This work studies the effects of long human habitation on site geotechnical conditions. It is focused on the city of Zefat that is located on the borders of the Dead Sea Transform in northern Israel. The city of Zefat, suffered severe damage and loss of life in historical earthquakes, as a consequence of earthquake induced landslides (EILS). In this work we evaluate the current EILS hazard for the city of Zefat using a GIS-based regional Newmark analysis, with calibration of the calculated Newmark displacement (representing EILS hazard) using maps of field evidence and historical documents testifying to slope instability that occurred in historical earthquakes.
We found that the core city of Zefat is built on a layered anthropogenic material, few meters deep which, was deposited as a result of more than 2000 years of human habitation. The anthropogenic material is mechanically weak, susceptible to slope failure and to amplification of seismic-shaking. It is responsible for the city's devastation in historical earthquakes and it is the source for the current high seismic hazard as well.
Our model shows that earthquakes of magnitudes (Mw) 5, 6 and 7 at distances of up to 10 km, 50 km and more than 100 km, respectively, are likely to induce landslides in the core city of Zefat. The current engineering status of the city is poor, and as a consequence severe damage and loss of life are expected in future earthquakes due to EILS, unless major engineering efforts are made. Cities in the Eastern Mediterranean with comparable long habitation histories (e.g., Jerusalem, Tiberias, Nablus, Amman) are expected to have similar geotechnical problems in their old sections and are advised to take appropriate engineering steps to reduce damage and loss of life in future earthquakes.
Evaluation of historical earthquake magnitudes based on reported local-damage may, however, lead to overestimated magnitudes where the damaged sites are built on anthropogenic talus (a common setting in the vicinity of the Dead Sea Transform). 相似文献
The present study is based on a set of lavas and crosscutting dikes collected by dives along detailed vertical transects on the northern flank of the western part of the Blanco Transform Fault, Northeast Pacific. The studied area consists of a small basin, the Western Blanco Depression (WBD), extending from the southern end of the Juan de Fuca ridge to a pseudofault trace 60 km eastward. The Northern Scarp of the WBD comprises a volcanic unit overlying a sheeted-dike complex. Major and trace element data, coupled with Sr–Nd isotope ratios, reveal a two-component mantle source, composed by an isotopically depleted matrix variably veined by more enriched material. One chemical group (NS2), indistinguishable from the other Northern Scarp samples on the basis of trace element data, has an unusually depleted isotopic composition typical of a nearly pure mantle end-member. Some cogenetic samples of the Northern Scarp have been used to constrain the differentiation modalities. Anorthite and MgO content profiles in plagioclase xenocrysts and phenocrysts reveal (i) the existence of H2O-bearing evolved melts in the mushy zones and (ii) the occurrence of mixing process between these melts and anhydrous mafic liquids. The hydration is supported by other petrographic features such as high magmatic fO2 values, calculated from Fe–Ti oxide pairs, and the presence of pyroxene inclusions in plagioclase phenocrysts. Mixing, consistent with the existence of Ni-rich ferrobasalts, is interpreted to be the consequence of the reservoir refilling by mafic liquids (Mg# = 70). These petrological and geochemical evidences are combined with the evolution of Mg# with depth to suggest a periodic open-system magma chamber evolution beneath the southern end of the Juan de Fuca ridge. 相似文献
Tectonically, the large-scale right-lateral strike-slip movement along the Red River fault zone is char-acterized at its late phase with the southeastward extension and deformation of the Northwestern Yunnan normal fault depression on its northern segment, and the dextral shear displacement on its central-southern segment. Research of the relations between stratum deformation and fault movement on the typical fault segments, such as Jianchuan, southeast Midu, Yuanjiang River, Yuanyang, etc. since the Miocene Epoch shows that there are two times dextral faulting dominated by normal shearing occurring along the Red River fault zone since the Miocene Epoch. The fission track dating (abbrevi-ated to FT dating, the same below) is conducted on apatite samples collected from the above fault segments and relating to these movements. Based on the measured single grain’s age and the con-fined track length, we choose the Laslet annealing model to retrieve the thermal history of the samples, and the results show that the fault zone experienced two times obvious shear displacement, one in 5.5 ± 1.5 MaBP and the other in 2.1± 0.8 MaBP. The central-southern segment sees two intensive uplifts of mountain mass in the Yuanjiang River-Yuanyang region at 3.6―3.8 MaBP and 1.6―2.3 MaBP, which correspond to the above-mentioned two dextral normal displacement events since the late Miocene Epoch. 相似文献