Use of microtremor measurement for assessing site effects in Northern Belgium – interpretation of the observed intensity during the MS = 5.0 June 11 1938 earthquake     

F. Nguyen  G. Van Rompaey  H. Teerlynck  M. Van Camp  D. Jongmans  T. Camelbeeck 《Journal of Seismology》2004,8(1):41-56

To provide quantitative information on site effects in the northern part of Belgium, forty-seven H/V microtremor measurements were performed with 5 second seismometers over an area of about 15.000 km². Most of the results show a northward regular increase of the fundamental period in agreement with the augmentation of the Mesozoic and Cainozoic soft sedimentsthickness from a few meters 40 km south of Brussels to 900 m at the Netherlands-Belgium border. The measured resonance frequency values wereconsistent with theoretical computations performed at different sites onthe basis of existing information and shallow seismic experiments. At oneparticular site (Uccle) where borehole data were available, microtremor measurements using an array of four seismological stations with differentapertures allowed to obtain the low frequency part of the Rayleigh wave dispersion curve, extending the range covered by the analysis of surfacewaves artificially generated. The Vs profile derived from the surface waveinversion corroborates the 1 Hz natural frequency of the site. Comparison of these results with the macroseismic information concerning the M_S = 5.0 1938 earthquake which occurred 50 km west of Brussels,confirmed the hypothesis that the geological structure of the Brabant massifis likely to control damage distribution during such an earthquake. Comparisonbetween the intensity map of the 1938 earthquake and the resonance period ofsediments obtained by our microtremor study shows a clear relation betweenthe two parameters. During the 1938 earthquake, site effects played a prominent role due to the dimension of the source whose corner frequency wasabout 1 Hz.  相似文献   

The International Laser Ranging Service and its support for IGGOS     

Michael Pearlman  Carey Noll  Peter Dunn  Julie Horvath  Van Husson  Paul Stevens  Mark Torrence  Hoai Vo  Scott Wetzel 《Journal of Geodynamics》2005,40(4-5):470

The International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) was established in September 1998 as a service within the IAG to support programs in geodetic, geophysical, and lunar research activities and to provide data products to the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) in support of its prime objectives. Now in operation for 5 years, the ILRS develops: (1) the standards and specifications necessary for product consistency and (2) the priorities and tracking strategies required to maximize network efficiency. The service collects, merges, analyzes, archives and distributes satellite and lunar laser ranging data to satisfy a variety of scientific, engineering, and operational needs and encourages the application of new technologies to enhance the quality, quantity, and cost effectiveness of its data products. The ILRS works with: (1) the global network to improve station performance; (2) new satellite missions in the design and building of retroreflector targets to maximize data quality and quantity and (3) science programs to optimize scientific data yield. The ILRS Central Bureau maintains a comprehensive web site as the primary vehicle for the distribution of information within the ILRS community. The site, which can be accessed at: http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov is also available at mirrored sites at the Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) in Tokyo and the European Data Center (EDC) in Munich.During the last 2 years, the ILRS has addressed very important challenges: (1) data from the field stations are now submitted hourly and made available immediately through the data centers for access by the user community; (2) tracking on low satellites has been significantly improved through the sub-daily issue of predictions, drag functions, and the real-time exchange of time biases; (3) analysis products are now submitted in SINEX format for compatibility with the other space geodesy techniques; (4) the Analysis Working Group is heavily engaged in Pilot Projects as it works toward an ILRS “standard” global solution and (5) SLR has significantly increased its participation in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) activity, which is important to the success of IGGOS.  相似文献   

PUTTING THE MESSINESS BACK IN: TOWARDS A GEOGRAPHY OF DEVELOPMENT AS CREATIVITY     

Nina D. Laurie 《Singapore journal of tropical geography》2005,26(1):32-35

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From water to tillage erosion dominated landform evolution   总被引：3，自引：1，他引：3  

K. Van Oost  W. Van Muysen  G. Govers  J. Deckers  T.A. Quine 《Geomorphology》2005,72(1-4):193-203

While water and wind erosion are still considered to be the dominant soil erosion processes on agricultural land, there is growing recognition that tillage erosion plays an important role in the redistribution of soil on agricultural land. In this study, we examined soil redistribution rates and patterns for an agricultural field in the Belgian loess belt. ¹³⁷Cs derived soil erosion rates have been confronted with historical patterns of soil erosion based on soil profile truncation. This allowed an assessment of historical and contemporary landform evolution on agricultural land and its interpretation in relation to the dominant geomorphic process. The results clearly show that an important shift in the relative contribution of tillage and water erosion to total soil redistribution on agricultural land has occurred during recent decades. Historical soil redistribution is dominated by high losses on steep midslope positions and concavities as a result of water erosion, leading to landscape incision and steepening of the topography. In contrast, contemporary soil redistribution is dominated by high losses on convex upperslopes and infilling of slope and valley concavities as a result of tillage, resulting in topographic flattening. This shift must be attributed to the increased mechanization of agriculture during recent decades. This study shows that the typical topographical dependency of soil redistribution processes and their spatial interactions must be accounted for when assessing landform and soil profile evolution.  相似文献   

Stochastic Modelling of the Impact of Flood Protection Measures Along the River Waal in the Netherlands     

Saskia Van Vuren  Huib J. De. Vriend  Sonja Ouwerkerk  Matthijs Kok 《Natural Hazards》2005,36(1-2):81-102

River flooding is a problem of international interest. In the past few years many countries suffered from severe floods. A large part of the Netherlands is below sea level and river levels. The Dutch flood defences along the river Rhine are designed for water levels with a probability of exceedance of 1/1250 per year. These water levels are computed with a hydrodynamic model using a deterministic bed level and a deterministic design discharge. Traditionally, the safety against flooding in the Netherlands is obtained by building and reinforcing dikes. Recently, a new policy was proposed to cope with increasing design discharges in the Rhine and Meuse rivers. This policy is known as the Room for the River (RfR) policy, in which a reduction of flood levels is achieved by measures creating space for the river, such as dike replacement, side channels and floodplain lowering. As compared with dike reinforcement, these measures may have a stronger impact on flow and sediment transport fields, probably leading to stronger morphological effects. As a result of the latter the flood conveyance capacity may decrease over time. An a priori judgement of safety against flooding on the basis of an increased conveyance capacity of the river can be quite misleading. Therefore, the determination of design water levels using a fixed-bed hydrodynamic model may not be justified and the use of a mobile-bed approach may be more appropriate. This problem is addressed in this paper, using a case study of the river Waal (one of the Rhine branches in the Netherlands). The morphological response of the river Waal to a flood protection measure (floodplain lowering in combination with summer levee removal) is analysed. The effect of this measure is subject to various sources of uncertainty. Monte Carlo simulations are applied to calculate the impact of uncertainties in the river discharge on the bed levels. The impact of the “uncertain” morphological response on design flood level predictions is analysed for three phenomena, viz. the impact of the spatial morphological variation over years, the impact of the seasonal morphological variation and the impact of the morphological variability around bifurcation points. The impact of seasonal morphological variations turns out to be negligible, but the other two phenomena appear to have each an appreciable impact (order of magnitude 0.05–0.1 m) on the computed design water levels. We have to note however, that other sources of uncertainty (e.g. uncertainty in hydraulic roughness predictor), which may be of influence, are not taken into consideration. In fact, the present investigation is limited to the sensitivity of the design water levels to uncertainties in the predicted bed level.  相似文献   

Polymorphic phase transition in Superhydrous Phase B     

M. Koch-Müller  P. Dera  Y. Fei  H. Hellwig  Z. Liu  J. Van Orman  R. Wirth 《Physics and Chemistry of Minerals》2005,32(5-6):349-361

We synthesized superhydrous phase B (shy-B) at 22 GPa and two different temperatures: 1200°C (LT) and 1400°C (HT) using a multi-anvil apparatus. The samples were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), single crystal X-ray diffraction, Raman and IR spectroscopy. The IR spectra were collected on polycrystalline thin-films and single crystals using synchrotron radiation, as well as a conventional IR source at ambient conditions and in situ at various pressures (up to 15 GPa) and temperatures (down to −180°C). Our studies show that shy-B exists in two polymorphic forms. As expected from crystal chemistry, the LT polymorph crystallizes in a lower symmetry space group (Pnn2), whereas the HT polymorph assumes a higher symmetry space group (Pnnm). TEM shows that both modifications consist of nearly perfect crystals with almost no lattice defects or inclusions of additional phases. IR spectra taken on polycrystalline thin films exhibit just one symmetric OH band and 29 lattice modes for the HT polymorph in contrast to two intense but asymmetric OH stretching bands and at least 48 lattice modes for the LT sample. The IR spectra differ not only in the number of bands, but also in the response of the bands to changes in pressure. The pressure derivatives for the IR bands are higher for the HT polymorph indicating that the high symmetry form is more compressible than the low symmetry form. Polarized, low-temperature single-crystal IR spectra indicate that in the LT-polymorph extensive ordering occurs not only at the Mg sites but also at the hydrogen sites.  相似文献   

GPS monitoring of vertical ground motion in northern Ardenne–Eifel: five campaigns (1999–2003) of the HARD project     

A. Demoulin  J. Campbell  A. De. Wulf  A. Muls  R. Arnould  B. Görres  D. Fischer  T. Kötter  M. Brondeel  D. Van. Damme  J. M. Jacqmotte 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》2005,94(4):515-524

We present the HARD project of GPS monitoring of vertical ground motion in NE Ardenne and Eifel (western Europe). Its main purposes are to get a better insight into the present-day rates of vertical ground motion in intraplate settings and to identify the various causes of these motions. Since 1999, we have carried out yearly campaigns of simultaneous GPS measurements at 12 sites situated so as to sample the different tectonic subunits of the study area and especially to record potential displacements across the seismogenic Hockai fault zone. Five campaigns (1999–2003) have been processed currently. Key issues of the data processing with the Gamit software are discussed and first results are presented. Though temporally consistent in many cases, the obtained vertical motion rates are spatially highly variable. They are also much too high (several mm/year) to support a tectonic interpretation, and a long-term influence of groundwater level variations is proposed to account for the observed motions. This influence should be distinguished from seasonal variations and from inter-survey variations linked to the varying degree of soil and subsoil drying off during the successive spring surveys.  相似文献   

Chemical weathering in the Upper Huang He (Yellow River) draining the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau   总被引：8，自引：0，他引：8  

Lingling Wu  Jianhua Qin  Suzan van Der Lee 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2005,69(22):5279-5294

We examined the fluvial geochemistry of the Huang He (Yellow River) in its headwaters to determine natural chemical weathering rates on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where anthropogenic impact is considered small. Qualitative treatment of the major element composition demonstrates the dominance of carbonate and evaporite dissolution. Most samples are supersaturated with respect to calcite, dolomite, and atmospheric CO₂ with moderate (0.710-0.715) ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios, while six out of 21 total samples have especially high concentrations of Na, Ca, Mg, Cl, and SO₄ from weathering of evaporites. We used inversion model calculations to apportion the total dissolved cations to rain-, evaporite-, carbonate-, and silicate-origin. The samples are either carbonate- or evaporite-dominated, but the relative contributions of the four sources vary widely among samples. Net CO₂ consumption rates by silicate weathering (6-120 × 10³ mol/km²/yr) are low and have a relative uncertainty of ∼40%. We extended the inversion model calculation to literature data for rivers draining orogenic zones worldwide. The Ganges-Brahmaputra draining the Himalayan front has higher CO₂ consumption rates (110-570 × 10³ mol/km²/yr) and more radiogenic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr (0.715-1.24) than the Upper Huang He, but the rivers at higher latitudes are similar to or lower than the Upper Huang He in CO₂ uptake by silicate weathering. In these orogenic zones, silicate weathering rates are only weakly coupled with temperature and become independent of runoff above ∼800 mm/yr.  相似文献   

Modeling the impact of microbial activity on redox dynamics in porous media     

Martin Thullner  Philippe Van Cappellen  Pierre Regnier 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2005,69(21):5005-5019

The present study investigates the interaction between microbial growth and activity and the redox dynamics in natural porous media. The impact the transport regime has on this interaction is also addressed. Expressions for microbial growth are incorporated into a geochemical reaction network linking redox reaction rates to the activity of the microorganisms. A flexible simulation environment, the Biogeochemical Reaction Network Simulator (BRNS) is used for this purpose. Two reactive transport applications relevant to fields of contaminant hydrology and early diagenesis are simulated with the BRNS. Model results are evaluated based on a comparison with comprehensive datasets on the biodegradation of lactate in a sand column experiment and on the distribution of redox-sensitive chemical species in marine sediments of the Skagerrak, Denmark. It is shown that, despite quite different transport regimes, the geomicrobiological model performs equally well in the reproduction of measured chemical species distribution for both applications. This result emphasizes the broad applicability of the proposed approach. Our simulations support that the competitive behavior between various microbial groups is a process controlling the development of redox stratified environments. Furthermore, it is also shown that the transport regime is a key controlling factor for the degree of spatial correlation between microbial biomass distributions and redox reaction rates. Although all our simulations yield a pronounced stratification of the redox processes in the system, the biomass distribution is related to the associated reaction rates only in case of the advection controlled column experiment. In the early diagenetic application, mixing due to bioturbation is the dominant transport process for particulate matter, hence leading to fairly homogeneous distribution of bacterial biomasses which are unrelated to the spatial distribution of redox reaction rates. This homogeneous biomass distribution combined with the 1G carbon degradation model approach might explain why the steady state concentration profiles in such systems can be reproduced by diagenetic models without explicit representation of microbial growth.  相似文献   

Erratum to: Polymorphic phase transition in Superhydrous Phase B     

M. Koch-Müller  P. Dera  Y. Fei  H. Hellwig  Z. Liu  J. Van Orman  R. Wirth 《Physics and Chemistry of Minerals》2014,41(9):725-725

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