bradford Hill's considerations published in 1965 had an enormous influence on attempts to separate causal from non-causal explanations of observed associations. These considerations were often applied as a checklist of criteria, although they were by no means intended to be used in this way by Hill himself. Hill, however, avoided defining explicitly what he meant by "causal effect". This paper provides a fresh point of view on Hill's considerations from the perspective of counterfactual causality. I argue that counterfactual arguments strongly contribute to the question of when to apply the Hill considerations. Some of the considerations, however, involve many counterfactuals in a broader causal system, and their heuristic value decreases as the complexity of a system increases; the danger of misapplying them can be high. The impacts of these insights for study design and data analysis are discussed. The key analysis tool to assess the applicability of Hill's considerations is multiple bias modelling (Bayesian methods and Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis; these methods should be used much more frequently.

HydroHillChart – Pelton module. Software used to Calculate the Hill Chart of the Pelton Hydraulic Turbines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorian Nedelcu

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the HydroHillChart - Pelton module application, used to calculate the hill chart of the Pelton hydraulic turbine models, by processing the data measured on the stand. In addition, the tools offered by the application such as: interface, menu, input data, numerical and graphical results, etc. are described.

The Camp Hill Project: Objectives and Design

Science.gov (United States)

Mattingly, John B.

1976-01-01

Available from: EC 090 474. Outlined are the problems and objectives of Pennsylvania's Camp Hill Project--a program designed to complete psychological needs assessments for juveniles incarcerated at Camp Hill, to develop project policies and guidelines in preparation for meeting with juvenile court judges, and to hire staff. (SBH)

After runaway: The trans-Hill stage of planetesimal growth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lithwick, Yoram

2014-01-01

When planetesimals begin to grow by coagulation, they first enter an epoch of runaway, during which the biggest bodies grow faster than all the others. The questions of how runaway ends and what comes next have not been answered satisfactorily. We show that runaway is followed by a new stage—the 'trans-Hill stage'—that commences when the bodies that dominate viscous stirring ('big bodies') become trans-Hill, i.e., when their Hill velocity matches the random speed of the small bodies they accrete. Subsequently, the small bodies' random speed grows in lockstep with the big bodies' sizes, such that the system remains in the trans-Hill state. Trans-Hill growth is crucial for determining the efficiency of growing big bodies, as well as their growth timescale and size spectrum. Trans-Hill growth has two sub-stages. In the earlier one, which occurs while the stirring bodies remain sufficiently small, the evolution is collisionless, i.e., collisional cooling among all bodies is irrelevant. The efficiency of forming big bodies in this collisionless sub-stage is very low, ∼10α << 1, where α ∼ 0.005(a/AU) –1 is the ratio between the physical size of a body and its Hill radius. Furthermore, the size spectrum is flat (equal mass per size decade, i.e., q = 4). This collisionless trans-Hill solution explains results from previous coagulation simulations for both the Kuiper Belt and the asteroid belt. The second trans-Hill sub-stage commences once the stirring bodies grow big enough (>α –1 × the size of the accreted small bodies). After that time, collisional cooling among small bodies controls the evolution. The efficiency of forming big bodies rises and the size spectrum becomes more top heavy. Trans-Hill growth can terminate in one of two ways, depending on the sizes of the small bodies. First, mutual accretion of big bodies can become significant and conglomeration proceeds until half of the total mass is converted into big bodies

Patterns of volcanotectonic seismicity and stress during the ongoing eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat (1995-2007)

Science.gov (United States)

Roman, D.C.; De Angelis, S.; Latchman, J.L.; White, Rickie

2008-01-01

The ongoing eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, has been accompanied throughout by varying levels of high-frequency, ‘volcanotectonic’ (VT), seismicity. These earthquakes reflect the brittle response of the host rock to stresses generated within the magmatic system and thus reveal interesting and useful information about the structure of the volcanic conduit system and processes occurring within it. In general, systematic changes in the rate, location, and fault-plane solutions of VT earthquakes correspond to changes in the volcano's behavior, and indicate that the main conduit for the eruption is a dike or system of dikes trending NE–SW and centered beneath the eruptive vent. To date, the eruption has comprised three extrusive phases, separated by two ~ 1–2 year-long periods of residual activity. Prior to the start of each extrusive phase, VT earthquakes with fault-plane solution p-axes oriented perpendicular to inferred regional maximum compression dominate the data set, consistent with stresses induced by the inflation of the mid-level conduit system. ~ 90°-rotated VT fault-plane solutions are also observed preceding a change in eruption style from effusive to explosive in 1997. While increases in the rate of VT earthquakes precede eruption phase onsets, high rates of VT seismicity are also observed during the first period of residual activity and in this case appear to reflect the relaxation of host rock following withdrawal of magma from the mid-crustal system. Most VT earthquakes are located directly beneath the eruptive vent, although two ‘distal VT clusters’ were observed during the first six months of the eruption (late 1995–early 1996). Both of these distal clusters likely resulted from stresses generated during the establishment of the main conduit system.

Continuous borehole strain and pore pressure in the near field of the 28 September 2004 M 6.0 parkfield, California, earthquake: Implications for nucleation, fault response, earthquake prediction and tremor

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, M.J.S.; Borcherdt, R.D.; Linde, A.T.; Gladwin, M.T.

2006-01-01

Near-field observations of high-precision borehole strain and pore pressure, show no indication of coherent accelerating strain or pore pressure during the weeks to seconds before the 28 September 2004 M 6.0 Parkfield earthquake. Minor changes in strain rate did occur at a few sites during the last 24 hr before the earthquake but these changes are neither significant nor have the form expected for strain during slip coalescence initiating fault failure. Seconds before the event, strain is stable at the 10-11 level. Final prerupture nucleation slip in the hypocentral region is constrained to have a moment less than 2 ?? 1012 N m (M 2.2) and a source size less than 30 m. Ground displacement data indicate similar constraints. Localized rupture nucleation and runaway precludes useful prediction of damaging earthquakes. Coseismic dynamic strains of about 10 microstrain peak-to-peak were superimposed on volumetric strain offsets of about 0.5 microstrain to the northwest of the epicenter and about 0.2 microstrain to the southeast of the epicenter, consistent with right lateral slip. Observed strain and Global Positioning System (GPS) offsets can be simply fit with 20 cm of slip between 4 and 10 km on a 20-km segment of the fault north of Gold Hill (M0 = 7 ?? 1017 N m). Variable slip inversion models using GPS data and seismic data indicate similar moments. Observed postseismic strain is 60% to 300% of the coseismic strain, indicating incomplete release of accumulated strain. No measurable change in fault zone compliance preceding or following the earthquake is indicated by stable earth tidal response. No indications of strain change accompany nonvolcanic tremor events reported prior to and following the earthquake.

Accounting for imperfect detection in Hill numbers for biodiversity studies

Science.gov (United States)

Broms, Kristin M.; Hooten, Mevin B.; Fitzpatrick, Ryan M.

2015-01-01

Hill numbers unify biodiversity metrics by combining several into one expression. For example, species richness, Shannon's diversity index and the Gini–Simpson index are a few of the most used diversity measures, and they can be expressed as Hill numbers. Traditionally, Hill numbers have been calculated from relative abundance data, but the expression has been modified to use incidence data as well. We demonstrate an approach for estimating Hill numbers using an occupancy modelling framework that accounts for imperfect detection.

A language for image processing HILLS and its supporting system SDIP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, H.; Toriwaki, J.

1984-01-01

This paper presents a language HILLS and its supporting system SDIP for image processing. HILLS is a key-word type language for describing image processing procedures by using subroutine packages SLIP and SPIDER. SDIP, written in FORTRAN to keep portability, supports programming by HILLS in interactive mode including functions such as editing, translating HILLS into FORTRAN, error detection, and providing manual information. Results of preliminary experiments suggest that HILLS and SDIP are very useful tools for beginners and researchers in application fields of image processing to develop desired image analysis procedures

Faulting Parameters of the January 16, 1994 Wyomissing Hills, Pennsylvania Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Ammon, C.J.; Herrmann, Robert B.; Langston, C.A.; Benz, H.

1998-01-01

Two events dominated the January 1994, Wyomissing, PA earthquake sequence, an Mw 4.0 foreshock, followed by an Mw 4.6 mainshock. We modeled regional waveforms to estimate the event depth and the moment tensors for the two largest events in the sequence, and examine teleseismic wave-forms recorded on the ARCESS short-period seismic array to estimate the depth and source time function of the mainshock. Our data constrain the depth of the events to be shallower than 5 km, and prefer a depth of 3-5 km. For an assumed depth of 3 km, the mainshock moment tensor is 75% double couple, with (the major double couple) planes striking at 135??N, 347??N, dips of 49??, 46??, and rakes of 68??, 114??. The estimated moment is 8.9 ?? 1022 dyne-cm. The P axis strikes 241??N and plunges 2??, the Tension axis strikes 336??N and plunges 73??. The foreshock inversion results are virtually identical to the mainshock results; for a source depth of three km, we find a major double couple with a strike, dip, and rake of 121??N, 60??, and 66??, respectively. The seismic moment for the foreshock is 1.2 ?? 1022 dyne-cm, which is approximately 13% of the mainshock moment release. These events did not excite high-frequency Lg waves as effectively as typical eastern North American events, and the mainshock had a stress drop in the range of 25-50 bars.

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 ...

27 CFR 9.162 - Sta. Rita Hills.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 27 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Sta. Rita Hills. 9.162.... Rita Hills. (a) Name. The name of the viticultural area described in this section is “Sta. Rita Hills”. For purposes of part 4 of this chapter, “Sta. Rita Hills” is a term of viticultural significance. (b...

Cows Come Down from the Mountains before the (Mw = 6.1) Earthquake Colfiorito in September 1997; A Single Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Fidani, Cristiano; Freund, Friedemann; Grant, Rachel

2014-01-01

Simple Summary Recent reports from several countries such as China, Italy and Japan support the existence of strange animal behaviour before strong earthquakes. However, the stimuli to which animals are sensitive preceding seismic activity are still not completely understood. Here we report the case of a herd of cows (reported by an entire village) leaving the hill pasture and descending near to the village streets two days before a strong earthquake. Abstract The September–October 1997 seismic sequence in the Umbria–Marche regions of Central Italy has been one of the stronger seismic events to occur in Italy over the last thirty years, with a maximum magnitude of Mw = 6.1. Over the last three years, a collection of evidence was carried out regarding non-seismic phenomena, by interviewing local residents using a questionnaire. One particular observation of anomalous animal behaviour, confirmed by many witnesses, concerned a herd of cows, which descended from a mountain close to the streets of a village near the epicentre, a few days before the main shock. Testimonies were collected using a specific questionnaire including data on earthquake lights, spring variations, human diseases, and irregular animal behaviour. The questionnaire was compiled after the L’Aquila earthquake in 2009, and was based upon past historical earthquake observations. A possible explanation for the cows’ behavior—local air ionization caused by stress-activated positive holes—is discussed. PMID:26480042

Biogeography of the Shimba Hills ecosystem herpetofauna in Kenya.

Science.gov (United States)

Malonza, Patrick K; Mulwa, David M; Nyamache, Joash O; Jones, Georgina

2018-03-18

The Shimba Hills ecosystem along the south coast of Kenya is a key East African biodiversity hotspot. Historically, it is biogeographically assignable to the East African coastal biome. We examined the current Shimba Hills herpetofauna and their zoogeographical affinities to the coastal forests and nearby Eastern Arc Mountains biodiversity hotspots. The key studied sites included the Shimba Hills National Reserve, forest reserves, Kaya forests, and adjacent private land. Data on herpetofaunal richness were obtained from recent field surveys, literature, and specimens held at the National Museums of Kenya, Herpetology Section Collection, Nairobi. The Makadara, Mwele, and Longo-Mwagandi forests within the Shimba Hills National Reserve hosted the highest number of unique and rare species. Generally, the forest reserves and Kaya forests were important refuges for forest-associated species. On private land, Mukurumudzi Dam riparian areas were the best amphibian habitat and were host to three IUCN (Red List) Endangered-EN amphibian species, namely, Boulengerula changamwensis, Hyperolius rubrovermiculatus, and Afrixalus sylvaticus, as well as one snake species Elapsoidea nigra. Using herpetofauna as zoogeographic indicators, the Shimba Hills were determined to be at a crossroads between the coastal forests (13 endemic species) and the Eastern Arc Mountains (seven endemic species). Most of the Eastern Arc Mountains endemic species were from recent records, and thus more are likely to be found in the future. This 'hybrid' species richness pattern is attributable to the hilly topography of the Shimba Hills and their proximity to the Indian Ocean. This has contributed to the Shimba Hills being the richest herpetofauna area in Kenya, with a total of 89 and 36 reptile and amphibian species, respectively. Because of its unique zoogeography, the Shimba Hills ecosystem is undoubtedly a key biodiversity area for conservation investment.

Audio-magnetotelluric (AMT) study to investigate the genesis of Mujil hill

Science.gov (United States)

Rahmania, Suryanto, Wiwit

2017-07-01

Gunung Mujil is an isolated hill located near Pondoworejo village, Kalibawang sub-district, Kulon Progo district, and Special Province of Yogyakarta. The hill is part of the eastern Kulon Progo mountain range extended relatively in the North-South direction. The lithology of the hill consists of andesite breccia and it's similar with the Old Andesite Formation that built the Kulon Progo Mountains. There are at least two hypothesis about the genesis and the formation mechanism of this hill, (1) it was formed by debris mass from Kulon Progo Mountains, and (2) ) it was formed by an intrusion. Our study intended to determine the subsurface resistivity below the hill and to relating those results to with the scenario of the genesis of the Mujil hill. We conducted Audio-magnetotellurics (AMT) measurements along two lines survey crossing the Mujil hill consisting of 20 measurements. Since the measurements are located near the villages, most of the data has a fair to bad quality and only one station yielded an excellent data. A 1D Forward modeling was then applied to find best-fit model of the AMT data. The results shows that the Mujil hill was built by debris mass of the Old Andesite Formation from Kulon Progo mountain which is represented by a lower resistivity value under the Mujil hill.

Impact of earthquakes on agriculture during the Roman-Byzantine period from pollen records of the Dead Sea laminated sediment

Science.gov (United States)

Leroy, Suzanne A. G.; Marco, Shmuel; Bookman, Revital; Miller, Charlotte S.

2010-03-01

The Dead Sea region holds the archives of a complex relationship between an ever-changing nature and ancient civilisations. Regional pollen diagrams show a Roman-Byzantine period standing out in the recent millennia by its wetter climate that allowed intensive arboriculture. During that period, the Dead Sea formed laminites that display mostly a seasonal character. A multidisciplinary study focused on two earthquakes, 31 BC and AD 363, recorded as seismites in the Ze'elim gully A unit III which has been well dated by radiocarbon in a previous study. The sampling of the sediment was done at an annual resolution starting from a few years before and finishing a decade after each earthquake. A clear drop in agricultural indicators (especially Olea and cereals) is shown. These pollen indicators mostly reflect human activities in the Judean Hills and coastal oases. Agriculture was disturbed in large part of the rift valley where earthquake damage affected irrigation and access to the fields. It took 4 to 5 yr to resume agriculture to previous conditions. Earthquakes must be seen as contributors to factors damaging societies. If combined with other factors such as climatic aridification, disease epidemics and political upheaval, they may lead to civilisation collapse.

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

Hume, Mill, Hill, and the sui generis epidemiologic approach to causal inference.

Science.gov (United States)

Morabia, Alfredo

2013-11-15

The epidemiologic approach to causal inference (i.e., Hill's viewpoints) consists of evaluating potential causes from the following 2, noncumulative angles: 1) established results from comparative, observational, or experimental epidemiologic studies; and 2) reviews of nonepidemiologic evidence. It does not involve statements of statistical significance. The philosophical roots of Hill's viewpoints are unknown. Superficially, they seem to descend from the ideas of Hume and Mill. Hill's viewpoints, however, use a different kind of evidence and have different purposes than do Hume's rules or Mill's system of logic. In a nutshell, Hume ignores comparative evidence central to Hill's viewpoints. Mill's logic disqualifies as invalid nonexperimental evidence, which forms the bulk of epidemiologic findings reviewed from Hill's viewpoints. The approaches by Hume and Mill cannot corroborate successful implementations of Hill's viewpoints. Besides Hume and Mill, the epidemiologic literature is clueless about a plausible, pre-1965 philosophical origin of Hill's viewpoints. Thus, Hill's viewpoints may be philosophically novel, sui generis, still waiting to be validated and justified.

Weak Properties and Robustness of t-Hill Estimators

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Jordanova, P.; Fabián, Zdeněk; Hermann, P.; Střelec, L.; Rivera, A.; Girard, S.; Torres, S.; Stehlík, M.

2016-01-01

Roč. 19, č. 4 (2016), s. 591-626 ISSN 1386-1999 Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : asymptotic properties of estimators * point estimation * t-Hill estimator * t-lgHill estimator Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research Impact factor: 1.679, year: 2016

The man and the hill

Science.gov (United States)

Leopold, Luna Bergere

1962-01-01

He was sitting on a large slab of rock. As he looked at the cloud of dust hanging hazily on the horizon, the piece of antler and the block of flint he held in his hand hung as if they were suspended from their previous rapid motion. The man gazed intently across the swaying grass which rose in wave-like billows across the distant hills. What was that dust - a herd of buffalo, a band of hunters, or were coyotes chasing the antelope again? After watching for a while he started again to chip the flint with a rapid twisting motion of the bone in his right hand. The little chips of flint fell in the grass before him. It is the same hill but the scene has changed. Seated on the same rock, holding the reins of a saddle horse, a man dressed in buckskin took the fur cap off his head and wiped his brow. He was looking intently across a brown and desolate landscape at a cloud of dust on the far horizon. Was it the hostile tribe of Indians? It could be buffalo. Nervously he kicked at the ground with the deerhide moccasin, pushing the flint chips out of the way. He wiped the dust from his long rifle. What a terrible place - no water, practically no grass, everything bare and brown. Now at sunset, slanting across the hills green with springtime, a cowman sits on a big rock, pushes his sombrero back on his head, and looks across the valley at a large but quiet herd of stock, moving slowly as each steer walks from one lush patch of grass to another, nibbling. Suddenly he stood up. Far on the horizon some dark objects were moving. Is it the sheepmen? Could it be the stage coach from Baggs to the Sweetwater Crossing?Same hill - a gray truck was grinding slowly toward the summit. It pulled up near a small fenced enclosure where there were some instruments painted a bright silver color. A man stepped out of the truck and turned to his younger companion, "You've never found an arrowhead? Maybe you have never thought about it correctly. If you want to find where an Indian camped long

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

Penyelesaian Masalah 8-Puzzle dengan Algoritma Steepest-Ascent Hill Climbing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Abraham

2016-03-01

Full Text Available 8 puzzle merupakan salah satu implementasi dari Artificial Intelegence. Dalam proses penyelesaiannya banyak terdapat algoritma-algoritma pencarian yang dapat diterapkan. Solusi 8 puzzle akan lebih cepat diperoleh jika digunakan prinsip array dengan variasi algoritma Steepest-Ascent Hill Climbing (Hill Climbing dengan memilih kemiringan yang paling tajam / curam dengan parameter heuristik posisi yang benar dan heuristik jarak serta dikombinasikan dengan LogList sebagai penyimpanan state state yang pernah dilalui untuk menanggulangi permasalah pada algoritma hill climbing itu sendiri dan terhindar dari looping state yang pernah dilalui. Metode-metode yang termasuk ke dalam teknik pencarian yang berdasarkan pada fungsi heuristik salah satu diantaranya adalah Hill Climbing, Best First Search, A* (A Bintang. Loglist merupakan tempat penyimpanan setiap kunjungan dari state-state puzzle yang telah dilakukan untuk menghindari looping atau pengulangan terhadap state yang pernah dilalui. Untuk menanggulangi permasalahan pada SteepestAscent Hill Climbing.

Newtonian and pseudo-Newtonian Hill problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steklain, A.F.; Letelier, P.S.

2006-01-01

A pseudo-Newtonian Hill problem based on the Paczynski-Wiita pseudo-Newtonian potential that reproduces general relativistic effects is presented and compared with the usual Newtonian Hill problem. Poincare maps, Lyapunov exponents and fractal escape techniques are employed to study bounded and unbounded orbits. In particular we consider the systems composed by Sun, Earth and Moon and composed by the Milky Way, the M2 cluster and a star. We find that some pseudo-Newtonian systems-including the M2 system-are more stable than their Newtonian equivalent

Spectral parameter power series representation for Hill's discriminant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khmelnytskaya, K.V.; Rosu, H.C.

2010-01-01

We establish a series representation of the Hill discriminant based on the spectral parameter power series (SPPS) recently introduced by Kravchenko. We also show the invariance of the Hill discriminant under a Darboux transformation and employing the Mathieu case the feasibility of this type of series for numerical calculations of the eigenspectrum.

Effects of topographic position and geology on shaking damage to residential wood-framed structures during the 2003 San Simeon earthquake, western San Luis obispo county, California

Science.gov (United States)

McCrink, T.P.; Wills, C.J.; Real, C.R.; Manson, M.W.

2010-01-01

A statistical evaluation of shaking damage to wood-framed houses caused by the 2003 M6.5 San Simeon earthquake indicates that both the rate and severity of damage, independent of structure type, are significantly greater on hilltops compared to hill slopes when underlain by Cretaceous or Tertiary sedimentary rocks. This increase in damage is interpreted to be the result of topographic amplification. An increase in the damage rate is found for all structures built on Plio-Pleistocene rocks independent of topographic position, and this is interpreted to be the result of amplified shaking caused by geologic site response. Damage rate and severity to houses built on Tertiary rocks suggest that amplification due to both topographic position and geologic site response may be occurring in these rocks, but effects from other topographic parameters cannot be ruled out. For all geologic and topographic conditions, houses with raised foundations are more frequently damaged than those with slab foundations. However, the severity of damage to houses on raised foundations is only significantly greater for those on hill slopes underlain by Tertiary rocks. Structures with some damage-resistant characteristics experienced greater damage severity on hilltops, suggesting a spectral response to topographic amplification. ?? 2010, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

Plants profile of Malakand Pass Hills, District Malakand, Pakistan

African Journals Online (AJOL)

use

2011-11-21

Nov 21, 2011 ... famous Malakand fort guards the road on both sides of the pass. Malakand is a ... Underneath Malakand Hills, the waters of the River Swat ... southern sloping faces of the hills. They speak ...... Pinus roxburghii Sarg. Antidote ...

Experimental investigation of flow over two-dimensional multiple hill models.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Qing'an; Maeda, Takao; Kamada, Yasunari; Yamada, Keisuke

2017-12-31

The aim of this study is to investigate the flow field characteristics in ABL (Atmospheric Boundary Layer) flow over multiple hills and valleys in two-dimensional models under neutral conditions. Active turbulence grids and boundary layer generation frame were used to simulate the natural winds in wind tunnel experiments. As a result, the mean wind velocity, the velocity vector diagram and turbulence intensity around the hills were investigated by using a PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) system. From the measurement results, it was known that the average velocity was increased along the upstream slope of upside hill, and then separated at the top of the hills, the acceleration region of U/U ref >1 was generated at the downstream of the hill. Meanwhile, a large clockwise circulation flow was generated between the two hill models. Moreover, the turbulence intensity showed small value in the circulation flow regions. Compared to 1H model, the turbulence intensity in the mainstream direction showed larger value than that in the vertical direction. This paper provided a better understanding of the wind energy distribution on the terrain for proper selection of suitable sites for installing wind farms in the ABL. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Phosphorus forms in soils of Oban Hills, Akamkpa, Cross River State ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Oban Hills is located at Akamkpa in the Southern Senatorial District of Cross River, State, Nigeria. Phosphorus (P)-rich soil from the Hills is expected to have an effect on retention and distribution in the highly acidic soils surrounding the area inundated for several years. Phosphorus forms in the soils of the Hills varied with ...

Photovoltaics - 10 years after Cherry Hill

Science.gov (United States)

Ralph, E. L.

The status of R&D programs connected with photovoltaic (PV) systems 10 years after the Cherry Hill workshop on 'Photovoltaic Conversion of Solar Energy for Terrestrial Applications' is assessed. The five categories of research recommended by the Cherry Hill Workshop are listed in a table together with their recommended research budget allocations. The workshop categories include: single-crystal Si cells; poly-Si cells; systems and diagnostics. Categories for thin film CdS/Cu2S and CuInSe2 cells are also included. The roles of government and private utility companies in providing adequate financial support for PV research programs is emphasized.

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...

78 FR 73187 - Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-05

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board (Board... all members of the Advisory Board; (2) provide orientation to Board Members on Basic Laws governing...

Funny hills in pion spectra from heavy-ion collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rasmussen, J.O.

1982-03-01

A discussion of some of the systematic features of the pion spectra in heavy-ions reactions is given. A discussion of the hills and valleys in heavy ion pion spectra that show up at the lower pion energies is given. The following topics are discussed: (1) three kinds of funny hills; (2) π - / + ratios near center of mass; (3) new Monte Carlo studies of charged pion spectra; and (4) pion orbiting about fireballs and Bose-Einstein behavior as explanation for the mid-rapidity P/sub perpendicular to/ approx. = 0.4 to 0.5 m/sub π/c hill

Earthquakes and Earthquake Engineering. LC Science Tracer Bullet.

Science.gov (United States)

Buydos, John F., Comp.

An earthquake is a shaking of the ground resulting from a disturbance in the earth's interior. Seismology is the (1) study of earthquakes; (2) origin, propagation, and energy of seismic phenomena; (3) prediction of these phenomena; and (4) investigation of the structure of the earth. Earthquake engineering or engineering seismology includes the…

Analog earthquakes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hofmann, R.B.

1995-01-01

Analogs are used to understand complex or poorly understood phenomena for which little data may be available at the actual repository site. Earthquakes are complex phenomena, and they can have a large number of effects on the natural system, as well as on engineered structures. Instrumental data close to the source of large earthquakes are rarely obtained. The rare events for which measurements are available may be used, with modfications, as analogs for potential large earthquakes at sites where no earthquake data are available. In the following, several examples of nuclear reactor and liquified natural gas facility siting are discussed. A potential use of analog earthquakes is proposed for a high-level nuclear waste (HLW) repository

Integration of Ground-based Magnetics and Vertical Deformation Measurements for the Characterization of the San Andreas Fault at the Durmid Hill Region, California

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez, K.; Polet, J.

2017-12-01

The Durmid Hill region is located near the termination of the San Andreas Fault (SAF) at Bombay Beach. This section of the fault has not experienced any major earthquakes for at least the last three centuries. During a 6 year study, Sylvester et al. (1993) collected vertical deformation measurements at Durmid Hill from monuments they installed along a 2.37 km leveling line normal to the SAF. They concluded that interseismic processes account for most of the growth at Durmid Hill and estimated more than 9 mm of uplift within the leveling line, with uniform tilt at distances greater than 500 m from the fault. Langenheim et al. (2014) created a model based on ground-based magnetic data that they collected in the same area and found a complex magnetic structure with a broad band magnetic anomaly present on the northeast side of SAF and a prominent magnetic high along the main mapped trace of the SAF. A primary objective of our study is to reoccupy the leveling line from Sylvester et al. (1993), across the SAF at Durmid Hill. Additionally, we will utilize subsurface geophysical techniques to enhance our understanding of the fault geometry along the southernmost end of the SAF and its relationship to the aseismic deformation at Durmid Hill. Elevation profiles are measured using Nikon Nivo 5C total stations and magnetic field intensity measurements are made by a GSM-19TGW v7.0 walking magnetometer, with a VLF (Very Low requency) attachment. We will present preliminary results from data sets gathered in March and May of 2017, as well as additional surveys that will be carried out in October and November. The preliminary maps produced from the results of the first magnetic surveys show two significant and distinct magnetic anomalies consistent with earlier studies. Initial monument elevation comparisons could only be made for monuments located at the north-eastern end of the leveling line, at a distance of about 1.5 km behind Bat Cave Buttes. There appear to be sections of

Understanding the distribution of strong motions and the damage caused during the September 19th, 2017 earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Aguirre, J.; Ramirez-Guzman, L.; Leonardo Suárez, M.; Quintanar, L.

2017-12-01

On September 19, 2017, a normal fault earthquake of magnitude Mw 7.1 occurred 120 km from Mexico City. The quake generated large accelerations, more than 200 cm/s*s at least in two stations in Mexico City, where there was extensive damage. The damage pattern, which includes more than 40 building collapses, differs from the one induced by the 1985 Michoacan earthquake. While the observed accelerations in stations located in the Hill and Transition zones are the largest ever recorded, in the Lake zone the intensities were lower than those recorded in 1985. Even though the proximity of the epicenter could partially explain the accelerations, other factors need to be explored to understand the nuances of the ground motion. Unlike 1985, there is a substantially larger number of acceleration records in Mexico City, operated and maintained by different institutions. In this paper, we present the analysis of acceleration records and 3D numerical simulations to understand if effects such as focusing and directionality participate in the amplified motion. Finally, transfer functions between Lake and Hill zones and response and design spectral values are analyzed in regions where the building code requirements were exceeded. Acknowledgments: Records used in this research are obtained, processed and maintained by the National Autonomous University of Mexico through the Seismic Instrumentation Unit of the Institute of Engineering and the National Seismological Service of the Institute of Geophysics. The Centro de Intrumentacion y Registro Sismico A.C. (CIRES) kindly provided their records. This Project was funded in part by the Secretaria de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SECITI) of Mexico City. Project SECITI/073/2016.

EMG activities and plantar pressures during ski jumping take-off on three different sized hills.

Science.gov (United States)

Virmavirta, M; Perttunen, J; Komi, P V

2001-04-01

Different profiles of ski jumping hills have been assumed to make the initiation of take-off difficult especially when moving from one hill to another. Neuromuscular adaptation of ski jumpers to the different jumping hills was examined by measuring muscle activation and plantar pressure of the primary take-off muscles on three different sized hills. Two young ski jumpers volunteered as subjects and they performed several trials from each hill (K-35 m, K-65 m and K-90 m) with the same electromyographic (EMG) electrode and insole pressure transducer set-up. The results showed that the differences in plantar pressure and EMGs between the jumping hills were smaller than expected for both jumpers. The small changes in EMG amplitudes between the hills support the assumption that the take-off was performed with the same intensity on different jumping hills and the timing of the gluteus EMG demonstrates well the similarity of the muscle activation on different hills. On the basis of the results obtained it seems that ski jumping training on small hills does not disturb the movement patterns for bigger hills and can also be helpful for special take-off training with low speed.

Turkish Compulsory Earthquake Insurance and "Istanbul Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Durukal, E.; Sesetyan, K.; Erdik, M.

2009-04-01

The city of Istanbul will likely experience substantial direct and indirect losses as a result of a future large (M=7+) earthquake with an annual probability of occurrence of about 2%. This paper dwells on the expected building losses in terms of probable maximum and average annualized losses and discusses the results from the perspective of the compulsory earthquake insurance scheme operational in the country. The TCIP system is essentially designed to operate in Turkey with sufficient penetration to enable the accumulation of funds in the pool. Today, with only 20% national penetration, and about approximately one-half of all policies in highly earthquake prone areas (one-third in Istanbul) the system exhibits signs of adverse selection, inadequate premium structure and insufficient funding. Our findings indicate that the national compulsory earthquake insurance pool in Turkey will face difficulties in covering incurring building losses in Istanbul in the occurrence of a large earthquake. The annualized earthquake losses in Istanbul are between 140-300 million. Even if we assume that the deductible is raised to 15%, the earthquake losses that need to be paid after a large earthquake in Istanbul will be at about 2.5 Billion, somewhat above the current capacity of the TCIP. Thus, a modification to the system for the insured in Istanbul (or Marmara region) is necessary. This may mean an increase in the premia and deductible rates, purchase of larger re-insurance covers and development of a claim processing system. Also, to avoid adverse selection, the penetration rates elsewhere in Turkey need to be increased substantially. A better model would be introduction of parametric insurance for Istanbul. By such a model the losses will not be indemnified, however will be directly calculated on the basis of indexed ground motion levels and damages. The immediate improvement of a parametric insurance model over the existing one will be the elimination of the claim processing

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.

Active tectonics and earthquake potential of the Myanmar region

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yu; Sieh, Kerry; Tun, Soe Thura; Lai, Kuang-Yin; Myint, Than

2014-04-01

This paper describes geomorphologic evidence for the principal neotectonic features of Myanmar and its immediate surroundings. We combine this evidence with published structural, geodetic, and seismic data to present an overview of the active tectonic architecture of the region and its seismic potential. Three tectonic systems accommodate oblique collision of the Indian plate with Southeast Asia and extrusion of Asian territory around the eastern syntaxis of the Himalayan mountain range. Subduction and collision associated with the Sunda megathrust beneath and within the Indoburman range and Naga Hills accommodate most of the shortening across the transpressional plate boundary. The Sagaing fault system is the predominant locus of dextral motion associated with the northward translation of India. Left-lateral faults of the northern Shan Plateau, northern Laos, Thailand, and southern China facilitate extrusion of rocks around the eastern syntaxis of the Himalaya. All of these systems have produced major earthquakes within recorded history and continue to present major seismic hazards in the region.

Hill, Prof. Archibald Vivian

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Fellowship. Fellow Profile. Elected: 1935 Honorary. Hill, Prof. Archibald Vivian Nobel Laureate (Medicine) - 1922. Date of birth: 26 September 1886. Date of death: 3 June 1977. YouTube; Twitter; Facebook; Blog. Academy News. IAS Logo. 29th Mid-year meeting. Posted on 19 January 2018. The 29th Mid-year ...

The montane forest associated amphibian species of the Taita Hills ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The montane forest associated amphibian species of the Taita Hills, Kenya. ... They are surrounded by the dry Tsavo plains. ... The biodiversity importance of the Taita Hills lies with the number of endemics per unit of area of remaining forest, ...

Earthquake, GIS and multimedia. The 1883 Casamicciola earthquake

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Rebuffat

1995-06-01

Full Text Available A series of multimedia monographs concerning the main seismic events that have affected the Italian territory are in the process of being produced for the Documental Integrated Multimedia Project (DIMP started by the Italian National Seismic Survey (NSS. The purpose of the project is to reconstruct the historical record of earthquakes and promote an earthquake public education. Producing the monographs. developed in ARC INFO and working in UNIX. involved designing a special filing and management methodology to integrate heterogeneous information (images, papers, cartographies, etc.. This paper describes the possibilities of a GIS (Geographic Information System in the filing and management of documental information. As an example we present the first monograph on the 1883 Casamicciola earthquake. on the island of Ischia (Campania, Italy. This earthquake is particularly interesting for the following reasons: I historical-cultural context (first destructive seismic event after the unification of Italy; 2 its features (volcanic earthquake; 3 the socioeconomic consequences caused at such an important seaside resort.

Are hills like white elephants?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunil Sharma

2016-11-01

Full Text Available 'Are Hills Like White Elephants?' is, of course, inspired by Hemingway; the tribute reflects on the abiding relevance of serious art in a changed world and extends the boundaries of his message to other human situations.

Late Devonian spermatophyte diversity and paleoecology at Red Hill, north-central Pennsylvania, USA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cressler, Walter L. III. [Francis Harvey Green Library, 29 West Rosedale Avenue, West Chester University, West Chester, PA, 19383 (United States); Prestianni, Cyrille [Universite de Liege, Boulevard du Rectorat B18, Liege 4000 (Belgium); LePage, Ben A. [The Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA, 19103 and PECO Energy Company, 2301 Market Avenue, S9-1, Philadelphia, PA 19103 (United States)

2010-08-01

Early spermatophytes have been discovered at Red Hill, a Late Devonian (Famennian) fossil locality in north-central Pennsylvania, USA. The Red Hill locality contains an Archaeopteris-dominated flora within an outcrop of the Duncannon Member of the Catskill Formation. Palynological analyses of the plant fossil-bearing horizons within the Red Hill outcrop indicate deposition within the VCo palynozone. This is the earliest time horizon known to contain evidence for spermatophytes, and is contemporaneous with well-known spermatophyte-bearing deposits in West Virginia and Belgium. Some of the spermatophyte material from Red Hill compares well with Aglosperma sp., previously known as isolated ovules from the latest Devonian of South Wales and England, thus extending its geographic and stratigraphic range. Red Hill specimens of Aglosperma sp. occur both as isolated ovules and attached to dichotomously forking axes. Additional spermatophyte cupules discovered at Red Hill are morphologically similar to those of the previously described Late Devonian spermatophytes Elkinsia Rothwell, Scheckler, et Gillespie, Moresnetia Stockmans, and Xenotheca Arber et Goode. Some of the Red Hill cupule complexes are distinct from the aforementioned taxa in consisting of slender dichotomously forking axes terminating in paired cupules with highly fused and symmetric cupule quadrant lobes. The distinctive nature of these Red Hill specimens warrants the creation of Duodimidia pfefferkornii Cressler, Prestianni, et LePage gen. et sp. nov. Plant fossil remains with sphenopteroid foliage are also present at Red Hill, possibly attributable to the spermatophytes. Previous systematic sampling of the rich plant-fossil bearing layer at Red Hill and analysis of its floristic diversity and abundance as well as the presence and absence of charcoal suggests a pattern of floral turnover from a local-scale Rhacophyton-dominated community to spermatophyte colonization following disturbance by wildfires

Earthquake Early Warning Systems

OpenAIRE

Pei-Yang Lin

2011-01-01

Because of Taiwan’s unique geographical environment, earthquake disasters occur frequently in Taiwan. The Central Weather Bureau collated earthquake data from between 1901 and 2006 (Central Weather Bureau, 2007) and found that 97 earthquakes had occurred, of which, 52 resulted in casualties. The 921 Chichi Earthquake had the most profound impact. Because earthquakes have instant destructive power and current scientific technologies cannot provide precise early warnings in advance, earthquake ...

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.

Ground water and earthquakes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ts' ai, T H

1977-11-01

Chinese folk wisdom has long seen a relationship between ground water and earthquakes. Before an earthquake there is often an unusual change in the ground water level and volume of flow. Changes in the amount of particulate matter in ground water as well as changes in color, bubbling, gas emission, and noises and geysers are also often observed before earthquakes. Analysis of these features can help predict earthquakes. Other factors unrelated to earthquakes can cause some of these changes, too. As a first step it is necessary to find sites which are sensitive to changes in ground stress to be used as sensor points for predicting earthquakes. The necessary features are described. Recording of seismic waves of earthquake aftershocks is also an important part of earthquake predictions.

The origin of Mauna Loa's Nīnole Hills: Evidence of rift zone reorganization

Science.gov (United States)

Zurek, Jeffrey; Williams-Jones, Glyn; Trusdell, Frank A.; Martin, Simon

2015-01-01

In order to identify the origin of Mauna Loa volcano's Nīnole Hills, Bouguer gravity was used to delineate density contrasts within the edifice. Our survey identified two residual anomalies beneath the Southwest Rift Zone (SWRZ) and the Nīnole Hills. The Nīnole Hills anomaly is elongated, striking northeast, and in inversions both anomalies merge at approximately −7 km above sea level. The positive anomaly, modeled as a rock volume of ~1200 km3 beneath the Nīnole Hills, is associated with old eruptive vents. Based on the geologic and geophysical data, we propose that the gravity anomaly under the Nīnole Hills records an early SWRZ orientation, now abandoned due to geologically rapid rift-zone reorganization. Catastrophic submarine landslides from Mauna Loa's western flank are the most likely cause for the concurrent abandonment of the Nīnole Hills section of the SWRZ. Rift zone reorganization induced by mass wasting is likely more common than currently recognized.

Wine Industry Competitiveness: A survey of the Shawnee Hills American Viticultural Area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Matthew Rendleman

2016-06-01

Shawnee Hill׳s AVA winery owner/operators regard increases in regional tourism, growth in the US wine market continuous innovation, unique services and processes, and flow of information from customers to have the most enhancing effects on their businesses, and that confidence/trust in Illinois state political systems, tax systems, and administrative/bureaucratic regulations were the most constraining factors. Furthermore the Shawnee Hills AVA has growing competition, yet consists of innovative winery owners. It may currently lack external financial support, but with a community focus on product differentiation, the Shawnee Hills AVA has a chance, owners believe, to capture a portion of the growing market for regional products.

Theory of synergistic effects: Hill-type response surfaces as 'null-interaction' models for mixtures.

Science.gov (United States)

Schindler, Michael

2017-08-02

The classification of effects caused by mixtures of agents as synergistic, antagonistic or additive depends critically on the reference model of 'null interaction'. Two main approaches are currently in use, the Additive Dose (ADM) or concentration addition (CA) and the Multiplicative Survival (MSM) or independent action (IA) models. We compare several response surface models to a newly developed Hill response surface, obtained by solving a logistic partial differential equation (PDE). Assuming that a mixture of chemicals with individual Hill-type dose-response curves can be described by an n-dimensional logistic function, Hill's differential equation for pure agents is replaced by a PDE for mixtures whose solution provides Hill surfaces as 'null-interaction' models and relies neither on Bliss independence or Loewe additivity nor uses Chou's unified general theory. An n-dimensional logistic PDE decribing the Hill-type response of n-component mixtures is solved. Appropriate boundary conditions ensure the correct asymptotic behaviour. Mathematica 11 (Wolfram, Mathematica Version 11.0, 2016) is used for the mathematics and graphics presented in this article. The Hill response surface ansatz can be applied to mixtures of compounds with arbitrary Hill parameters. Restrictions which are required when deriving analytical expressions for response surfaces from other principles, are unnecessary. Many approaches based on Loewe additivity turn out be special cases of the Hill approach whose increased flexibility permits a better description of 'null-effect' responses. Missing sham-compliance of Bliss IA, known as Colby's model in agrochemistry, leads to incompatibility with the Hill surface ansatz. Examples of binary and ternary mixtures illustrate the differences between the approaches. For Hill-slopes close to one and doses below the half-maximum effect doses MSM (Colby, Bliss, Finney, Abbott) predicts synergistic effects where the Hill model indicates 'null

Diversity and biogeography of land snails (Mollusca, Gastropoda) in the limestone hills of Perak, Peninsular Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Foon, Junn Kitt; Clements, Gopalasamy Reuben; Liew, Thor-Seng

2017-01-01

Abstract Limestone hills are now gaining global conservation attention as hotspots for short-range endemic species. Levels of land snail endemism can be high at limestone hills, especially at hill clusters that are geographically isolated. In the State of Perak, Peninsular Malaysia, limestone hills have been opportunistically surveyed for land snails in the past, but the majority have yet to be surveyed. To address this knowledge gap, we systematically surveyed the terrestrial malacofauna of 12 limestone hills that, based on our opinion, are a representation of the limestone land snail assemblages within the State. Our inventory yielded high sampling completeness (>85%). We found 122 species of land snails, of which 34 species were unique to one of the surveyed hills. We identified 30 species that are potentially new to science. The number of land snail species recorded at each hill ranged between 39 and 63 species. Four of the sampled limestone hills namely, Prk 01 G. Tempurung, Prk 55 G. Pondok, Prk 47 Kanthan, and Prk 64 Bt Kepala Gajah, have high levels of species richness and unique species, representing 91% of the total species recorded in this study. We identified two clusters of limestone hills in central Perak with distinct differences in land snail species composition – a northern hill cluster on elevated granite bedrock and southern hill cluster in a low-lying valley surrounded by alluvial soils. As limestone hills continue to be quarried to meet the cement demand, the four identified limestone hills, along with other hills from the two clusters, warrant urgent conservation attention in order to maintain high species diversity within Perak’s terrestrial malacofauna. PMID:28769723

Characterizing the structural maturity of fault zones using high-resolution earthquake locations.

Science.gov (United States)

Perrin, C.; Waldhauser, F.; Scholz, C. H.

2017-12-01

We use high-resolution earthquake locations to characterize the three-dimensional structure of active faults in California and how it evolves with fault structural maturity. We investigate the distribution of aftershocks of several recent large earthquakes that occurred on immature faults (i.e., slow moving and small cumulative displacement), such as the 1992 (Mw7.3) Landers and 1999 (Mw7.1) Hector Mine events, and earthquakes that occurred on mature faults, such as the 1984 (Mw6.2) Morgan Hill and 2004 (Mw6.0) Parkfield events. Unlike previous studies which typically estimated the width of fault zones from the distribution of earthquakes perpendicular to the surface fault trace, we resolve fault zone widths with respect to the 3D fault surface estimated from principal component analysis of local seismicity. We find that the zone of brittle deformation around the fault core is narrower along mature faults compared to immature faults. We observe a rapid fall off of the number of events at a distance range of 70 - 100 m from the main fault surface of mature faults (140-200 m fault zone width), and 200-300 m from the fault surface of immature faults (400-600 m fault zone width). These observations are in good agreement with fault zone widths estimated from guided waves trapped in low velocity damage zones. The total width of the active zone of deformation surrounding the main fault plane reach 1.2 km and 2-4 km for mature and immature faults, respectively. The wider zone of deformation presumably reflects the increased heterogeneity in the stress field along complex and discontinuous faults strands that make up immature faults. In contrast, narrower deformation zones tend to align with well-defined fault planes of mature faults where most of the deformation is concentrated. Our results are in line with previous studies suggesting that surface fault traces become smoother, and thus fault zones simpler, as cumulative fault slip increases.

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.

Earthquake forecasting and warning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rikitake, T.

1983-01-01

This review briefly describes two other books on the same subject either written or partially written by Rikitake. In this book, the status of earthquake prediction efforts in Japan, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States are updated. An overview of some of the organizational, legal, and societal aspects of earthquake prediction in these countries is presented, and scientific findings of precursory phenomena are included. A summary of circumstances surrounding the 1975 Haicheng earthquake, the 1978 Tangshan earthquake, and the 1976 Songpan-Pingwu earthquake (all magnitudes = 7.0) in China and the 1978 Izu-Oshima earthquake in Japan is presented. This book fails to comprehensively summarize recent advances in earthquake prediction research.

Scenario earthquake hazards for the Long Valley Caldera-Mono Lake area, east-central California (ver. 2.0, January 2018)

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Rui; Branum, David M.; Wills, Chris J.; Hill, David P.

2014-06-30

surface materials. Strong shaking is more widespread in the hanging wall regions of a normal fault. Larger ground motions also occur where young alluvial sediments amplify the shaking. Both of these effects can lead to strong shaking that extends farther from the fault on the valley side than on the hill side.The effect of fault rupture displacements may be localized along the surface trace of the mapped earthquake fault if fault geometry is simple and the fault traces are accurately located. However, surface displacement hazards can spread over a few hundred meters to a few kilometers if the earthquake fault has numerous splays or branches, such as the Hilton Creek Fault. Faulting displacements are estimated to be about 1 meter along normal faults in the study area and close to 2 meters along the White Mountains Fault Zone.All scenarios show the possibility of widespread ground failure. Liquefaction damage would likely occur in the areas of higher ground shaking near the faults where there are sandy/silty sediments and the depth to groundwater is 6.1 meters (20 feet) or less. Generally, this means damage is most common near lakes and streams in the areas of strongest shaking. Landslide potential exists throughout the study region. All steep slopes (>30 degrees) present a potential hazard at any level of shaking. Lesser slopes may have landslides within the areas of the higher ground shaking. The landslide hazard zones also are likely sources for snow avalanches during winter months and for large boulders that can be shaken loose and roll hundreds of feet down hill, which happened during the 1980 Mammoth Lakes earthquakes.Whereas methodologies used in estimating ground shaking, liquefaction, and landslides are well developed and have been applied in published hazard maps; methodologies used in estimating surface fault displacement are still being developed. Therefore, this report provides a more in-depth and detailed discussion of methodologies used for deterministic and

How to Know whether a Dog is Dangerous: Myth, Superstition and its Influence on the Human-dog Relationship

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tanja Kovačič

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The relationship between humans and dogs is complex and ambivalent. The dog was the first animal that Homo sapiens domesticated. This means that the human-dog relationship has lasted longer than any other human-animal relationships. Despite all this, mythological, symbolic and folkloristic traditions often depict dogs in a negative light and as a dangerous and threatening force from the underworld. Due to the belief that seeing an unknown dog can lead to misfortune, accident or even death, people were often afraid of dogs. People had to invent certain rules that could help them determine which dog was dangerous and which was not. Those rules had to change over time based on the fact that human-dog relationship is culturally and historically defined. The author analyses stories from in the Glasovi (Voices collection to show that, in the last few centuries in the territory of modern Slovenia, black dogs where most feared by humans. In contrast, nowadays the most feared dogs are those of the Pit Bull and some other breeds. Nevertheless, the folk superstitions and prejudice toward black dogs is still present in modern Western societies. In the English language “black dog” symbolizes depression. And some are still reluctant to adopt large black dogs from the animal shelters.

Strong-Motion Data From the Parkfield Earthquake of September 28, 2004

Science.gov (United States)

Shakal, A. F.; Borcherdt, R. D.; Graizer, V.; Haddadi, H.; Huang, M.; Lin, K.; Stephens, C.

2004-12-01

Very complex ground motion with high spatial variability was recorded in the near field of the M6 Parkfield earthquake of 9/28/04 by a strong motion array. The array provided the highest density of recording stations in the near field of any earthquake recorded to date. A total of 56 stations were located within 20 km of the fault; 48 were within 10 km of the fault, more than for many other earthquakes combined. Most (45) of the stations were part of a specialized array of classic analog instruments installed by CGS in the early 1980s, and 11 were digital high resolution instruments installed by the USGS. The set of recordings obtained provide a wealth of information on near field ground motion. Processing and analysis of the strong-motion data, available at www.cisn-edc.org, is underway. The spatial variation of the ground motion, even over relatively short distances, is great. For example, a peak acceleration of 0.30 g was recorded in the town of Parkfield, but several stations, within about 2 km, that surround this station recorded acceleration levels well over 1 g. The strong shaking at these stations, near the termination end of the rupture, is consistent with directivity focusing, as the rupture propagated from the epicenter near Gold Hill to the northwest. However, some of the strongest shaking occurs well south of the rupture, at stations near Hwy 46 at the south end of the Cholame Valley, incompatible with directivity focusing from a simple rupture. An additional aspect is that several near-fault stations have very low shaking, despite being directly over the rupturing fault. This may provide a quantitative basis to understand observed cases of low-strength buildings immediately near a fault being only slightly damaged.

Fertility in Hill Korwas -- a primitive tribe of Madhya Pradesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Pandey, G D; Tiwary, R S

1996-12-01

This study examines fertility behavior among 604 eligible couples in Hill Korwa tribes in Madhya Pradesh state, India. Low fertility patterns are compared to those of neighboring Gonds and nontribals from rural Jabalpur. The Hill Korwa are a subtribe of the Korwa, who remained in the hills and dense forests. Over 60% live in three tehsils of Surguja district, including Ambikapur tehsil where the study was conducted. Data were obtained in March 1991. Eligible couples were those where both partners live together and the noncontracepting wife is under age 50 and nonmenopausal. Only 3% were literate. Female marriage age was about 15 years. The median age was 23.8 years. 92% lived below the poverty line. The average number of children ever born (CEB) per couple was 1.9, compared to 2.5 for the Gond and 2.9 for nontribal couples. The CEB in a reproductive lifetime was 2.9, compared to 5.3 for Gond women and 5.9 for nontribal women. Fecundity among Hill Korwa women was 66% lower at younger ages (16-17 years and 17-18 years), and the differences increased with an increase in age at marriage. Hill Korwas had a low female age at marriage, low literacy, low percentages engaged in agriculture, and higher percentages living above the poverty line.

Midwest nukes tumble, rock industry: Byron, Marble Hill, Zimmer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nogee, A.

1984-01-01

The nuclear industry is suffering from a lack of investor confidence because of cancelled projects and the unprecedented rejection of an operating license for Commonwealth Edison's Byron plant on grounds that the utility failed to meet quality assurance responsibilities. When plans to complete the Zimmer and Marble Hill nuclear plants were abandoned, Bechtel came forward with a financing plan that, while rejected for Zimmer and Marble Hill, could lead to future bailouts. Both Zimmer and Marble Hill plants could be partially converted to coal. The loss of investor confidence in nuclear plants is largely due to political pressures brought on by a combination of citizen intervenors, whistle blowers on construction sites and disagreements between participating utilities. A rise in stock prices followed the cancellation announcements and the lowered investment security ratings

Ionospheric earthquake precursors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bulachenko, A.L.; Oraevskij, V.N.; Pokhotelov, O.A.; Sorokin, V.N.; Strakhov, V.N.; Chmyrev, V.M.

1996-01-01

Results of experimental study on ionospheric earthquake precursors, program development on processes in the earthquake focus and physical mechanisms of formation of various type precursors are considered. Composition of experimental cosmic system for earthquake precursors monitoring is determined. 36 refs., 5 figs

Evaluation of earthquake vibration on aseismic design of nuclear power plant judging from recent earthquakes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dan, Kazuo

2006-01-01

The Regulatory Guide for Aseismic Design of Nuclear Reactor Facilities was revised on 19 th September, 2006. Six factors for evaluation of earthquake vibration are considered on the basis of the recent earthquakes. They are 1) evaluation of earthquake vibration by method using fault model, 2) investigation and approval of active fault, 3) direct hit earthquake, 4) assumption of the short active fault as the hypocentral fault, 5) locality of the earthquake and the earthquake vibration and 6) remaining risk. A guiding principle of revision required new evaluation method of earthquake vibration using fault model, and evaluation of probability of earthquake vibration. The remaining risk means the facilities and people get into danger when stronger earthquake than the design occurred, accordingly, the scattering has to be considered at evaluation of earthquake vibration. The earthquake belt of Hyogo-Nanbu earthquake and strong vibration pulse in 1995, relation between length of surface earthquake fault and hypocentral fault, and distribution of seismic intensity of off Kushiro in 1993 are shown. (S.Y.)

Comparison of two large earthquakes: the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake and the 2011 East Japan Earthquake.

Science.gov (United States)

Otani, Yuki; Ando, Takayuki; Atobe, Kaori; Haiden, Akina; Kao, Sheng-Yuan; Saito, Kohei; Shimanuki, Marie; Yoshimoto, Norifumi; Fukunaga, Koichi

2012-01-01

Between August 15th and 19th, 2011, eight 5th-year medical students from the Keio University School of Medicine had the opportunity to visit the Peking University School of Medicine and hold a discussion session titled "What is the most effective way to educate people for survival in an acute disaster situation (before the mental health care stage)?" During the session, we discussed the following six points: basic information regarding the Sichuan Earthquake and the East Japan Earthquake, differences in preparedness for earthquakes, government actions, acceptance of medical rescue teams, earthquake-induced secondary effects, and media restrictions. Although comparison of the two earthquakes was not simple, we concluded that three major points should be emphasized to facilitate the most effective course of disaster planning and action. First, all relevant agencies should formulate emergency plans and should supply information regarding the emergency to the general public and health professionals on a normal basis. Second, each citizen should be educated and trained in how to minimize the risks from earthquake-induced secondary effects. Finally, the central government should establish a single headquarters responsible for command, control, and coordination during a natural disaster emergency and should centralize all powers in this single authority. We hope this discussion may be of some use in future natural disasters in China, Japan, and worldwide.

Microhabitats of Merriam's turkeys in the Black Hills, South Dakota

Science.gov (United States)

Mark A. Rumble; Stanley H. Anderson

1996-01-01

Merriam’s Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo merriami) are associated with ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in the western United States, but are not native to the ponderosa pine forest of the Black Hills, South Dakota. The Black Hills population was established by transplanting birds from New Mexico and Colorado between 1948 and...

State of conservation of Santa Martha's hills, Colombia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lopez Salgado, Hector Jaime; Carbono Delahoz, Eduino

2006-01-01

The urban growth of Santa Marta and the occupation without planning of their surrounding hills, affect their natural conditions. The hills are part of the scenic beauty of the city and its conservation is indispensable to maintain the standard of life in her the vegetal cover corresponds to forests and scrubs of isomegathermic floor with xeromorphic characters, due to the low pluvial precipitation, this landscape characterizes the Colombian Caribbean coast in a narrow strip that extends from the south of the Guajira to the gulf of Morrosquillo. At the present time, only they are left surpluses in natural state, due to the floristic simplification of the vegetation, the introduction of invading species and modification of the landscape. The responsibility of the suitable handling of the urban space is imperative for the official, private sector and citizen institutions. The objective is to make an evaluation of the environmental conditions of hills of the city, in order to obtain basic elements, for the design of appropriate strategies of handling and its conservation. By means of the use of the GIS, with verification and aerial photo interpretation of field a multi-temporary study (1955-1993-2003) of the vegetal cover of the hills was elaborated that allowed to establish the happened changes. The execution of inventors allowed knowing the wealth and the structure floristic the vegetal cover of the area. The work was executed between May of the 2004 and May of the 2005

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.

Results of the Regional Earthquake Likelihood Models (RELM) test of earthquake forecasts in California.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ya-Ting; Turcotte, Donald L; Holliday, James R; Sachs, Michael K; Rundle, John B; Chen, Chien-Chih; Tiampo, Kristy F

2011-10-04

The Regional Earthquake Likelihood Models (RELM) test of earthquake forecasts in California was the first competitive evaluation of forecasts of future earthquake occurrence. Participants submitted expected probabilities of occurrence of M ≥ 4.95 earthquakes in 0.1° × 0.1° cells for the period 1 January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2010. Probabilities were submitted for 7,682 cells in California and adjacent regions. During this period, 31 M ≥ 4.95 earthquakes occurred in the test region. These earthquakes occurred in 22 test cells. This seismic activity was dominated by earthquakes associated with the M = 7.2, April 4, 2010, El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake in northern Mexico. This earthquake occurred in the test region, and 16 of the other 30 earthquakes in the test region could be associated with it. Nine complete forecasts were submitted by six participants. In this paper, we present the forecasts in a way that allows the reader to evaluate which forecast is the most "successful" in terms of the locations of future earthquakes. We conclude that the RELM test was a success and suggest ways in which the results can be used to improve future forecasts.

Mass, charge, and energy separation by selective acceleration with a traveling potential hill

Science.gov (United States)

Tung, L. Schwager; Barr, W. L.; Lowder, R. S.; Post, R. F.

1996-10-01

A traveling electric potential hill has been used to generate an ion beam with an energy distribution that is mass dependent from a monoenergetic ion beam of mixed masses. This effect can be utilized as a novel method for mass separation applied to identification or enrichment of ions (e.g., of elements, isotopes, or molecules). This theory for mass-selective acceleration is presented here and is shown to be confirmed by experiment and by a time-dependent particle-in-cell computer simulation. Results show that monoenergetic ions with the particular mass of choice are accelerated by controlling the hill potential and the hill velocity. The hill velocity is typically 20%-30% faster than the ions to be accelerated. The ability of the hill to pickup a particular mass uses the fact that small kinetic energy differences in the lab frame appear much larger in the moving hill frame. Ions will gain energy from the approaching hill if their relative energy in the moving hill frame is less than the peak potential of the hill. The final energy of these accelerated ions can be several times the source energy, which facilitates energy filtering for mass purification or identification. If the hill potential is chosen to accelerate multiple masses, the heaviest mass will have the greatest final energy. Hence, choosing the appropriate hill potential and collector retarding voltage will isolate ions with the lightest, heaviest, or intermediate mass. In the experimental device, called a Solitron, purified 20Ne and 22Ne are extracted from a ribbon beam of neon that is originally composed of 20Ne:22Ne in the natural ratio of 91:9. The isotopic content of the processed beam is determined by measuring the energy distribution of the detected current. These results agree with the theory. In addition to mass selectivity, our theory can also be applied to the filtration of an ion beam according to charge state or energy. Because of this variety of properties, the Solitron is envisioned to

Earthquakes, September-October 1986

Science.gov (United States)

Person, W.J.

1987-01-01

There was one great earthquake (8.0 and above) during this reporting period in the South Pacific in the Kermadec Islands. There were no major earthquakes (7.0-7.9) but earthquake-related deaths were reported in Greece and in El Salvador. There were no destrcutive earthquakes in the United States.

EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED DEFORMATION STRUCTURES AND RELATED TO EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Savaş TOPAL

2003-02-01

Full Text Available Earthquake-induced deformation structures which are called seismites may helpful to clasify the paleoseismic history of a location and to estimate the magnitudes of the potention earthquakes in the future. In this paper, seismites were investigated according to the types formed in deep and shallow lake sediments. Seismites are observed forms of sand dikes, introduced and fractured gravels and pillow structures in shallow lakes and pseudonodules, mushroom-like silts protruding laminites, mixed layers, disturbed varved lamination and loop bedding in deep lake sediments. Earthquake-induced deformation structures, by benefiting from previous studies, were ordered according to their formations and earthquake magnitudes. In this order, the lowest eartquake's record is loop bedding and the highest one is introduced and fractured gravels in lacustrine deposits.

Megathrust earthquakes in Central Chile: What is next after the Maule 2010 earthquake?

Science.gov (United States)

Madariaga, R.

2013-05-01

The 27 February 2010 Maule earthquake occurred in a well identified gap in the Chilean subduction zone. The event has now been studied in detail using both far-field, near field seismic and geodetic data, we will review this information gathered so far. The event broke a region that was much longer along strike than the gap left over from the 1835 Concepcion earthquake, sometimes called the Darwin earthquake because he was in the area when the earthquake occurred and made many observations. Recent studies of contemporary documents by Udias et al indicate that the area broken by the Maule earthquake in 2010 had previously broken by a similar earthquake in 1751, but several events in the magnitude 8 range occurred in the area principally in 1835 already mentioned and, more recently on 1 December 1928 to the North and on 21 May 1960 (1 1/2 days before the big Chilean earthquake of 1960). Currently the area of the 2010 earthquake and the region immediately to the North is undergoing a very large increase in seismicity with numerous clusters of seismicity that move along the plate interface. Examination of the seismicity of Chile of the 18th and 19th century show that the region immediately to the North of the 2010 earthquake broke in a very large megathrust event in July 1730. this is the largest known earthquake in central Chile. The region where this event occurred has broken in many occasions with M 8 range earthquakes in 1822, 1880, 1906, 1971 and 1985. Is it preparing for a new very large megathrust event? The 1906 earthquake of Mw 8.3 filled the central part of the gap but it has broken again on several occasions in 1971, 1973 and 1985. The main question is whether the 1906 earthquake relieved enough stresses from the 1730 rupture zone. Geodetic data shows that most of the region that broke in 1730 is currently almost fully locked from the northern end of the Maule earthquake at 34.5°S to 30°S, near the southern end of the of the Mw 8.5 Atacama earthquake of 11

Extreme value statistics and thermodynamics of earthquakes. Large earthquakes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lavenda, B. [Camerino Univ., Camerino, MC (Italy); Cipollone, E. [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Casaccia, S. Maria di Galeria, RM (Italy). National Centre for Research on Thermodynamics

2000-06-01

A compound Poisson process is used to derive a new shape parameter which can be used to discriminate between large earthquakes and aftershocks sequences. Sample exceedance distributions of large earthquakes are fitted to the Pareto tail and the actual distribution of the maximum to the Frechet distribution, while the sample distribution of aftershocks are fitted to a Beta distribution and the distribution of the minimum to the Weibull distribution for the smallest value. The transition between initial sample distributions and asymptotic extreme value distributions show that self-similar power laws are transformed into non scaling exponential distributions so that neither self-similarity nor the Gutenberg-Richter law can be considered universal. The energy-magnitude transformation converts the Frechet distribution into the Gumbel distribution, originally proposed by Epstein and Lomnitz, and not the Gompertz distribution as in the Lomnitz-Adler and Lomnitz generalization of the Gutenberg-Richter law. Numerical comparison is made with the Lomnitz-Adler and Lomnitz analysis using the same catalogue of Chinese earthquakes. An analogy is drawn between large earthquakes and high energy particle physics. A generalized equation of state is used to transform the Gamma density into the order-statistic Frechet distribution. Earthquake temperature and volume are determined as functions of the energy. Large insurance claims based on the Pareto distribution, which does not have a right endpoint, show why there cannot be a maximum earthquake energy.

The GIS and analysis of earthquake damage distribution of the 1303 Hongtong M=8 earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Meng-Tan; Jin, Xue-Shen; An, Wei-Ping; Lü, Xiao-Jian

2004-07-01

The geography information system of the 1303 Hongton M=8 earthquake has been established. Using the spatial analysis function of GIS, the spatial distribution characteristics of damage and isoseismal of the earthquake are studies. By comparing with the standard earthquake intensity attenuation relationship, the abnormal damage distribution of the earthquake is found, so the relationship of the abnormal distribution with tectonics, site condition and basin are analyzed. In this paper, the influence on the ground motion generated by earthquake source and the underground structures near source also are studied. The influence on seismic zonation, anti-earthquake design, earthquake prediction and earthquake emergency responding produced by the abnormal density distribution are discussed.

Near Fault Strong Ground Motion Records in the Kathmandu Valley during the 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Takai, N.; Shigefuji, M.; Rajaure, S.; Bijukchhen, S.; Ichiyanagi, M.; Dhital, M. R.; Sasatani, T.

2015-12-01

Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal and is located in the Kathmandu Valley, which is formed by soft lake sediments of Plio-Pleistocene origin. Large earthquakes in the past have caused significant damage as the seismic waves were amplified in the soft sediments. To understand the site effect of the valley structure, we installed continuous recording accelerometers in four different parts of the valley. Four stations were installed along a west-to-east profile of the valley at KTP (Kirtipur; hill top), TVU (Kirtipur; hill side), PTN (Patan) and THM (Thimi). On 25 April 2015, a large interplate earthquake Mw 7.8 occurred in the Himalayan Range of Nepal. The focal area estimated was about 200 km long and 150 km wide, with a large slip area under the Kathmandu Valley where our strong motion observation stations were installed. The strong ground motions were observed during this large damaging earthquake. The maximum horizontal peak ground acceleration at the rock site was 271 cm s-2, and the maximum horizontal peak ground velocity at the sediment sites reached 112 cm s-1. We compared these values with the empirical attenuation formula for strong ground motions. We found the peak accelerations were smaller and the peak velocities were approximately the same as the predicted values. The rock site KTP motions are less affected by site amplification and were analysed further. The horizontal components were rotated to the fault normal (N205E) and fault parallel (N115E) directions using the USGS fault model. The velocity waveforms at KTP showed about 5 s triangular pulses on the N205E and the up-down components; however the N115E component was not a triangular pulse but one cycle sinusoidal wave. The velocity waveforms at KTP were integrated to derive the displacement waveforms. The derived displacements at KTP are characterized by a monotonic step on the N205E normal and up-down components. The displacement waveforms of KTP show permanent displacements of 130 cm in the fault

Earthquakes, November-December 1977

Science.gov (United States)

Person, W.J.

1978-01-01

Two major earthquakes occurred in the last 2 months of the year. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck San Juan Province, Argentina, on November 23, causing fatalities and damage. The second major earthquake was a magnitude 7.0 in the Bonin Islands region, an unpopulated area. On December 19, Iran experienced a destructive earthquake, which killed over 500.

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

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

Archeological Investigations at Big Hill Lake, Southeastern Kansas, 1980.

Science.gov (United States)

1982-09-01

settled primarily along the Neosho river and Labette, Big Hill, and Pumpkin creeks. One of the first settlers in Osage township, in which Big Hill...slabs is not known at present. About 10 years later, in 1876, materials were reported- ly collected from an aboriginal site along Pumpkin creek...and length- ening its lifetime of use. As would therefore be expected, cracks are present between each of the paired holes on both of the two restored

Measurements of the near-surface flow over a hill

Science.gov (United States)

Vosper, S. B.; Mobbs, S. D.; Gardiner, B. A.

2002-10-01

The near-surface flow over a hill with moderate slope and height comparable with the boundary-layer depth is investigated through field measurements of the mean flow (at 2 m), surface pressure, and turbulent momentum flux divergence between 8 and 15 m. The measurements were made along an east-west transect across the hill Tighvein (height 458 m, approximate width 8 km) on the Isle of Arran, south-west Scotland, during two separate periods, each of around three-weeks duration. Radiosonde ascents are used to determine the variation of a Froude number, FL = U/NL, where U is the wind speed at the middle-layer height, hm, N is the mean Brunt-Väisälä frequency below this height and L is a hill length-scale. Measurements show that for moderately stratified flows (for which FL 0.25) a minimum in the hill-induced surface-pressure perturbation occurs across the summit and this is accompanied by a maximum in the near-surface wind speed. In the more strongly stratified case (FL 0.25) the pressure field is more asymmetric and the lee-slope flow is generally stronger than on the windward slope. Such a flow pattern is qualitatively consistent with that predicted by stratified linear boundary-layer and gravity-wave theories. The near-surface momentum budget is analysed by evaluating the dominant terms in a Bernoulli equation suitable for turbulent flow. Measurements during periods of westerly flow are used to evaluate the dominant terms, and the equation is shown to hold to a reasonable approximation on the upwind slope of the hill and also on the downwind slope, away from the summit. Immediately downwind of the summit, however, the Bernoulli equation does not hold. Possible reasons for this, such as non-separated sheltering and flow separation, are discussed.

Evidence for strong Holocene earthquake(s) in the Wabash Valley seismic zone

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obermeier, S.

1991-01-01

Many small and slightly damaging earthquakes have taken place in the region of the lower Wabash River Valley of Indiana and Illinois during the 200 years of historic record. Seismologists have long suspected the Wabash Valley seismic zone to be capable of producing earthquakes much stronger than the largest of record (m b 5.8). The seismic zone contains the poorly defined Wabash Valley fault zone and also appears to contain other vaguely defined faults at depths from which the strongest earthquakes presently originate. Faults near the surface are generally covered with thick alluvium in lowlands and a veneer of loess in uplands, which make direct observations of faults difficult. Partly because of this difficulty, a search for paleoliquefaction features was begun in 1990. Conclusions of the study are as follows: (1) an earthquake much stronger than any historic earthquake struck the lower Wabash Valley between 1,500 and 7,500 years ago; (2) the epicentral region of the prehistoric strong earthquake was the Wabash Valley seismic zone; (3) apparent sites have been located where 1811-12 earthquake accelerations can be bracketed

Novedades sobre el género Pilosella Hill.: (Asteraceae, Lactuceae) en España, II

OpenAIRE

Mateo Sanz, Gonzalo

2016-01-01

Se comunica la presencia de diversas especies nuevas del género Pilosella Hill. (Asteraceae, Lactuceae) en España. Novelties on the genus Pilosella Hill (Asteraceae, Lactuceae) in Spain, II. Several species of Pilosella Hill (Asteraceae, Lactuceae) found in Spain.

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.

George William Hill, the Great but Unknown 19th Century Celestial Mechanician

Science.gov (United States)

Corbin, Brenda G.

2012-01-01

George William Hill (1838-1914) has long been considered one of the most famous and talented celestial mechanicians of the past century and a half. However, many people have never heard of him and his work. Simon Newcomb said he "will easily rank as the greatest master of mathematical astronomy during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.” After receiving a B.A. at Rutgers in 1859, Hill began work in 1861 at the office of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac in Cambridge, MA. He moved to Washington with the group in 1882 which then became part of the U. S. Naval Observatory. Newcomb, beginning his work on planetary motion, assigned the theory of Jupiter and Saturn to him, calling it about the most difficult topic. Hill's work was published by the USNO in 1890 as A New Theory of Jupiter and Saturn. From 1898 to 1901, Hill lectured on the subject of celestial mechanics at Columbia University in a position created just for him. After 1892 and until his death, he lived at the family homestead in West Nyack, NY. He never married, was something of a recluse, and spent most of his time with his books and research. Hill was an amateur botanist and enjoyed exploring on long walks in the countryside. Many honors and awards came to him during his lifetime, both from the U.S. and abroad, including serving as president of the American Mathematical Society. All of Hill's mathematical and astronomical research was incorporated in The Collected Mathematical Works of George William Hill. This work, containing a preface in French by Poincare, was published in 4 large volumes by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1905.

Multi-scale habitat use of male ruffed grouse in the Black Hills National Forest

Science.gov (United States)

Cassandra L. Mehls; Kent C. Jensen; Mark A. Rumble; Michael C. Wimberly

2014-01-01

Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) are native upland game birds and a management indicator species (MIS) for aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Black Hills National Forest (Black Hills). Our objective was to assess resource selection of male ruffed grouse to identify the most appropriate scale to manage for aspen and ruffed grouse in the Black Hills. During spring 2007...

The relationship between earthquake exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder in 2013 Lushan earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yan; Lu, Yi

2018-01-01

The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between earthquake exposure and the incidence of PTSD. A stratification random sample survey was conducted to collect data in the Longmenshan thrust fault after Lushan earthquake three years. We used the Children's Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13) and the Earthquake Experience Scale. Subjects in this study included 3944 school student survivors in local eleven schools. The prevalence of probable PTSD is relatively higher, when the people was trapped in the earthquake, was injured in the earthquake or have relatives who died in the earthquake. It concluded that researchers need to pay more attention to the children and adolescents. The government should pay more attention to these people and provide more economic support.

Crowdsourced earthquake early warning

Science.gov (United States)

Minson, Sarah E.; Brooks, Benjamin A.; Glennie, Craig L.; Murray, Jessica R.; Langbein, John O.; Owen, Susan E.; Heaton, Thomas H.; Iannucci, Robert A.; Hauser, Darren L.

2015-01-01

Earthquake early warning (EEW) can reduce harm to people and infrastructure from earthquakes and tsunamis, but it has not been implemented in most high earthquake-risk regions because of prohibitive cost. Common consumer devices such as smartphones contain low-cost versions of the sensors used in EEW. Although less accurate than scientific-grade instruments, these sensors are globally ubiquitous. Through controlled tests of consumer devices, simulation of an Mw (moment magnitude) 7 earthquake on California’s Hayward fault, and real data from the Mw 9 Tohoku-oki earthquake, we demonstrate that EEW could be achieved via crowdsourcing.

Encyclopedia of earthquake engineering

CERN Document Server

Kougioumtzoglou, Ioannis; Patelli, Edoardo; Au, Siu-Kui

2015-01-01

The Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering is designed to be the authoritative and comprehensive reference covering all major aspects of the science of earthquake engineering, specifically focusing on the interaction between earthquakes and infrastructure. The encyclopedia comprises approximately 265 contributions. Since earthquake engineering deals with the interaction between earthquake disturbances and the built infrastructure, the emphasis is on basic design processes important to both non-specialists and engineers so that readers become suitably well-informed without needing to deal with the details of specialist understanding. The content of this encyclopedia provides technically inclined and informed readers about the ways in which earthquakes can affect our infrastructure and how engineers would go about designing against, mitigating and remediating these effects. The coverage ranges from buildings, foundations, underground construction, lifelines and bridges, roads, embankments and slopes. The encycl...

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

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.

Perception of earthquake risk in Taiwan: effects of gender and past earthquake experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Kung, Yi-Wen; Chen, Sue-Huei

2012-09-01

This study explored how individuals in Taiwan perceive the risk of earthquake and the relationship of past earthquake experience and gender to risk perception. Participants (n= 1,405), including earthquake survivors and those in the general population without prior direct earthquake exposure, were selected and interviewed through a computer-assisted telephone interviewing procedure using a random sampling and stratification method covering all 24 regions of Taiwan. A factor analysis of the interview data yielded a two-factor structure of risk perception in regard to earthquake. The first factor, "personal impact," encompassed perception of threat and fear related to earthquakes. The second factor, "controllability," encompassed a sense of efficacy of self-protection in regard to earthquakes. The findings indicated prior earthquake survivors and females reported higher scores on the personal impact factor than males and those with no prior direct earthquake experience, although there were no group differences on the controllability factor. The findings support that risk perception has multiple components, and suggest that past experience (survivor status) and gender (female) affect the perception of risk. Exploration of potential contributions of other demographic factors such as age, education, and marital status to personal impact, especially for females and survivors, is discussed. Future research on and intervention program with regard to risk perception are suggested accordingly. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

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)

DOE to accept bids for Elk Hills crude

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1992-01-01

This paper reports that the Department of Energy will accept bids in a reoffering sale covering 53,400 b/d of Elk Hills field oil but later may exercise an option to cut sales volumes and ship 20,000 b/d to Strategic Petroleum Reserve sites in Texas. DOE rejected all 19 bids submitted in an earlier semiannual sale of crude oil from the California naval petroleum reserve, saying they were too low. DOE the, The unique combination of federal and state government policies affecting the movement of oil into and out of the California market has contributed to a situation in which it apparently is very difficult for the government to receive a price for Elk Hills oil that satisfies the minimum price tests that govern the sale of Elk Hills oil. The 12 winning bids in the reoffering sale averaged $13.58/bbl, with bids for the higher quality Stevens zone crude averaging $13.92/bbl, about 67 cents/bbl higher than bids rejected last month. DOE the 20,000 b/d is all local pipelines can ship to the interstate All-American pipeline for transfer to Texas beginning in June

Rare Plants and Animals of the Texas Hill Country: Educator's Guide.

Science.gov (United States)

Texas State Dept. of Parks and Wildlife, Austin.

Texas Hill Country is a land of fresh water springs, stony hills, and steep canyons and home to many rare plants and animals. Six activities for grades 3-5 and six activities for grades 6-12 are contained in this guide. Elementary activity highlights include using "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss to stimulate critical thinking about…

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.

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.

Conditioning exercises in ski jumping: biomechanical relationship of squat jumps, imitation jumps, and hill jumps.

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenzetti, Silvio; Ammann, Fabian; Windmüller, Sabrina; Häberle, Ramona; Müller, Sören; Gross, Micah; Plüss, Michael; Plüss, Stefan; Schödler, Berni; Hübner, Klaus

2017-11-22

As hill jumps are very time-consuming, ski jumping athletes often perform various imitation jumps during training. The performed jumps should be similar to hill jumps, but a direct comparison of the kinetic and kinematic parameters has not been performed yet. Therefore, this study aimed to correlate 11 common parameters during hill jumps (Oberstdorf Germany), squat jumps (wearing indoor shoes), and various imitation jumps (rolling 4°, rolling flat, static; jumping equipment or indoor shoes) on a custom-built instrumented vehicle with a catch by the coach. During the performed jumps, force and video data of the take-off of 10 athletes were measured. The imitation and squat jumps were then ranked. The main difference between the hill jumps and the imitation and squat jumps is the higher maximal force loading rate during the hill jumps. Imitation jumps performed on a rolling platform, on flat ground were the most similar to hill jumps in terms of the force-time, and leg joint kinematic properties. Thus, non-hill jumps with a technical focus should be performed from a rolling platform with a flat inrun with normal indoor shoes or jumping equipment, and high normal force loading rates should be the main focus of imitation training.

Comparison of Speed-Up Over Hills Derived from Wind-Tunnel Experiments, Wind-Loading Standards, and Numerical Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Safaei Pirooz, Amir A.; Flay, Richard G. J.

2018-03-01

We evaluate the accuracy of the speed-up provided in several wind-loading standards by comparison with wind-tunnel measurements and numerical predictions, which are carried out at a nominal scale of 1:500 and full-scale, respectively. Airflow over two- and three-dimensional bell-shaped hills is numerically modelled using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes method with a pressure-driven atmospheric boundary layer and three different turbulence models. Investigated in detail are the effects of grid size on the speed-up and flow separation, as well as the resulting uncertainties in the numerical simulations. Good agreement is obtained between the numerical prediction of speed-up, as well as the wake region size and location, with that according to large-eddy simulations and the wind-tunnel results. The numerical results demonstrate the ability to predict the airflow over a hill with good accuracy with considerably less computational time than for large-eddy simulation. Numerical simulations for a three-dimensional hill show that the speed-up and the wake region decrease significantly when compared with the flow over two-dimensional hills due to the secondary flow around three-dimensional hills. Different hill slopes and shapes are simulated numerically to investigate the effect of hill profile on the speed-up. In comparison with more peaked hill crests, flat-topped hills have a lower speed-up at the crest up to heights of about half the hill height, for which none of the standards gives entirely satisfactory values of speed-up. Overall, the latest versions of the National Building Code of Canada and the Australian and New Zealand Standard give the best predictions of wind speed over isolated hills.

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)

The music of earthquakes and Earthquake Quartet #1

Science.gov (United States)

Michael, Andrew J.

2013-01-01

Earthquake Quartet #1, my composition for voice, trombone, cello, and seismograms, is the intersection of listening to earthquakes as a seismologist and performing music as a trombonist. Along the way, I realized there is a close relationship between what I do as a scientist and what I do as a musician. A musician controls the source of the sound and the path it travels through their instrument in order to make sound waves that we hear as music. An earthquake is the source of waves that travel along a path through the earth until reaching us as shaking. It is almost as if the earth is a musician and people, including seismologists, are metaphorically listening and trying to understand what the music means.

Distance-Based Functional Diversity Measures and Their Decomposition: A Framework Based on Hill Numbers

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Chun-Huo; Chao, Anne

2014-01-01

Hill numbers (or the “effective number of species”) are increasingly used to characterize species diversity of an assemblage. This work extends Hill numbers to incorporate species pairwise functional distances calculated from species traits. We derive a parametric class of functional Hill numbers, which quantify “the effective number of equally abundant and (functionally) equally distinct species” in an assemblage. We also propose a class of mean functional diversity (per species), which quantifies the effective sum of functional distances between a fixed species to all other species. The product of the functional Hill number and the mean functional diversity thus quantifies the (total) functional diversity, i.e., the effective total distance between species of the assemblage. The three measures (functional Hill numbers, mean functional diversity and total functional diversity) quantify different aspects of species trait space, and all are based on species abundance and species pairwise functional distances. When all species are equally distinct, our functional Hill numbers reduce to ordinary Hill numbers. When species abundances are not considered or species are equally abundant, our total functional diversity reduces to the sum of all pairwise distances between species of an assemblage. The functional Hill numbers and the mean functional diversity both satisfy a replication principle, implying the total functional diversity satisfies a quadratic replication principle. When there are multiple assemblages defined by the investigator, each of the three measures of the pooled assemblage (gamma) can be multiplicatively decomposed into alpha and beta components, and the two components are independent. The resulting beta component measures pure functional differentiation among assemblages and can be further transformed to obtain several classes of normalized functional similarity (or differentiation) measures, including N-assemblage functional generalizations of

Distance-based functional diversity measures and their decomposition: a framework based on Hill numbers.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chun-Huo Chiu

Full Text Available Hill numbers (or the "effective number of species" are increasingly used to characterize species diversity of an assemblage. This work extends Hill numbers to incorporate species pairwise functional distances calculated from species traits. We derive a parametric class of functional Hill numbers, which quantify "the effective number of equally abundant and (functionally equally distinct species" in an assemblage. We also propose a class of mean functional diversity (per species, which quantifies the effective sum of functional distances between a fixed species to all other species. The product of the functional Hill number and the mean functional diversity thus quantifies the (total functional diversity, i.e., the effective total distance between species of the assemblage. The three measures (functional Hill numbers, mean functional diversity and total functional diversity quantify different aspects of species trait space, and all are based on species abundance and species pairwise functional distances. When all species are equally distinct, our functional Hill numbers reduce to ordinary Hill numbers. When species abundances are not considered or species are equally abundant, our total functional diversity reduces to the sum of all pairwise distances between species of an assemblage. The functional Hill numbers and the mean functional diversity both satisfy a replication principle, implying the total functional diversity satisfies a quadratic replication principle. When there are multiple assemblages defined by the investigator, each of the three measures of the pooled assemblage (gamma can be multiplicatively decomposed into alpha and beta components, and the two components are independent. The resulting beta component measures pure functional differentiation among assemblages and can be further transformed to obtain several classes of normalized functional similarity (or differentiation measures, including N-assemblage functional

The Hill's three-body problem: a new deduction of motion equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuente Marcos, C. de la.

1995-01-01

Although the Hill's problem has been considered traditionally as a particular case of the restricted problem, it is not but rather a different problem with the same degree of generality. In this paper it is presented a new derivation of the motion equations obtained originally by Hill in 1878 as well as a brief discussion about its possible applications. (Author) 13 refs

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.

Effects of mineralogy on sorption of strontium and cesium onto Calico Hills Tuff

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyer, R.E.; Arnold, W.D.; Case, F.I.; O'Kelley, G.D.; Land, J.F.

1990-04-01

The sorption properties of tuff formations at the proposed site for the high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, have been extensively studied. Sorption and desorption measurements were made of strontium and cesium onto clinoptilolite and Calico Hills Tuff. The object was to see whether there was a correlation between sorption of strontium and cesium onto Calico Hills Tuff and the sorption of strontium and cesium onto clinoptilolite based on the content of clinoptilolite in the Calico Hills Tuff. 13 refs., 10 figs., 6 tabs

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

Historical earthquake research in Austria

Science.gov (United States)

Hammerl, Christa

2017-12-01

Austria has a moderate seismicity, and on average the population feels 40 earthquakes per year or approximately three earthquakes per month. A severe earthquake with light building damage is expected roughly every 2 to 3 years in Austria. Severe damage to buildings ( I 0 > 8° EMS) occurs significantly less frequently, the average period of recurrence is about 75 years. For this reason the historical earthquake research has been of special importance in Austria. The interest in historical earthquakes in the past in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is outlined, beginning with an initiative of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the development of historical earthquake research as an independent research field after the 1978 "Zwentendorf plebiscite" on whether the nuclear power plant will start up. The applied methods are introduced briefly along with the most important studies and last but not least as an example of a recently carried out case study, one of the strongest past earthquakes in Austria, the earthquake of 17 July 1670, is presented. The research into historical earthquakes in Austria concentrates on seismic events of the pre-instrumental period. The investigations are not only of historical interest, but also contribute to the completeness and correctness of the Austrian earthquake catalogue, which is the basis for seismic hazard analysis and as such benefits the public, communities, civil engineers, architects, civil protection, and many others.

Where was the 1898 Mare Island Earthquake? Insights from the 2014 South Napa Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Hough, S. E.

2014-12-01

The 2014 South Napa earthquake provides an opportunity to reconsider the Mare Island earthquake of 31 March 1898, which caused severe damage to buildings at a Navy yard on the island. Revising archival accounts of the 1898 earthquake, I estimate a lower intensity magnitude, 5.8, than the value in the current Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF) catalog (6.4). However, I note that intensity magnitude can differ from Mw by upwards of half a unit depending on stress drop, which for a historical earthquake is unknowable. In the aftermath of the 2014 earthquake, there has been speculation that apparently severe effects on Mare Island in 1898 were due to the vulnerability of local structures. No surface rupture has ever been identified from the 1898 event, which is commonly associated with the Hayward-Rodgers Creek fault system, some 10 km west of Mare Island (e.g., Parsons et al., 2003). Reconsideration of detailed archival accounts of the 1898 earthquake, together with a comparison of the intensity distributions for the two earthquakes, points to genuinely severe, likely near-field ground motions on Mare Island. The 2014 earthquake did cause significant damage to older brick buildings on Mare Island, but the level of damage does not match the severity of documented damage in 1898. The high intensity files for the two earthquakes are more over spatially shifted, with the centroid of the 2014 distribution near the town of Napa and that of the 1898 distribution near Mare Island, east of the Hayward-Rodgers Creek system. I conclude that the 1898 Mare Island earthquake was centered on or near Mare Island, possibly involving rupture of one or both strands of the Franklin fault, a low-slip-rate fault sub-parallel to the Rodgers Creek fault to the west and the West Napa fault to the east. I estimate Mw5.8 assuming an average stress drop; data are also consistent with Mw6.4 if stress drop was a factor of ≈3 lower than average for California earthquakes. I

Analysis of automobile’s automatic control systems for the hill climbing start

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valeriy I. Klimenko

2014-12-01

Full Text Available To improve road safety while driving on the rise, facilitating the driver’s activity the automobile industry leaders are introducing automatic hill-hold control systems into the car design. This study purpose relates to the existing automatic start control systems’ design analysis. Analyzed are the existing design developments of automatic hill start assist control systems applied for driving at the start of the climbing. The effected research allows to select the scheme for further development of start driving automatic control systems. Further improvement of driving control systems and primarily the driver assistance hill-hold control systems is necessary to increase both the driving comfort and the traffic safety.

Earthquakes, May-June 1991

Science.gov (United States)

Person, W.J.

1992-01-01

One major earthquake occurred during this reporting period. This was a magntidue 7.1 in Indonesia (Minahassa Peninsula) on June 20. Earthquake-related deaths were reported in the Western Caucasus (Georgia, USSR) on May 3 and June 15. One earthquake-related death was also reported El Salvador on June 21. 

Modeling, Forecasting and Mitigating Extreme Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Ismail-Zadeh, A.; Le Mouel, J.; Soloviev, A.

2012-12-01

Recent earthquake disasters highlighted the importance of multi- and trans-disciplinary studies of earthquake risk. A major component of earthquake disaster risk analysis is hazards research, which should cover not only a traditional assessment of ground shaking, but also studies of geodetic, paleoseismic, geomagnetic, hydrological, deep drilling and other geophysical and geological observations together with comprehensive modeling of earthquakes and forecasting extreme events. Extreme earthquakes (large magnitude and rare events) are manifestations of complex behavior of the lithosphere structured as a hierarchical system of blocks of different sizes. Understanding of physics and dynamics of the extreme events comes from observations, measurements and modeling. A quantitative approach to simulate earthquakes in models of fault dynamics will be presented. The models reproduce basic features of the observed seismicity (e.g., the frequency-magnitude relationship, clustering of earthquakes, occurrence of extreme seismic events). They provide a link between geodynamic processes and seismicity, allow studying extreme events, influence of fault network properties on seismic patterns and seismic cycles, and assist, in a broader sense, in earthquake forecast modeling. Some aspects of predictability of large earthquakes (how well can large earthquakes be predicted today?) will be also discussed along with possibilities in mitigation of earthquake disasters (e.g., on 'inverse' forensic investigations of earthquake disasters).

The Kapsiki of the Mandara Hills

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beek, van W.E.A.

1987-01-01

The Kapsiki of Cameroon and the Higi of Nigeria are two tribes from the Mandara hills area of central and western Africa. Though they form one coherent group of villages, they are usually considered as two separate ethnic units. The author normally uses the term Kapsiki for both. Based on fieldwork

77 FR 2128 - Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company-Acquisition Exemption-Laurel Hill Development Corporation

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-13

... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Surface Transportation Board [Docket No. FD 35584] Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company--Acquisition Exemption-- Laurel Hill Development Corporation Southwest... 49 CFR 1150.41 to acquire a number of rail lines now owned by Laurel Hill Development Corporation...

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

Investigation of periodic systems by means of the generalized Hill method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baitin, A.V.; Ivanov, A.A.

1994-01-01

We propose the new method of investigation of infinite periodic determination which is a generalized Hill method. This method has been used for finding of the characteristic value for the Hill equation. finding the band structure of the one-dimensional periodic and obtaining of the dispersion equation for the electromagnetic wave propagation in the waveguide by plasma arbitrary periodic density modulation by plasma arbitrary periodic density modulation

77 FR 33560 - Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company-Acquisition Exemption-Laurel Hill Development Corporation

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-06

... Pennsylvania Railroad Company--Acquisition Exemption-- Laurel Hill Development Corporation Southwest... 49 CFR 1150.41 to acquire a 0.66-mile line of railroad owned by Laurel Hill Development Corporation... rail line. Most recently, in Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company--Acquisition Exemption--Laurel...

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

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

Extreme value distribution of earthquake magnitude

Science.gov (United States)

Zi, Jun Gan; Tung, C. C.

1983-07-01

Probability distribution of maximum earthquake magnitude is first derived for an unspecified probability distribution of earthquake magnitude. A model for energy release of large earthquakes, similar to that of Adler-Lomnitz and Lomnitz, is introduced from which the probability distribution of earthquake magnitude is obtained. An extensive set of world data for shallow earthquakes, covering the period from 1904 to 1980, is used to determine the parameters of the probability distribution of maximum earthquake magnitude. Because of the special form of probability distribution of earthquake magnitude, a simple iterative scheme is devised to facilitate the estimation of these parameters by the method of least-squares. The agreement between the empirical and derived probability distributions of maximum earthquake magnitude is excellent.

Evidence to the Marley Hill Public Inquiry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wilson, G.K. (Council for the Protection of Rural England (UK). Durham and Teesdale Branch)

1989-11-01

George Kenneth Wilson, a retired power station enginer, and holder of such offices as Vice-Chairman of the CPRE Durham and Teesdale Branch, Secretary of the Derwent Valley Protection Society and an officer of the Opencast Mining Intelligence Group, presents reasons for dismissing the appeal for opencast mining at the Marley Hill site in the NE of England saying that the Mineral Planning Guidance Note, MPG3 seemed to be repeating mistakes inherent in the previous 'Plan for coal'. He considers that the application cannot be justified on the grounds of demand or forecast market trends. The type of coal is unsuitable for local power station boilers. The working of the site would destroy a large area of pleasant countryside. The standard of restoration of the 32 sites surrounding Marley Hill is in his opinion very poor.

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

Earthquakes: hydrogeochemical precursors

Science.gov (United States)

Ingebritsen, Steven E.; Manga, Michael

2014-01-01

Earthquake prediction is a long-sought goal. Changes in groundwater chemistry before earthquakes in Iceland highlight a potential hydrogeochemical precursor, but such signals must be evaluated in the context of long-term, multiparametric data sets.

Children's Ideas about Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Simsek, Canan Lacin

2007-01-01

Earthquake, a natural disaster, is among the fundamental problems of many countries. If people know how to protect themselves from earthquake and arrange their life styles in compliance with this, damage they will suffer will reduce to that extent. In particular, a good training regarding earthquake to be received in primary schools is considered…

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

Do Earthquakes Shake Stock Markets?

Science.gov (United States)

Ferreira, Susana; Karali, Berna

2015-01-01

This paper examines how major earthquakes affected the returns and volatility of aggregate stock market indices in thirty-five financial markets over the last twenty years. Results show that global financial markets are resilient to shocks caused by earthquakes even if these are domestic. Our analysis reveals that, in a few instances, some macroeconomic variables and earthquake characteristics (gross domestic product per capita, trade openness, bilateral trade flows, earthquake magnitude, a tsunami indicator, distance to the epicenter, and number of fatalities) mediate the impact of earthquakes on stock market returns, resulting in a zero net effect. However, the influence of these variables is market-specific, indicating no systematic pattern across global capital markets. Results also demonstrate that stock market volatility is unaffected by earthquakes, except for Japan.

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.

Sedimentary Signatures of Submarine Earthquakes: Deciphering the Extent of Sediment Remobilization from the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami and 2010 Haiti Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

McHugh, C. M.; Seeber, L.; Moernaut, J.; Strasser, M.; Kanamatsu, T.; Ikehara, K.; Bopp, R.; Mustaque, S.; Usami, K.; Schwestermann, T.; Kioka, A.; Moore, L. M.

2017-12-01

The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Mw9.3 and the 2011 Tohoku (Japan) Mw9.0 earthquakes and tsunamis were huge geological events with major societal consequences. Both were along subduction boundaries and ruptured portions of these boundaries that had been deemed incapable of such events. Submarine strike-slip earthquakes, such as the 2010 Mw7.0 in Haiti, are smaller but may be closer to population centers and can be similarly catastrophic. Both classes of earthquakes remobilize sediment and leave distinct signatures in the geologic record by a wide range of processes that depends on both environment and earthquake characteristics. Understanding them has the potential of greatly expanding the record of past earthquakes, which is critical for geohazard analysis. Recent events offer precious ground truth about the earthquakes and short-lived radioisotopes offer invaluable tools to identify sediments they remobilized. In the 2011 Mw9 Japan earthquake they document the spatial extent of remobilized sediment from water depths of 626m in the forearc slope to trench depths of 8000m. Subbottom profiles, multibeam bathymetry and 40 piston cores collected by the R/V Natsushima and R/V Sonne expeditions to the Japan Trench document multiple turbidites and high-density flows. Core tops enriched in xs210Pb,137Cs and 134Cs reveal sediment deposited by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The thickest deposits (2m) were documented on a mid-slope terrace and trench (4000-8000m). Sediment was deposited on some terraces (600-3000m), but shed from the steep forearc slope (3000-4000m). The 2010 Haiti mainshock ruptured along the southern flank of Canal du Sud and triggered multiple nearshore sediment failures, generated turbidity currents and stirred fine sediment into suspension throughout this basin. A tsunami was modeled to stem from both sediment failures and tectonics. Remobilized sediment was tracked with short-lived radioisotopes from the nearshore, slope, in fault basins including the

Analysis of pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies before the global M = 7.0+ earthquakes in 2010

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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.

Hill functions for stochastic gene regulatory networks from master equations with split nodes and time-scale separation

Science.gov (United States)

Lipan, Ovidiu; Ferwerda, Cameron

2018-02-01

The deterministic Hill function depends only on the average values of molecule numbers. To account for the fluctuations in the molecule numbers, the argument of the Hill function needs to contain the means, the standard deviations, and the correlations. Here we present a method that allows for stochastic Hill functions to be constructed from the dynamical evolution of stochastic biocircuits with specific topologies. These stochastic Hill functions are presented in a closed analytical form so that they can be easily incorporated in models for large genetic regulatory networks. Using a repressive biocircuit as an example, we show by Monte Carlo simulations that the traditional deterministic Hill function inaccurately predicts time of repression by an order of two magnitudes. However, the stochastic Hill function was able to capture the fluctuations and thus accurately predicted the time of repression.

Penerapan Metode Hill Climbing Pada Sistem Informasi Geografis Untuk Mencari Lintasan Terpendek

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Eka Vickraien Dangkua

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Heuristic search methods is one of the methods commonly in use in finding the shortest path, one of which, namely the methods Hill Climbing process where testing is done using heuristic functions. Problems generally encountered is the shortest path search to solve the problem of distance can be changed into a graph structure, where the point of declaring the city and the State line that connects the two cities. From the logic so that it can locate destinations and save on travel costs. The hallmarks of this algorithm are all possible solutions will have then checked one by one from the left side, so it will be obtained solutions with optimal results. On a Hill Climbing method according to case using geographic information systems as a tool in making a decision, by way of collect, examine, and analyze information related to digital map. with a combination of Hill Climbing method and geographic information systems can result in an application that is certainly feasible for use in the search path problems.   Keywords: Hill Climbin method; digital map; Geographic Information Systems

The 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake and the Rise and Fall of Earthquake Prediction in China

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Q.; Wang, K.

2009-12-01

Regardless of the future potential of earthquake prediction, it is presently impractical to rely on it to mitigate earthquake disasters. The practical approach is to strengthen the resilience of our built environment to earthquakes based on hazard assessment. But this was not common understanding in China when the M 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake struck the Sichuan Province on 12 May 2008, claiming over 80,000 lives. In China, earthquake prediction is a government-sanctioned and law-regulated measure of disaster prevention. A sudden boom of the earthquake prediction program in 1966-1976 coincided with a succession of nine M > 7 damaging earthquakes in the densely populated region of the country and the political chaos of the Cultural Revolution. It climaxed with the prediction of the 1975 Haicheng earthquake, which was due mainly to an unusually pronounced foreshock sequence and the extraordinary readiness of some local officials to issue imminent warning and evacuation order. The Haicheng prediction was a success in practice and yielded useful lessons, but the experience cannot be applied to most other earthquakes and cultural environments. Since the disastrous Tangshan earthquake in 1976 that killed over 240,000 people, there have been two opposite trends in China: decreasing confidence in prediction and increasing emphasis on regulating construction design for earthquake resilience. In 1976, most of the seismic intensity XI areas of Tangshan were literally razed to the ground, but in 2008, many buildings in the intensity XI areas of Wenchuan did not collapse. Prediction did not save life in either of these events; the difference was made by construction standards. For regular buildings, there was no seismic design in Tangshan to resist any earthquake shaking in 1976, but limited seismic design was required for the Wenchuan area in 2008. Although the construction standards were later recognized to be too low, those buildings that met the standards suffered much less

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

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.

Water quality impacts from mining in the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rahn, P.H.; Davis, A.D.; Webb, C.J.; Nichols, A.D.

1996-01-01

The focus of this research was to determine if abandoned mines constitute a major environmental hazard in the Black Hills. Many abandoned gold mines in the Black Hills contribute acid and heavy metals to streams. In some areas of sulfide mineralization local impacts are severe, but in most areas the impacts are small because most ore deposits consist of small quartz veins with few sulfides. Pegmatite mines appear to have negligible effects on water due to the insoluble nature of pegmatite minerals. Uranium mines in the southern Black Hills contribute some radioactivity to surface water, but he impact is limited because of the dry climate and lack of runoff in that area. 26 refs

Extreme value statistics and thermodynamics of earthquakes: large earthquakes

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B. H. Lavenda

2000-06-01

Full Text Available A compound Poisson process is used to derive a new shape parameter which can be used to discriminate between large earthquakes and aftershock sequences. Sample exceedance distributions of large earthquakes are fitted to the Pareto tail and the actual distribution of the maximum to the Fréchet distribution, while the sample distribution of aftershocks are fitted to a Beta distribution and the distribution of the minimum to the Weibull distribution for the smallest value. The transition between initial sample distributions and asymptotic extreme value distributions shows that self-similar power laws are transformed into nonscaling exponential distributions so that neither self-similarity nor the Gutenberg-Richter law can be considered universal. The energy-magnitude transformation converts the Fréchet distribution into the Gumbel distribution, originally proposed by Epstein and Lomnitz, and not the Gompertz distribution as in the Lomnitz-Adler and Lomnitz generalization of the Gutenberg-Richter law. Numerical comparison is made with the Lomnitz-Adler and Lomnitz analysis using the same Catalogue of Chinese Earthquakes. An analogy is drawn between large earthquakes and high energy particle physics. A generalized equation of state is used to transform the Gamma density into the order-statistic Fréchet distribution. Earthquaketemperature and volume are determined as functions of the energy. Large insurance claims based on the Pareto distribution, which does not have a right endpoint, show why there cannot be a maximum earthquake energy.

Sharing the Gift of Jazz: An Interview with Willie L. Hill Jr.

Science.gov (United States)

Howe, Brad

2011-01-01

This article presents an interview with Willie L. Hill Jr., founder and director of the Society for Jazz Education. Currently a professor of music education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the director of the UMass Fine Arts Center, Hill has served as director of education for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He is a past…

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.)

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

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

Mammals of Kalimpong Hills, Darjeeling District, West Bengal, India

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J.K. Mallick

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Neora Valley National Park (NVNP in the Kalimpong Hills, Darjeeling District, having a wide range of altitudinal variations (183-3,200 m and climatic conditions and forming an ecological trijunction with Sikkim and Bhutan, is the last virgin wilderness in West Bengal. It is a global hotspot for the unique ecosystem, where tropical, sub-tropical, temperate and sub-temperate forests represent a wealth of biodiversity including many threatened and rare mammals. It is the prime habitat of Ailurus fulgens (estimated population 28-32, Neofelis nebulosa (population unassessed, Ursus thibetanus (18, Bos gaurus (81, Hemitragus jemlahicus (32, Naemorhedus goral (73, Capricornis sumatraensis (89, Rusa unicolor (286, Muntiacus vaginalis (590 and Sus scrofa (615. Discovery of Panthera tigris (20 in 1998 prompted the forest department to include NVNP as a sensitive wildlife zone. Many authors recorded the mammalian diversity in Darjeeling District since the mid-nineteenth century, but most of them referred to the Darjeeling Hills. The documentations on Kalimpong Hills are scarce because of the dense canopy, thick undergrowth and inaccessible terrain, particularly in the pristine forests of Neora Valley. Consequently, a comprehensive compendium of the mammals in this region was not prepared. A study was undertaken in 2008-2009 with a view to bridging this knowledge-gap and presenting an updated account of the mammalian species in this new short-listed World Heritage Site and surrounding forests of the Kalimpong Hills based on literature review, questionnaire survey, direct sighting and indirect evidences. During June-October 1916, N.A. Baptista recorded 29 mammalian species (22 genera out of 563 specimens collected, from the region. The present study registered 99 species (68 genera after 94 years.

Micro-topography showing the landslide-origin of the Marumori hill, Matsukawa geothermal field Iwate Prefecture, Japan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hashimoto, Tomomasa; Ikeda, Kazuo; Sumi, Seiai

1988-07-27

The Marumori Hill in the Matsukawa geothermal field has been previously considered to be a central cone or a lava dome in a caldera. Airphotogeological study, topographical surveying, and trenching are carried out in order to clarify the origin of the hill. Fifty six topographic linearments trending NE-SW direction distributed parallelly were detected on the top area and the northern flank of the hill. This linearment swarm is composed of the alternated small ranges and valleys with asymmetric profiles similar to cuesta topography. These topographic features are considered to be formed under the tensional stress field trending NW-SE direction on the surface of a landslide block. The hill is inferred to be not a lava dome but a landslide block which slide down from the steep scarp north and west of the hill. The age of the landslide is dated back to be older than 2400 years B.P. according to 14C age of the humic strata covering the hill. (7 figs, 1 tab, 14 refs)

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.

Stress triggering of the Lushan M7. 0 earthquake by the Wenchuan Ms8. 0 earthquake

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Wu Jianchao

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The Wenchuan Ms8. 0 earthquake and the Lushan M7. 0 earthquake occurred in the north and south segments of the Longmenshan nappe tectonic belt, respectively. Based on the focal mechanism and finite fault model of the Wenchuan Ms8. 0 earthquake, we calculated the coulomb failure stress change. The inverted coulomb stress changes based on the Nishimura and Chenji models both show that the Lushan M7. 0 earthquake occurred in the increased area of coulomb failure stress induced by the Wenchuan Ms8. 0 earthquake. The coulomb failure stress increased by approximately 0. 135 – 0. 152 bar in the source of the Lushan M7. 0 earthquake, which is far more than the stress triggering threshold. Therefore, the Lushan M7. 0 earthquake was most likely triggered by the coulomb failure stress change.

Earthquake engineering for nuclear facilities

CERN Document Server

Kuno, Michiya

2017-01-01

This book is a comprehensive compilation of earthquake- and tsunami-related technologies and knowledge for the design and construction of nuclear facilities. As such, it covers a wide range of fields including civil engineering, architecture, geotechnical engineering, mechanical engineering, and nuclear engineering, for the development of new technologies providing greater resistance against earthquakes and tsunamis. It is crucial both for students of nuclear energy courses and for young engineers in nuclear power generation industries to understand the basics and principles of earthquake- and tsunami-resistant design of nuclear facilities. In Part I, "Seismic Design of Nuclear Power Plants", the design of nuclear power plants to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis is explained, focusing on buildings, equipment's, and civil engineering structures. In Part II, "Basics of Earthquake Engineering", fundamental knowledge of earthquakes and tsunamis as well as the dynamic response of structures and foundation ground...

"Beverly Hills 90210" : kes mida teeb / Tiina Lepiste

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Lepiste, Tiina

2003-01-01

Aaron Spellingu produtseeritud ja 2000. aastal lõpetatud menuseriaalis "Beverly Hills 90210" osalenud näitlejate edaspidisest elust seoses plaaniga teha täispikk mängufilm "10 Year High School Reunion"

Sensing the earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Bichisao, Marta; Stallone, Angela

2017-04-01

Making science visual plays a crucial role in the process of building knowledge. In this view, art can considerably facilitate the representation of the scientific content, by offering a different perspective on how a specific problem could be approached. Here we explore the possibility of presenting the earthquake process through visual dance. From a choreographer's point of view, the focus is always on the dynamic relationships between moving objects. The observed spatial patterns (coincidences, repetitions, double and rhythmic configurations) suggest how objects organize themselves in the environment and what are the principles underlying that organization. The identified set of rules is then implemented as a basis for the creation of a complex rhythmic and visual dance system. Recently, scientists have turned seismic waves into sound and animations, introducing the possibility of "feeling" the earthquakes. We try to implement these results into a choreographic model with the aim to convert earthquake sound to a visual dance system, which could return a transmedia representation of the earthquake process. In particular, we focus on a possible method to translate and transfer the metric language of seismic sound and animations into body language. The objective is to involve the audience into a multisensory exploration of the earthquake phenomenon, through the stimulation of the hearing, eyesight and perception of the movements (neuromotor system). In essence, the main goal of this work is to develop a method for a simultaneous visual and auditory representation of a seismic event by means of a structured choreographic model. This artistic representation could provide an original entryway into the physics of earthquakes.

Thoracic Injuries in earthquake-related versus non-earthquake-related trauma patients: differentiation via Multi-detector Computed Tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Zhi-hui; Yang, Zhi-gang; Chen, Tian-wu; Chu, Zhi-gang; Deng, Wen; Shao, Heng

2011-01-01

PURPOSE: Massive earthquakes are harmful to humankind. This study of a historical cohort aimed to investigate the difference between earthquake-related crush thoracic traumas and thoracic traumas unrelated to earthquakes using a multi-detector Computed Tomography (CT). METHODS: We retrospectively compared an earthquake-exposed cohort of 215 thoracic trauma crush victims of the Sichuan earthquake to a cohort of 215 non-earthquake-related thoracic trauma patients, focusing on the lesions and coexisting injuries to the thoracic cage and the pulmonary parenchyma and pleura using a multi-detector CT. RESULTS: The incidence of rib fracture was elevated in the earthquake-exposed cohort (143 vs. 66 patients in the non-earthquake-exposed cohort, Risk Ratio (RR) = 2.2; pchest (45/143 vs. 11/66 patients, RR = 1.9; ptraumas resulting from the earthquake were life threatening with a high incidence of bony thoracic fractures. The ribs were frequently involved in bilateral and severe types of fractures, which were accompanied by non-rib fractures, pulmonary parenchymal and pleural injuries. PMID:21789386

Consideration for standard earthquake vibration (1). The Niigataken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake in 2007

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishibashi, Katsuhiko

2007-01-01

Outline of new guideline of quakeproof design standard of nuclear power plant and the standard earthquake vibration are explained. The improvement points of new guideline are discussed on the basis of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant incidents. The fundamental limits of new guideline are pointed. Placement of the quakeproof design standard of nuclear power plant, JEAG4601 of Japan Electric Association, new guideline, standard earthquake vibration of new guideline, the Niigataken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake in 2007 and damage of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant are discussed. The safety criteria of safety review system, organization, standard and guideline should be improved on the basis of this earthquake and nuclear plant accident. The general knowledge, 'a nuclear power plant is not constructed in the area expected large earthquake', has to be realized. Preconditions of all nuclear power plants should not cause damage to anything. (S.Y.)

Earthquake Emergency Education in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Science.gov (United States)

Mohadjer, Solmaz; Bendick, Rebecca; Halvorson, Sarah J.; Saydullaev, Umed; Hojiboev, Orifjon; Stickler, Christine; Adam, Zachary R.

2010-01-01

We developed a middle school earthquake science and hazards curriculum to promote earthquake awareness to students in the Central Asian country of Tajikistan. These materials include pre- and post-assessment activities, six science activities describing physical processes related to earthquakes, five activities on earthquake hazards and mitigation…

Intensity earthquake scenario (scenario event - a damaging earthquake with higher probability of occurrence) for the city of Sofia

Science.gov (United States)

Aleksandrova, Irena; Simeonova, Stela; Solakov, Dimcho; Popova, Maria

2014-05-01

Among the many kinds of natural and man-made disasters, earthquakes dominate with regard to their social and economical impact on the urban environment. Global seismic risk to earthquakes are increasing steadily as urbanization and development occupy more areas that a prone to effects of strong earthquakes. Additionally, the uncontrolled growth of mega cities in highly seismic areas around the world is often associated with the construction of seismically unsafe buildings and infrastructures, and undertaken with an insufficient knowledge of the regional seismicity peculiarities and seismic hazard. The assessment of seismic hazard and generation of earthquake scenarios is the first link in the prevention chain and the first step in the evaluation of the seismic risk. The earthquake scenarios are intended as a basic input for developing detailed earthquake damage scenarios for the cities and can be used in earthquake-safe town and infrastructure planning. The city of Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. It is situated in the centre of the Sofia area that is the most populated (the population is of more than 1.2 mil. inhabitants), industrial and cultural region of Bulgaria that faces considerable earthquake risk. The available historical documents prove the occurrence of destructive earthquakes during the 15th-18th centuries in the Sofia zone. In 19th century the city of Sofia has experienced two strong earthquakes: the 1818 earthquake with epicentral intensity I0=8-9 MSK and the 1858 earthquake with I0=9-10 MSK. During the 20th century the strongest event occurred in the vicinity of the city of Sofia is the 1917 earthquake with MS=5.3 (I0=7-8 MSK). Almost a century later (95 years) an earthquake of moment magnitude 5.6 (I0=7-8 MSK) hit the city of Sofia, on May 22nd, 2012. In the present study as a deterministic scenario event is considered a damaging earthquake with higher probability of occurrence that could affect the city with intensity less than or equal to VIII

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.

Earthquake Damage Assessment Using Objective Image Segmentation: A Case Study of 2010 Haiti Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Oommen, Thomas; Rebbapragada, Umaa; Cerminaro, Daniel

2012-01-01

In this study, we perform a case study on imagery from the Haiti earthquake that evaluates a novel object-based approach for characterizing earthquake induced surface effects of liquefaction against a traditional pixel based change technique. Our technique, which combines object-oriented change detection with discriminant/categorical functions, shows the power of distinguishing earthquake-induced surface effects from changes in buildings using the object properties concavity, convexity, orthogonality and rectangularity. Our results suggest that object-based analysis holds promise in automatically extracting earthquake-induced damages from high-resolution aerial/satellite imagery.

Rupture, waves and earthquakes.

Science.gov (United States)

Uenishi, Koji

2017-01-01

Normally, an earthquake is considered as a phenomenon of wave energy radiation by rupture (fracture) of solid Earth. However, the physics of dynamic process around seismic sources, which may play a crucial role in the occurrence of earthquakes and generation of strong waves, has not been fully understood yet. Instead, much of former investigation in seismology evaluated earthquake characteristics in terms of kinematics that does not directly treat such dynamic aspects and usually excludes the influence of high-frequency wave components over 1 Hz. There are countless valuable research outcomes obtained through this kinematics-based approach, but "extraordinary" phenomena that are difficult to be explained by this conventional description have been found, for instance, on the occasion of the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu, Japan, earthquake, and more detailed study on rupture and wave dynamics, namely, possible mechanical characteristics of (1) rupture development around seismic sources, (2) earthquake-induced structural failures and (3) wave interaction that connects rupture (1) and failures (2), would be indispensable.

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.

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

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.

Ionospheric phenomena before strong earthquakes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. S. Silina

2001-01-01

Full Text Available A statistical analysis of several ionospheric parameters before earthquakes with magnitude M > 5.5 located less than 500 km from an ionospheric vertical sounding station is performed. Ionospheric effects preceding "deep" (depth h > 33 km and "crust" (h 33 km earthquakes were analysed separately. Data of nighttime measurements of the critical frequencies foF2 and foEs, the frequency fbEs and Es-spread at the middle latitude station Dushanbe were used. The frequencies foF2 and fbEs are proportional to the square root of the ionization density at heights of 300 km and 100 km, respectively. It is shown that two days before the earthquakes the values of foF2 averaged over the morning hours (00:00 LT–06:00 LT and of fbEs averaged over the nighttime hours (18:00 LT–06:00 LT decrease; the effect is stronger for the "deep" earthquakes. Analysing the coefficient of semitransparency which characterizes the degree of small-scale turbulence, it was shown that this value increases 1–4 days before "crust" earthquakes, and it does not change before "deep" earthquakes. Studying Es-spread which manifests itself as diffuse Es track on ionograms and characterizes the degree of large-scale turbulence, it was found that the number of Es-spread observations increases 1–3 days before the earthquakes; for "deep" earthquakes the effect is more intensive. Thus it may be concluded that different mechanisms of energy transfer from the region of earthquake preparation to the ionosphere occur for "deep" and "crust" events.

Review of Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle PC Game

OpenAIRE

Michael Charno

2007-01-01

Archaeological video games are few and far between. Internet Archaeology has reviewed a number of archaeologically-based computer applications, but none that in my opinion would fall under the video game category. Barrow Hill: Curse of the ancient circle from Shadow Tor Studios, is a video game…with archaeology in it. It would be a stretch to claim that Barrow Hill is actually an archaeological video game, but it does have an occasionally solid archaeological foundation and back story.

Tradable Earthquake Certificates

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Woerdman, Edwin; Dulleman, Minne

2018-01-01

This article presents a market-based idea to compensate for earthquake damage caused by the extraction of natural gas and applies it to the case of Groningen in the Netherlands. Earthquake certificates give homeowners a right to yearly compensation for both property damage and degradation of living

Structure and evolution of the Horse Heaven Hills in South-Central Washington

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hagood, M.C.

1986-03-01

The purpose of this study is to describe the structure and evolution of the Horse Heaven Hills uplift at its abrupt structural transition. This was achieved by: (1) delineating the structure within the two trends as they approach the intersection; (2) determining the timing and location of uplift within each trend; (3) comparing and contrasting Miocene vertical growth rates along folds within both trends; and (4) imposing constraints for tectonic models that pertain to the genesis of the Horse Heaven Hills uplift. These objectives can only be fulfilled if the stratigraphy of the area is first delineated. Data from this study suggest that tectonic models that directly or indirectly pertain to the origin of the Horse Heaven Hills uplift may be constrained by: (1) the predominance of monoclinal or near-monoclinal fold geometries and reverse faults along both the northwest and northeast trends; (2) preliminary data which suggest clockwise rotation has occurred along folds of both trends; (3) folds along both trends developing simultaneously and at similar rates (at least during Wanapum and Saddle Mountains time); (4) folds along the northwest trend of the Horse Heaven Hills uplift being genetically related to and forming simultaneously with at least certain folds along the Rattlesnake-Wallula structural alignment; (5) the uplift developing simultaneously with the north-northwest-trending Hog Ranch-Naneum Ridge anticline as well as other Yakima folds during at least Columbia River Basalt Group time. It is proposed that folds of both trends of the Horse Heaven Hills uplift were generated by the same tectonic processes

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

Nowcasting Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Science.gov (United States)

Rundle, J. B.; Turcotte, D. L.

2017-12-01

The term "nowcasting" refers to the estimation of the current uncertain state of a dynamical system, whereas "forecasting" is a calculation of probabilities of future state(s). Nowcasting is a term that originated in economics and finance, referring to the process of determining the uncertain state of the economy or market indicators such as GDP at the current time by indirect means. We have applied this idea to seismically active regions, where the goal is to determine the current state of a system of faults, and its current level of progress through the earthquake cycle (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016EA000185/full). Advantages of our nowcasting method over forecasting models include: 1) Nowcasting is simply data analysis and does not involve a model having parameters that must be fit to data; 2) We use only earthquake catalog data which generally has known errors and characteristics; and 3) We use area-based analysis rather than fault-based analysis, meaning that the methods work equally well on land and in subduction zones. To use the nowcast method to estimate how far the fault system has progressed through the "cycle" of large recurring earthquakes, we use the global catalog of earthquakes, using "small" earthquakes to determine the level of hazard from "large" earthquakes in the region. We select a "small" region in which the nowcast is to be made, and compute the statistics of a much larger region around the small region. The statistics of the large region are then applied to the small region. For an application, we can define a small region around major global cities, for example a "small" circle of radius 150 km and a depth of 100 km, as well as a "large" earthquake magnitude, for example M6.0. The region of influence of such earthquakes is roughly 150 km radius x 100 km depth, which is the reason these values were selected. We can then compute and rank the seismic risk of the world's major cities in terms of their relative seismic risk

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.

Earthquake at 40 feet

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, G. J.

1976-01-01

The earthquake that struck the island of Guam on November 1, 1975, at 11:17 a.m had many unique aspects-not the least of which was the experience of an earthquake of 6.25 Richter magnitude while at 40 feet. My wife Bonnie, a fellow diver, Greg Guzman, and I were diving at Gabgab Beach in teh outer harbor of Apra Harbor, engaged in underwater phoyography when the earthquake struck. 

Earthquakes and economic growth

OpenAIRE

Fisker, Peter Simonsen

2012-01-01

This study explores the economic consequences of earthquakes. In particular, it is investigated how exposure to earthquakes affects economic growth both across and within countries. The key result of the empirical analysis is that while there are no observable effects at the country level, earthquake exposure significantly decreases 5-year economic growth at the local level. Areas at lower stages of economic development suffer harder in terms of economic growth than richer areas. In addition,...

Radon anomalies prior to earthquakes (2). Atmospheric radon anomaly observed before the Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishikawa, Tetsuo; Tokonami, Shinji; Yasuoka, Yumi; Shinogi, Masaki; Nagahama, Hiroyuki; Omori, Yasutaka; Kawada, Yusuke

2008-01-01

Before the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake, various geochemical precursors were observed in the aftershock area: chloride ion concentration, groundwater discharge rate, groundwater radon concentration and so on. Kobe Pharmaceutical University (KPU) is located about 25 km northeast from the epicenter and within the aftershock area. Atmospheric radon concentration had been continuously measured from 1984 at KPU, using a flow-type ionization chamber. The radon concentration data were analyzed using the smoothed residual values which represent the daily minimum of radon concentration with the exclusion of normalized seasonal variation. The radon concentration (smoothed residual values) demonstrated an upward trend about two months before the Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake. The trend can be well fitted to a log-periodic model related to earthquake fault dynamics. As a result of model fitting, a critical point was calculated to be between 13 and 27 January 1995, which was in good agreement with the occurrence date of earthquake (17 January 1995). The mechanism of radon anomaly before earthquakes is not fully understood. However, it might be possible to detect atmospheric radon anomaly as a precursor before a large earthquake, if (1) the measurement is conducted near the earthquake fault, (2) the monitoring station is located on granite (radon-rich) areas, and (3) the measurement is conducted for more than several years before the earthquake to obtain background data. (author)

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

Charles Darwin's earthquake reports

Science.gov (United States)

Galiev, Shamil

2010-05-01

As it is the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, 2009 has also been marked as 170 years since the publication of his book Journal of Researches. During the voyage Darwin landed at Valdivia and Concepcion, Chile, just before, during, and after a great earthquake, which demolished hundreds of buildings, killing and injuring many people. Land was waved, lifted, and cracked, volcanoes awoke and giant ocean waves attacked the coast. Darwin was the first geologist to observe and describe the effects of the great earthquake during and immediately after. These effects sometimes repeated during severe earthquakes; but great earthquakes, like Chile 1835, and giant earthquakes, like Chile 1960, are rare and remain completely unpredictable. This is one of the few areas of science, where experts remain largely in the dark. Darwin suggested that the effects were a result of ‘ …the rending of strata, at a point not very deep below the surface of the earth…' and ‘…when the crust yields to the tension, caused by its gradual elevation, there is a jar at the moment of rupture, and a greater movement...'. Darwin formulated big ideas about the earth evolution and its dynamics. These ideas set the tone for the tectonic plate theory to come. However, the plate tectonics does not completely explain why earthquakes occur within plates. Darwin emphasised that there are different kinds of earthquakes ‘...I confine the foregoing observations to the earthquakes on the coast of South America, or to similar ones, which seem generally to have been accompanied by elevation of the land. But, as we know that subsidence has gone on in other quarters of the world, fissures must there have been formed, and therefore earthquakes...' (we cite the Darwin's sentences following researchspace. auckland. ac. nz/handle/2292/4474). These thoughts agree with results of the last publications (see Nature 461, 870-872; 636-639 and 462, 42-43; 87-89). About 200 years ago Darwin gave oneself airs by the

Public Computer Usage in Chapel Hill Public Library

Data.gov (United States)

Town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina — Data collected November 2014 - May 2016. As of June 2016, this data is no longer collected on a continual basis.This dataset includes frequency and length of use of...

Organizational changes at Earthquakes & Volcanoes

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, David W.

1992-01-01

Primary responsibility for the preparation of Earthquakes & Volcanoes within the Geological Survey has shifted from the Office of Scientific Publications to the Office of Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Engineering (OEVE). As a consequence of this reorganization, Henry Spall has stepepd down as Science Editor for Earthquakes & Volcanoes(E&V).

Profiles in medical courage: causation and Austin Bradford Hill

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robbins RA

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Austin Bradford Hill was a British epidemiologist and statistician who is best remembered for two landmark pulmonary studies. He was the statistician on the Medical Research Council Streptomycin in Tuberculosis Trial. This is regarded as the first randomized clinical trial. The second was the demonstration of the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. However, Hill’s most lasting contribution may be his establishment of a group of conditions necessary to provide adequate evidence of a causal relationship between an incidence and a consequence, widely known as the Bradford Hill Criteria of Causation. In this profile of medical courage we examine his remarkable background that led to the epidemiological equivalent of Koch’s postulates.

Earthquake effect on the geological environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawamura, Makoto

1999-01-01

Acceleration caused by the earthquake, changes in the water pressure, and the rock-mass strain were monitored for a series of 344 earthquakes from 1990 to 1998 at Kamaishi In Situ Test Site. The largest acceleration was registered to be 57.14 gal with the earthquake named 'North coast of Iwate Earthquake' (M4.4) occurred in June, 1996. Changes of the water pressure were recorded with 27 earthquakes; the largest change was -0.35 Kgt/cm 2 . The water-pressure change by earthquake was, however, usually smaller than that caused by rainfall in this area. No change in the electric conductivity or pH of ground water was detected before and after the earthquake throughout the entire period of monitoring. The rock-mass strain was measured with a extensometer whose detection limit was of the order of 10 -8 to 10 -9 degrees and the remaining strain of about 2.5x10 -9 degrees was detected following the 'Offshore Miyagi Earthquake' (M5.1) in October, 1997. (H. Baba)

Earthquake predictions using seismic velocity ratios

Science.gov (United States)

Sherburne, R. W.

1979-01-01

Since the beginning of modern seismology, seismologists have contemplated predicting earthquakes. The usefulness of earthquake predictions to the reduction of human and economic losses and the value of long-range earthquake prediction to planning is obvious. Not as clear are the long-range economic and social impacts of earthquake prediction to a speicifc area. The general consensus of opinion among scientists and government officials, however, is that the quest of earthquake prediction is a worthwhile goal and should be prusued with a sense of urgency. 

Review of Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle PC Game

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Charno

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Archaeological video games are few and far between. Internet Archaeology has reviewed a number of archaeologically-based computer applications, but none that in my opinion would fall under the video game category. Barrow Hill: Curse of the ancient circle from Shadow Tor Studios, is a video game…with archaeology in it. It would be a stretch to claim that Barrow Hill is actually an archaeological video game, but it does have an occasionally solid archaeological foundation and back story.

Earthquakes and Schools

Science.gov (United States)

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, 2008

2008-01-01

Earthquakes are low-probability, high-consequence events. Though they may occur only once in the life of a school, they can have devastating, irreversible consequences. Moderate earthquakes can cause serious damage to building contents and non-structural building systems, serious injury to students and staff, and disruption of building operations.…

Smoking prevalence increases following Canterbury earthquakes.

Science.gov (United States)

Erskine, Nick; Daley, Vivien; Stevenson, Sue; Rhodes, Bronwen; Beckert, Lutz

2013-01-01

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Canterbury in September 2010. This earthquake and associated aftershocks took the lives of 185 people and drastically changed residents' living, working, and social conditions. To explore the impact of the earthquakes on smoking status and levels of tobacco consumption in the residents of Christchurch. Semistructured interviews were carried out in two city malls and the central bus exchange 15 months after the first earthquake. A total of 1001 people were interviewed. In August 2010, prior to any earthquake, 409 (41%) participants had never smoked, 273 (27%) were currently smoking, and 316 (32%) were ex-smokers. Since the September 2010 earthquake, 76 (24%) of the 316 ex-smokers had smoked at least one cigarette and 29 (38.2%) had smoked more than 100 cigarettes. Of the 273 participants who were current smokers in August 2010, 93 (34.1%) had increased consumption following the earthquake, 94 (34.4%) had not changed, and 86 (31.5%) had decreased their consumption. 53 (57%) of the 93 people whose consumption increased reported that the earthquake and subsequent lifestyle changes as a reason to increase smoking. 24% of ex-smokers resumed smoking following the earthquake, resulting in increased smoking prevalence. Tobacco consumption levels increased in around one-third of current smokers.

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.

2013 strategic petroleum reserve big hill well integrity grading report.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lord, David L.; Roberts, Barry L.; Lord, Anna C. Snider; Bettin, Giorgia; Sobolik, Steven Ronald; Park, Byoung Yoon; Rudeen, David Keith; Eldredge, Lisa; Wynn, Karen; Checkai, Dean; Perry, James Thomas

2014-02-01

This report summarizes the work performed in developing a framework for the prioritization of cavern access wells for remediation and monitoring at the Big Hill Strategic Petroleum Reserve site. This framework was then applied to all 28 wells at the Big Hill site with each well receiving a grade for remediation and monitoring. Numerous factors affecting well integrity were incorporated into the grading framework including casing survey results, cavern pressure history, results from geomechanical simulations, and site geologic factors. The framework was developed in a way as to be applicable to all four of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve sites.

The 2012 Mw5.6 earthquake in Sofia seismogenic zone - is it a slow earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Raykova, Plamena; Solakov, Dimcho; Slavcheva, Krasimira; Simeonova, Stela; Aleksandrova, Irena

2017-04-01

Recently our understanding of tectonic faulting has been shaken by the discoveries of seismic tremor, low frequency earthquakes, slow slip events, and other models of fault slip. These phenomenas represent models of failure that were thought to be non-existent and theoretically impossible only a few years ago. Slow earthquakes are seismic phenomena in which the rupture of geological faults in the earth's crust occurs gradually without creating strong tremors. Despite the growing number of observations of slow earthquakes their origin remains unresolved. Studies show that the duration of slow earthquakes ranges from a few seconds to a few hundred seconds. The regular earthquakes with which most people are familiar release a burst of built-up stress in seconds, slow earthquakes release energy in ways that do little damage. This study focus on the characteristics of the Mw5.6 earthquake occurred in Sofia seismic zone on May 22nd, 2012. The Sofia area is the most populated, industrial and cultural region of Bulgaria that faces considerable earthquake risk. The Sofia seismic zone is located in South-western Bulgaria - the area with pronounce tectonic activity and proved crustal movement. In 19th century the city of Sofia (situated in the centre of the Sofia seismic zone) has experienced two strong earthquakes with epicentral intensity of 10 MSK. During the 20th century the strongest event occurred in the vicinity of the city of Sofia is the 1917 earthquake with MS=5.3 (I0=7-8 MSK64).The 2012 quake occurs in an area characterized by a long quiescence (of 95 years) for moderate events. Moreover, a reduced number of small earthquakes have also been registered in the recent past. The Mw5.6 earthquake is largely felt on the territory of Bulgaria and neighbouring countries. No casualties and severe injuries have been reported. Mostly moderate damages were observed in the cities of Pernik and Sofia and their surroundings. These observations could be assumed indicative for a

The severity of an earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

,

1997-01-01

The severity of an earthquake can be expressed in terms of both intensity and magnitude. However, the two terms are quite different, and they are often confused. Intensity is based on the observed effects of ground shaking on people, buildings, and natural features. It varies from place to place within the disturbed region depending on the location of the observer with respect to the earthquake epicenter. Magnitude is related to the amount of seismic energy released at the hypocenter of the earthquake. It is based on the amplitude of the earthquake waves recorded on instruments

Thoracic Injuries in earthquake-related versus non-earthquake-related trauma patients: differentiation via Multi-detector Computed Tomography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhi-hui Dong

2011-01-01

Full Text Available PURPOSE: Massive earthquakes are harmful to humankind. This study of a historical cohort aimed to investigate the difference between earthquake-related crush thoracic traumas and thoracic traumas unrelated to earthquakes using a multi-detector Computed Tomography (CT. METHODS: We retrospectively compared an earthquake-exposed cohort of 215 thoracic trauma crush victims of the Sichuan earthquake to a cohort of 215 non-earthquake-related thoracic trauma patients, focusing on the lesions and coexisting injuries to the thoracic cage and the pulmonary parenchyma and pleura using a multi-detector CT. RESULTS: The incidence of rib fracture was elevated in the earthquake-exposed cohort (143 vs. 66 patients in the non-earthquake-exposed cohort, Risk Ratio (RR = 2.2; p<0.001. Among these patients, those with more than 3 fractured ribs (106/143 vs. 41/66 patients, RR=1.2; p<0.05 or flail chest (45/143 vs. 11/66 patients, RR=1.9; p<0.05 were more frequently seen in the earthquake cohort. Earthquake-related crush injuries more frequently resulted in bilateral rib fractures (66/143 vs. 18/66 patients, RR= 1.7; p<0.01. Additionally, the incidence of non-rib fracture was higher in the earthquake cohort (85 vs. 60 patients, RR= 1.4; p<0.01. Pulmonary parenchymal and pleural injuries were more frequently seen in earthquake-related crush injuries (117 vs. 80 patients, RR=1.5 for parenchymal and 146 vs. 74 patients, RR = 2.0 for pleural injuries; p<0.001. Non-rib fractures, pulmonary parenchymal and pleural injuries had significant positive correlation with rib fractures in these two cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: Thoracic crush traumas resulting from the earthquake were life threatening with a high incidence of bony thoracic fractures. The ribs were frequently involved in bilateral and severe types of fractures, which were accompanied by non-rib fractures, pulmonary parenchymal and pleural injuries.

Solar heating and hot water system installed at Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Science.gov (United States)

1979-01-01

The solar heating and hot water system installed in existing buildings at the Cherry Hill Inn in Cherry Hill, New Jersey is described in detail. The system is expected to furnish 31.5% of the overall heating load and 29.8% of the hot water load. The collectors are liquid evacuated tube type. The storage system is an above ground insulated steel water tank with a capacity of 7,500 gallons.

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)

Sense of Community and Depressive Symptoms among Older Earthquake Survivors Following the 2008 Earthquake in Chengdu China

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yawen; Sun, Fei; He, Xusong; Chan, Kin Sun

2011-01-01

This study examined the impact of an earthquake as well as the role of sense of community as a protective factor against depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults who survived an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in 2008. A household survey of a random sample was conducted 3 months after the earthquake and 298 older earthquake survivors participated…

Precisely locating the Klamath Falls, Oregon, earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Qamar, A.; Meagher, K.L.

1993-01-01

The Klamath Falls earthquakes on September 20, 1993, were the largest earthquakes centered in Oregon in more than 50 yrs. Only the magnitude 5.75 Milton-Freewater earthquake in 1936, which was centered near the Oregon-Washington border and felt in an area of about 190,000 sq km, compares in size with the recent Klamath Falls earthquakes. Although the 1993 earthquakes surprised many local residents, geologists have long recognized that strong earthquakes may occur along potentially active faults that pass through the Klamath Falls area. These faults are geologically related to similar faults in Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada that occasionally spawn strong earthquakes. 

Long-term changes in explosive and effusive behaviour at andesitic arc volcanoes: Chronostratigraphy of the Centre Hills Volcano, Montserrat

Science.gov (United States)

Coussens, Maya; Cassidy, Michael; Watt, Sebastian F. L.; Jutzeler, Martin; Talling, Peter J.; Barfod, Dan; Gernon, Thomas M.; Taylor, Rex; Hatter, Stuart J.; Palmer, Martin R.; Montserrat Volcano Observatory

2017-03-01

Volcanism on Montserrat (Lesser Antilles arc) has migrated southwards since the formation of the Silver Hills 2.5 Ma, and has formed three successively active volcanic centres. The Centre Hills volcano was the focus of volcanism from 1-0.4 Ma, before activity commenced at the currently active Soufrière Hills volcano. The history of activity at these two volcanoes provides an opportunity to investigate the pattern of volcano behaviour on an andesitic arc island over the lifetime of individual volcanoes. Here, we describe the pyroclastic stratigraphy of subaerial exposures around central Montserrat; identifying 11 thick (> 1 m) pumiceous units derived from sustained explosive eruptions of Centre Hills from 0.8-0.4 Ma. Over 10 other, less well- exposed pumiceous units have also been identified. The pumice-rich units are interbedded with andesite lava breccias derived from effusive, dome-forming eruptions of Centre Hills. The stratigraphy indicates that large (up to magnitude 5) explosive eruptions occurred throughout the history of Centre Hills, alongside effusive activity. This behaviour at Centre Hills contrasts with Soufrière Hills, where deposits from sustained explosive eruptions are much less common and restricted to early stages of activity at the volcano, from 175-130 ka. Subsequent eruptions at Soufriere Hills have been dominated by andesitic effusive eruptions. The bulk composition, petrography and mineral chemistry of volcanic rocks from Centre Hills and Soufrière Hills are similar throughout the history of both volcanoes, except for occasional, transient departures to different magma compositions, which mark shifts in vent location or dominant eruption style. For example, the final recorded eruption of Centre Hills, before the initiation of activity at Soufrière Hills, was more silicic than any other identified eruption on Montserrat; and the basaltic South Soufrière Hills episode marked the transition to the current stage of predominantly effusive

The mechanism of earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Kunquan; Cao, Zexian; Hou, Meiying; Jiang, Zehui; Shen, Rong; Wang, Qiang; Sun, Gang; Liu, Jixing

2018-03-01

The physical mechanism of earthquake remains a challenging issue to be clarified. Seismologists used to attribute shallow earthquake to the elastic rebound of crustal rocks. The seismic energy calculated following the elastic rebound theory and with the data of experimental results upon rocks, however, shows a large discrepancy with measurement — a fact that has been dubbed as “the heat flow paradox”. For the intermediate-focus and deep-focus earthquakes, both occurring in the region of the mantle, there is not reasonable explanation either. This paper will discuss the physical mechanism of earthquake from a new perspective, starting from the fact that both the crust and the mantle are discrete collective system of matters with slow dynamics, as well as from the basic principles of physics, especially some new concepts of condensed matter physics emerged in the recent years. (1) Stress distribution in earth’s crust: Without taking the tectonic force into account, according to the rheological principle of “everything flows”, the normal stress and transverse stress must be balanced due to the effect of gravitational pressure over a long period of time, thus no differential stress in the original crustal rocks is to be expected. The tectonic force is successively transferred and accumulated via stick-slip motions of rock blocks to squeeze the fault gouge and then exerted upon other rock blocks. The superposition of such additional lateral tectonic force and the original stress gives rise to the real-time stress in crustal rocks. The mechanical characteristics of fault gouge are different from rocks as it consists of granular matters. The elastic moduli of the fault gouges are much less than those of rocks, and they become larger with increasing pressure. This peculiarity of the fault gouge leads to a tectonic force increasing with depth in a nonlinear fashion. The distribution and variation of the tectonic stress in the crust are specified. (2) The

Turkish Children's Ideas about Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Simsek, Canan Lacin

2007-01-01

Earthquake, a natural disaster, is among the fundamental problems of many countries. If people know how to protect themselves from earthquake and arrange their life styles in compliance with this, damage they will suffer will reduce to that extent. In particular, a good training regarding earthquake to be received in primary schools is considered…

Gender, professionalization, and the child in the Progressive Era: Patty Smith Hill, 1868-1946.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Ann Taylor

2011-01-01

This article discusses the career of Patty Smith Hill, a major figure in the American kindergarten movement, in the context of the Progressive Era in American history. Hill, an educator and child-welfare activist, became known both as a reformer of early-childhood education and as an advocate of the inclusion of the kindergarten, originally a private institution, in public-school systems. The article acknowledges this as one of the most significant achievements of the woman-led reform movements of the Progressive Era, but at the same time notes that it involved a substantial transfer of power from the women who had originally developed the kindergarten to the male principals and superintendants who now supervised kindergarten teachers, often without much understanding of their distinctive methods and aims. As a professor at Columbia Teachers College, Hill also exercised an international influence. Hill's career exemplifies broader patterns of women's professionalization during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

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.

Global earthquake fatalities and population

Science.gov (United States)

Holzer, Thomas L.; Savage, James C.

2013-01-01

Modern global earthquake fatalities can be separated into two components: (1) fatalities from an approximately constant annual background rate that is independent of world population growth and (2) fatalities caused by earthquakes with large human death tolls, the frequency of which is dependent on world population. Earthquakes with death tolls greater than 100,000 (and 50,000) have increased with world population and obey a nonstationary Poisson distribution with rate proportional to population. We predict that the number of earthquakes with death tolls greater than 100,000 (50,000) will increase in the 21st century to 8.7±3.3 (20.5±4.3) from 4 (7) observed in the 20th century if world population reaches 10.1 billion in 2100. Combining fatalities caused by the background rate with fatalities caused by catastrophic earthquakes (>100,000 fatalities) indicates global fatalities in the 21st century will be 2.57±0.64 million if the average post-1900 death toll for catastrophic earthquakes (193,000) is assumed.

Instruction system upon occurrence of earthquakes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inagaki, Masakatsu; Morikawa, Matsuo; Suzuki, Satoshi; Fukushi, Naomi.

1987-01-01

Purpose: To enable rapid re-starting of a nuclear reactor after earthquakes by informing various properties of encountered earthquake to operators and properly displaying the state of damages in comparison with designed standard values of facilities. Constitution: Even in a case where the maximum accelerations due to the movements of earthquakes encountered exceed designed standard values, it may be considered such a case that equipments still remain intact depending on the wave components of the seismic movements and the vibration properties inherent to the equipments. Taking notice of the fact, the instruction device comprises a system that indicates the relationship between the seismic waveforms of earthquakes being encountered and the scram setting values, a system for indicating the comparison between the floor response spectrum of the seismic waveforms of the encountered earthquakes and the designed floor response spectrum used for the design of the equipments and a system for indicating those equipments requiring inspection after the earthquakes. Accordingly, it is possible to improve the operationability upon scram of a nuclear power plant undergoing earthquakes and improve the power saving and safety by clearly defining the inspection portion after the earthquakes. (Kawakami, Y.)

How fault geometry controls earthquake magnitude

Science.gov (United States)

Bletery, Q.; Thomas, A.; Karlstrom, L.; Rempel, A. W.; Sladen, A.; De Barros, L.

2016-12-01

Recent large megathrust earthquakes, such as the Mw9.3 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake in 2004 and the Mw9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in 2011, astonished the scientific community. The first event occurred in a relatively low-convergence-rate subduction zone where events of its size were unexpected. The second event involved 60 m of shallow slip in a region thought to be aseismicaly creeping and hence incapable of hosting very large magnitude earthquakes. These earthquakes highlight gaps in our understanding of mega-earthquake rupture processes and the factors controlling their global distribution. Here we show that gradients in dip angle exert a primary control on mega-earthquake occurrence. We calculate the curvature along the major subduction zones of the world and show that past mega-earthquakes occurred on flat (low-curvature) interfaces. A simplified analytic model demonstrates that shear strength heterogeneity increases with curvature. Stress loading on flat megathrusts is more homogeneous and hence more likely to be released simultaneously over large areas than on highly-curved faults. Therefore, the absence of asperities on large faults might counter-intuitively be a source of higher hazard.

Outcomes of arthroscopic "Remplissage": capsulotenodesis of the engaging large Hill-Sachs lesion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mayo Lee

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A Hill-Sachs lesion of the humeral head after a shoulder dislocation is clinically insignificant in most cases. However, a sizable defect will engage with the anterior rim of the glenoid and cause instability even after anterior glenoid reconstruction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcome of arthroscopic capsulotenodesis of the posterior capsule and infraspinatus tendon ("remplissage" to seal a large engaging Hill-Sachs lesion in an unstable shoulder. Methods This was a prospective follow-up study of patients who underwent arthroscopic surgery for recurrent shoulder instability with a large engaging Hill-Sachs lesion from 2007 to 2009. The clinical results were measured preoperatively and postoperatively with the Simple Shoulder test (SST and the Rowe score for instability. Results Eleven patients met the inclusion criteria of this study. The mean follow-up time was 30 months (range 24 to 35 months. At the last follow-up, significant improvement was observed in both scores with no recurrent dislocations. The mean SST improved from 6.6 to 11 (p Conclusions Arthroscopic remplissage for shoulder instability is an effective soft tissue technique to seal a large engaging Hill-Sachs lesion with respect to recurrence rate, range of motion and shoulder function.

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.

Measuring the size of an earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Spence, W.; Sipkin, S.A.; Choy, G.L.

1989-01-01

Earthquakes range broadly in size. A rock-burst in an Idaho silver mine may involve the fracture of 1 meter of rock; the 1965 Rat Island earthquake in the Aleutian arc involved a 650-kilometer length of the Earth's crust. Earthquakes can be even smaller and even larger. If an earthquake is felt or causes perceptible surface damage, then its intensity of shaking can be subjectively estimated. But many large earthquakes occur in oceanic areas or at great focal depths and are either simply not felt or their felt pattern does not really indicate their true size.

Earthquakes-Rattling the Earth's Plumbing System

Science.gov (United States)

Sneed, Michelle; Galloway, Devin L.; Cunningham, William L.

2003-01-01

Hydrogeologic responses to earthquakes have been known for decades, and have occurred both close to, and thousands of miles from earthquake epicenters. Water wells have become turbid, dry or begun flowing, discharge of springs and ground water to streams has increased and new springs have formed, and well and surface-water quality have become degraded as a result of earthquakes. Earthquakes affect our Earth’s intricate plumbing system—whether you live near the notoriously active San Andreas Fault in California, or far from active faults in Florida, an earthquake near or far can affect you and the water resources you depend on.

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.

Earthquake forewarning in the Cascadia region

Science.gov (United States)

Gomberg, Joan S.; Atwater, Brian F.; Beeler, Nicholas M.; Bodin, Paul; Davis, Earl; Frankel, Arthur; Hayes, Gavin P.; McConnell, Laura; Melbourne, Tim; Oppenheimer, David H.; Parrish, John G.; Roeloffs, Evelyn A.; Rogers, Gary D.; Sherrod, Brian; Vidale, John; Walsh, Timothy J.; Weaver, Craig S.; Whitmore, Paul M.

2015-08-10

This report, prepared for the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council (NEPEC), is intended as a step toward improving communications about earthquake hazards between information providers and users who coordinate emergency-response activities in the Cascadia region of the Pacific Northwest. NEPEC charged a subcommittee of scientists with writing this report about forewarnings of increased probabilities of a damaging earthquake. We begin by clarifying some terminology; a “prediction” refers to a deterministic statement that a particular future earthquake will or will not occur. In contrast to the 0- or 100-percent likelihood of a deterministic prediction, a “forecast” describes the probability of an earthquake occurring, which may range from >0 to processes or conditions, which may include Increased rates of M>4 earthquakes on the plate interface north of the Mendocino region 

Links Between Earthquake Characteristics and Subducting Plate Heterogeneity in the 2016 Pedernales Ecuador Earthquake Rupture Zone

Science.gov (United States)

Bai, L.; Mori, J. J.

2016-12-01

The collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates formed the Himalayas, the largest orogenic belt on the Earth. The entire region accommodates shallow earthquakes, while intermediate-depth earthquakes are concentrated at the eastern and western Himalayan syntaxis. Here we investigate the focal depths, fault plane solutions, and source rupture process for three earthquake sequences, which are located at the western, central and eastern regions of the Himalayan orogenic belt. The Pamir-Hindu Kush region is located at the western Himalayan syntaxis and is characterized by extreme shortening of the upper crust and strong interaction of various layers of the lithosphere. Many shallow earthquakes occur on the Main Pamir Thrust at focal depths shallower than 20 km, while intermediate-deep earthquakes are mostly located below 75 km. Large intermediate-depth earthquakes occur frequently at the western Himalayan syntaxis about every 10 years on average. The 2015 Nepal earthquake is located in the central Himalayas. It is a typical megathrust earthquake that occurred on the shallow portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). Many of the aftershocks are located above the MHT and illuminate faulting structures in the hanging wall with dip angles that are steeper than the MHT. These observations provide new constraints on the collision and uplift processes for the Himalaya orogenic belt. The Indo-Burma region is located south of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis, where the strike of the plate boundary suddenly changes from nearly east-west at the Himalayas to nearly north-south at the Burma Arc. The Burma arc subduction zone is a typical oblique plate convergence zone. The eastern boundary is the north-south striking dextral Sagaing fault, which hosts many shallow earthquakes with focal depth less than 25 km. In contrast, intermediate-depth earthquakes along the subduction zone reflect east-west trending reverse faulting.

Topographical Hill Shading Map Production Based Tianditu (map World)

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, C.; Zha, Z.; Tang, D.; Yang, J.

2018-04-01

TIANDITU (Map World) is the public version of National Platform for Common Geospatial Information Service, and the terrain service is an important channel for users on the platform. With the development of TIANDITU, topographical hill shading map production for providing and updating global terrain map on line becomes necessary for the characters of strong intuition, three-dimensional sense and aesthetic effect. As such, the terrain service of TIANDITU focuses on displaying the different scales of topographical data globally. And this paper mainly aims to research the method of topographical hill shading map production globally using DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data between the displaying scales about 1 : 140,000,000 to 1 : 4,000,000, corresponded the display level from 2 to 7 on TIANDITU website.

Earthquakes; May-June 1982

Science.gov (United States)

Person, W.J.

1982-01-01

There were four major earthquakes (7.0-7.9) during this reporting period: two struck in Mexico, one in El Salvador, and one in teh Kuril Islands. Mexico, El Salvador, and China experienced fatalities from earthquakes.

Soils of wet valleys in the Larsemann Hills and Vestfold Hills oases (Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica)

Science.gov (United States)

Mergelov, N. S.

2014-09-01

The properties and spatial distribution of soils and soil-like bodies in valleys of the coastal Larsemann Hills and Vestfold Hills oases—poorly investigated in terms of the soil areas of East Antarctica—are discussed. In contrast to Dry Valleys—large continental oases of Western Antarctica—the studied territory is characterized by the presence of temporarily waterlogged sites in the valleys. It is argued that the deficit of water rather than the low temperature is the major limiting factor for the development of living organisms and the pedogenesis on loose substrates. The moisture gradients in the surface soil horizons explain the spatial distribution of the different soils and biotic complexes within the studied valleys. Despite the permanent water-logging of the deep suprapermafrost horizons of most of the soils in the valleys, no gley features have been identified in them. The soils of the wet valleys in the Larsemann Hills oasis do not contain carbonates. They have a slightly acid or neutral reaction. The organic carbon and nitrogen contents are mainly controlled by the amount of living and dead biomass rather than by the humic substances proper. The larger part of the biomass is concentrated inside the mineral soil matrix rather than on the soil surface. The stresses caused by surface drying, strong winds, and ultraviolet radiation prevent the development of organisms on the surface of the soil and necessitate the search for shelter within the soil fine earth material (endoedaphic niche) or under the gravelly pavement (hypolithic niche). In the absence of higher plants, humified products of their decomposition, and rainwater that can wash the soil profile and upon the low content of silt and clay particles in the soil material, "classical" soil horizons are not developed. The most distinct (and, often, the only diagnosed) products of pedogenesis in these soils are represented by organomineral films on the surface of mineral particles.

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)

Earthquake number forecasts testing

Science.gov (United States)

Kagan, Yan Y.

2017-10-01

We study the distributions of earthquake numbers in two global earthquake catalogues: Global Centroid-Moment Tensor and Preliminary Determinations of Epicenters. The properties of these distributions are especially required to develop the number test for our forecasts of future seismic activity rate, tested by the Collaboratory for Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP). A common assumption, as used in the CSEP tests, is that the numbers are described by the Poisson distribution. It is clear, however, that the Poisson assumption for the earthquake number distribution is incorrect, especially for the catalogues with a lower magnitude threshold. In contrast to the one-parameter Poisson distribution so widely used to describe earthquake occurrences, the negative-binomial distribution (NBD) has two parameters. The second parameter can be used to characterize the clustering or overdispersion of a process. We also introduce and study a more complex three-parameter beta negative-binomial distribution. We investigate the dependence of parameters for both Poisson and NBD distributions on the catalogue magnitude threshold and on temporal subdivision of catalogue duration. First, we study whether the Poisson law can be statistically rejected for various catalogue subdivisions. We find that for most cases of interest, the Poisson distribution can be shown to be rejected statistically at a high significance level in favour of the NBD. Thereafter, we investigate whether these distributions fit the observed distributions of seismicity. For this purpose, we study upper statistical moments of earthquake numbers (skewness and kurtosis) and compare them to the theoretical values for both distributions. Empirical values for the skewness and the kurtosis increase for the smaller magnitude threshold and increase with even greater intensity for small temporal subdivision of catalogues. The Poisson distribution for large rate values approaches the Gaussian law, therefore its skewness

33 CFR 222.4 - Reporting earthquake effects.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Reporting earthquake effects. 222..., DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ENGINEERING AND DESIGN § 222.4 Reporting earthquake effects. (a) Purpose. This... significant earthquakes. It primarily concerns damage surveys following the occurrences of earthquakes. (b...

Earthquakes - a danger to deep-lying repositories?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-03-01

This booklet issued by the Swiss National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste NAGRA takes a look at geological factors concerning earthquakes and the safety of deep-lying repositories for nuclear waste. The geological processes involved in the occurrence of earthquakes are briefly looked at and the definitions for magnitude and intensity of earthquakes are discussed. Examples of damage caused by earthquakes are given. The earthquake situation in Switzerland is looked at and the effects of earthquakes on sub-surface structures and deep-lying repositories are discussed. Finally, the ideas proposed for deep-lying geological repositories for nuclear wastes are discussed

Evidence for Ancient Mesoamerican Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Kovach, R. L.; Garcia, B.

2001-12-01

Evidence for past earthquake damage at Mesoamerican ruins is often overlooked because of the invasive effects of tropical vegetation and is usually not considered as a casual factor when restoration and reconstruction of many archaeological sites are undertaken. Yet the proximity of many ruins to zones of seismic activity would argue otherwise. Clues as to the types of damage which should be soughtwere offered in September 1999 when the M = 7.5 Oaxaca earthquake struck the ruins of Monte Alban, Mexico, where archaeological renovations were underway. More than 20 structures were damaged, 5 of them seriously. Damage features noted were walls out of plumb, fractures in walls, floors, basal platforms and tableros, toppling of columns, and deformation, settling and tumbling of walls. A Modified Mercalli Intensity of VII (ground accelerations 18-34 %b) occurred at the site. Within the diffuse landward extension of the Caribbean plate boundary zone M = 7+ earthquakes occur with repeat times of hundreds of years arguing that many Maya sites were subjected to earthquakes. Damage to re-erected and reinforced stelae, walls, and buildings were witnessed at Quirigua, Guatemala, during an expedition underway when then 1976 M = 7.5 Guatemala earthquake on the Motagua fault struck. Excavations also revealed evidence (domestic pttery vessels and skeleton of a child crushed under fallen walls) of an ancient earthquake occurring about the teim of the demise and abandonment of Quirigua in the late 9th century. Striking evidence for sudden earthquake building collapse at the end of the Mayan Classic Period ~A.D. 889 was found at Benque Viejo (Xunantunich), Belize, located 210 north of Quirigua. It is argued that a M = 7.5 to 7.9 earthquake at the end of the Maya Classic period centered in the vicinity of the Chixoy-Polochic and Motagua fault zones cound have produced the contemporaneous earthquake damage to the above sites. As a consequences this earthquake may have accelerated the

Earthquake data base for Romania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rizescu, M.; Ghica, D.; Grecu, B.; Popa, M.; Borcia, I. S.

2002-01-01

A new earthquake database for Romania is being constructed, comprising complete earthquake information and being up-to-date, user-friendly and rapidly accessible. One main component of the database consists from the catalog of earthquakes occurred in Romania since 984 up to present. The catalog contains information related to locations and other source parameters, when available, and links to waveforms of important earthquakes. The other very important component is the 'strong motion database', developed for strong intermediate-depth Vrancea earthquakes where instrumental data were recorded. Different parameters to characterize strong motion properties as: effective peak acceleration, effective peak velocity, corner periods T c and T d , global response spectrum based intensities were computed and recorded into this database. Also, information on the recording seismic stations as: maps giving their positioning, photographs of the instruments and site conditions ('free-field or on buildings) are included. By the huge volume and quality of gathered data, also by its friendly user interface, the Romania earthquake data base provides a very useful tool for geosciences and civil engineering in their effort towards reducing seismic risk in Romania. (authors)

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

Testing earthquake source inversion methodologies

KAUST Repository

Page, Morgan T.

2011-01-01

Source Inversion Validation Workshop; Palm Springs, California, 11-12 September 2010; Nowadays earthquake source inversions are routinely performed after large earthquakes and represent a key connection between recorded seismic and geodetic data and the complex rupture process at depth. The resulting earthquake source models quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of ruptures. They are also used to provide a rapid assessment of the severity of an earthquake and to estimate losses. However, because of uncertainties in the data, assumed fault geometry and velocity structure, and chosen rupture parameterization, it is not clear which features of these source models are robust. Improved understanding of the uncertainty and reliability of earthquake source inversions will allow the scientific community to use the robust features of kinematic inversions to more thoroughly investigate the complexity of the rupture process and to better constrain other earthquakerelated computations, such as ground motion simulations and static stress change calculations.

Earthquake cycles and physical modeling of the process leading up to a large earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Ohnaka, Mitiyasu

2004-08-01

A thorough discussion is made on what the rational constitutive law for earthquake ruptures ought to be from the standpoint of the physics of rock friction and fracture on the basis of solid facts observed in the laboratory. From this standpoint, it is concluded that the constitutive law should be a slip-dependent law with parameters that may depend on slip rate or time. With the long-term goal of establishing a rational methodology of forecasting large earthquakes, the entire process of one cycle for a typical, large earthquake is modeled, and a comprehensive scenario that unifies individual models for intermediate-and short-term (immediate) forecasts is presented within the framework based on the slip-dependent constitutive law and the earthquake cycle model. The earthquake cycle includes the phase of accumulation of elastic strain energy with tectonic loading (phase II), and the phase of rupture nucleation at the critical stage where an adequate amount of the elastic strain energy has been stored (phase III). Phase II plays a critical role in physical modeling of intermediate-term forecasting, and phase III in physical modeling of short-term (immediate) forecasting. The seismogenic layer and individual faults therein are inhomogeneous, and some of the physical quantities inherent in earthquake ruptures exhibit scale-dependence. It is therefore critically important to incorporate the properties of inhomogeneity and physical scaling, in order to construct realistic, unified scenarios with predictive capability. The scenario presented may be significant and useful as a necessary first step for establishing the methodology for forecasting large earthquakes.

Three-dimensional computed tomography measurement accuracy of varying Hill-Sachs lesion size.

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Anthony; Kurdziel, Michael D; Koueiter, Denise M; Wiater, J Michael

2018-02-01

The glenoid track concept has been proposed to correlate shoulder stability with bone loss. Accurate assessment of Hill-Sachs lesion size preoperatively may affect surgical planning and postoperative outcomes; however, no measurement method has been universally accepted. This study aimed to assess the accuracy and reliability of measuring Hill-Sachs lesion sizes using 3-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT). Nine polyurethane humerus bone substitutes were used to create Hill-Sachs lesions of varying sizes with a combination of lesion depth (shallow, intermediate, and deep) and width (small, medium, and large). Specimens were scanned with a clinical CT scanner for size measurements and a micro-CT scanner for measurement of true lesion size. Six evaluators repeated measurements twice in a 2-week interval. Scans were measured by use of 3D CT reconstructions for length, width, and Hill-Sachs interval and with use of 2D CT for depth. The interclass correlation coefficient evaluated interobserver and intraobserver variability and percentage error, and Student t-tests assessed measurement accuracy. Interclass correlation coefficient reliability demonstrated strong agreement for all variables measured (0.856-0.975). Percentage error between measured length and measured depth and the true measurement significantly varied with respect to both lesion depth (P = .003 and P = .005, respectively) and lesion size (P = .049 and P = .004, respectively). The 3D CT imaging is effective and reproducible in determining lesion size. Determination of Hill-Sachs interval width is also reliable when it is applied to the glenoid track concept. Measured values on 3D and 2-dimensional imaging using a conventional CT scanner may slightly underestimate true measurements. Copyright © 2017 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessment of Groundwater Resources in Kirana Hills Region, Rabwah, District Chiniot, Pakistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirza Naseer Ahmad

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This study was planned to assess the groundwater quality of the area adjacent to Precambrian Kirana Hills, Pakistan. The majority of the people in the area use groundwater from private wells for drinking and domestic use. Therefore, it is important to provide an overview of the groundwater quality. This information would be beneficial to local people and the administration for selecting suitable water treatment methods. Samples were collected from different wells of Rabwah town, close to the Kirana Hills. Parameters like EC, pH, alkalinity and total dissolved solids (TDS were determined for 142 samples. While 40 samples were analyzed for hardness, Ca, Mg, Cl, SO4, NO3, and F. standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO were considered to evaluate the quality of groundwater. Geographic Information System (GIS was used to interpolate analyzed physicochemical parameters. The results showed that EC, TDS, hardness, Cl, SO4, and Ca were very high in the water samples of the area. Fifty-two percent of samples had pH values lower than the permissible limits. Results suggest that the water quality is extremely adverse close to the hills. The poor water quality in the area near the hills may be due to the limited recharge of aquifers because of the hills and shallow basement, which may act as a barrier to subsurface water movement. Some physical and chemical parameters indicated that the quality of water at deeper levels (i.e. >150 ft is relatively better. This may be due to limited exploitation of water from deeper aquifers as compared to shallow aquifers. Hence, proper aquifer management is required to prevent water quality deterioration due to over exploiataion. NO3 was found within the acceptable limits and all water samples were found free of any significant contamination by human activities.

78 FR 21098 - Black Hills National Forest Advisory Board

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-09

... Hills National Forest Advisory Board (Board) will meet in Rapid City South Dakota. The Board is... staff before the meeting. The agenda will include time for people to make oral statements of three...

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.

Stormwater Management Plan for the Arden Hills Army Training Site, Arden Hills, Minnesota

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carr, Adrianne E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Wuthrich, Kelsey K. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Ziech, Angela M. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Bowen, Esther E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Quinn, John [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2013-03-01

This stormwater management plan focuses on the cantonment and training areas of the Arden Hills Army Training Site (AHATS). The plan relates the site stormwater to the regulatory framework, and it summarizes best management practices to aide site managers in promoting clean site runoff. It includes documentation for a newly developed, detailed model of stormwater flow retention for the entire AHATS property and adjacent upgradient areas. The model relies on established modeling codes integrated in a U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored software tool, the Watershed Modeling System (WMS), and it can be updated with data on changes in land use or with monitoring data.

New type of hill-top inflation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barvinsky, A.O.; Nesterov, D.V. [Theory Department, Lebedev Physics Institute, Leninsky Prospect 53, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation); Kamenshchik, A.Yu., E-mail: barvin@td.lpi.ru, E-mail: Alexander.Kamenshchik@bo.infn.it, E-mail: nesterov@td.lpi.ru [Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN, via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna (Italy)

2016-01-01

We suggest a new type of hill-top inflation originating from the initial conditions in the form of the microcanonical density matrix for the cosmological model with a large number of quantum fields conformally coupled to gravity. Initial conditions for inflation are set up by cosmological instantons describing underbarrier oscillations in the vicinity of the inflaton potential maximum. These periodic oscillations of the inflaton field and cosmological scale factor are obtained within the approximation of two coupled oscillators subject to the slow roll regime in the Euclidean time. This regime is characterized by rapid oscillations of the scale factor on the background of a slowly varying inflaton, which guarantees smallness of slow roll parameters ε and η of the following inflation stage. A hill-like shape of the inflaton potential is shown to be generated by logarithmic loop corrections to the tree-level asymptotically shift-invariant potential in the non-minimal Higgs inflation model and R{sup 2}-gravity. The solution to the problem of hierarchy between the Planckian scale and the inflation scale is discussed within the concept of conformal higher spin fields, which also suggests the mechanism bringing the model below the gravitational cutoff and, thus, protecting it from large graviton loop corrections.

New type of hill-top inflation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barvinsky, A.O. [Theory Department, Lebedev Physics Institute,Leninsky Prospect 53, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation); Department of Physics, Tomsk State University,Lenin Ave. 36, Tomsk 634050 (Russian Federation); Department of Physics and Astronomy, Pacific Institue for Theoretical Physics,University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 (Canada); Kamenshchik, A.Yu. [Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN,via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna (Italy); L.D. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physcis,Kosygin str. 2, 119334 Moscow (Russian Federation); Nesterov, D.V. [Theory Department, Lebedev Physics Institute,Leninsky Prospect 53, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)

2016-01-20

We suggest a new type of hill-top inflation originating from the initial conditions in the form of the microcanonical density matrix for the cosmological model with a large number of quantum fields conformally coupled to gravity. Initial conditions for inflation are set up by cosmological instantons describing underbarrier oscillations in the vicinity of the inflaton potential maximum. These periodic oscillations of the inflaton field and cosmological scale factor are obtained within the approximation of two coupled oscillators subject to the slow roll regime in the Euclidean time. This regime is characterized by rapid oscillations of the scale factor on the background of a slowly varying inflaton, which guarantees smallness of slow roll parameters ϵ and η of the following inflation stage. A hill-like shape of the inflaton potential is shown to be generated by logarithmic loop corrections to the tree-level asymptotically shift-invariant potential in the non-minimal Higgs inflation model and R{sup 2}-gravity. The solution to the problem of hierarchy between the Planckian scale and the inflation scale is discussed within the concept of conformal higher spin fields, which also suggests the mechanism bringing the model below the gravitational cutoff and, thus, protecting it from large graviton loop corrections.

Stigma in science: the case of earthquake prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

Joffe, Helene; Rossetto, Tiziana; Bradley, Caroline; O'Connor, Cliodhna

2018-01-01

This paper explores how earthquake scientists conceptualise earthquake prediction, particularly given the conviction of six earthquake scientists for manslaughter (subsequently overturned) on 22 October 2012 for having given inappropriate advice to the public prior to the L'Aquila earthquake of 6 April 2009. In the first study of its kind, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 earthquake scientists and the transcribed interviews were analysed thematically. The scientists primarily denigrated earthquake prediction, showing strong emotive responses and distancing themselves from earthquake 'prediction' in favour of 'forecasting'. Earthquake prediction was regarded as impossible and harmful. The stigmatisation of the subject is discussed in the light of research on boundary work and stigma in science. The evaluation reveals how mitigation becomes the more favoured endeavour, creating a normative environment that disadvantages those who continue to pursue earthquake prediction research. Recommendations are made for communication with the public on earthquake risk, with a focus on how scientists portray uncertainty. © 2018 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2018.

The hill forts and castle mounds in Lithuania: interaction between geodiversity and human-shaped landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Skridlaite, Grazina; Guobyte, Rimante; Satkunas, Jonas

2015-04-01

Lithuania is famous for its abundant, picturesque hill forts and castle mounds of natural origin. In Lithuania as well as in whole Europe the fortified hills were used as the society dwelling place since the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Their importance increased when Livonian and Teutonic Orders directed a series of military campaigns against Lithuania with the aim of expansion of Christianity in the region at the end of 1st millennium AD, and they were intensively used till the beginning of the 15th c. when most of them were burned down during fights with the Orders or just abandoned due to the changing political and economical situation. What types of the geodiversity were used for fortified dwellings? The choice in a particular area depended on a variety of geomorphology left behind the retreating ice sheets. High spots dominating their surroundings were of prime interest. In E and SE Lithuania, the Baltic Upland hills marking the eastern margin of the last Weichselian glacier hosted numerous fortified settlements from the end of 2nd millennium BC to the Medieval Ages (Narkunai, Velikuskes etc). In W Lithuania, plateau-like hills of the insular Samogitian Upland had been repeatedly fortified from the beginning of 1st millennium AD to the 14th century (Satrija, Medvegalis etc). Chains of hill forts and castle mounds feature the slopes of glaciofluvial valleys of Nemunas, Neris and other rivers where the slopes were dissected by affluent rivulets and ravines and transformed into isolated, well protected hills (Kernave, Punia, Veliuona etc). Peninsulas and headlands formed by the erosion of fluvial and lacustrine deposits were used in the lowlands, e.g. in central and N Lithuania (Paberze, Mezotne etc). How much the landscape was modified for defense purposes? Long-term erosion and overgrowing vegetation damaged the former fortified sites, however some remains and the archeological excavations allowed their reconstruction. The fortified Bronze Age settlements

A power function profile of a ski jumping in-run hill.

Science.gov (United States)

Zanevskyy, Ihor

2011-01-01

The aim of the research was to find a function of the curvilinear segment profile which could make possible to avoid an instantaneous increasing of a curvature and to replace a circle arc segment on the in-run of a ski jump without any correction of the angles of inclination and the length of the straight-line segments. The methods of analytical geometry and trigonometry were used to calculate an optimal in-run hill profile. There were two fundamental conditions of the model: smooth borders between a curvilinear segment and straight-line segments of an in-run hill and concave of the curvilinear segment. Within the framework of this model, the problem has been solved with a reasonable precision. Four functions of a curvilinear segment profile of the in-run hill were investigated: circle arc, inclined quadratic parabola, inclined cubic parabola, and power function. The application of a power function to the in-run profile satisfies equal conditions for replacing a circle arc segment. Geometrical parameters of 38 modern ski jumps were investigated using the methods proposed.

Impact of the Christchurch earthquakes on hospital staff.

Science.gov (United States)

Tovaranonte, Pleayo; Cawood, Tom J

2013-06-01

On September 4, 2010 a major earthquake caused widespread damage, but no loss of life, to Christchurch city and surrounding areas. There were numerous aftershocks, including on February 22, 2011 which, in contrast, caused substantial loss of life and major damage to the city. The research aim was to assess how these two earthquakes affected the staff in the General Medicine Department at Christchurch Hospital. Problem To date there have been no published data assessing the impact of this type of natural disaster on hospital staff in Australasia. A questionnaire that examined seven domains (demographics, personal impact, psychological impact, emotional impact, impact on care for patients, work impact, and coping strategies) was handed out to General Medicine staff and students nine days after the September 2010 earthquake and 14 days after the February 2011 earthquake. Response rates were ≥ 99%. Sixty percent of responders were earthquakes, respectively. A fifth to a third of people had to find an alternative route of transport to get to work but only eight percent to 18% took time off work. Financial impact was more severe following the February earthquake, with 46% reporting damage of >NZ $1,000, compared with 15% following the September earthquake (P earthquake than the September earthquake (42% vs 69%, P earthquake but this rose to 53% after the February earthquake (12/53 vs 45/85, P earthquake but this dropped significantly to 15% following the February earthquake (27/53 vs 13/62, P earthquakes upon General Medicine hospital staff. The effect was widespread with minor financial impact during the first but much more during the second earthquake. Moderate psychological impact was experienced in both earthquakes. This data may be useful to help prepare plans for future natural disasters. .

Physics of Earthquake Rupture Propagation

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Shiqing; Fukuyama, Eiichi; Sagy, Amir; Doan, Mai-Linh

2018-05-01

A comprehensive understanding of earthquake rupture propagation requires the study of not only the sudden release of elastic strain energy during co-seismic slip, but also of other processes that operate at a variety of spatiotemporal scales. For example, the accumulation of the elastic strain energy usually takes decades to hundreds of years, and rupture propagation and termination modify the bulk properties of the surrounding medium that can influence the behavior of future earthquakes. To share recent findings in the multiscale investigation of earthquake rupture propagation, we held a session entitled "Physics of Earthquake Rupture Propagation" during the 2016 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco. The session included 46 poster and 32 oral presentations, reporting observations of natural earthquakes, numerical and experimental simulations of earthquake ruptures, and studies of earthquake fault friction. These presentations and discussions during and after the session suggested a need to document more formally the research findings, particularly new observations and views different from conventional ones, complexities in fault zone properties and loading conditions, the diversity of fault slip modes and their interactions, the evaluation of observational and model uncertainties, and comparison between empirical and physics-based models. Therefore, we organize this Special Issue (SI) of Tectonophysics under the same title as our AGU session, hoping to inspire future investigations. Eighteen articles (marked with "this issue") are included in this SI and grouped into the following six categories.

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

Hill climbing algorithms and trivium

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borghoff, Julia; Knudsen, Lars Ramkilde; Matusiewicz, Krystian

2011-01-01

This paper proposes a new method to solve certain classes of systems of multivariate equations over the binary field and its cryptanalytical applications. We show how heuristic optimization methods such as hill climbing algorithms can be relevant to solving systems of multivariate equations....... A characteristic of equation systems that may be efficiently solvable by the means of such algorithms is provided. As an example, we investigate equation systems induced by the problem of recovering the internal state of the stream cipher Trivium. We propose an improved variant of the simulated annealing method...

Earthquake precursory events around epicenters and local active faults; the cases of two inland earthquakes in Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Valizadeh Alvan, H.; Mansor, S.; Haydari Azad, F.

2012-12-01

The possibility of earthquake prediction in the frame of several days to few minutes before its occurrence has stirred interest among researchers, recently. Scientists believe that the new theories and explanations of the mechanism of this natural phenomenon are trustable and can be the basis of future prediction efforts. During the last thirty years experimental researches resulted in some pre-earthquake events which are now recognized as confirmed warning signs (precursors) of past known earthquakes. With the advances in in-situ measurement devices and data analysis capabilities and the emergence of satellite-based data collectors, monitoring the earth's surface is now a regular work. Data providers are supplying researchers from all over the world with high quality and validated imagery and non-imagery data. Surface Latent Heat Flux (SLHF) or the amount of energy exchange in the form of water vapor between the earth's surface and atmosphere has been frequently reported as an earthquake precursor during the past years. The accumulated stress in the earth's crust during the preparation phase of earthquakes is said to be the main cause of temperature anomalies weeks to days before the main event and subsequent shakes. Chemical and physical interactions in the presence of underground water lead to higher water evaporation prior to inland earthquakes. On the other hand, the leak of Radon gas occurred as rocks break during earthquake preparation causes the formation of airborne ions and higher Air Temperature (AT) prior to main event. Although co-analysis of direct and indirect observation for precursory events is considered as a promising method for future successful earthquake prediction, without proper and thorough knowledge about the geological setting, atmospheric factors and geodynamics of the earthquake-prone regions we will not be able to identify anomalies due to seismic activity in the earth's crust. Active faulting is a key factor in identification of the

Fuel management optimization in pressure water reactors with hexagonal geometry using hill climbing method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andres Diaz, J.; Quintero, Ruben; Melian, Manuel; Rosete, Alejandro

2000-01-01

In this work the general-purpose optimization method, Hill Climbing, was applied to the Fuel Management Optimization problem in PWR reactors, WWER type. They were carried out a series of experiments in order to study the performance of Hill Climbing. It was proven two starting point for initialize the search: a reload configuration by project and a reload configuration generated with the application of a minimal knowledge of the problem. It was also studied the effect of imposing constraints based on the physics of the reactor in order to reduce the number of possible solutions to be generated. The operator used in Hill Climbing was defined as a binary exchange of fuel assemblies. For the simulation of each generated configuration, the tridimensional simulator program SPPS-1 was used. It was formulated an objective function with power peaking constraint to guide the search. As results, a methodology ws proposed for the In-core Fuel Management Optimization in hexagonal geometry, and the feasibility of the application of the Hill Climbing to this type of problem was demonstrated. (author)

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.

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.

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

Japan frequently suffers from many kinds of disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions, and landslides. On average, we lose about 120 people a year due to natural hazards in this decade. Above all, earthquakes are noteworthy, since it may kill thousands of people in a moment like in Kobe in 1995. People know that we may have "a big one" some day as long as we live on this land and that what to do; retrofit houses, appliance heavy furniture to walls, add latches to kitchen cabinets, and prepare emergency packs. Yet most of them do not take the action, and result in the loss of many lives. It is only the victims that learn something from the earthquake, and it has never become the lore of the nations. One of the most essential ways to reduce the damage is to educate the general public to be able to make the sound decision on what to do at the moment when an earthquake hits. This will require the knowledge of the backgrounds of the on-going phenomenon. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), therefore, offered for public subscription to choose several model areas to adopt scientific education to the local elementary schools. This presentation is the report of a year and half courses that we had at the model elementary school in Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The tectonic setting of this area is very complicated; there are the Pacific and Philippine Sea plates subducting beneath the North America and the Eurasia plates. The subduction of the Philippine Sea plate causes mega-thrust earthquakes such as the 1923 Kanto earthquake (M 7.9) making 105,000 fatalities. A magnitude 7 or greater earthquake beneath this area is recently evaluated to occur with a probability of 70 % in 30 years. This is of immediate concern for the devastating loss of life and property because the Tokyo urban region now has a population of 42 million and is the center of approximately 40 % of the nation's activities, which may cause great global

Book review: Earthquakes and water

Science.gov (United States)

Bekins, Barbara A.

2012-01-01

It is really nice to see assembled in one place a discussion of the documented and hypothesized hydrologic effects of earthquakes. The book is divided into chapters focusing on particular hydrologic phenomena including liquefaction, mud volcanism, stream discharge increases, groundwater level, temperature and chemical changes, and geyser period changes. These hydrologic effects are inherently fascinating, and the large number of relevant publications in the past decade makes this summary a useful milepost. The book also covers hydrologic precursors and earthquake triggering by pore pressure. A natural need to limit the topics covered resulted in the omission of tsunamis and the vast literature on the role of fluids and pore pressure in frictional strength of faults. Regardless of whether research on earthquake-triggered hydrologic effects ultimately provides insight into the physics of earthquakes, the text provides welcome common ground for interdisciplinary collaborations between hydrologists and seismologists. Such collaborations continue to be crucial for investigating hypotheses about the role of fluids in earthquakes and slow slip. 

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.

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.

Spatial Evaluation and Verification of Earthquake Simulators

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, John Max; Yoder, Mark R.; Rundle, John B.; Turcotte, Donald L.; Schultz, Kasey W.

2017-06-01

In this paper, we address the problem of verifying earthquake simulators with observed data. Earthquake simulators are a class of computational simulations which attempt to mirror the topological complexity of fault systems on which earthquakes occur. In addition, the physics of friction and elastic interactions between fault elements are included in these simulations. Simulation parameters are adjusted so that natural earthquake sequences are matched in their scaling properties. Physically based earthquake simulators can generate many thousands of years of simulated seismicity, allowing for a robust capture of the statistical properties of large, damaging earthquakes that have long recurrence time scales. Verification of simulations against current observed earthquake seismicity is necessary, and following past simulator and forecast model verification methods, we approach the challenges in spatial forecast verification to simulators; namely, that simulator outputs are confined to the modeled faults, while observed earthquake epicenters often occur off of known faults. We present two methods for addressing this discrepancy: a simplistic approach whereby observed earthquakes are shifted to the nearest fault element and a smoothing method based on the power laws of the epidemic-type aftershock (ETAS) model, which distributes the seismicity of each simulated earthquake over the entire test region at a decaying rate with epicentral distance. To test these methods, a receiver operating characteristic plot was produced by comparing the rate maps to observed m>6.0 earthquakes in California since 1980. We found that the nearest-neighbor mapping produced poor forecasts, while the ETAS power-law method produced rate maps that agreed reasonably well with observations.

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.

Dental disease control in Pine Hill, New Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Carberry, Frank J; Cloud, Bill; Finster, Carolyn

2004-02-01

One-year results of a community-operated dental disease control project in Pine Hill, New Mexico. The program uses fluoride, chiefly rinse, and has not only reduced the amount of decay in permanent teeth, but has markedly reduced the need for restorative care of primary teeth.

Children's emotional experience two years after an earthquake: An exploration of knowledge of earthquakes and associated emotions.

Science.gov (United States)

Raccanello, Daniela; Burro, Roberto; Hall, Rob

2017-01-01

We explored whether and how the exposure to a natural disaster such as the 2012 Emilia Romagna earthquake affected the development of children's emotional competence in terms of understanding, regulating, and expressing emotions, after two years, when compared with a control group not exposed to the earthquake. We also examined the role of class level and gender. The sample included two groups of children (n = 127) attending primary school: The experimental group (n = 65) experienced the 2012 Emilia Romagna earthquake, while the control group (n = 62) did not. The data collection took place two years after the earthquake, when children were seven or ten-year-olds. Beyond assessing the children's understanding of emotions and regulating abilities with standardized instruments, we employed semi-structured interviews to explore their knowledge of earthquakes and associated emotions, and a structured task on the intensity of some target emotions. We applied Generalized Linear Mixed Models. Exposure to the earthquake did not influence the understanding and regulation of emotions. The understanding of emotions varied according to class level and gender. Knowledge of earthquakes, emotional language, and emotions associated with earthquakes were, respectively, more complex, frequent, and intense for children who had experienced the earthquake, and at increasing ages. Our data extend the generalizability of theoretical models on children's psychological functioning following disasters, such as the dose-response model and the organizational-developmental model for child resilience, and provide further knowledge on children's emotional resources related to natural disasters, as a basis for planning educational prevention programs.

13 CFR 120.174 - Earthquake hazards.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 13 Business Credit and Assistance 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Earthquake hazards. 120.174... Applying to All Business Loans Requirements Imposed Under Other Laws and Orders § 120.174 Earthquake..., the construction must conform with the “National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (“NEHRP...

Earthquake magnitude estimation using the τ c and P d method for earthquake early warning systems

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Xing; Zhang, Hongcai; Li, Jun; Wei, Yongxiang; Ma, Qiang

2013-10-01

Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems are one of the most effective ways to reduce earthquake disaster. Earthquake magnitude estimation is one of the most important and also the most difficult parts of the entire EEW system. In this paper, based on 142 earthquake events and 253 seismic records that were recorded by the KiK-net in Japan, and aftershocks of the large Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, we obtained earthquake magnitude estimation relationships using the τ c and P d methods. The standard variances of magnitude calculation of these two formulas are ±0.65 and ±0.56, respectively. The P d value can also be used to estimate the peak ground motion of velocity, then warning information can be released to the public rapidly, according to the estimation results. In order to insure the stability and reliability of magnitude estimation results, we propose a compatibility test according to the natures of these two parameters. The reliability of the early warning information is significantly improved though this test.

Environmental protection and regulatory compliance at the Elk Hills field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chappelle, H.H.; Donahoe, R.L.; Kato, T.T.; Ordway, H.E.

1991-01-01

Environmental protection has played an integral role in the development and operation of the Elk Hills field since production at the maximum efficient rate was authorized in 1976. The field is located in a non-attainment area for California and National Ambient Air Quality Standards for two criteria pollutants and their associated precursors, is home to four endangered species, and operates within the California regulatory framework. Environmental protection and regulatory compliance is a multi-faceted program carried out through a substantial commitment of resources and workforce involvement. This paper describes the actions taken and resources employed to protect the environment, specific technologies and projects implemented, and the ongoing nature of these efforts at Elk Hills

One-Way Nested Large-Eddy Simulation over the Askervein Hill

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James D. Doyle

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Large-eddy simulation (LES models have been used extensively to study atmospheric boundary layer turbulence over flat surfaces; however, LES applications over topography are less common. We evaluate the ability of an existing model – COAMPS^®-LES – to simulate flow over terrain using data from the Askervein Hill Project. A new approach is suggested for the treatment of the lateral boundaries using one-way grid nesting. LES wind profile and speed-up are compared with observations at various locations around the hill. The COAMPS-LES model performs generally well. This case could serve as a useful benchmark for evaluating LES models for applications over topography.

Earthquake evaluation of a substation network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuda, E.N.; Savage, W.U.; Williams, K.K.; Laguens, G.C.

1991-01-01

The impact of the occurrence of a large, damaging earthquake on a regional electric power system is a function of the geographical distribution of strong shaking, the vulnerability of various types of electric equipment located within the affected region, and operational resources available to maintain or restore electric system functionality. Experience from numerous worldwide earthquake occurrences has shown that seismic damage to high-voltage substation equipment is typically the reason for post-earthquake loss of electric service. In this paper, the authors develop and apply a methodology to analyze earthquake impacts on Pacific Gas and Electric Company's (PG and E's) high-voltage electric substation network in central and northern California. The authors' objectives are to identify and prioritize ways to reduce the potential impact of future earthquakes on our electric system, refine PG and E's earthquake preparedness and response plans to be more realistic, and optimize seismic criteria for future equipment purchases for the electric system

Stochastic modeling and simulation of reaction-diffusion system with Hill function dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Minghan; Li, Fei; Wang, Shuo; Cao, Young

2017-03-14

Stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems presents great challenges for spatiotemporal biological modeling and simulation. One widely used framework for stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems is reaction diffusion master equation (RDME). Previous studies have discovered that for the RDME, when discretization size approaches zero, reaction time for bimolecular reactions in high dimensional domains tends to infinity. In this paper, we demonstrate that in the 1D domain, highly nonlinear reaction dynamics given by Hill function may also have dramatic change when discretization size is smaller than a critical value. Moreover, we discuss methods to avoid this problem: smoothing over space, fixed length smoothing over space and a hybrid method. Our analysis reveals that the switch-like Hill dynamics reduces to a linear function of discretization size when the discretization size is small enough. The three proposed methods could correctly (under certain precision) simulate Hill function dynamics in the microscopic RDME system.

Update earthquake risk assessment in Cairo, Egypt

Science.gov (United States)

Badawy, Ahmed; Korrat, Ibrahim; El-Hadidy, Mahmoud; Gaber, Hanan

2017-07-01

The Cairo earthquake (12 October 1992; m b = 5.8) is still and after 25 years one of the most painful events and is dug into the Egyptians memory. This is not due to the strength of the earthquake but due to the accompanied losses and damages (561 dead; 10,000 injured and 3000 families lost their homes). Nowadays, the most frequent and important question that should rise is "what if this earthquake is repeated today." In this study, we simulate the same size earthquake (12 October 1992) ground motion shaking and the consequent social-economic impacts in terms of losses and damages. Seismic hazard, earthquake catalogs, soil types, demographics, and building inventories were integrated into HAZUS-MH to produce a sound earthquake risk assessment for Cairo including economic and social losses. Generally, the earthquake risk assessment clearly indicates that "the losses and damages may be increased twice or three times" in Cairo compared to the 1992 earthquake. The earthquake risk profile reveals that five districts (Al-Sahel, El Basateen, Dar El-Salam, Gharb, and Madinat Nasr sharq) lie in high seismic risks, and three districts (Manshiyat Naser, El-Waily, and Wassat (center)) are in low seismic risk level. Moreover, the building damage estimations reflect that Gharb is the highest vulnerable district. The analysis shows that the Cairo urban area faces high risk. Deteriorating buildings and infrastructure make the city particularly vulnerable to earthquake risks. For instance, more than 90 % of the estimated buildings damages are concentrated within the most densely populated (El Basateen, Dar El-Salam, Gharb, and Madinat Nasr Gharb) districts. Moreover, about 75 % of casualties are in the same districts. Actually, an earthquake risk assessment for Cairo represents a crucial application of the HAZUS earthquake loss estimation model for risk management. Finally, for mitigation, risk reduction, and to improve the seismic performance of structures and assure life safety

Swedish earthquakes and acceleration probabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slunga, R.

1979-03-01

A method to assign probabilities to ground accelerations for Swedish sites is described. As hardly any nearfield instrumental data is available we are left with the problem of interpreting macroseismic data in terms of acceleration. By theoretical wave propagation computations the relation between seismic strength of the earthquake, focal depth, distance and ground accelerations are calculated. We found that most Swedish earthquake of the area, the 1904 earthquake 100 km south of Oslo, is an exception and probably had a focal depth exceeding 25 km. For the nuclear power plant sites an annual probability of 10 -5 has been proposed as interesting. This probability gives ground accelerations in the range 5-20 % for the sites. This acceleration is for a free bedrock site. For consistency all acceleration results in this study are given for bedrock sites. When applicating our model to the 1904 earthquake and assuming the focal zone to be in the lower crust we get the epicentral acceleration of this earthquake to be 5-15 % g. The results above are based on an analyses of macrosismic data as relevant instrumental data is lacking. However, the macroseismic acceleration model deduced in this study gives epicentral ground acceleration of small Swedish earthquakes in agreement with existent distant instrumental data. (author)

Earthquake damage to underground facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pratt, H.R.; Hustrulid, W.A.; Stephenson, D.E.

1978-11-01

The potential seismic risk for an underground nuclear waste repository will be one of the considerations in evaluating its ultimate location. However, the risk to subsurface facilities cannot be judged by applying intensity ratings derived from the surface effects of an earthquake. A literature review and analysis were performed to document the damage and non-damage due to earthquakes to underground facilities. Damage from earthquakes to tunnels, s, and wells and damage (rock bursts) from mining operations were investigated. Damage from documented nuclear events was also included in the study where applicable. There are very few data on damage in the subsurface due to earthquakes. This fact itself attests to the lessened effect of earthquakes in the subsurface because mines exist in areas where strong earthquakes have done extensive surface damage. More damage is reported in shallow tunnels near the surface than in deep mines. In mines and tunnels, large displacements occur primarily along pre-existing faults and fractures or at the surface entrance to these facilities.Data indicate vertical structures such as wells and shafts are less susceptible to damage than surface facilities. More analysis is required before seismic criteria can be formulated for the siting of a nuclear waste repository

Radiometric evidence of Middle Devonian inversion of the Hill End Trough, northeast Lachlan Fold Belt

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pakham, G.H.

1999-01-01

The publication of a new geological time-scale by the Australian Geological Survey Organisation and radiometric dates from the Hill End goldfield have prompted the re-examination of the timing of deformation of the Hill End Trough to determine whether it occurred in Middle Devonian or Early Carboniferous time. Palaeontological evidence from the western trough margin and the Capertee High dates the end of deposition in the trough as late Emsian or early Eifelian (385-382 Ma). After a mid-Devonian hiatus of at least 15 million years, paralic sedimentation commenced on the Molong and Capertee Highs in late Frasnian or early Famennian time (367-363 Ma). No Upper Devonian sedimentary formations occur in the Hill End Trough. Structural relationships indicate that the oldest mineral veins at Hill End preceded cleavage formation in the deformed trough sedimentary rocks. Early vein muscovites have Middle Devonian 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dates of 380-370 Ma. Regional metamorphic biotites from Hill End have well constrained 40 Ar/ 39 Ar closing ages of 360-358 Ma (mid-Famennian). The metamorphic (thermal) maximum which outlasted penetrative deformation. is estimated here by modelling to have been about 370 Ma (latest Givetian). This clearly places the earlier main deformation in the Middle Devonian. Deformation probably began by terminating trough deposition in latest Emsian to early Eifelian time and ended in early Givetian time at about 375 Ma ago. Published pressure and temperature data from the Hill End goldfield suggest that deformation thickened the 6 km sediment column to around 11 km. The thermal model suggests there was post-deformation erosion of about 4km and little if any further erosion occurred during Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous time. The shortening accompanying the inversion of the northern Hill End Trough may have been taken up in the region to the south, both east and west of the Copperhannia Thrust, and east of the southern termination of the Capertee High

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.

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.

Automatic Earthquake Detection by Active Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Bergen, K.; Beroza, G. C.

2017-12-01

In recent years, advances in machine learning have transformed fields such as image recognition, natural language processing and recommender systems. Many of these performance gains have relied on the availability of large, labeled data sets to train high-accuracy models; labeled data sets are those for which each sample includes a target class label, such as waveforms tagged as either earthquakes or noise. Earthquake seismologists are increasingly leveraging machine learning and data mining techniques to detect and analyze weak earthquake signals in large seismic data sets. One of the challenges in applying machine learning to seismic data sets is the limited labeled data problem; learning algorithms need to be given examples of earthquake waveforms, but the number of known events, taken from earthquake catalogs, may be insufficient to build an accurate detector. Furthermore, earthquake catalogs are known to be incomplete, resulting in training data that may be biased towards larger events and contain inaccurate labels. This challenge is compounded by the class imbalance problem; the events of interest, earthquakes, are infrequent relative to noise in continuous data sets, and many learning algorithms perform poorly on rare classes. In this work, we investigate the use of active learning for automatic earthquake detection. Active learning is a type of semi-supervised machine learning that uses a human-in-the-loop approach to strategically supplement a small initial training set. The learning algorithm incorporates domain expertise through interaction between a human expert and the algorithm, with the algorithm actively posing queries to the user to improve detection performance. We demonstrate the potential of active machine learning to improve earthquake detection performance with limited available training data.

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

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

Fault geometry and earthquake mechanics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. J. Andrews

1994-06-01

Full Text Available Earthquake mechanics may be determined by the geometry of a fault system. Slip on a fractal branching fault surface can explain: 1 regeneration of stress irregularities in an earthquake; 2 the concentration of stress drop in an earthquake into asperities; 3 starting and stopping of earthquake slip at fault junctions, and 4 self-similar scaling of earthquakes. Slip at fault junctions provides a natural realization of barrier and asperity models without appealing to variations of fault strength. Fault systems are observed to have a branching fractal structure, and slip may occur at many fault junctions in an earthquake. Consider the mechanics of slip at one fault junction. In order to avoid a stress singularity of order 1/r, an intersection of faults must be a triple junction and the Burgers vectors on the three fault segments at the junction must sum to zero. In other words, to lowest order the deformation consists of rigid block displacement, which ensures that the local stress due to the dislocations is zero. The elastic dislocation solution, however, ignores the fact that the configuration of the blocks changes at the scale of the displacement. A volume change occurs at the junction; either a void opens or intense local deformation is required to avoid material overlap. The volume change is proportional to the product of the slip increment and the total slip since the formation of the junction. Energy absorbed at the junction, equal to confining pressure times the volume change, is not large enongh to prevent slip at a new junction. The ratio of energy absorbed at a new junction to elastic energy released in an earthquake is no larger than P/µ where P is confining pressure and µ is the shear modulus. At a depth of 10 km this dimensionless ratio has th value P/µ= 0.01. As slip accumulates at a fault junction in a number of earthquakes, the fault segments are displaced such that they no longer meet at a single point. For this reason the

HILL: The High-Intensity Laser Laboratory Core Team's Reply to Questions from the NNSA Experimental Facilities Panel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albright, B.J.

2012-01-01

Question 1 - The type of physics regimes that HILL can access for weapons studies is quite interesting. The question that arises for the proposal team is what priority does this type of experimental data have versus data that can be obtained with NIF, and Z. How does HILL rank in priority compared to MARIE 1.0 in terms of the experimental data it will provide? We reiterate that isochoric heating experiments to be conducted with HILL are complementary to the high energy density physics experiments at NIF and Z and uniquely access states of matter that neither other facility can access. It is our belief that HILL will enable several important questions, e.g., as related to mix morphology, radiation transfer from corrugated surfaces, and equations of state, to be run to ground through carefully diagnosed, 'unit-physics' experiments. Such experiments will substantially improve confidence in our computer models and provide a rigorous science basis for certification. Question 2 - A secondary question relates to the interests of LLNL and SNL in the physics that HILL can address. This should be spelled out clearly. I would like to see the other labs be part of the discussion regarding how important this capability would be if built. Both sister Labs have a keen interest in the physics enabled by high-intensity, high-energy lasers, as evinced by the Z Petawatt and NIF ARC upgrades to their signature facilities. LANL scientists have teamed with scientists from both Laboratories in high-intensity laser 'first experiments' envisioned for HILL and we fully intend to continue these profitable discussions going forward. In the preparation of the HILL proposal, feedback was solicited from the broader HEDP and weapons science communities. The consensus view was that HILL filled a critical gap and that there was a need for a facility like HILL to address outstanding questions in weapons science. It was recognized that co-location of HILL with a facility such as MaRIE 1.0, Z, NIF, or

Determination of Design Basis Earthquake ground motion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kato, Muneaki [Japan Atomic Power Co., Tokyo (Japan)

1997-03-01

This paper describes principle of determining of Design Basis Earthquake following the Examination Guide, some examples on actual sites including earthquake sources to be considered, earthquake response spectrum and simulated seismic waves. In sppendix of this paper, furthermore, seismic safety review for N.P.P designed before publication of the Examination Guide was summarized with Check Basis Earthquake. (J.P.N.)

Determination of Design Basis Earthquake ground motion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kato, Muneaki

1997-01-01

This paper describes principle of determining of Design Basis Earthquake following the Examination Guide, some examples on actual sites including earthquake sources to be considered, earthquake response spectrum and simulated seismic waves. In sppendix of this paper, furthermore, seismic safety review for N.P.P designed before publication of the Examination Guide was summarized with Check Basis Earthquake. (J.P.N.)

Geologic map of the Bodie Hills, California and Nevada

Science.gov (United States)

John, David A.; du Bray, Edward A.; Box, Stephen E.; Vikre, Peter G.; Rytuba, James J.; Fleck, Robert J.; Moring, Barry C.

2015-01-01

The Bodie Hills covers about 1,200 km2 straddling the California-Nevada state boundary just north of Mono Lake in the western part of the Basin and Range Province, about 20 km east of the central Sierra Nevada. The area is mostly underlain by the partly overlapping, middle to late Miocene Bodie Hills volcanic field and Pliocene to late Pleistocene Aurora volcanic field (John and others, 2012). Upper Miocene to Pliocene sedimentary deposits, mostly basin-filling sediments, gravel deposits, and fanglomerates, lap onto the west, north, and east sides of the Bodie Hills, where they cover older Miocene volcanic rocks. Quaternary surficial deposits, including extensive colluvial, fluvial, glacial, and lacustrine deposits, locally cover all older rocks. Miocene and younger rocks are tilted ≤30° in variable directions. These rocks are cut by several sets of high-angle faults that exhibit a temporal change from conjugate northeast-striking left-lateral and north-striking right-lateral oblique-slip faults in rocks older than about 9 Ma to north- and northwest-striking dip-slip faults in late Miocene rocks. The youngest faults are north-striking normal and northeast-striking left-lateral oblique-slip faults that cut Pliocene-Pleistocene rocks. Numerous hydrothermal systems were active during Miocene magmatism and formed extensive zones of hydrothermally altered rocks and several large mineral deposits, including gold- and silver-rich veins in the Bodie and Aurora mining districts (Vikre and others, in press).

Impact- and earthquake- proof roof structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shohara, Ryoichi.

1990-01-01

Building roofs are constituted with roof slabs, an earthquake proof layer at the upper surface thereof and an impact proof layer made of iron-reinforced concrete disposed further thereover. Since the roofs constitute an earthquake proof structure loading building dampers on the upper surface of the slabs by the concrete layer, seismic inputs of earthquakes to the buildings can be moderated and the impact-proof layer is formed, to ensure the safety to external conditions such as earthquakes or falling accidents of airplane in important facilities such as reactor buildings. (T.M.)

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.

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.

The Road to Total Earthquake Safety

Science.gov (United States)

Frohlich, Cliff

Cinna Lomnitz is possibly the most distinguished earthquake seismologist in all of Central and South America. Among many other credentials, Lomnitz has personally experienced the shaking and devastation that accompanied no fewer than five major earthquakes—Chile, 1939; Kern County, California, 1952; Chile, 1960; Caracas,Venezuela, 1967; and Mexico City, 1985. Thus he clearly has much to teach someone like myself, who has never even actually felt a real earthquake.What is this slim book? The Road to Total Earthquake Safety summarizes Lomnitz's May 1999 presentation at the Seventh Mallet-Milne Lecture, sponsored by the Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics. His arguments are motivated by the damage that occurred in three earthquakes—Mexico City, 1985; Loma Prieta, California, 1989; and Kobe, Japan, 1995. All three quakes occurred in regions where earthquakes are common. Yet in all three some of the worst damage occurred in structures located a significant distance from the epicenter and engineered specifically to resist earthquakes. Some of the damage also indicated that the structures failed because they had experienced considerable rotational or twisting motion. Clearly, Lomnitz argues, there must be fundamental flaws in the usually accepted models explaining how earthquakes generate strong motions, and how we should design resistant structures.

Earthquake forecasting test for Kanto district to reduce vulnerability of urban mega earthquake disasters

Science.gov (United States)

Yokoi, S.; Tsuruoka, H.; Nanjo, K.; Hirata, N.

2012-12-01

Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP) is a global project on earthquake predictability research. The final goal of this project is to search for the intrinsic predictability of the earthquake rupture process through forecast testing experiments. The Earthquake Research Institute, the University of Tokyo joined CSEP and started the Japanese testing center called as CSEP-Japan. This testing center provides an open access to researchers contributing earthquake forecast models applied to Japan. Now more than 100 earthquake forecast models were submitted on the prospective experiment. The models are separated into 4 testing classes (1 day, 3 months, 1 year and 3 years) and 3 testing regions covering an area of Japan including sea area, Japanese mainland and Kanto district. We evaluate the performance of the models in the official suite of tests defined by CSEP. The total number of experiments was implemented for approximately 300 rounds. These results provide new knowledge concerning statistical forecasting models. We started a study for constructing a 3-dimensional earthquake forecasting model for Kanto district in Japan based on CSEP experiments under the Special Project for Reducing Vulnerability for Urban Mega Earthquake Disasters. Because seismicity of the area ranges from shallower part to a depth of 80 km due to subducting Philippine Sea plate and Pacific plate, we need to study effect of depth distribution. We will develop models for forecasting based on the results of 2-D modeling. We defined the 3D - forecasting area in the Kanto region with test classes of 1 day, 3 months, 1 year and 3 years, and magnitudes from 4.0 to 9.0 as in CSEP-Japan. In the first step of the study, we will install RI10K model (Nanjo, 2011) and the HISTETAS models (Ogata, 2011) to know if those models have good performance as in the 3 months 2-D CSEP-Japan experiments in the Kanto region before the 2011 Tohoku event (Yokoi et al., in preparation). We use CSEP

Temporal stress changes caused by earthquakes: A review

Science.gov (United States)

Hardebeck, Jeanne L.; Okada, Tomomi

2018-01-01

Earthquakes can change the stress field in the Earth’s lithosphere as they relieve and redistribute stress. Earthquake-induced stress changes have been observed as temporal rotations of the principal stress axes following major earthquakes in a variety of tectonic settings. The stress changes due to the 2011 Mw9.0 Tohoku-Oki, Japan, earthquake were particularly well documented. Earthquake stress rotations can inform our understanding of earthquake physics, most notably addressing the long-standing problem of whether the Earth’s crust at plate boundaries is “strong” or “weak.” Many of the observed stress rotations, including that due to the Tohoku-Oki earthquake, indicate near-complete stress drop in the mainshock. This implies low background differential stress, on the order of earthquake stress drop, supporting the weak crust model. Earthquake stress rotations can also be used to address other important geophysical questions, such as the level of crustal stress heterogeneity and the mechanisms of postseismic stress reloading. The quantitative interpretation of stress rotations is evolving from those based on simple analytical methods to those based on more sophisticated numerical modeling that can capture the spatial-temporal complexity of the earthquake stress changes.

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.

Living with earthquakes - development and usage of earthquake-resistant construction methods in European and Asian Antiquity

Science.gov (United States)

Kázmér, Miklós; Major, Balázs; Hariyadi, Agus; Pramumijoyo, Subagyo; Ditto Haryana, Yohanes

2010-05-01

Earthquakes are among the most horrible events of nature due to unexpected occurrence, for which no spiritual means are available for protection. The only way of preserving life and property is applying earthquake-resistant construction methods. Ancient Greek architects of public buildings applied steel clamps embedded in lead casing to hold together columns and masonry walls during frequent earthquakes in the Aegean region. Elastic steel provided strength, while plastic lead casing absorbed minor shifts of blocks without fracturing rigid stone. Romans invented concrete and built all sizes of buildings as a single, unflexible unit. Masonry surrounding and decorating concrete core of the wall did not bear load. Concrete resisted minor shaking, yielding only to forces higher than fracture limits. Roman building traditions survived the Dark Ages and 12th century Crusader castles erected in earthquake-prone Syria survive until today in reasonably good condition. Concrete and steel clamping persisted side-by-side in the Roman Empire. Concrete was used for cheap construction as compared to building of masonry. Applying lead-encased steel increased costs, and was avoided whenever possible. Columns of the various forums in Italian Pompeii mostly lack steel fittings despite situated in well-known earthquake-prone area. Whether frequent recurrence of earthquakes in the Naples region was known to inhabitants of Pompeii might be a matter of debate. Seemingly the shock of the AD 62 earthquake was not enough to apply well-known protective engineering methods throughout the reconstruction of the city before the AD 79 volcanic catastrophe. An independent engineering tradition developed on the island of Java (Indonesia). The mortar-less construction technique of 8-9th century Hindu masonry shrines around Yogyakarta would allow scattering of blocks during earthquakes. To prevent dilapidation an intricate mortise-and-tenon system was carved into adjacent faces of blocks. Only the

Bam Earthquake in Iran

CERN Multimedia

2004-01-01

Following their request for help from members of international organisations, the permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran has given the following bank account number, where you can donate money to help the victims of the Bam earthquake. Re: Bam earthquake 235 - UBS 311264.35L Bubenberg Platz 3001 BERN

Comparison of Genetic Algorithm and Hill Climbing for Shortest Path Optimization Mapping

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fronita Mona

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP is an optimization to find the shortest path to reach several destinations in one trip without passing through the same city and back again to the early departure city, the process is applied to the delivery systems. This comparison is done using two methods, namely optimization genetic algorithm and hill climbing. Hill Climbing works by directly selecting a new path that is exchanged with the neighbour’s to get the track distance smaller than the previous track, without testing. Genetic algorithms depend on the input parameters, they are the number of population, the probability of crossover, mutation probability and the number of generations. To simplify the process of determining the shortest path supported by the development of software that uses the google map API. Tests carried out as much as 20 times with the number of city 8, 16, 24 and 32 to see which method is optimal in terms of distance and time computation. Based on experiments conducted with a number of cities 3, 4, 5 and 6 producing the same value and optimal distance for the genetic algorithm and hill climbing, the value of this distance begins to differ with the number of city 7. The overall results shows that these tests, hill climbing are more optimal to number of small cities and the number of cities over 30 optimized using genetic algorithms.

Assessment of earthquake-induced landslides hazard in El Salvador after the 2001 earthquakes using macroseismic analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Esposito, Eliana; Violante, Crescenzo; Giunta, Giuseppe; Ángel Hernández, Miguel

2016-04-01

Two strong earthquakes and a number of smaller aftershocks struck El Salvador in the year 2001. The January 13 2001 earthquake, Mw 7.7, occurred along the Cocos plate, 40 km off El Salvador southern coast. It resulted in about 1300 deaths and widespread damage, mainly due to massive landsliding. Two of the largest earthquake-induced landslides, Las Barioleras and Las Colinas (about 2x105 m3) produced major damage to buildings and infrastructures and 500 fatalities. A neighborhood in Santa Tecla, west of San Salvador, was destroyed. The February 13 2001 earthquake, Mw 6.5, occurred 40 km east-southeast of San Salvador. This earthquake caused over 300 fatalities and triggered several landslides over an area of 2,500 km2 mostly in poorly consolidated volcaniclastic deposits. The La Leona landslide (5-7x105 m3) caused 12 fatalities and extensive damage to the Panamerican Highway. Two very large landslides of 1.5 km3 and 12 km3 produced hazardous barrier lakes at Rio El Desague and Rio Jiboa, respectively. More than 16.000 landslides occurred throughout the country after both quakes; most of them occurred in pyroclastic deposits, with a volume less than 1x103m3. The present work aims to define the relationship between the above described earthquake intensity, size and areal distribution of induced landslides, as well as to refine the earthquake intensity in sparsely populated zones by using landslide effects. Landslides triggered by the 2001 seismic sequences provided useful indication for a realistic seismic hazard assessment, providing a basis for understanding, evaluating, and mapping the hazard and risk associated with earthquake-induced landslides.

Testing earthquake source inversion methodologies

KAUST Repository

Page, Morgan T.; Mai, Paul Martin; Schorlemmer, Danijel

2011-01-01

Source Inversion Validation Workshop; Palm Springs, California, 11-12 September 2010; Nowadays earthquake source inversions are routinely performed after large earthquakes and represent a key connection between recorded seismic and geodetic data

Inter-Disciplinary Validation of Pre Earthquake Signals. Case Study for Major Earthquakes in Asia (2004-2010) and for 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Ouzounov, D.; Pulinets, S.; Hattori, K.; Liu, J.-Y.; Yang. T. Y.; Parrot, M.; Kafatos, M.; Taylor, P.

2012-01-01

We carried out multi-sensors observations in our investigation of phenomena preceding major earthquakes. Our approach is based on a systematic analysis of several physical and environmental parameters, which we found, associated with the earthquake processes: thermal infrared radiation, temperature and concentration of electrons in the ionosphere, radon/ion activities, and air temperature/humidity in the atmosphere. We used satellite and ground observations and interpreted them with the Lithosphere-Atmosphere- Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC) model, one of possible paradigms we study and support. We made two independent continues hind-cast investigations in Taiwan and Japan for total of 102 earthquakes (M>6) occurring from 2004-2011. We analyzed: (1) ionospheric electromagnetic radiation, plasma and energetic electron measurements from DEMETER (2) emitted long-wavelength radiation (OLR) from NOAA/AVHRR and NASA/EOS; (3) radon/ion variations (in situ data); and 4) GPS Total Electron Content (TEC) measurements collected from space and ground based observations. This joint analysis of ground and satellite data has shown that one to six (or more) days prior to the largest earthquakes there were anomalies in all of the analyzed physical observations. For the latest March 11 , 2011 Tohoku earthquake, our analysis shows again the same relationship between several independent observations characterizing the lithosphere /atmosphere coupling. On March 7th we found a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation observed from satellite data and subsequently an anomaly developed near the epicenter. The GPS/TEC data indicated an increase and variation in electron density reaching a maximum value on March 8. Beginning from this day we confirmed an abnormal TEC variation over the epicenter in the lower ionosphere. These findings revealed the existence of atmospheric and ionospheric phenomena occurring prior to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, which indicated new evidence of a distinct

POST Earthquake Debris Management - AN Overview

Science.gov (United States)

Sarkar, Raju

Every year natural disasters, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, tsunami, and tornadoes, challenge various communities of the world. Earthquakes strike with varying degrees of severity and pose both short- and long-term challenges to public service providers. Earthquakes generate shock waves and displace the ground along fault lines. These seismic forces can bring down buildings and bridges in a localized area and damage buildings and other structures in a far wider area. Secondary damage from fires, explosions, and localized flooding from broken water pipes can increase the amount of debris. Earthquake debris includes building materials, personal property, and sediment from landslides. The management of this debris, as well as the waste generated during the reconstruction works, can place significant challenges on the national and local capacities. Debris removal is a major component of every post earthquake recovery operation. Much of the debris generated from earthquake is not hazardous. Soil, building material, and green waste, such as trees and shrubs, make up most of the volume of earthquake debris. These wastes not only create significant health problems and a very unpleasant living environment if not disposed of safely and appropriately, but also can subsequently impose economical burdens on the reconstruction phase. In practice, most of the debris may be either disposed of at landfill sites, reused as materials for construction or recycled into useful commodities Therefore, the debris clearance operation should focus on the geotechnical engineering approach as an important post earthquake issue to control the quality of the incoming flow of potential soil materials. In this paper, the importance of an emergency management perspective in this geotechnical approach that takes into account the different criteria related to the operation execution is proposed by highlighting the key issues concerning the handling of the construction

Geology of the hills in the region of the City of Santiago de Chile: New isotopic constraints

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vergara, M; Lopez-Escobar, I; Palma, J.L; Hickey-Vargas, R

2001-01-01

Geological, geochronological and geochemical data demonstrate that the area where the city of Santiago de Chile is established used to be a huge volcanic field. At present, it is possible to distinguish in the area at least three volcanic cycles, which are geographically superimposed and deeply eroded. The first is Oligocene in age, the second Lower to Middle Miocene and the third is Middle to Upper Miocene. The Oligocene cycle is represented by volcanic and volcanoclastic rocks of the Provincia-San Ramon-Abanico and Conchali belts, and welded tuffs of the San Cristobal and Renca hills. The Lower to Middle Miocene cycle consists of subvolcanic rocks, mostly of basaltic to basaltic-andesite composition, characterized by the presence of clino- and orthopyroxene. The Middle to Upper Miocene cycle is composed predominantly of amphibole-bearing subvolcanic rocks of dacitic composition. The latter are found at the Manquehue hill, which limits the northern part of the city, and the hills at the Rinconada de Conchali. In this communication, we present new Sr-, Nd- and Pb- isotope data obtained from two subvolcanic samples of basaltic composition collected from the San Cristobal hill and at the Santa Lucia hill (Lower to Middle Miocene) and one amphibole-bearing subvolcanic sample of dacitic composition from the Manquehue hill (Middle to Upper Miocene) (au)

Simulating Earthquakes for Science and Society: Earthquake Visualizations Ideal for use in Science Communication and Education

Science.gov (United States)

de Groot, R.

2008-12-01

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) has been developing groundbreaking computer modeling capabilities for studying earthquakes. These visualizations were initially shared within the scientific community but have recently gained visibility via television news coverage in Southern California. Computers have opened up a whole new world for scientists working with large data sets, and students can benefit from the same opportunities (Libarkin & Brick, 2002). For example, The Great Southern California ShakeOut was based on a potential magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the southern San Andreas fault. The visualization created for the ShakeOut was a key scientific and communication tool for the earthquake drill. This presentation will also feature SCEC Virtual Display of Objects visualization software developed by SCEC Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology interns. According to Gordin and Pea (1995), theoretically visualization should make science accessible, provide means for authentic inquiry, and lay the groundwork to understand and critique scientific issues. This presentation will discuss how the new SCEC visualizations and other earthquake imagery achieve these results, how they fit within the context of major themes and study areas in science communication, and how the efficacy of these tools can be improved.

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.

Building with Earthquakes in Mind

Science.gov (United States)

Mangieri, Nicholas

2016-04-01

Earthquakes are some of the most elusive and destructive disasters humans interact with on this planet. Engineering structures to withstand earthquake shaking is critical to ensure minimal loss of life and property. However, the majority of buildings today in non-traditional earthquake prone areas are not built to withstand this devastating force. Understanding basic earthquake engineering principles and the effect of limited resources helps students grasp the challenge that lies ahead. The solution can be found in retrofitting existing buildings with proper reinforcements and designs to deal with this deadly disaster. The students were challenged in this project to construct a basic structure, using limited resources, that could withstand a simulated tremor through the use of an earthquake shake table. Groups of students had to work together to creatively manage their resources and ideas to design the most feasible and realistic type of building. This activity provided a wealth of opportunities for the students to learn more about a type of disaster they do not experience in this part of the country. Due to the fact that most buildings in New York City were not designed to withstand earthquake shaking, the students were able to gain an appreciation for how difficult it would be to prepare every structure in the city for this type of event.

Spectral element modelling of seismic wave propagation in visco-elastoplastic media including excess-pore pressure development

Science.gov (United States)

Oral, Elif; Gélis, Céline; Bonilla, Luis Fabián; Delavaud, Elise

2017-12-01

Numerical modelling of seismic wave propagation, considering soil nonlinearity, has become a major topic in seismic hazard studies when strong shaking is involved under particular soil conditions. Indeed, when strong ground motion propagates in saturated soils, pore pressure is another important parameter to take into account when successive phases of contractive and dilatant soil behaviour are expected. Here, we model 1-D seismic wave propagation in linear and nonlinear media using the spectral element numerical method. The study uses a three-component (3C) nonlinear rheology and includes pore-pressure excess. The 1-D-3C model is used to study the 1987 Superstition Hills earthquake (ML 6.6), which was recorded at the Wildlife Refuge Liquefaction Array, USA. The data of this event present strong soil nonlinearity involving pore-pressure effects. The ground motion is numerically modelled for different assumptions on soil rheology and input motion (1C versus 3C), using the recorded borehole signals as input motion. The computed acceleration-time histories show low-frequency amplification and strong high-frequency damping due to the development of pore pressure in one of the soil layers. Furthermore, the soil is found to be more nonlinear and more dilatant under triaxial loading compared to the classical 1C analysis, and significant differences in surface displacements are observed between the 1C and 3C approaches. This study contributes to identify and understand the dominant phenomena occurring in superficial layers, depending on local soil properties and input motions, conditions relevant for site-specific studies.

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.

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.

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

Laboratory generated M -6 earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

McLaskey, Gregory C.; Kilgore, Brian D.; Lockner, David A.; Beeler, Nicholas M.

2014-01-01

We consider whether mm-scale earthquake-like seismic events generated in laboratory experiments are consistent with our understanding of the physics of larger earthquakes. This work focuses on a population of 48 very small shocks that are foreshocks and aftershocks of stick–slip events occurring on a 2.0 m by 0.4 m simulated strike-slip fault cut through a large granite sample. Unlike the larger stick–slip events that rupture the entirety of the simulated fault, the small foreshocks and aftershocks are contained events whose properties are controlled by the rigidity of the surrounding granite blocks rather than characteristics of the experimental apparatus. The large size of the experimental apparatus, high fidelity sensors, rigorous treatment of wave propagation effects, and in situ system calibration separates this study from traditional acoustic emission analyses and allows these sources to be studied with as much rigor as larger natural earthquakes. The tiny events have short (3–6 μs) rise times and are well modeled by simple double couple focal mechanisms that are consistent with left-lateral slip occurring on a mm-scale patch of the precut fault surface. The repeatability of the experiments indicates that they are the result of frictional processes on the simulated fault surface rather than grain crushing or fracture of fresh rock. Our waveform analysis shows no significant differences (other than size) between the M -7 to M -5.5 earthquakes reported here and larger natural earthquakes. Their source characteristics such as stress drop (1–10 MPa) appear to be entirely consistent with earthquake scaling laws derived for larger earthquakes.

Meteorological observations in support of a hill cap cloud experiment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nielsen, Morten

1998-06-01

Humid air flows form a hill cap cloud over the Agana mountain ridge in the north-east of Tenerife. The HILLCLOUD project utilised this cloud formation to investigate the chemical and physical properties of cloud aerosols by land based observations. The project was part of the second Aerosol characterisation Experiment (ACE-2) of the International Global Atmospheric chemistry project (IGAC). The present report describes meteorological observations in support of the hill cap cloud experiment. Time-series of wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity were collected at ground-based meteorological stations during a period starting one year in advance of the main campaign. A series of radiosonde detecting the upstream stability and wind profile were launched during the main campaign. (au) 5 tabs., 32 ills., 6 refs.

Radon, gas geochemistry, groundwater, and earthquakes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

King, Chi-Yu [Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., Tono Geoscience Center, Toki, Gifu (Japan)

1998-12-31

Radon monitoring in groundwater, soil air, and atmosphere has been continued in many seismic areas of the world for earthquake-prediction and active-fault studies. Some recent measurements of radon and other geochemical and hydrological parameters have been made for sufficiently long periods, with reliable instruments, and together with measurements of meteorological variables and solid-earth tides. The resultant data are useful in better distinguishing earthquake-related changes from various background noises. Some measurements have been carried out in areas where other geophysical measurements are being made also. Comparative studies of various kinds of geophysical data are helpful in ascertaining the reality of the earthquake-related and fault-related anomalies and in understanding the underlying mechanisms. Spatial anomalies of radon and other terrestrial gasses have been observed for many active faults. Such observations indicate that gas concentrations are very much site dependent, particularly on fault zones where terrestrial fluids may move vertically. Temporal anomalies have been reliably observed before and after some recent earthquakes, including the 1995 Kobe earthquake, and the general pattern of anomaly occurrence remains the same as observed before: They are recorded at only relatively few sensitive sites, which can be at much larger distances than expected from existing earthquake-source models. The sensitivity of a sensitive site is also found to be changeable with time. These results clearly show the inadequacy of the existing dilatancy-fluid diffusion and elastic-dislocation models for earthquake sources to explain earthquake-related geochemical and geophysical changes recorded at large distances. (J.P.N.)

The Christchurch earthquake stroke incidence study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Teddy Y; Cheung, Jeanette; Cole, David; Fink, John N

2014-03-01

We examined the impact of major earthquakes on acute stroke admissions by a retrospective review of stroke admissions in the 6 weeks following the 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011 earthquakes. The control period was the corresponding 6 weeks in the previous year. In the 6 weeks following the September 2010 earthquake there were 97 acute stroke admissions, with 79 (81.4%) ischaemic infarctions. This was similar to the 2009 control period which had 104 acute stroke admissions, of whom 80 (76.9%) had ischaemic infarction. In the 6 weeks following the February 2011 earthquake, there were 71 stroke admissions, and 61 (79.2%) were ischaemic infarction. This was less than the 96 strokes (72 [75%] ischaemic infarction) in the corresponding control period. None of the comparisons were statistically significant. There was also no difference in the rate of cardioembolic infarction from atrial fibrillation between the study periods. Patients admitted during the February 2011 earthquake period were less likely to be discharged directly home when compared to the control period (31.2% versus 46.9%, p=0.036). There was no observable trend in the number of weekly stroke admissions between the 2 weeks leading to and 6 weeks following the earthquakes. Our results suggest that severe psychological stress from earthquakes did not influence the subsequent short term risk of acute stroke, but the severity of the earthquake in February 2011 and associated civil structural damages may have influenced the pattern of discharge for stroke patients. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Source modeling of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Nepal (Gorkha) earthquake sequence: Implications for geodynamics and earthquake hazards

Science.gov (United States)

McNamara, D. E.; Yeck, W. L.; Barnhart, W. D.; Schulte-Pelkum, V.; Bergman, E.; Adhikari, L. B.; Dixit, A.; Hough, S. E.; Benz, H. M.; Earle, P. S.

2017-09-01

The Gorkha earthquake on April 25th, 2015 was a long anticipated, low-angle thrust-faulting event on the shallow décollement between the India and Eurasia plates. We present a detailed multiple-event hypocenter relocation analysis of the Mw 7.8 Gorkha Nepal earthquake sequence, constrained by local seismic stations, and a geodetic rupture model based on InSAR and GPS data. We integrate these observations to place the Gorkha earthquake sequence into a seismotectonic context and evaluate potential earthquake hazard. Major results from this study include (1) a comprehensive catalog of calibrated hypocenters for the Gorkha earthquake sequence; (2) the Gorkha earthquake ruptured a 150 × 60 km patch of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), the décollement defining the plate boundary at depth, over an area surrounding but predominantly north of the capital city of Kathmandu (3) the distribution of aftershock seismicity surrounds the mainshock maximum slip patch; (4) aftershocks occur at or below the mainshock rupture plane with depths generally increasing to the north beneath the higher Himalaya, possibly outlining a 10-15 km thick subduction channel between the overriding Eurasian and subducting Indian plates; (5) the largest Mw 7.3 aftershock and the highest concentration of aftershocks occurred to the southeast the mainshock rupture, on a segment of the MHT décollement that was positively stressed towards failure; (6) the near surface portion of the MHT south of Kathmandu shows no aftershocks or slip during the mainshock. Results from this study characterize the details of the Gorkha earthquake sequence and provide constraints on where earthquake hazard remains high, and thus where future, damaging earthquakes may occur in this densely populated region. Up-dip segments of the MHT should be considered to be high hazard for future damaging earthquakes.

Plant state display device after occurrence of earthquake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitada, Yoshio; Yonekura, Kazuyoshi.

1992-01-01

If a nuclear power plant should encounter earthquakes, an earthquake response analysis value previously stored and the earthquakes observed are compared to judge the magnitude of the earthquakes. From the result of the judgement, a possibility that an abnormality is recognized in plant equipment systems after the earthquakes is evaluated, in comparison with a previously stored earthquake fragility data base of each of equipment/systems. The result of the evaluation is displayed in a central control chamber. The plant equipment system is judged such that abnormalities are recognized at a high probability is evaluated by a previously stored earthquake PSA method for the influence of the abnormality on plant safety, and the result is displayed in the central control chamber. (I.S.)

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....

EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH PROBLEMS OF NUCLEAR POWER GENERATORS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Housner, G. W.; Hudson, D. E.

1963-10-15

Earthquake problems associated with the construction of nuclear power generators require a more extensive and a more precise knowledge of earthquake characteristics and the dynamic behavior of structures than was considered necessary for ordinary buildings. Economic considerations indicate the desirability of additional research on the problems of earthquakes and nuclear reactors. The nature of these earthquake-resistant design problems is discussed and programs of research are recommended. (auth)

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)

Antioptimization of earthquake exitation and response

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Zuccaro

1998-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a novel approach to predict the response of earthquake-excited structures. The earthquake excitation is expanded in terms of series of deterministic functions. The coefficients of the series are represented as a point in N-dimensional space. Each available ccelerogram at a certain site is then represented as a point in the above space, modeling the available fragmentary historical data. The minimum volume ellipsoid, containing all points, is constructed. The ellipsoidal models of uncertainty, pertinent to earthquake excitation, are developed. The maximum response of a structure, subjected to the earthquake excitation, within ellipsoidal modeling of the latter, is determined. This procedure of determining least favorable response was termed in the literature (Elishakoff, 1991 as an antioptimization. It appears that under inherent uncertainty of earthquake excitation, antioptimization analysis is a viable alternative to stochastic approach.

Modified Mercalli intensities for some recent California earthquakes and historic San Francisco Bay Region earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Bakun, William H.

1998-01-01

Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) data for recent California earthquakes were used by Bakun and Wentworth (1997) to develop a strategy for bounding the location and moment magnitude M of earthquakes from MMI observations only. Bakun (Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., submitted) used the Bakun and Wentworth (1997) strategy to analyze 19th century and early 20th century San Francisco Bay Region earthquakes. The MMI data and site corrections used in these studies are listed in this Open-file Report. 

<> earthquakes: a growing contribution to the Catalogue of Strong Italian Earthquakes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Guidoboni

2000-06-01

Full Text Available The particular structure of the research into historical seismology found in this catalogue has allowed a lot of information about unknown seismic events to be traced. This new contribution to seismologic knowledge mainly consists in: i the retrieval and organisation within a coherent framework of documentary evidence of earthquakes that took place between the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century; ii the improved knowledge of seismic events, even destructive events, which in the past had been "obscured" by large earthquakes; iii the identification of earthquakes in "silent" seismic areas. The complex elements to be taken into account when dealing with unknown seismic events have been outlined; much "new" information often falls into one of the following categories: simple chronological errors relative to other well-known events; descriptions of other natural phenomena, though defined in texts as "earthquakes" (landslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.; unknown tremors belonging to known seismic periods; tremors that may be connected with events which have been catalogued under incorrect dates and with very approximate estimates of location and intensity. This proves that this was not a real seismic "silence" but a research vacuum.

Smartphone MEMS accelerometers and earthquake early warning

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Q.; Allen, R. M.; Schreier, L.; Kwon, Y. W.

2015-12-01

The low cost MEMS accelerometers in the smartphones are attracting more and more attentions from the science community due to the vast number and potential applications in various areas. We are using the accelerometers inside the smartphones to detect the earthquakes. We did shake table tests to show these accelerometers are also suitable to record large shakings caused by earthquakes. We developed an android app - MyShake, which can even distinguish earthquake movements from daily human activities from the recordings recorded by the accelerometers in personal smartphones and upload trigger information/waveform to our server for further analysis. The data from these smartphones forms a unique datasets for seismological applications, such as earthquake early warning. In this talk I will layout the method we used to recognize earthquake-like movement from single smartphone, and the overview of the whole system that harness the information from a network of smartphones for rapid earthquake detection. This type of system can be easily deployed and scaled up around the global and provides additional insights of the earthquake hazards.

Ionospheric precursors for crustal earthquakes in Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Perrone

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Crustal earthquakes with magnitude 6.0>M≥5.5 observed in Italy for the period 1979–2009 including the last one at L'Aquila on 6 April 2009 were considered to check if the earlier obtained relationships for ionospheric precursors for strong Japanese earthquakes are valid for the Italian moderate earthquakes. The ionospheric precursors are based on the observed variations of the sporadic E-layer parameters (h'Es, fbEs and foF2 at the ionospheric station Rome. Empirical dependencies for the seismo-ionospheric disturbances relating the earthquake magnitude and the epicenter distance are obtained and they have been shown to be similar to those obtained earlier for Japanese earthquakes. The dependences indicate the process of spreading the disturbance from the epicenter towards periphery during the earthquake preparation process. Large lead times for the precursor occurrence (up to 34 days for M=5.8–5.9 tells about a prolong preparation period. A possibility of using the obtained relationships for the earthquakes prediction is discussed.

Fundamental questions of earthquake statistics, source behavior, and the estimation of earthquake probabilities from possible foreshocks

Science.gov (United States)

Michael, Andrew J.

2012-01-01

Estimates of the probability that an ML 4.8 earthquake, which occurred near the southern end of the San Andreas fault on 24 March 2009, would be followed by an M 7 mainshock over the following three days vary from 0.0009 using a Gutenberg–Richter model of aftershock statistics (Reasenberg and Jones, 1989) to 0.04 using a statistical model of foreshock behavior and long‐term estimates of large earthquake probabilities, including characteristic earthquakes (Agnew and Jones, 1991). I demonstrate that the disparity between the existing approaches depends on whether or not they conform to Gutenberg–Richter behavior. While Gutenberg–Richter behavior is well established over large regions, it could be violated on individual faults if they have characteristic earthquakes or over small areas if the spatial distribution of large‐event nucleations is disproportional to the rate of smaller events. I develop a new form of the aftershock model that includes characteristic behavior and combines the features of both models. This new model and the older foreshock model yield the same results when given the same inputs, but the new model has the advantage of producing probabilities for events of all magnitudes, rather than just for events larger than the initial one. Compared with the aftershock model, the new model has the advantage of taking into account long‐term earthquake probability models. Using consistent parameters, the probability of an M 7 mainshock on the southernmost San Andreas fault is 0.0001 for three days from long‐term models and the clustering probabilities following the ML 4.8 event are 0.00035 for a Gutenberg–Richter distribution and 0.013 for a characteristic‐earthquake magnitude–frequency distribution. Our decisions about the existence of characteristic earthquakes and how large earthquakes nucleate have a first‐order effect on the probabilities obtained from short‐term clustering models for these large events.

Stratigraphy and paleontology of fossil hill Peninsula Fildes, Rey Jorge island, Antarctica: a new approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perea, D.; Masquelin, H.; Verde, M.; Guerequiz, R.

1998-01-01

Results of the first Uruguayan paleontologic and biostratigraphical investigations in Antarctica are presented.The field work was performed in Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, near the Uruguayan station Base Cientifica Antartida Artigas. Some fossiliferous outcrops were geologic and pale ontologically analyzed, among them the Fossil Hill, placed in the middle part of the peninsula, in front of Ardley Island between the Chinese and Chilean stations. This hill is composed of fossil bearing piroclastic and epiclastic rocks, assigned to the Fossil Hill Fm.Vegetal remains (petrified wood and leaf impronts)were observed and collected in this unit and it is remarkable the presence of Nothofagus sp. and invertebrate trace fossils Cochlichnus isp and Helminthopsis isp.

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. 

Lithium in Jack Hills zircons: Evidence for extensive weathering of Earth's earliest crust

Science.gov (United States)

Ushikubo, Takayuki; Kita, Noriko T.; Cavosie, Aaron J.; Wilde, Simon A.; Rudnick, Roberta L.; Valley, John W.

2008-08-01

In situ Li analyses of 4348 to 3362 Ma detrital zircons from the Jack Hills, Western Australia by SIMS reveal that the Li abundances (typically 10 to 60 ppm) are commonly over 10,000 times higher than in zircons crystallized from mantle-derived magmas and in mantle-derived zircon megacrysts (typically Jack Hills zircons also have fractionated lithium isotope ratios ( δ7Li = - 19 to + 13‰) about five times more variable than those recorded in primitive ocean floor basalts (2 to 8‰), but similar to continental crust and its weathering products. Values of δ7Li below - 10‰ are found in zircons that formed as early as 4300 Ma. The high Li compositions indicate that primitive magmas were not the source of Jack Hills zircons and the fractionated values of δ7Li suggest that highly weathered regolith was sampled by these early Archean magmas. These new Li data provide evidence that the parent magmas of ancient zircons from Jack Hills incorporated materials from the surface of the Earth that interacted at low temperature with liquid water. These data support the hypothesis that continental-type crust and oceans existed by 4300 Ma, within 250 million years of the formation of Earth and the low values of δ7Li suggest that weathering was extensive in the early Archean.

Evaluating spatial and temporal relationships between an earthquake cluster near Entiat, central Washington, and the large December 1872 Entiat earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Brocher, Thomas M.; Blakely, Richard J.; Sherrod, Brian

2017-01-01

We investigate spatial and temporal relations between an ongoing and prolific seismicity cluster in central Washington, near Entiat, and the 14 December 1872 Entiat earthquake, the largest historic crustal earthquake in Washington. A fault scarp produced by the 1872 earthquake lies within the Entiat cluster; the locations and areas of both the cluster and the estimated 1872 rupture surface are comparable. Seismic intensities and the 1–2 m of coseismic displacement suggest a magnitude range between 6.5 and 7.0 for the 1872 earthquake. Aftershock forecast models for (1) the first several hours following the 1872 earthquake, (2) the largest felt earthquakes from 1900 to 1974, and (3) the seismicity within the Entiat cluster from 1976 through 2016 are also consistent with this magnitude range. Based on this aftershock modeling, most of the current seismicity in the Entiat cluster could represent aftershocks of the 1872 earthquake. Other earthquakes, especially those with long recurrence intervals, have long‐lived aftershock sequences, including the Mw">MwMw 7.5 1891 Nobi earthquake in Japan, with aftershocks continuing 100 yrs after the mainshock. Although we do not rule out ongoing tectonic deformation in this region, a long‐lived aftershock sequence can account for these observations.

ACCOMMODATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND TOURISM FLOWS ON FELEACU HILL (CLUJ COUNTY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DANIELA-LIVIA GHEORGHIEȘ

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Accommodation Infrastructure and Tourism Flows on Feleacu Hill (Cluj County. Feleacu Hill experienced tourism development between 2001 and 2015. The INS data indicates that the number of accommodation units increased from one (2001 to four (2015 and there are a few more which are not registered in the INS database. The accommodation capacity increases, as many guesthouses are expanding their premises to receive more tourists and new accommodation units emerge, such as Hotel Premier in Vâlcele (Feleacu commune. Tourism flows also registered a highly positive trend. The number of arrivals increased from 95 tourists in 2002 to 7791 tourists in 2015. However, there was a downturn between 2009 and 2012, due to the economic crisis and the opening of the Turda – Gilău motorway (A3, which redirected transit routes outside the region and led to the closure of Paradis Hotel in 2012. Since 2012, the number of arrivals and overnight stays increased steadily due to the development of new forms of tourism – rural tourism, agrotourism, extreme tourism and complex tourism, materialized in growing numbers of tourists at the two guesthouses in Ciurila commune (“La Mesteceni” and “Domeniul Regilor”. Tourism brings obvious benefits to the rural communities on Feleacu Hill, even if the average duration of stay is still low.

Preliminary confirmation of a surface faulting based on geological and earthquake data in the Puspiptek Serpong area

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hadi Suntoko; Supartoyo

2016-01-01

BAPETEN regulation No. 8/2013 present the requirement that the site of the nuclear industry should not be a fault capable in a radius of 5 km. It is known that the RDE site composed of sandstones, clay stone, conglomerates and pumice rework the age of Pliocene, there straightness river valley hypothesized as a fault. Potential faults are identified using morphological observation, remote sensing using DEM rock outcrops, and seismic interpretation results that aims to confirm capable faults in a radius of 5 km. Traces defence surface is focused on the observation of the appearance of the terrain (land form), in the form of straightness morphology or valleys, fault scarp (fault scarp), shift or offset (river or hill), depression formed along fault zones, saddle, pressure ridge, and the shape of the river as well as earthquake monitoring. The results showed that there was no fault capable also a surface faulting that prove the presence in the RDE site radius of 5 km. (author)

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

The proterozoic Georgetown Province - a Broken Hill analogue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carr, G.R.

2000-01-01

Collaborative work between CSIRO and AGSO has resulted in the development of a Pb isotope model that attempts to place relatively precise (∼5 Ma) age constraints on Proterozoic mineralisation in the Mount Isa and McArthur River terrains (Sun et al., 1994). Although this model was developed for sediment hosted mineralisation in low grade metamorphic terrains, the CSIRO-AGSO model ages for other mineralisation in high-grade terrains such as Broken Hill appear to be consistent with the U-Pb zircon ages obtained for the high-grade host sequences. Without independent evidence that the model is applicable to such terrains, the observations cannot be used to indicate the age of the mineralisation. Lead isotope data obtained on potassium feldspar separates from five felsic intrusive samples in the Georgetown terrain show a wide range of Pb isotope ratios. The lowest 206 Pb/ 204 Pb analyses are considered to approximate to the Proterozoic initial ratio and indicate a model age of ∼1510 Ma based on the CSIRO-AGSO model. This age is 45 Ma younger than the crystallisation age of the granite, but must be considered a minimum as the initial 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ratio may well prove to be lower after more comprehensive analysis. Sulfide mineralisation within the Einasleigh Metamorphics has a wide range of 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios that lie between this granite value and the relatively homogeneous population from Railway Flat. The Railway Flat data are very similar to values for Broken Hill and also the Broken Hill-type Pegmont mineralisation in the Mount Isa Eastern Succession. These data all have significantly lower 207 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios than the CSIRO-AGSO model, suggesting a significantly different source rock environment for this style of mineralisation from that for the sediment hosted deposits

On the numerical treatment of the Griffin-Hill-Eheeler equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galleti, D.; Toledo Piza, A.F.R.

The precision attainable in the numerical treatment of the Griffin-Hill-Wheeler equation is studied in a solvable model. Trucation errors related to the generator coordinate kinematics are exhibited and briefly discussed [pt

Surface latent heat flux as an earthquake precursor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Dey

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The analysis of surface latent heat flux (SLHF from the epicentral regions of five recent earthquakes that occurred in close proximity to the oceans has been found to show anomalous behavior. The maximum increase of SLHF is found 2–7 days prior to the main earthquake event. This increase is likely due to an ocean-land-atmosphere interaction. The increase of SLHF prior to the main earthquake event is attributed to the increase in infrared thermal (IR temperature in the epicentral and surrounding region. The anomalous increase in SLHF shows great potential in providing early warning of a disastrous earthquake, provided that there is a better understanding of the background noise due to the tides and monsoon in surface latent heat flux. Efforts have been made to understand the level of background noise in the epicentral regions of the five earthquakes considered in the present paper. A comparison of SLHF from the epicentral regions over the coastal earthquakes and the earthquakes that occurred far away from the coast has been made and it has been found that the anomalous behavior of SLHF prior to the main earthquake event is only associated with the coastal earthquakes.

Method to Determine Appropriate Source Models of Large Earthquakes Including Tsunami Earthquakes for Tsunami Early Warning in Central America

Science.gov (United States)

Tanioka, Yuichiro; Miranda, Greyving Jose Arguello; Gusman, Aditya Riadi; Fujii, Yushiro

2017-08-01

Large earthquakes, such as the Mw 7.7 1992 Nicaragua earthquake, have occurred off the Pacific coasts of El Salvador and Nicaragua in Central America and have generated distractive tsunamis along these coasts. It is necessary to determine appropriate fault models before large tsunamis hit the coast. In this study, first, fault parameters were estimated from the W-phase inversion, and then an appropriate fault model was determined from the fault parameters and scaling relationships with a depth dependent rigidity. The method was tested for four large earthquakes, the 1992 Nicaragua tsunami earthquake (Mw7.7), the 2001 El Salvador earthquake (Mw7.7), the 2004 El Astillero earthquake (Mw7.0), and the 2012 El Salvador-Nicaragua earthquake (Mw7.3), which occurred off El Salvador and Nicaragua in Central America. The tsunami numerical simulations were carried out from the determined fault models. We found that the observed tsunami heights, run-up heights, and inundation areas were reasonably well explained by the computed ones. Therefore, our method for tsunami early warning purpose should work to estimate a fault model which reproduces tsunami heights near the coast of El Salvador and Nicaragua due to large earthquakes in the subduction zone.

Aquatic assessment of the Pike Hill Copper Mine Superfund site, Corinth, Vermont

Science.gov (United States)

Piatak, Nadine M.; Argue, Denise M.; Seal, Robert R.; Kiah, Richard G.; Besser, John M.; Coles, James F.; Hammarstrom, Jane M.; Levitan, Denise M.; Deacon, Jeffrey R.; Ingersoll, Christopher G.

2013-01-01

The Pike Hill Copper Mine Superfund site in Corinth, Orange County, Vermont, includes the Eureka, Union, and Smith mines along with areas of downstream aquatic ecosystem impairment. The site was placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) National Priorities List in 2004. The mines, which operated from about 1847 to 1919, contain underground workings, foundations from historical structures, several waste-rock piles, and some flotation tailings. The mine site is drained to the northeast by Pike Hill Brook, which includes several wetland areas, and to the southeast by an unnamed tributary that flows to the south and enters Cookville Brook. Both brooks eventually drain into the Waits River, which flows into the Connecticut River. The aquatic ecosystem at the site was assessed using a variety of approaches that investigated surface-water quality, sediment quality, and various ecological indicators of stream-ecosystem health. The degradation of surface-water quality is caused by elevated concentrations of copper, and to a lesser extent cadmium, with localized effects caused by aluminum, iron, and zinc. Copper concentrations in surface waters reached or exceeded the USEPA national recommended chronic water-quality criteria for the protection of aquatic life in all of the Pike Hill Brook sampling locations except for the location farthest downstream, in half of the locations sampled in the tributary to Cookville Brook, and in about half of the locations in one wetland area located in Pike Hill Brook. Most of these same locations also contained concentrations of cadmium that exceeded the chronic water-quality criteria. In contrast, surface waters at background sampling locations were below these criteria for copper and cadmium. Comparison of hardness-based and Biotic Ligand Model (BLM)-based criteria for copper yields similar results with respect to the extent or number of stations impaired for surface waters in the affected area. However, the BLM

Earthquake simulation, actual earthquake monitoring and analytical methods for soil-structure interaction investigation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tang, H T [Seismic Center, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA (United States)

1988-07-01

Approaches for conducting in-situ soil-structure interaction experiments are discussed. High explosives detonated under the ground can generate strong ground motion to induce soil-structure interaction (SSI). The explosive induced data are useful in studying the dynamic characteristics of the soil-structure system associated with the inertial aspect of the SSI problem. The plane waves generated by the explosives cannot adequately address the kinematic interaction associated with actual earthquakes because of he difference in wave fields and their effects. Earthquake monitoring is ideal for obtaining SSI data that can address all aspects of the SSI problem. The only limitation is the level of excitation that can be obtained. Neither the simulated earthquake experiments nor the earthquake monitoring experiments can have exact similitude if reduced scale test structures are used. If gravity effects are small, reasonable correlations between the scaled model and the prototype can be obtained provided that input motion can be scaled appropriately. The key product of the in-situ experiments is the data base that can be used to qualify analytical methods for prototypical applications. (author)

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.

Solar heating and hot water system installed at Cherry Hill, New Jersey. [Hotels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1979-05-16

The solar heating and hot water system installed in existing buildings at the Cherry Hill Inn in Cherry Hill, New Jersey is described in detail. The system went into operation November 8, 1978 and is expected to furnish 31.5% of the overall heating load and 29.8% of the hot water load. The collectors are General Electric Company liquid evacuated tube type. The storage system is an above ground insulated steel water tank with a capacity of 7,500 gallons.

Critical behavior in earthquake energy dissipation

Science.gov (United States)

Wanliss, James; Muñoz, Víctor; Pastén, Denisse; Toledo, Benjamín; Valdivia, Juan Alejandro

2017-09-01

We explore bursty multiscale energy dissipation from earthquakes flanked by latitudes 29° S and 35.5° S, and longitudes 69.501° W and 73.944° W (in the Chilean central zone). Our work compares the predictions of a theory of nonequilibrium phase transitions with nonstandard statistical signatures of earthquake complex scaling behaviors. For temporal scales less than 84 hours, time development of earthquake radiated energy activity follows an algebraic arrangement consistent with estimates from the theory of nonequilibrium phase transitions. There are no characteristic scales for probability distributions of sizes and lifetimes of the activity bursts in the scaling region. The power-law exponents describing the probability distributions suggest that the main energy dissipation takes place due to largest bursts of activity, such as major earthquakes, as opposed to smaller activations which contribute less significantly though they have greater relative occurrence. The results obtained provide statistical evidence that earthquake energy dissipation mechanisms are essentially "scale-free", displaying statistical and dynamical self-similarity. Our results provide some evidence that earthquake radiated energy and directed percolation belong to a similar universality class.

The effects of the introduction of the no-smoking policy at HMYOI Warren Hill on bullying behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Lawrence, Sally; Welfare, Heather

2008-01-01

The current research explores the prevalence of bullying behaviour at HMYOI Warren Hill and the Carlford Unit. The introduction of the no-smoking policy at the establishment was also explored in relation to its effect on bullying behaviour given that tobacco has historically been the main item that young people have been bullied for. The Direct and Indirect Prisoner behaviour Checklist--Revised (DIPC-R) and a questionnaire designed to identify the effect of the introduction of the no-smoking policy on bullying behaviour were used within this study to answer the following questions: what is the prevalence of bullying behaviour at Warren Hill and the Carlford Unit, and do young people at Warren Hill and the Carlford Unit think that the rate and nature of bullying has been affected by the introduction of the no-smoking policy? One hundred and fifteen young people took part in the study. At Warren Hill, Bully/Victims were the most prevalent type identified and this was significantly greater than the number of young people identified as Pure Victims or Not Involved. On the Carlford Unit, Not Involved was the most prevalent type identified, and this finding provides limited support for the theories of bullying behaviour identified within the present study. The study found that the rate of bullying decreased following the introduction of the no-smoking policy at Warren Hill. The findings from this study are being used in the development of a new Violence Reduction Policy at HMYOI Warren Hill.

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.

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.

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.

Lithostratigraphy of the Calico Hills Formation and Prow Pass Tuff (Crater Flat Group) at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moyer, T.C.; Geslin, J.K.

1995-01-01

Lithostratigraphic relations within the Calico Hills Formation and Prow Pass Tuff (Crater Flat Group) were reconstructed from analysis of core samples and observation of outcrop exposures. The Calico Hills Formation is composed of five nonwelded pyroclastic units (each formed of one or more pyroclastic-flow deposits) that overlie an interval of bedded tuff and a basal volcaniclastic sandstone unit. The Prow Pass Tuff is divided into four pyroclastic units and an underlying interval of bedded tuff. The pyroclastic units of the Prow Pass Tuff are distinguished by the sizes and amounts of their pumice and lithic clasts and their degree of welding. Pyroclastic units of the Prow Pass Tuff are distinguished from those of the Calico Hills Formation by their phenocryst assemblage, chemical composition, and ubiquitous siltstone lithic clasts. Downhole resistivity tends to mirror the content of authigenic minerals, primarily zeolites, in both for-mations and may be useful for recognizing the vitric-zeolite boundary in the study area. Maps of zeolite distribution illustrate that the bedded tuff and basal sandstone units of the Calico Hills Formation are altered over a wider area than the pyroclastic units of both the Calico Hills Formation and the upper Prow Pass Tuff

Lithostratigraphy of the Calico Hills Formation and Prow Pass Tuff (Crater Flat Group) at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moyer, T.C.; Geslin, J.K. [Science Applications International Corp., Las Vegas, NV (United States)

1995-07-01

Lithostratigraphic relations within the Calico Hills Formation and Prow Pass Tuff (Crater Flat Group) were reconstructed from analysis of core samples and observation of outcrop exposures. The Calico Hills Formation is composed of five nonwelded pyroclastic units (each formed of one or more pyroclastic-flow deposits) that overlie an interval of bedded tuff and a basal volcaniclastic sandstone unit. The Prow Pass Tuff is divided into four pyroclastic units and an underlying interval of bedded tuff. The pyroclastic units of the Prow Pass Tuff are distinguished by the sizes and amounts of their pumice and lithic clasts and their degree of welding. Pyroclastic units of the Prow Pass Tuff are distinguished from those of the Calico Hills Formation by their phenocryst assemblage, chemical composition, and ubiquitous siltstone lithic clasts. Downhole resistivity tends to mirror the content of authigenic minerals, primarily zeolites, in both for-mations and may be useful for recognizing the vitric-zeolite boundary in the study area. Maps of zeolite distribution illustrate that the bedded tuff and basal sandstone units of the Calico Hills Formation are altered over a wider area than the pyroclastic units of both the Calico Hills Formation and the upper Prow Pass Tuff.

Susceptibility of Shallow Landslide in Fraser Hill Catchment, Pahang Malaysia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wan Nor Azmin Sulaiman

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In tropical areas especially during monsoon seasons intense precipitation is the main caused that trigger the natural shallow landslide phenomena. This phenomenon can be disastrous and widespread in occurrence even in undisturbed forested catchment. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the susceptibility of natural hill slopes to failure for a popular hill resort area, the Fraser Hill Catchment under different rainfall regimes and soil thickness. A Digital Elevation Model (DEM was prepared for the 8.2 km2 catchment. A GIS based deterministic model was then applied to predict the spatial landslide occurrence within catchment. Model input parameters include bulk density, friction angle, cohesion and hydraulic conductivity were gathered through in situ and lab analysis as well as from previous soil analysis records. Landslides locations were recorded using GPS as well as previous air photos and satellite imagery to establish landslide source areas inventory. The landslide susceptibility map was produced under different precipitation event’s simulation to see the effects of precipitation to stability of the hill slopes of the catchment. The results were categorized into naturally unstable (Defended, Upper Threshold, Lower Threshold, marginal instability (Quasi Stable and stable area (Moderately Stable and Stable. Results of the simulation indicated notable change in precipitation effect on Defended area is between 10mm to 40mm range in a single storm event. However, when storm event is exceeded 120mm, the result on Defended area produced by the model tends to be constant further on. For area categorized as naturally unstable (Factor of Safety, SF<1, with 110 mm of precipitation in a single storm event and soil depth at 2 meters and 4 meters could affect 69.51% and 69.88% respectively of the catchment area fall under that class. In addition, the model was able to detect 4% more of the landslide inventory under shallower soil depth of

Retrospective analysis of the Spitak earthquake

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. K. Tovmassian

1995-06-01

Full Text Available Based on the retrospective analysis of numerous data and studies of the Spitak earthquake the present work at- tempts to shed light on different aspects of that catastrophic seismic event which occurred in Northern Arme- nia on December 7, 1988. The authors follow a chronological order of presentation, namely: changes in geo- sphere, atmosphere, biosphere during the preparation of the Spitak earthquake, foreshocks, main shock, after- shocks, focal mechanisms, historical seismicity; seismotectonic position of the source, strong motion records, site effects; the macroseismic effect, collapse of buildings and structures; rescue activities; earthquake conse- quences; and the lessons of the Spitak earthquake.

Nonlinear acoustic/seismic waves in earthquake processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, Paul A.

2012-01-01

Nonlinear dynamics induced by seismic sources and seismic waves are common in Earth. Observations range from seismic strong ground motion (the most damaging aspect of earthquakes), intense near-source effects, and distant nonlinear effects from the source that have important consequences. The distant effects include dynamic earthquake triggering—one of the most fascinating topics in seismology today—which may be elastically nonlinearly driven. Dynamic earthquake triggering is the phenomenon whereby seismic waves generated from one earthquake trigger slip events on a nearby or distant fault. Dynamic triggering may take place at distances thousands of kilometers from the triggering earthquake, and includes triggering of the entire spectrum of slip behaviors currently identified. These include triggered earthquakes and triggered slow, silent-slip during which little seismic energy is radiated. It appears that the elasticity of the fault gouge—the granular material located between the fault blocks—is key to the triggering phenomenon.

On the plant operators performance during earthquake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitada, Y.; Yoshimura, S.; Abe, M.; Niwa, H.; Yoneda, T.; Matsunaga, M.; Suzuki, T.

1994-01-01

There is little data on which to judge the performance of plant operators during and after strong earthquakes. In order to obtain such data to enhance the reliability on the plant operation, a Japanese utility and a power plant manufacturer carried out a vibration test using a shaking table. The purpose of the test was to investigate operator performance, i.e., the quickness and correctness in switch handling and panel meter read-out. The movement of chairs during earthquake as also of interest, because if the chairs moved significantly or turned over during a strong earthquake, some arresting mechanism would be required for the chair. Although there were differences between the simulated earthquake motions used and actual earthquakes mainly due to the specifications of the shaking table, the earthquake motions had almost no influence on the operators of their capability (performance) for operating the simulated console and the personal computers

Data base pertinent to earthquake design basis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, R.D.

1988-01-01

Mitigation of earthquake risk from impending strong earthquakes is possible provided the hazard can be assessed, and translated into appropriate design inputs. This requires defining the seismic risk problem, isolating the risk factors and quantifying risk in terms of physical parameters, which are suitable for application in design. Like all other geological phenomena, past earthquakes hold the key to the understanding of future ones. Quantificatio n of seismic risk at a site calls for investigating the earthquake aspects of the site region and building a data base. The scope of such investigations is il lustrated in Figure 1 and 2. A more detailed definition of the earthquake problem in engineering design is given elsewhere (Sharma, 1987). The present document discusses the earthquake data base, which is required to support a seismic risk evaluation programme in the context of the existing state of the art. (author). 8 tables, 10 figs., 54 refs

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)

Earthquake activity along the Himalayan orogenic belt

Science.gov (United States)

Bai, L.; Mori, J. J.

2017-12-01

The collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates formed the Himalayas, the largest orogenic belt on the Earth. The entire region accommodates shallow earthquakes, while intermediate-depth earthquakes are concentrated at the eastern and western Himalayan syntaxis. Here we investigate the focal depths, fault plane solutions, and source rupture process for three earthquake sequences, which are located at the western, central and eastern regions of the Himalayan orogenic belt. The Pamir-Hindu Kush region is located at the western Himalayan syntaxis and is characterized by extreme shortening of the upper crust and strong interaction of various layers of the lithosphere. Many shallow earthquakes occur on the Main Pamir Thrust at focal depths shallower than 20 km, while intermediate-deep earthquakes are mostly located below 75 km. Large intermediate-depth earthquakes occur frequently at the western Himalayan syntaxis about every 10 years on average. The 2015 Nepal earthquake is located in the central Himalayas. It is a typical megathrust earthquake that occurred on the shallow portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). Many of the aftershocks are located above the MHT and illuminate faulting structures in the hanging wall with dip angles that are steeper than the MHT. These observations provide new constraints on the collision and uplift processes for the Himalaya orogenic belt. The Indo-Burma region is located south of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis, where the strike of the plate boundary suddenly changes from nearly east-west at the Himalayas to nearly north-south at the Burma Arc. The Burma arc subduction zone is a typical oblique plate convergence zone. The eastern boundary is the north-south striking dextral Sagaing fault, which hosts many shallow earthquakes with focal depth less than 25 km. In contrast, intermediate-depth earthquakes along the subduction zone reflect east-west trending reverse faulting.

Prediction of site specific ground motion for large earthquake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamae, Katsuhiro; Irikura, Kojiro; Fukuchi, Yasunaga.

1990-01-01

In this paper, we apply the semi-empirical synthesis method by IRIKURA (1983, 1986) to the estimation of site specific ground motion using accelerograms observed at Kumatori in Osaka prefecture. Target earthquakes used here are a comparatively distant earthquake (Δ=95 km, M=5.6) caused by the YAMASAKI fault and a near earthquake (Δ=27 km, M=5.6). The results obtained are as follows. 1) The accelerograms from the distant earthquake (M=5.6) are synthesized using the aftershock records (M=4.3) for 1983 YAMASAKI fault earthquake whose source parameters have been obtained by other authors from the hypocentral distribution of the aftershocks. The resultant synthetic motions show a good agreement with the observed ones. 2) The synthesis for a near earthquake (M=5.6, we call this target earthquake) are made using a small earthquake which occurred in the neighborhood of the target earthquake. Here, we apply two methods for giving the parameters for synthesis. One method is to use the parameters of YAMASAKI fault earthquake which has the same magnitude as the target earthquake, and the other is to use the parameters obtained from several existing empirical formulas. The resultant synthetic motion with the former parameters shows a good agreement with the observed one, but that with the latter does not. 3) We estimate the source parameters from the source spectra of several earthquakes which have been observed in this site. Consequently we find that the small earthquakes (M<4) as Green's functions should be carefully used because the stress drops are not constant. 4) We propose that we should designate not only the magnitudes but also seismic moments of the target earthquake and the small earthquake. (J.P.N.)

Clustered and transient earthquake sequences in mid-continents

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, M.; Stein, S. A.; Wang, H.; Luo, G.

2012-12-01

Earthquakes result from sudden release of strain energy on faults. On plate boundary faults, strain energy is constantly accumulating from steady and relatively rapid relative plate motion, so large earthquakes continue to occur so long as motion continues on the boundary. In contrast, such steady accumulation of stain energy does not occur on faults in mid-continents, because the far-field tectonic loading is not steadily distributed between faults, and because stress perturbations from complex fault interactions and other stress triggers can be significant relative to the slow tectonic stressing. Consequently, mid-continental earthquakes are often temporally clustered and transient, and spatially migrating. This behavior is well illustrated by large earthquakes in North China in the past two millennia, during which no single large earthquakes repeated on the same fault segments, but moment release between large fault systems was complementary. Slow tectonic loading in mid-continents also causes long aftershock sequences. We show that the recent small earthquakes in the Tangshan region of North China are aftershocks of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake (M 7.5), rather than indicators of a new phase of seismic activity in North China, as many fear. Understanding the transient behavior of mid-continental earthquakes has important implications for assessing earthquake hazards. The sequence of large earthquakes in the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) in central US, which includes a cluster of M~7 events in 1811-1812 and perhaps a few similar ones in the past millennium, is likely a transient process, releasing previously accumulated elastic strain on recently activated faults. If so, this earthquake sequence will eventually end. Using simple analysis and numerical modeling, we show that the large NMSZ earthquakes may be ending now or in the near future.

Investigating landslides caused by earthquakes - A historical review

Science.gov (United States)

Keefer, D.K.

2002-01-01

Post-earthquake field investigations of landslide occurrence have provided a basis for understanding, evaluating, and mapping the hazard and risk associated with earthquake-induced landslides. This paper traces the historical development of knowledge derived from these investigations. Before 1783, historical accounts of the occurrence of landslides in earthquake are typically so incomplete and vague that conclusions based on these accounts are of limited usefulness. For example, the number of landslides triggered by a given event is almost always greatly underestimated. The first formal, scientific post-earthquake investigation that included systematic documentation of the landslides was undertaken in the Calabria region of Italy after the 1783 earthquake swarm. From then until the mid-twentieth century, the best information on earthquake-induced landslides came from a succession of post-earthquake investigations largely carried out by formal commissions that undertook extensive ground-based field studies. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, when the use of aerial photography became widespread, comprehensive inventories of landslide occurrence have been made for several earthquakes in the United States, Peru, Guatemala, Italy, El Salvador, Japan, and Taiwan. Techniques have also been developed for performing "retrospective" analyses years or decades after an earthquake that attempt to reconstruct the distribution of landslides triggered by the event. The additional use of Geographic Information System (GIS) processing and digital mapping since about 1989 has greatly facilitated the level of analysis that can applied to mapped distributions of landslides. Beginning in 1984, synthesis of worldwide and national data on earthquake-induced landslides have defined their general characteristics and relations between their occurrence and various geologic and seismic parameters. However, the number of comprehensive post-earthquake studies of landslides is still

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?

Paul Hill d/b/a Alternative Energy Windows and Siding

Science.gov (United States)

Paul Hill d/b/a Alternative Energy Windows and Siding (the Company) is located in Concord, New Hampshire. The settlement involves renovation activities conducted at property constructed prior to 1978, located in Concord, New Hampshire.

Measures for groundwater security during and after the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (1995) and the Great East Japan earthquake (2011), Japan

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, Tadashi

2016-03-01

Many big earthquakes have occurred in the tectonic regions of the world, especially in Japan. Earthquakes often cause damage to crucial life services such as water, gas and electricity supply systems and even the sewage system in urban and rural areas. The most severe problem for people affected by earthquakes is access to water for their drinking/cooking and toilet flushing. Securing safe water for daily life in an earthquake emergency requires the establishment of countermeasures, especially in a mega city like Tokyo. This paper described some examples of groundwater use in earthquake emergencies, with reference to reports, books and newspapers published in Japan. The consensus is that groundwater, as a source of water, plays a major role in earthquake emergencies, especially where the accessibility of wells coincides with the emergency need. It is also important to introduce a registration system for citizen-owned and company wells that can form the basis of a cooperative during a disaster; such a registration system was implemented by many Japanese local governments after the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995 and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, and is one of the most effective countermeasures for groundwater use in an earthquake emergency. Emphasis is also placed the importance of establishing of a continuous monitoring system of groundwater conditions for both quantity and quality during non-emergency periods.

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

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

Defeating Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, R. S.

2012-12-01

The 2004 M=9.2 Sumatra earthquake claimed what seemed an unfathomable 228,000 lives, although because of its size, we could at least assure ourselves that it was an extremely rare event. But in the short space of 8 years, the Sumatra quake no longer looks like an anomaly, and it is no longer even the worst disaster of the Century: 80,000 deaths in the 2005 M=7.6 Pakistan quake; 88,000 deaths in the 2008 M=7.9 Wenchuan, China quake; 316,000 deaths in the M=7.0 Haiti, quake. In each case, poor design and construction were unable to withstand the ferocity of the shaken earth. And this was compounded by inadequate rescue, medical care, and shelter. How could the toll continue to mount despite the advances in our understanding of quake risk? The world's population is flowing into megacities, and many of these migration magnets lie astride the plate boundaries. Caught between these opposing demographic and seismic forces are 50 cities of at least 3 million people threatened by large earthquakes, the targets of chance. What we know for certain is that no one will take protective measures unless they are convinced they are at risk. Furnishing that knowledge is the animating principle of the Global Earthquake Model, launched in 2009. At the very least, everyone should be able to learn what his or her risk is. At the very least, our community owes the world an estimate of that risk. So, first and foremost, GEM seeks to raise quake risk awareness. We have no illusions that maps or models raise awareness; instead, earthquakes do. But when a quake strikes, people need a credible place to go to answer the question, how vulnerable am I, and what can I do about it? The Global Earthquake Model is being built with GEM's new open source engine, OpenQuake. GEM is also assembling the global data sets without which we will never improve our understanding of where, how large, and how frequently earthquakes will strike, what impacts they will have, and how those impacts can be lessened by

Earthquakes of Garhwal Himalaya region of NW Himalaya, India: A study of relocated earthquakes and their seismogenic source and stress

Science.gov (United States)

R, A. P.; Paul, A.; Singh, S.

2017-12-01

Since the continent-continent collision 55 Ma, the Himalaya has accommodated 2000 km of convergence along its arc. The strain energy is being accumulated at a rate of 37-44 mm/yr and releases at time as earthquakes. The Garhwal Himalaya is located at the western side of a Seismic Gap, where a great earthquake is overdue atleast since 200 years. This seismic gap (Central Seismic Gap: CSG) with 52% probability for a future great earthquake is located between the rupture zones of two significant/great earthquakes, viz. the 1905 Kangra earthquake of M 7.8 and the 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake of M 8.0; and the most recent one, the 2015 Gorkha earthquake of M 7.8 is in the eastern side of this seismic gap (CSG). The Garhwal Himalaya is one of the ideal locations of the Himalaya where all the major Himalayan structures and the Himalayan Seimsicity Belt (HSB) can ably be described and studied. In the present study, we are presenting the spatio-temporal analysis of the relocated local micro-moderate earthquakes, recorded by a seismicity monitoring network, which is operational since, 2007. The earthquake locations are relocated using the HypoDD (double difference hypocenter method for earthquake relocations) program. The dataset from July, 2007- September, 2015 have been used in this study to estimate their spatio-temporal relationships, moment tensor (MT) solutions for the earthquakes of M>3.0, stress tensors and their interactions. We have also used the composite focal mechanism solutions for small earthquakes. The majority of the MT solutions show thrust type mechanism and located near the mid-crustal-ramp (MCR) structure of the detachment surface at 8-15 km depth beneath the outer lesser Himalaya and higher Himalaya regions. The prevailing stress has been identified to be compressional towards NNE-SSW, which is the direction of relative plate motion between the India and Eurasia continental plates. The low friction coefficient estimated along with the stress inversions

Mexican Earthquakes and Tsunamis Catalog Reviewed

Science.gov (United States)

Ramirez-Herrera, M. T.; Castillo-Aja, R.

2015-12-01

Today the availability of information on the internet makes online catalogs very easy to access by both scholars and the public in general. The catalog in the "Significant Earthquake Database", managed by the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI formerly NCDC), NOAA, allows access by deploying tabular and cartographic data related to earthquakes and tsunamis contained in the database. The NCEI catalog is the product of compiling previously existing catalogs, historical sources, newspapers, and scientific articles. Because NCEI catalog has a global coverage the information is not homogeneous. Existence of historical information depends on the presence of people in places where the disaster occurred, and that the permanence of the description is preserved in documents and oral tradition. In the case of instrumental data, their availability depends on the distribution and quality of seismic stations. Therefore, the availability of information for the first half of 20th century can be improved by careful analysis of the available information and by searching and resolving inconsistencies. This study shows the advances we made in upgrading and refining data for the earthquake and tsunami catalog of Mexico since 1500 CE until today, presented in the format of table and map. Data analysis allowed us to identify the following sources of error in the location of the epicenters in existing catalogs: • Incorrect coordinate entry • Place name erroneous or mistaken • Too general data that makes difficult to locate the epicenter, mainly for older earthquakes • Inconsistency of earthquakes and the tsunami occurrence: earthquake's epicenter located too far inland reported as tsunamigenic. The process of completing the catalogs directly depends on the availability of information; as new archives are opened for inspection, there are more opportunities to complete the history of large earthquakes and tsunamis in Mexico. Here, we also present new earthquake and

Earthquake risk assessment of Alexandria, Egypt

Science.gov (United States)

Badawy, Ahmed; Gaber, Hanan; Ibrahim, Hamza

2015-01-01

Throughout historical and recent times, Alexandria has suffered great damage due to earthquakes from both near- and far-field sources. Sometimes, the sources of such damages are not well known. During the twentieth century, the city was shaken by several earthquakes generated from inland dislocations (e.g., 29 Apr. 1974, 12 Oct. 1992, and 28 Dec. 1999) and the African continental margin (e.g., 12 Sept. 1955 and 28 May 1998). Therefore, this study estimates the earthquake ground shaking and the consequent impacts in Alexandria on the basis of two earthquake scenarios. The simulation results show that Alexandria affected by both earthquakes scenarios relatively in the same manner despite the number of casualties during the first scenario (inland dislocation) is twice larger than the second one (African continental margin). An expected percentage of 2.27 from Alexandria's total constructions (12.9 millions, 2006 Census) will be affected, 0.19 % injuries and 0.01 % deaths of the total population (4.1 millions, 2006 Census) estimated by running the first scenario. The earthquake risk profile reveals that three districts (Al-Montazah, Al-Amriya, and Shark) lie in high seismic risks, two districts (Gharb and Wasat) are in moderate, and two districts (Al-Gomrok and Burg El-Arab) are in low seismic risk level. Moreover, the building damage estimations reflect that Al-Montazah is the highest vulnerable district whereas 73 % of expected damages were reported there. The undertaken analysis shows that the Alexandria urban area faces high risk. Informal areas and deteriorating buildings and infrastructure make the city particularly vulnerable to earthquake risks. For instance, more than 90 % of the estimated earthquake risks (buildings damages) are concentrated at the most densely populated (Al-Montazah, Al-Amriya, and Shark) districts. Moreover, about 75 % of casualties are in the same districts.

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.

Food security and ecological footprint of chittagong hill tracts in bangladesh

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bala, B.K.; Hossain, M.A.

2014-01-01

This paper presents food security and ecological footprint of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh. To estimate food security and ecological footprint, primary and secondary data were collected and a multistage sampling was designed for selecting the farm households from the three districts of the Hill Tracts of Chittagong. A quantitative method for computation of food security was used. To estimate the environmental sustainability sustainability as upazila (sub-district) levels, a method of computation of ecological footprint developed by Wackernagel was used. Multiple logistic regression models were fitted to data on food security of the farmers in CHT to identify the factors affecting food security at household levels in CHT. Overall status of food security at upazila levels was found to be good for all the upazilas except Rangamati sadar and the best was found Alikadam. Environmental status in the Hill Tracts of Chittagong was poor for all the upazilas. Household food security was found to be significantly (p<0.05) affected by farm size, education, professions, crops cultivated (jhum and tobacco), distance from market and transition from jhum to horticulture. This study supports transition from jhum to horticulture crops for increased food security and banning tobacco cultivation to avoid deforestation in CHT. (author)

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.

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

USGS Hill Shade Base Map Service from The National Map

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — USGS Hill Shade (or Shaded Relief) is a tile cache base map created from the National Elevation Dataset (NED), a seamless dataset of best available raster elevation...

NPP Grassland: Beacon Hill, U.K., 1972-1993, R1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set contains two ASCII text files, one providing productivity measurements for a chalk grassland on Beacon Hill, West Sussex, U.K. (50.92 N, -0.85 W) and...

The use of radon as an earthquake precursor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramola, R.C.; Singh, M.; Sandhu, A.S.; Singh, S.; Virk, H.S.

1990-01-01

Radon monitoring for earthquake prediction is part of an integral approach since the discovery of coherent and time anomalous radon concentrations prior to, during and after the 1966 Tashkent earthquake. In this paper some studies of groundwater and soil gas radon content in relation to earthquake activities are reviewed. Laboratory experiments and the development of groundwater and soil gas radon monitoring systems are described. In addition, radon monitoring studies conducted at the Guru Nanak Dev University Campus since 1986 are presented in detail. During these studies some anomalous changes in radon concentration were recorded before earthquakes occurred in the region. The anomalous radon increases are independent of meteorological conditions and appear to be caused by strain changes, which precede the earthquake. Anomalous changes in radon concentration before an earthquake suggest that radon monitoring can serve as an additional technique in the earthquake prediction programme in India. (author)

Modeling fast and slow earthquakes at various scales.

Science.gov (United States)

Ide, Satoshi

2014-01-01

Earthquake sources represent dynamic rupture within rocky materials at depth and often can be modeled as propagating shear slip controlled by friction laws. These laws provide boundary conditions on fault planes embedded in elastic media. Recent developments in observation networks, laboratory experiments, and methods of data analysis have expanded our knowledge of the physics of earthquakes. Newly discovered slow earthquakes are qualitatively different phenomena from ordinary fast earthquakes and provide independent information on slow deformation at depth. Many numerical simulations have been carried out to model both fast and slow earthquakes, but problems remain, especially with scaling laws. Some mechanisms are required to explain the power-law nature of earthquake rupture and the lack of characteristic length. Conceptual models that include a hierarchical structure over a wide range of scales would be helpful for characterizing diverse behavior in different seismic regions and for improving probabilistic forecasts of earthquakes.

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.

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.

Low cost earthquake resistant ferrocement small house

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saleem, M.A.; Ashraf, M.; Ashraf, M.

2008-01-01

The greatest humanitarian challenge faced even today after one year of Kashmir Hazara earthquake is that of providing shelter. Currently on the globe one in seven people live in a slum or refugee camp. The earthquake of October 2005 resulted in a great loss of life and property. This research work is mainly focused on developing a design of small size, low cost and earthquake resistant house. Ferrocement panels are recommended as the main structural elements with lightweight truss roofing system. Earthquake resistance is ensured by analyzing the structure on ETABS for a seismic activity of zone 4. The behavior of structure is found satisfactory under the earthquake loading. An estimate of cost is also presented which shows that it is an economical solution. (author)

Geological and historical evidence of irregular recurrent earthquakes in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Satake, Kenji

2015-10-28

Great (M∼8) earthquakes repeatedly occur along the subduction zones around Japan and cause fault slip of a few to several metres releasing strains accumulated from decades to centuries of plate motions. Assuming a simple 'characteristic earthquake' model that similar earthquakes repeat at regular intervals, probabilities of future earthquake occurrence have been calculated by a government committee. However, recent studies on past earthquakes including geological traces from giant (M∼9) earthquakes indicate a variety of size and recurrence interval of interplate earthquakes. Along the Kuril Trench off Hokkaido, limited historical records indicate that average recurrence interval of great earthquakes is approximately 100 years, but the tsunami deposits show that giant earthquakes occurred at a much longer interval of approximately 400 years. Along the Japan Trench off northern Honshu, recurrence of giant earthquakes similar to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake with an interval of approximately 600 years is inferred from historical records and tsunami deposits. Along the Sagami Trough near Tokyo, two types of Kanto earthquakes with recurrence interval of a few hundred years and a few thousand years had been recognized, but studies show that the recent three Kanto earthquakes had different source extents. Along the Nankai Trough off western Japan, recurrence of great earthquakes with an interval of approximately 100 years has been identified from historical literature, but tsunami deposits indicate that the sizes of the recurrent earthquakes are variable. Such variability makes it difficult to apply a simple 'characteristic earthquake' model for the long-term forecast, and several attempts such as use of geological data for the evaluation of future earthquake probabilities or the estimation of maximum earthquake size in each subduction zone are being conducted by government committees. © 2015 The Author(s).

Designing an Earthquake-Resistant Building

Science.gov (United States)

English, Lyn D.; King, Donna T.

2016-01-01

How do cross-bracing, geometry, and base isolation help buildings withstand earthquakes? These important structural design features involve fundamental geometry that elementary school students can readily model and understand. The problem activity, Designing an Earthquake-Resistant Building, was undertaken by several classes of sixth- grade…

The HayWired Earthquake Scenario

Science.gov (United States)

Detweiler, Shane T.; Wein, Anne M.

2017-04-24

ForewordThe 1906 Great San Francisco earthquake (magnitude 7.8) and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (magnitude 6.9) each motivated residents of the San Francisco Bay region to build countermeasures to earthquakes into the fabric of the region. Since Loma Prieta, bay-region communities, governments, and utilities have invested tens of billions of dollars in seismic upgrades and retrofits and replacements of older buildings and infrastructure. Innovation and state-of-the-art engineering, informed by science, including novel seismic-hazard assessments, have been applied to the challenge of increasing seismic resilience throughout the bay region. However, as long as people live and work in seismically vulnerable buildings or rely on seismically vulnerable transportation and utilities, more work remains to be done.With that in mind, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and its partners developed the HayWired scenario as a tool to enable further actions that can change the outcome when the next major earthquake strikes. By illuminating the likely impacts to the present-day built environment, well-constructed scenarios can and have spurred officials and citizens to take steps that change the outcomes the scenario describes, whether used to guide more realistic response and recovery exercises or to launch mitigation measures that will reduce future risk.The HayWired scenario is the latest in a series of like-minded efforts to bring a special focus onto the impacts that could occur when the Hayward Fault again ruptures through the east side of the San Francisco Bay region as it last did in 1868. Cities in the east bay along the Richmond, Oakland, and Fremont corridor would be hit hardest by earthquake ground shaking, surface fault rupture, aftershocks, and fault afterslip, but the impacts would reach throughout the bay region and far beyond. The HayWired scenario name reflects our increased reliance on the Internet and telecommunications and also alludes to the

Ethnoveterinary medicine of the Shervaroy Hills of Eastern Ghats, India as alternative medicine for animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Usha, Swaminathan; Rajasekaran, Chandrasekaran; Siva, Ramamoorthy

2016-01-01

The Eastern Ghats of India is well known for its wealth of natural vegetation and Shervaroy is a major hill range of the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu. Ethnomedicinal studies in the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu or the Shervaroy Hills have been carried out by various researchers. However, there is not much information available on ethnoveterinary medicine in the Eastern Ghats of India. The aim of this study was to examine the potential use of folk plants as alternative medicine for cattle to cure various diseases in the Shervaroy Hills of the Eastern Ghats. Based on interactions with traditional medicine practitioners, it has been observed that a total of 21 medicinal plants belonging to 16 families are used to cure various diseases such as mastitis, enteritis, arthritis, stomatitis, salivation from the mouth, wounding, and conjunctivitis in animals. It has been observed that the traditional knowledge of ethnoveterinary medicine is now confined only among the surviving older people and a few practitioners in the tribal communities of the Shervaroy Hills. Unfortunately, no serious attempts have been made to document and preserve this immense treasure of traditional knowledge.

Design basis earthquakes for critical industrial facilities and their characteristics, and the Southern Hyogo prefecture earthquake, 17 January 1995

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shibata, Heki

1998-12-01

This paper deals with how to establish the concept of the design basis earthquake (DBE) for critical industrial facilities such as nuclear power plants in consideration of disasters such as the Southern Hyogo prefecture earthquake, the so-called Kobe earthquake in 1995. The author once discussed various DBEs at the 7th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. At that time, the author assumed that the strongest effective PGA would be 0.7 G, and compared the values of accelerations of a structure obtained by various codes in Japan and other countries. The maximum PGA observed by an instrument at the Southern Hyogo prefecture earthquake in 1995 exceeded the previous assumption of the author, even though the results of the previous paper had been pessimistic. According to the experience of the Kobe event, the author will point out the necessity of the third earthquake S{sub s} adding to S{sub 1} and S{sub 2} of previous DBEs.

The threat of silent earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Cervelli, Peter

2004-01-01

Not all earthquakes shake the ground. The so-called silent types are forcing scientists to rethink their understanding of the way quake-prone faults behave. In rare instances, silent earthquakes that occur along the flakes of seaside volcanoes may cascade into monstrous landslides that crash into the sea and trigger towering tsunamis. Silent earthquakes that take place within fault zones created by one tectonic plate diving under another may increase the chance of ground-shaking shocks. In other locations, however, silent slip may decrease the likelihood of destructive quakes, because they release stress along faults that might otherwise seem ready to snap.

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.

Electromagnetic Manifestation of Earthquakes

OpenAIRE

Uvarov Vladimir

2017-01-01

In a joint analysis of the results of recording the electrical component of the natural electromagnetic field of the Earth and the catalog of earthquakes in Kamchatka in 2013, unipolar pulses of constant amplitude associated with earthquakes were identified, whose activity is closely correlated with the energy of the electromagnetic field. For the explanation, a hypothesis about the cooperative character of these impulses is proposed.

Tidal controls on earthquake size-frequency statistics

Science.gov (United States)

Ide, S.; Yabe, S.; Tanaka, Y.

2016-12-01

The possibility that tidal stresses can trigger earthquakes is a long-standing issue in seismology. Except in some special cases, a causal relationship between seismicity and the phase of tidal stress has been rejected on the basis of studies using many small events. However, recently discovered deep tectonic tremors are highly sensitive to tidal stress levels, with the relationship being governed by a nonlinear law according to which the tremor rate increases exponentially with increasing stress; thus, slow deformation (and the probability of earthquakes) may be enhanced during periods of large tidal stress. Here, we show the influence of tidal stress on seismicity by calculating histories of tidal shear stress during the 2-week period before earthquakes. Very large earthquakes tend to occur near the time of maximum tidal stress, but this tendency is not obvious for small earthquakes. Rather, we found that tidal stress controls the earthquake size-frequency statistics; i.e., the fraction of large events increases (i.e. the b-value of the Gutenberg-Richter relation decreases) as the tidal shear stress increases. This correlation is apparent in data from the global catalog and in relatively homogeneous regional catalogues of earthquakes in Japan. The relationship is also reasonable, considering the well-known relationship between stress and the b-value. Our findings indicate that the probability of a tiny rock failure expanding to a gigantic rupture increases with increasing tidal stress levels. This finding has clear implications for probabilistic earthquake forecasting.

Earthquake-triggered landslides in southwest China

OpenAIRE

X. L. Chen; Q. Zhou; H. Ran; R. Dong

2012-01-01

Southwest China is located in the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau and it is a region of high seismic activity. Historically, strong earthquakes that occurred here usually generated lots of landslides and brought destructive damages. This paper introduces several earthquake-triggered landslide events in this region and describes their characteristics. Also, the historical data of earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.0 or greater, having occurred in this region, is col...

77 FR 47625 - Laurel Hill Wind Energy, LLC; Supplemental Notice That Initial Market-Based Rate Filing Includes...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-09

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. ER12-2313-000] Laurel Hill Wind Energy, LLC; Supplemental Notice That Initial Market-Based Rate Filing Includes Request For... Laurel Hill Wind Energy, LLC's application for market-based rate authority, with an accompanying rate...

Marmara Island earthquakes, of 1265 and 1935; Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Altınok

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The long-term seismicity of the Marmara Sea region in northwestern Turkey is relatively well-recorded. Some large and some of the smaller events are clearly associated with fault zones known to be seismically active, which have distinct morphological expressions and have generated damaging earthquakes before and later. Some less common and moderate size earthquakes have occurred in the vicinity of the Marmara Islands in the west Marmara Sea. This paper presents an extended summary of the most important earthquakes that have occurred in 1265 and 1935 and have since been known as the Marmara Island earthquakes. The informative data and the approaches used have therefore the potential of documenting earthquake ruptures of fault segments and may extend the records kept on earthquakes far before known history, rock falls and abnormal sea waves observed during these events, thus improving hazard evaluations and the fundamental understanding of the process of an earthquake.

Amphibian diversity in Shimba Hills National Reserve, Kenya: A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

We present the first annotated amphibian checklist of Shimba Hills National Reserve (SHNR). The list comprises of 30 currently known amphibians (28 anurans and two caecilians), which includes 11 families and 15 genera. In addition, individual records per species, distribution in the reserve and brief remarks about the ...

Global Earthquake Hazard Frequency and Distribution

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Global Earthquake Hazard Frequency and Distribution is a 2.5 minute grid utilizing Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) Earthquake Catalog data of actual...

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.

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.

Summary of earthquake experience database

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

Strong-motion earthquakes frequently occur throughout the Pacific Basin, where power plants or industrial facilities are included in the affected areas. By studying the performance of these earthquake-affected (or database) facilities, a large inventory of various types of equipment installations can be compiled that have experienced substantial seismic motion. The primary purposes of the seismic experience database are summarized as follows: to determine the most common sources of seismic damage, or adverse effects, on equipment installations typical of industrial facilities; to determine the thresholds of seismic motion corresponding to various types of seismic damage; to determine the general performance of equipment during earthquakes, regardless of the levels of seismic motion; to determine minimum standards in equipment construction and installation, based on past experience, to assure the ability to withstand anticipated seismic loads. To summarize, the primary assumption in compiling an experience database is that the actual seismic hazard to industrial installations is best demonstrated by the performance of similar installations in past earthquakes

A new way of telling earthquake stories: MOBEE - the MOBile Earthquake Exhibition

Science.gov (United States)

Tataru, Dragos; Toma-Danila, Dragos; Nastase, Eduard

2016-04-01

In the last decades, the demand and acknowledged importance of science outreach, in general and geophysics in particular, has grown, as demonstrated by many international and national projects and other activities performed by research institutes. The National Institute for Earth Physics (NIEP) from Romania is the leading national institution on earthquake monitoring and research, having at the same time a declared focus on informing and educating a wide audience about geosciences and especially seismology. This is more than welcome, since Romania is a very active country from a seismological point of view, but not too reactive when it comes to diminishing the possible effect of a major earthquake. Over the last few decades, the country has experienced several major earthquakes which have claimed thousands of lives and millions in property damage (1940; 1977; 1986 and 1990 Vrancea earthquakes). In this context, during a partnership started in 2014 together with the National Art University and Siveco IT company, a group of researchers from NIEP initiated the MOBile Earthquake Exhibition (MOBEE) project. The main goal was to design a portable museum to bring on the road educational activities focused on seismology, seismic hazard and Earth science. The exhibition is mainly focused on school students of all ages as it explains the main topics of geophysics through a unique combination of posters, digital animations and apps, large markets and exciting hand-on experiments, 3D printed models and posters. This project is singular in Romania and aims to transmit properly reviewed actual information, regarding the definition of earthquakes, the way natural hazards can affect people, buildings and the environment and the measures to be taken for prevent an aftermath. Many of the presented concepts can be used by teachers as a complementary way of demonstrating physics facts and concepts and explaining processes that shape the dynamic Earth features. It also involves

Clinical characteristics of patients seizure following the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake.

Science.gov (United States)

Inatomi, Yuichiro; Nakajima, Makoto; Yonehara, Toshiro; Ando, Yukio

2017-06-01

To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with seizure following the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. We retrospectively studied patients with seizure admitted to our hospital for 12weeks following the earthquake. We compared the clinical backgrounds and characteristics of the patients: before (the same period from the previous 3years) and after the earthquake; and the early (first 2weeks) and late (subsequent 10weeks) phases. A total of 60 patients with seizure were admitted to the emergency room after the earthquake, and 175 (58.3/year) patients were admitted before the earthquake. Of them, 35 patients with seizure were hospitalized in the Department of Neurology after the earthquake, and 96 (32/year) patients were hospitalized before the earthquake. In patients after the earthquake, males and non-cerebrovascular diseases as an epileptogenic disease were seen more frequently than before the earthquake. During the early phase after the earthquake, female, first-attack, and non-focal-type patients were seen more frequently than during the late phase after the earthquake. These characteristics of patients with seizure during the early phase after the earthquake suggest that many patients had non-epileptic seizures. To prevent seizures following earthquakes, mental stress and physical status of evacuees must be assessed. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Small discussion of electromagnetic wave anomalies preceding earthquakes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1980-01-01

Six brief pieces on various aspects of electromagnetic wave anomalies are presented. They cover: earthquake electromagnetic emanations; the use of magnetic induction information for earthquake forecasting; electromagnetic pulse emissions as pre-earthquake indicators; the use of magnetic sensors to determine medium-wavelength field strength for earthquake prediction purposes; magnetic deviation indicators inside reinforced-concrete buildings; and a discussion of the general physical principles involved.

Ionospheric precursors to large earthquakes: A case study of the 2011 Japanese Tohoku Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, B. A.; Kellerman, A. C.; Kane, T. A.; Dyson, P. L.; Norman, R.; Zhang, K.

2013-09-01

Researchers have reported ionospheric electron distribution abnormalities, such as electron density enhancements and/or depletions, that they claimed were related to forthcoming earthquakes. In this study, the Tohoku earthquake is examined using ionosonde data to establish whether any otherwise unexplained ionospheric anomalies were detected in the days and hours prior to the event. As the choices for the ionospheric baseline are generally different between previous works, three separate baselines for the peak plasma frequency of the F2 layer, foF2, are employed here; the running 30-day median (commonly used in other works), the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model and the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamic General Circulation Model (TIE-GCM). It is demonstrated that the classification of an ionospheric perturbation is heavily reliant on the baseline used, with the 30-day median, the IRI and the TIE-GCM generally underestimating, approximately describing and overestimating the measured foF2, respectively, in the 1-month period leading up to the earthquake. A detailed analysis of the ionospheric variability in the 3 days before the earthquake is then undertaken, where a simultaneous increase in foF2 and the Es layer peak plasma frequency, foEs, relative to the 30-day median was observed within 1 h before the earthquake. A statistical search for similar simultaneous foF2 and foEs increases in 6 years of data revealed that this feature has been observed on many other occasions without related seismic activity. Therefore, it is concluded that one cannot confidently use this type of ionospheric perturbation to predict an impending earthquake. It is suggested that in order to achieve significant progress in our understanding of seismo-ionospheric coupling, better account must be taken of other known sources of ionospheric variability in addition to solar and geomagnetic activity, such as the thermospheric coupling.

Investigating Landslides Caused by Earthquakes A Historical Review

Science.gov (United States)

Keefer, David K.

Post-earthquake field investigations of landslide occurrence have provided a basis for understanding, evaluating, and mapping the hazard and risk associated withearthquake-induced landslides. This paper traces thehistorical development of knowledge derived from these investigations. Before 1783, historical accounts of the occurrence of landslides in earthquakes are typically so incomplete and vague that conclusions based on these accounts are of limited usefulness. For example, the number of landslides triggered by a given event is almost always greatly underestimated. The first formal, scientific post-earthquake investigation that included systematic documentation of the landslides was undertaken in the Calabria region of Italy after the 1783 earthquake swarm. From then until the mid-twentieth century, the best information on earthquake-induced landslides came from a succession ofpost-earthquake investigations largely carried out by formal commissions that undertook extensive ground-based field studies. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, when the use of aerial photography became widespread, comprehensive inventories of landslide occurrence have been made for several earthquakes in the United States, Peru, Guatemala, Italy, El Salvador, Japan, and Taiwan. Techniques have also been developed for performing ``retrospective'' analyses years or decades after an earthquake that attempt to reconstruct the distribution of landslides triggered by the event. The additional use of Geographic Information System (GIS) processing and digital mapping since about 1989 has greatly facilitated the level of analysis that can applied to mapped distributions of landslides. Beginning in 1984, syntheses of worldwide and national data on earthquake-induced landslides have defined their general characteristics and relations between their occurrence and various geologic and seismic parameters. However, the number of comprehensive post-earthquake studies of landslides is still

The 1946 Unimak Tsunami Earthquake Area: revised tectonic structure in reprocessed seismic images and a suspect near field tsunami source

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, John J.; von Huene, Roland E.; Ryan, Holly F.

2014-01-01

In 1946 at Unimak Pass, Alaska, a tsunami destroyed the lighthouse at Scotch Cap, Unimak Island, took 159 lives on the Hawaiian Islands, damaged island coastal facilities across the south Pacific, and destroyed a hut in Antarctica. The tsunami magnitude of 9.3 is comparable to the magnitude 9.1 tsunami that devastated the Tohoku coast of Japan in 2011. Both causative earthquake epicenters occurred in shallow reaches of the subduction zone. Contractile tectonism along the Alaska margin presumably generated the far-field tsunami by producing a seafloor elevation change. However, the Scotch Cap lighthouse was destroyed by a near-field tsunami that was probably generated by a coeval large undersea landslide, yet bathymetric surveys showed no fresh large landslide scar. We investigated this problem by reprocessing five seismic lines, presented here as high-resolution graphic images, both uninterpreted and interpreted, and available for the reader to download. In addition, the processed seismic data for each line are available for download as seismic industry-standard SEG-Y files. One line, processed through prestack depth migration, crosses a 10 × 15 kilometer and 800-meter-high hill presumed previously to be basement, but that instead is composed of stratified rock superimposed on the slope sediment. This image and multibeam bathymetry illustrate a slide block that could have sourced the 1946 near-field tsunami because it is positioned within a distance determined by the time between earthquake shaking and the tsunami arrival at Scotch Cap and is consistent with the local extent of high runup of 42 meters along the adjacent Alaskan coast. The Unimak/Scotch Cap margin is structurally similar to the 2011 Tohoku tsunamigenic margin where a large landslide at the trench, coeval with the Tohoku earthquake, has been documented. Further study can improve our understanding of tsunami sources along Alaska’s erosional margins.

Crystal chemistry of pyrochlore from the Mesozoic Panda Hill carbonatite deposit, western Tanzania

Science.gov (United States)

Boniface, Nelson

2017-02-01

The Mesozoic Panda Hill carbonatite deposit in western Tanzania hosts pyrochlore, an ore and source of niobium. This study was conducted to establish the contents of radioactive elements (uranium and thorium) in pyrochlore along with the concentration of niobium in the ore. The pyrochlore is mainly hosted in sövite and is structurally controlled by NW-SE (SW dipping) or NE-SW (NW dipping) magmatic flow bands with dip angles of between 60° and 90°. Higher concentrations of pyrochlore are associated with magnetite, apatite and/or phlogopite rich flow bands. Electron microprobe analyses on single crystals of pyrochlore yield very low UO2 concentrations that range between 0 and 0.09 wt% (equivalent to 0 atoms per formula unit: a.p.f.u.) and ThO2 between 0.55 and 1.05 wt% (equivalent to 0.1 a.p.f.u.). The analyses reveal high concentrations of Nb2O5 (ranging between 57.13 and 65.50 wt%, equivalent to a.p.f.u. ranging between 1.33 and 1.43) and therefore the Panda Hill Nb-oxide is classified as pyrochlore sensu stricto. These data point to a non radioactive pyrochlore and a deposit rich in Nb at Panda Hill. The Panda Hill pyrochlore has low concentrations of REEs as displayed by La2O3 that range between 0.10 and 0.49 wt% (equivalent to a.p.f.u. ranging between 0 and 0.01) and Ce2O3 ranging between 0.86 and 1.80 wt% (equivalent to a.p.f.u. ranging between 0.02 and 0.03), Pr2O3 concentrations range between 0 and 0.23 wt% (equivalent to 0 a.p.f.u.), and Y2O3 is 0 wt% (equivalent to 0 a.p.f.u.). The abundance of the REEs in pyroclore at the Panda Hill Carbonatite deposit is of no economic significance.

Aseismic blocks and destructive earthquakes in the Aegean

Science.gov (United States)

Stiros, Stathis

2017-04-01

Aseismic areas are not identified only in vast, geologically stable regions, but also within regions of active, intense, distributed deformation such as the Aegean. In the latter, "aseismic blocks" about 200m wide were recognized in the 1990's on the basis of the absence of instrumentally-derived earthquake foci, in contrast to surrounding areas. This pattern was supported by the available historical seismicity data, as well as by geologic evidence. Interestingly, GPS evidence indicates that such blocks are among the areas characterized by small deformation rates relatively to surrounding areas of higher deformation. Still, the largest and most destructive earthquake of the 1990's, the 1995 M6.6 earthquake occurred at the center of one of these "aseismic" zones at the northern part of Greece, found unprotected against seismic hazard. This case was indeed a repeat of the case of the tsunami-associated 1956 Amorgos Island M7.4 earthquake, the largest 20th century event in the Aegean back-arc region: the 1956 earthquake occurred at the center of a geologically distinct region (Cyclades Massif in Central Aegean), till then assumed aseismic. Interestingly, after 1956, the overall idea of aseismic regions remained valid, though a "promontory" of earthquake prone-areas intruding into the aseismic central Aegean was assumed. Exploitation of the archaeological excavation evidence and careful, combined analysis of historical and archaeological data and other palaeoseismic, mostly coastal data, indicated that destructive and major earthquakes have left their traces in previously assumed aseismic blocks. In the latter earthquakes typically occur with relatively low recurrence intervals, >200-300 years, much smaller than in adjacent active areas. Interestingly, areas assumed a-seismic in antiquity are among the most active in the last centuries, while areas hit by major earthquakes in the past are usually classified as areas of low seismic risk in official maps. Some reasons

Tsunami evacuation plans for future megathrust earthquakes in Padang, Indonesia, considering stochastic earthquake scenarios

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Muhammad

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study develops tsunami evacuation plans in Padang, Indonesia, using a stochastic tsunami simulation method. The stochastic results are based on multiple earthquake scenarios for different magnitudes (Mw 8.5, 8.75, and 9.0 that reflect asperity characteristics of the 1797 historical event in the same region. The generation of the earthquake scenarios involves probabilistic models of earthquake source parameters and stochastic synthesis of earthquake slip distributions. In total, 300 source models are generated to produce comprehensive tsunami evacuation plans in Padang. The tsunami hazard assessment results show that Padang may face significant tsunamis causing the maximum tsunami inundation height and depth of 15 and 10 m, respectively. A comprehensive tsunami evacuation plan – including horizontal evacuation area maps, assessment of temporary shelters considering the impact due to ground shaking and tsunami, and integrated horizontal–vertical evacuation time maps – has been developed based on the stochastic tsunami simulation results. The developed evacuation plans highlight that comprehensive mitigation policies can be produced from the stochastic tsunami simulation for future tsunamigenic events.

Petrographic and geochemical data for Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the Bodie Hills, California and Nevada

Science.gov (United States)

du Bray, Edward A.; John, David A.; Box, Stephen E.; Vikre, Peter G.; Fleck, Robert J.; Cousens, Brian L.

2013-04-23

Petrographic and geochemical data for Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the Bodie Hills, California and Nevada // // This report presents petrographic and geochemical data for samples collected during investigations of Tertiary volcanism in the Bodie Hills of California and Nevada. Igneous rocks in the area are principally 15–6 Ma subduction-related volcanic rocks of the Bodie Hills volcanic field but also include 3.9–0.1 Ma rocks of the bimodal, post-subduction Aurora volcanic field. Limited petrographic results for local basement rocks, including Mesozoic granitoid rocks and their metamorphic host rocks, are also included in the compilation. The petrographic data include visual estimates of phenocryst abundances as well as other diagnostic petrographic criteria. The geochemical data include whole-rock major oxide and trace element data, as well as limited whole-rock isotopic data.

POST Earthquake Debris Management — AN Overview

Science.gov (United States)

Sarkar, Raju

Every year natural disasters, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, tsunami, and tornadoes, challenge various communities of the world. Earthquakes strike with varying degrees of severity and pose both short- and long-term challenges to public service providers. Earthquakes generate shock waves and displace the ground along fault lines. These seismic forces can bring down buildings and bridges in a localized area and damage buildings and other structures in a far wider area. Secondary damage from fires, explosions, and localized flooding from broken water pipes can increase the amount of debris. Earthquake debris includes building materials, personal property, and sediment from landslides. The management of this debris, as well as the waste generated during the reconstruction works, can place significant challenges on the national and local capacities. Debris removal is a major component of every post earthquake recovery operation. Much of the debris generated from earthquake is not hazardous. Soil, building material, and green waste, such as trees and shrubs, make up most of the volume of earthquake debris. These wastes not only create significant health problems and a very unpleasant living environment if not disposed of safely and appropriately, but also can subsequently impose economical burdens on the reconstruction phase. In practice, most of the debris may be either disposed of at landfill sites, reused as materials for construction or recycled into useful commodities Therefore, the debris clearance operation should focus on the geotechnical engineering approach as an important post earthquake issue to control the quality of the incoming flow of potential soil materials. In this paper, the importance of an emergency management perspective in this geotechnical approach that takes into account the different criteria related to the operation execution is proposed by highlighting the key issues concerning the handling of the construction

A Decade of Giant Earthquakes - What does it mean?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wallace, Terry C. Jr. [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2012-07-16

On December 26, 2004 the largest earthquake since 1964 occurred near Ache, Indonesia. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed a quarter of million people; it also marked the being of a period of extraordinary seismicity. Since the Ache earthquake there have been 16 magnitude 8 earthquakes globally, including 2 this last April. For the 100 years previous to 2004 there was an average of 1 magnitude 8 earthquake every 2.2 years; since 2004 there has been 2 per year. Since magnitude 8 earthquakes dominate global seismic energy release, this period of seismicity has seismologist rethinking what they understand about plate tectonics and the connectivity between giant earthquakes. This talk will explore this remarkable period of time and its possible implications.

Electromagnetic Manifestation of Earthquakes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Uvarov Vladimir

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In a joint analysis of the results of recording the electrical component of the natural electromagnetic field of the Earth and the catalog of earthquakes in Kamchatka in 2013, unipolar pulses of constant amplitude associated with earthquakes were identified, whose activity is closely correlated with the energy of the electromagnetic field. For the explanation, a hypothesis about the cooperative character of these impulses is proposed.

Relationship of heat and cold to earthquakes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Y.

1980-06-26