New insights into turbulent pedestrian movement pattern in crowd-quakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, J.; Song, W. G.; Lo, S. M.; Fang, Z. M.

2013-02-01

Video recordings right before the Love Parade disaster have been quantitatively analyzed to explore the bursts of unusual crowd movement patterns, crowd-quakes. The pedestrian movement pattern in this incident was special for the reason that it happened in a congested counter flow scenario, where stopped pedestrians were involved. No one was believed to have pushed others intentionally at the beginning, however, under this situation, the body contacts among the pedestrians still induced a force spread, which then led to velocity fluctuation. As indicated by the individual velocity-related features, the densely crowded pedestrian movement displayed turbulent flow features. Further analyzing the overall flow field, we also found that the pedestrian flow field shared typical patterns with turbulent fluid flow. As a result of the turbulent state, different clusters of pedestrians displayed different velocity features. Thus crowd pressure which took into account the velocity and density information was proved to be a good indicator of crowd disasters. Based on these essential features of pedestrian crowd-quakes, a minimal model, i.e., a pedestrian crowd-quake model, was established. Effects including pedestrian gait, stress conservation level and personal intention to escape were explored.

Quaking aspen woodland after conifer control: herbaceous dynamics

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook.) woodlands are replacing lower elevation (< 2100 m) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) stands in the northern Great Basin. Restoring aspen woodlands is important because they provide wildlife habitat for many species and contain a high diversity...

Understanding Earthquake Fault Systems Using QuakeSim Analysis and Data Assimilation Tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donnellan, Andrea; Parker, Jay; Glasscoe, Margaret; Granat, Robert; Rundle, John; McLeod, Dennis; Al-Ghanmi, Rami; Grant, Lisa

2008-01-01

We are using the QuakeSim environment to model interacting fault systems. One goal of QuakeSim is to prepare for the large volumes of data that spaceborne missions such as DESDynI will produce. QuakeSim has the ability to ingest distributed heterogenous data in the form of InSAR, GPS, seismicity, and fault data into various earthquake modeling applications, automating the analysis when possible. Virtual California simulates interacting faults in California. We can compare output from long time history Virtual California runs with the current state of strain and the strain history in California. In addition to spaceborne data we will begin assimilating data from UAVSAR airborne flights over the San Francisco Bay Area, the Transverse Ranges, and the Salton Trough. Results of the models are important for understanding future earthquake risk and for providing decision support following earthquakes. Improved models require this sensor web of different data sources, and a modeling environment for understanding the combined data.

New Zealand’s deadliest quake sounds alarm for cities on fault lines

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kalkan, Erol

2012-01-01

The catastrophic Christ Church Earthquake is a strong reminder to engineers and scientists of the hazards pose by fault lines, both mapped and unknown, near major cities. In February 2011, the relatively moderate earthquake that struck the cities of Christchurch and Lyttleton in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island surprised many with its destructive power. The magnitude 6.2 temblor killed 181 people, 118 of whom were killed in the collapse of a single building in the city center. The quake damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 buildings.It was the deadliest quake to strike the nation in 80 years-since the 1931 earthquake that struck the Napier and Hastings area of the North Island. The Christchurch quake was part of the aftershock sequence following the September 2010 magnitude 7.1 earthquake near Darfield, 40 kilometers west of the city. The Darfield earthquake was in a sparsely populated area, causing to loss of life. By contrast, the Christchurch earthquake was generated on a fault in close proximity to the city.

LastQuake: a comprehensive strategy for rapid engagement of earthquake eyewitnesses, massive crowdsourcing and risk reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossu, R.; Roussel, F.; Mazet-Roux, G.; Steed, R.; Frobert, L.

2015-12-01

LastQuake is a smartphone app, browser add-on and the most sophisticated Twitter robot (quakebot) for earthquakes currently in operation. It fulfills eyewitnesses' needs by offering information on felt earthquakes and their effects within tens of seconds of their occurrence. Associated with an active presence on Facebook, Pinterest and on websites, this proves a very efficient engagement strategy. For example, the app was installed thousands of times after the Ghorka earthquake in Nepal. Language barriers have been erased by using visual communication; for example, felt reports are collected through a set of cartoons representing different shaking levels. Within 3 weeks of the magnitude 7.8 Ghorka earthquakes, 7,000 felt reports with thousands of comments were collected related to the mainshock and tens of its aftershocks as well as 100 informative geo-located pics. The QuakeBot was essential in allowing us to be identified so well and interact with those affected. LastQuake is also a risk reduction tool since it provides rapid information. Rapid information is similar to prevention since when it does not exist, disasters can happen. When no information is available after a felt earthquake, the public block emergency lines by trying to find out the cause of the shaking, crowds form potentially leading to unpredictable crowd movement, rumors spread. In its next release LastQuake will also provide people with guidance immediately after a shaking through a number of pop-up cartoons illustrating "do/don't do" items (go to open places, do not phone emergency services except if people are injured…). LastQuake's app design is simple and intuitive and has a global audience. It benefited from a crowdfunding campaign (and the support of the Fondation MAIF) and more improvements have been planned after an online feedback campaign organized in early June with the Ghorka earthquake eyewitnesses. LastQuake is also a seismic risk reduction tools thanks to its very rapid

Quaking aspen woodland after conifer control: tree and shrub dynamics

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis spp. occidentalis) woodlands are replacing lower elevation (< 2100 m) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) stands of the northern Great Basin. Recovery of aspen is important because these communities provide habitat for many wildlife species. We evaluated two...

Proton transfer and protein quake in photoreceptor activation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Aihua

2002-03-01

Proteins are able to perform an enormous variety of functions, while using only a limited number of underlying processes. One of these is proton transfer, found in a range of receptors and enzymes. It is conceivable that proton transfer is essential in biological energy transduction, but it is less evident how proton transfer is employed in receptor activation during biological signal transduction. An important question regarding receptor activation is how a localized event of detecting a stimulus at the active site drives global conformational changes involving protein surface for signal relay. We will present structural, kinetic and energetic studies on the activation mechanism of a prototype PAS domain photoreceptor, photoactive yellow protein (PYP). Our data reveal that the putative signaling state of PYP upon absorption of a blue photon is formed during a large-amplitude protein quake triggered by the formation of a new buried charge in a hydrophobic pocket at the active site of PYP via intramolecular proton transfer. This mechanism for protein quakes driven by proton transfer and electrostatic interactions may play roles during the functioning of other receptor proteins and non-receptor proteins that require large conformational changes.

Clone expansion and competition between quaking and bigtooth aspen suckers after clearcutting.

Treesearch

Donald A. Perala

1981-01-01

Quaking aspen clones expanded over more area, and regenerated greater sucker stem densities and biomass than did bigtooth aspen clones. However, sucker height growth was similar between the two species.

Use of QuakeSim and UAVSAR for Earthquake Damage Mitigation and Response

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donnellan, A.; Parker, J. W.; Bawden, G.; Hensley, S.

2009-01-01

Spaceborne, airborne, and modeling and simulation techniques are being applied to earthquake risk assessment and response for mitigation from this natural disaster. QuakeSim is a web-based portal for modeling interseismic strain accumulation using paleoseismic and crustal deformation data. The models are used for understanding strain accumulation and release from earthquakes as well as stress transfer to neighboring faults. Simulations of the fault system can be used for understanding the likelihood and patterns of earthquakes as well as the likelihood of large aftershocks from events. UAVSAR is an airborne L-band InSAR system for collecting crustal deformation data. QuakeSim, UAVSAR, and DESDynI (following launch) can be used for monitoring earthquakes, the associated rupture and damage, and postseismic motions for prediction of aftershock locations.

Performance modeling codes for the QuakeSim problem solving environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parker, J. W.; Donnellan, A.; Lyzenga, G.; Rundle, J.; Tullis, T.

2003-01-01

The QuakeSim Problem Solving Environment uses a web-services approach to unify and deploy diverse remote data sources and processing services within a browser environment. Here we focus on the high-performance crustal modeling applications that will be included in this set of remote but interoperable applications.

Historical patterns in lichen communities of montane quaking aspen forests

Treesearch

Paul C. Rogers; Dale L. Bartos; Ronald J. Ryel

2011-01-01

Climate shifts and resource exploitation in Rocky Mountain forests have caused profound changes in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) structure and function since Euro-American settlement. It therefore seems likely that commensurate shifts in dependent epiphytes would follow major ecological transitions. In the current study, we merge several lines of inquiry...

Cosesimic landslides and their post-quake effects (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, R.; Fan, X.

2013-12-01

On May 12, 2008, a devastating earthquake of magnitude Mw 7.9 hit China's Sichuan province. The quake, originating in the Longmen Shan fault zone at the eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau, was the country's largest seismic event in more than 50 years. It triggered more than 60,000 destructive landslides and 828 landslide dams over an area of 35,000 square kilometers, that caused about one third of the total fatalities. The combination of strong and long-lasting ground shaking, steep, rugged topography and a fragile and densely jointed lithology probably controlled the occurrence of landslides during the earthquake, but we found that other two factors (fault type and slip rate during the earthquake), may also have played a role. Landslides were clustered in a much wider corridor along the thrusting part of the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault than the strike-slip part. Large-scale landslides with an area of more than 50,000 m2 were concentrated where fault slip-rates were highest, near the intersections and junctures of individual segments of the fault. After the earthquake, debris flow hazard has become a significant concern. A tremendous amount of loose material from landslides that occurred during the earthquake is suspended on the hillslopes, ready to be eroded and transported by rain. More than 2000 occurrences of debris flow have been recorded by the Land and Resources Department of Sichuan Province following the 2008 quake till 2012. The threshold in hourly rainfall intensity for triggering debris flows was found to be around 60% lower after the earthquake than it had been before, according to the record in Beichuan. How long it will take for the debris flow frequency to return to pre-earthquake levels depends on a large number of factors, including rainfall intensity, natural re-vegetation and self-stabilization processes on slopes. We anticipate that - despite large uncertainties - debris flows that directly result from sediment movement during the 2008 earthquake may

Defensive effects of extrafloral nectaries in quaking aspen differ with scale

Treesearch

Brent Mortensen; Diane Wagner; Patricia Doak

2010-01-01

The effects of plant defenses on herbivory can differ among spatial scales. This may be particularly common with indirect defenses, such as extrafloral nectarines (EFNs), that attract predatory arthropods and are dependent on predator distribution, abundance, and behavior. We tested the defensive effects of EFNs in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides...

Decline of quaking aspen in the Interior West - examples from Utah

Treesearch

Dale L. Bartos; Robert B. Campbell

1998-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) are unique because, in contrast to most western forest trees, they reproduce primarily by suckering from the parent root system. Generally disturbance or dieback is necessary to stimulate regeneration of aspen stands. These self-regenerating stands have existed for thousands of years. If they are lost from the...

Modelling Active Faults in Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) with OpenQuake: Definition, Design and Experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weatherill, Graeme; Garcia, Julio; Poggi, Valerio; Chen, Yen-Shin; Pagani, Marco

2016-04-01

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) has, since its inception in 2009, made many contributions to the practice of seismic hazard modeling in different regions of the globe. The OpenQuake-engine (hereafter referred to simply as OpenQuake), GEM's open-source software for calculation of earthquake hazard and risk, has found application in many countries, spanning a diversity of tectonic environments. GEM itself has produced a database of national and regional seismic hazard models, harmonizing into OpenQuake's own definition the varied seismogenic sources found therein. The characterization of active faults in probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) is at the centre of this process, motivating many of the developments in OpenQuake and presenting hazard modellers with the challenge of reconciling seismological, geological and geodetic information for the different regions of the world. Faced with these challenges, and from the experience gained in the process of harmonizing existing models of seismic hazard, four critical issues are addressed. The challenge GEM has faced in the development of software is how to define a representation of an active fault (both in terms of geometry and earthquake behaviour) that is sufficiently flexible to adapt to different tectonic conditions and levels of data completeness. By exploring the different fault typologies supported by OpenQuake we illustrate how seismic hazard calculations can, and do, take into account complexities such as geometrical irregularity of faults in the prediction of ground motion, highlighting some of the potential pitfalls and inconsistencies that can arise. This exploration leads to the second main challenge in active fault modeling, what elements of the fault source model impact most upon the hazard at a site, and when does this matter? Through a series of sensitivity studies we show how different configurations of fault geometry, and the corresponding characterisation of near-fault phenomena (including

RNA-binding Protein Quaking Stabilizes Sirt2 mRNA during Oligodendroglial Differentiation*

PubMed Central

Thangaraj, Merlin P.; Furber, Kendra L.; Gan, Jotham K.; Ji, Shaoping; Sobchishin, Larhonda; Doucette, J. Ronald; Nazarali, Adil J.

2017-01-01

Myelination is controlled by timely expression of genes involved in the differentiation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) into myelinating oligodendrocytes (OLs). Sirtuin 2 (SIRT2), a NAD+-dependent deacetylase, plays a critical role in OL differentiation by promoting both arborization and downstream expression of myelin-specific genes. However, the mechanisms involved in regulating SIRT2 expression during OL development are largely unknown. The RNA-binding protein quaking (QKI) plays an important role in myelination by post-transcriptionally regulating the expression of several myelin specific genes. In quaking viable (qkv/qkv) mutant mice, SIRT2 protein is severely reduced; however, it is not known whether these genes interact to regulate OL differentiation. Here, we report for the first time that QKI directly binds to Sirt2 mRNA via a common quaking response element (QRE) located in the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) to control SIRT2 expression in OL lineage cells. This interaction is associated with increased stability and longer half-lives of Sirt2.1 and Sirt2.2 transcripts leading to increased accumulation of Sirt2 transcripts. Consistent with this, overexpression of qkI promoted the expression of Sirt2 mRNA and protein. However, overexpression of the nuclear isoform qkI-5 promoted the expression of Sirt2 mRNA, but not SIRT2 protein, and delayed OL differentiation. These results suggest that the balance in the subcellular distribution and temporal expression of QKI isoforms control the availability of Sirt2 mRNA for translation. Collectively, our study demonstrates that QKI directly plays a crucial role in the post-transcriptional regulation and expression of Sirt2 to facilitate OL differentiation. PMID:28188285

Rapid scientific response to Landers quake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mori, J.; Hudnut, K.; Jones, L.; Hauksson, E.; Hutton, K.

Early on the morning of June 28, 1992, millions of people in southern California were awakened by the largest earthquake (Ms 7.5, Mw 7.4) in the western U.S. in the past 40 years. The quake initiated near the town of Landers, Calif., at 11:57 (GMT) and ruptured to the north and then the northwest along a 70-km stretch of the Mojave Shear Zone. Fortunately, the strongest shaking occurred in uninhabited regions of the Mojave desert, but one child was killed in Yucca Valley and 400 people were injured in the surrounding area. The communities of Landers, Yucca Valley, and Joshua Tree in San Bernardino County sustained significant ($100 million) damage to buildings and roads. Damage to water and power lines also caused problems in many of the desert areas.

The NetQuakes Project - Research-quality Seismic Data Transmitted via the Internet from Citizen-hosted Instruments (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luetgert, J. H.; Oppenheimer, D. H.; Hamilton, J.

2010-12-01

The USGS seeks accelerograph spacing of 5-10 km in selected urban areas of the US to obtain spatially un-aliased recordings of strong ground motions during large earthquakes. These dense measurements will improve our ability to make rapid post-earthquake assessments of expected damage and contribute to the continuing development of engineering standards for construction. To achieve this goal the USGS and its university partners are deploying “NetQuakes” seismographs, designed to record moderate to large earthquakes from the near field to about 100 km. The instruments have tri-axial Colibrys 2005SF MEMS sensors, clip at 3g, and have 18-bit resolution. These instruments are uniquely designed for deployment in private homes, businesses, public buildings and schools where there is an existing Broadband connection to the Internet. The NetQuakes instruments connect to a local network using WiFi and then via the Internet to USGS servers to a) upload triggered accelerograms in miniSEED format, P arrival times, and computed peak ground motion parameters immediately after an earthquake; b) download software updates; c) respond to requests for log files, execute UNIX scripts, and upload waveforms from long-term memory for quakes with peak motions below the trigger threshold; d) send state-of-health (SOH) information in XML format every 10 minutes; and e) synchronize instrument clocks to 1ms accuracy using the Network Time Protocol. NetQuakes instruments cost little to operate and save about $600/yr/site compared to instruments that transmit data via leased telemetry. After learning about the project through press releases, thousands of citizens have registered to host an instrument at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/netquakes using a Google Map interface that depicts where we seek instrument sites. The website also provides NetQuakes hosts access to waveform images recorded by instruments installed in their building. Since 3/2009, the NetQuakes project has installed over 100

Alfven seismic vibrations of crustal solid-state plasma in quaking paramagnetic neutron star

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bastrukov, S.; Xu, R.-X.; Molodtsova, I.

2010-11-15

Magneto-solid-mechanical model of two-component, core-crust, paramagnetic neutron star responding to quake-induced perturbation by differentially rotational, torsional, oscillations of crustal electron-nuclear solid-state plasma about axis of magnetic field frozen in the immobile paramagnetic core is developed. Particular attention is given to the node-free torsional crust-against-core vibrations under combined action of Lorentz magnetic and Hooke's elastic forces; the damping is attributed to Newtonian force of shear viscose stresses in crustal solid-state plasma. The spectral formulas for the frequency and lifetime of this toroidal mode are derived in analytic form and discussed in the context of quasiperiodic oscillations of the x-ray outburst fluxmore » from quaking magnetars. The application of obtained theoretical spectra to modal analysis of available data on frequencies of oscillating outburst emission suggests that detected variability is the manifestation of crustal Alfven's seismic vibrations restored by Lorentz force of magnetic field stresses.« less

Solar flare leaves sun quaking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1998-05-01

Dr. Alexander G. Kosovichev, a senior research scientist from Stanford University, and Dr. Valentina V. Zharkova from Glasgow (United Kingdom) University found the tell-tale seismic signature in data on the Sun's surface collected by the Michelson Doppler Imager onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft immediately following a moderate-sized flare on July 9, 1996. "Although the flare was a moderate one, it still released an immense amount of energy," said Dr. Craig Deforest, a researcher with the SOHO project. "The energy released is equal to completely covering the Earth's continents with a yard of dynamite and detonating it all at once." SOHO is a joint project of the European Space Agency and NASA. The finding is reported in the May 28 issue of the journal Nature, and is the subject of a press conference at the spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Boston, Mass., May 27. The solar quake that the science team recorded looks much like ripples spreading from a rock dropped into a pool of water. But over the course of an hour, the solar waves traveled for a distance equal to 10 Earth diameters before fading into the fiery background of the Sun's photosphere. Unlike water ripples that travel outward at a constant velocity, the solar waves accelerated from an initial speed of 22,000 miles per hour to a maximum of 250,000 miles per hour before disappearing. "People have looked for evidence of seismic waves from flares before, but they didn't have a theory so they didn't know where to look," says Kosovichev. Several years ago Kosovichev and Zharkova developed a theory that can explain how a flare, which explodes in space above the Sun's surface, can generate a major seismic wave in the Sun's interior. According to the currently accepted model of solar flares, the primary explosion creates high-energy electrons (electrically charged subatomic particles). These are funneled down into a magnetic flux tube, an invisible tube of magnetic

How citizen seismology is transforming rapid public earthquake information: the example of LastQuake smartphone application and Twitter QuakeBot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossu, R.; Etivant, C.; Roussel, F.; Mazet-Roux, G.; Steed, R.

2014-12-01

Smartphone applications have swiftly become one of the most popular tools for rapid reception of earthquake information for the public. 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. No need to browse the internet: the information reaches you automatically and instantaneously! One question remains: are the provided earthquake notifications always relevant for the public? 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 of societal importance even when of small magnitude. LastQuake app and Twitter feed (QuakeBot) focuses on these earthquakes that matter for the public by collating different information threads covering tsunamigenic, damaging and felt earthquakes. Non-seismic detections and macroseismic questionnaires collected online are combined to identify felt earthquakes regardless their magnitude. Non seismic detections include Twitter earthquake detections, developed by the USGS, where the number of tweets containing the keyword "earthquake" is monitored in real time and flashsourcing, developed by the EMSC, which detect traffic surges on its rapid earthquake information website caused by the natural convergence of eyewitnesses who rush to the Internet to investigate the cause of the shaking that they have just felt. We will present the identification process of the felt earthquakes, the smartphone application and the 27 automatically generated tweets and how, by providing better public services, we collect more data from citizens.

An original approach to fill the gap in the earthquake disaster experience - a proposal for 'the archive of the quake experience' -

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanaka, Y.; Hirayama, Y.; Kuroda, S.; Yoshida, M.

2015-12-01

People without severe disaster experience infallibly forget even the extraordinary one like 3.11 as time advances. Therefore, to improve the resilient society, an ingenious attempt to keep people's memory of disaster not to fade away is necessary. Since 2011, we have been caring out earthquake disaster drills for residents of high-rise apartments, for schoolchildren, for citizens of the coastal area, etc. Using a portable earthquake simulator (1), the drill consists of three parts, the first: a short lecture explaining characteristic quakes expected for Japanese people to have in the future, the second: reliving experience of major earthquakes hit Japan since 1995, and the third: a short lecture for preparation that can be done at home and/or in an office. For the quake experience, although it is two dimensional movement, the real earthquake observation record is used to control the simulator to provide people to relive an experience of different kinds of earthquake including the long period motion of skyscrapers. Feedback of the drill is always positive because participants understand that the reliving the quake experience with proper lectures is one of the best method to communicate the past disasters to their family and to inherit them to the next generation. There are several kinds of archive for disaster as inheritance such as pictures, movies, documents, interviews, and so on. In addition to them, here we propose to construct 'the archive of the quake experience' which compiles observed data ready to relive with the simulator. We would like to show some movies of our quake drill in the presentation. Reference: (1) Kuroda, S. et al. (2012), "Development of portable earthquake simulator for enlightenment of disaster preparedness", 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2012, Vol. 12, 9412-9420.

Adaptations of quaking aspen for defense against damage by herbivores and related environmental agents

Treesearch

Richard L. Lindroth

2001-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) employs two major systems of defense against damage by environmental agents: chemical defense and tolerance. Aspen accumulates appreciable quantities of phenolic glycosides (salicylates) and condensed tannins in most tissues and accumulates coniferyl benzoate in flower buds. Phenolic glycosides are toxic and/or deterrent to pathogens...

A severe epidemic of Marssonina leaf blight on quaking aspen in Northern Utah

Treesearch

Roy O. Harniss; David L. Nelson

1984-01-01

The extent of Marssonina leaf blight (Marssonina populi) on quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) was observed in northern Utah and adjacent States in 1981 aand 1982. Area of the epidemic and symptoms of the disease are described. On 1,000 acres (405 hal) in northern Utah, infection levels were 6 percent slight, 12 percent light, 32 percent moderate, 16 percent...

LastQuake app: a tool for risk reduction that focuses on earthquakes that really matter to the public!

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossu, R.; Steed, R.; Mazet-Roux, G.; Roussel, F.; Frobert, L.

2015-12-01

Many seismic events are only picked up by seismometers but the only earthquakes that really interest the public (and the authorities) are those which are felt by the population. It is not a magnitude issue only; even a small magnitude earthquake, if widely felt can create a public desire for information. In LastQuake, felt events are automatically discriminated through the reactions of the population on the Internet. It uses three different and complementary methods. Twitter Earthquake detection, initially developed by the USGS, detects surges in the number of tweets containing the word "earthquake" in different languages. Flashsourcing, developed by EMSC, detects traffic surges caused by eyewitnesses on its website - one of the top global earthquake information websites. Both detections happen typically within 2 minutes of an event's occurrence. Finally, an earthquake is also confirmed as being felt when at least 3 independent felt reports (questionnaires) are collected. LastQuake automatically merges seismic data, direct (crowdsourced) and indirect eyewitnesses' contributions, damage scenarios and tsunami alerts to provide information on felt earthquakes and their effects in a time ranging from a few tens of seconds to 90 minutes. It is based on visual communication to erase language hurdles, for instance, it crowdsources felt reports through simple cartoons as well as geo-located pics. It was massively adopted in Nepal within hours of the Gorkha earthquake and collected thousands of felt reports and more than 100 informative pics. LastQuake is also a seismic risk reduction tools thanks to its very rapid information. When such information does not exist, people tend to call emergency services, crowds emerge and rumors spread. In its next release, LastQuake will also have "do/don't do" cartoons popping up after an earthquake to encourage appropriate behavior.

QuakeSim: a Web Service Environment for Productive Investigations with Earth Surface Sensor Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, J. W.; Donnellan, A.; Granat, R. A.; Lyzenga, G. A.; Glasscoe, M. T.; McLeod, D.; Al-Ghanmi, R.; Pierce, M.; Fox, G.; Grant Ludwig, L.; Rundle, J. B.

2011-12-01

The QuakeSim science gateway environment includes a visually rich portal interface, web service access to data and data processing operations, and the QuakeTables ontology-based database of fault models and sensor data. The integrated tools and services are designed to assist investigators by covering the entire earthquake cycle of strain accumulation and release. The Web interface now includes Drupal-based access to diverse and changing content, with new ability to access data and data processing directly from the public page, as well as the traditional project management areas that require password access. The system is designed to make initial browsing of fault models and deformation data particularly engaging for new users. Popular data and data processing include GPS time series with data mining techniques to find anomalies in time and space, experimental forecasting methods based on catalogue seismicity, faulted deformation models (both half-space and finite element), and model-based inversion of sensor data. The fault models include the CGS and UCERF 2.0 faults of California and are easily augmented with self-consistent fault models from other regions. The QuakeTables deformation data include the comprehensive set of UAVSAR interferograms as well as a growing collection of satellite InSAR data.. Fault interaction simulations are also being incorporated in the web environment based on Virtual California. A sample usage scenario is presented which follows an investigation of UAVSAR data from viewing as an overlay in Google Maps, to selection of an area of interest via a polygon tool, to fast extraction of the relevant correlation and phase information from large data files, to a model inversion of fault slip followed by calculation and display of a synthetic model interferogram.

Climate variability and fire effects on quaking aspen in the central Rocky Mountains, USA

Treesearch

Vachel A. Carter; Andrea Brunelle; Thomas A. Minckley; John D. Shaw; R. Justin DeRose; Simon Brewer

2017-01-01

Our understanding of how climate and fire have impacted quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) communities prior to the 20th century is fairly limited. This study analysed the period between 4500 and 2000 cal. yr BP to assess the pre-historic role of climate and fire on an aspen community during an aspen-dominated period.

Quaking aspen reproduce from seed after wildfire in the mountains of southeastern Arizona

Treesearch

Ronald D. Quinn; Lin Wu

2001-01-01

Quaking aspen regenerated from seed after a stand replacement wildfire in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. The wildfire had created gaps in the canopy so that aspen were able to establish from seed. Seedlings were found at a mean density of 0.17 m-2, 30 m or more from the nearest potential seed trees. Six clumps of aspen seedlings contained 18-186...

Herbivory and advance reproduction influence quaking aspen regeneration response to management in southern Utah, USA

Treesearch

Justin M. Britton; R. Justin DeRose; Karen E. Mock; James N. Long

2016-01-01

Recent concern regarding the potential decline of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) forests in the western United States has sparked concern over whether the species can be effectively regenerated. Using a retrospective approach, we quantified the response of regenerating aspen stems to an ordinary set of silvicultural treatments conducted over...

Aftershocks to Philippine quake found within nearby megathrust fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, Colin

2013-02-01

On 31 August 2012 a magnitude 7.6 earthquake ruptured deep beneath the sea floor of the Philippine Trench, a powerful intraplate earthquake centered seaward of the plate boundary. In the wake of the main shock, sensors detected a flurry of aftershocks, counting 110 in total. Drawing on seismic wave observations and rupture mechanisms calculated for the aftershocks, Ye et al. found that many were located near the epicenter of the main intraplate quake but at shallower depth; all involved normal faulting. Some shallow thrusting aftershocks were located farther to the west, centered within the potentially dangerous megathrust fault formed by the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate beneath the Philippine microplate, the piece of crust housing the Philippine Islands.

A landslide-quake detection algorithm with STA/LTA and diagnostic functions of moving average and scintillation index: A preliminary case study of the 2009 Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Yu-Jie; Lin, Guan-Wei

2017-04-01

Since 1999, Taiwan has experienced a rapid rise in the number of landslides, and the number even reached a peak after the 2009 Typhoon Morakot. Although it is proved that the ground-motion signals induced by slope processes could be recorded by seismograph, it is difficult to be distinguished from continuous seismic records due to the lack of distinct P and S waves. In this study, we combine three common seismic detectors including the short-term average/long-term average (STA/LTA) approach, and two diagnostic functions of moving average and scintillation index. Based on these detectors, we have established an auto-detection algorithm of landslide-quakes and the detection thresholds are defined to distinguish landslide-quake from earthquakes and background noises. To further improve the proposed detection algorithm, we apply it to seismic archives recorded by Broadband Array in Taiwan for Seismology (BATS) during the 2009 Typhoon Morakots and consequently the discrete landslide-quakes detected by the automatic algorithm are located. The detection algorithm show that the landslide-detection results are consistent with that of visual inspection and hence can be used to automatically monitor landslide-quakes.

NASA ARIA Project Maps Deformation of Earth Surface from Nepal Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-05-02

NASA and its partners are contributing important observations and expertise to the ongoing response to the April 25, 2015, magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. The quake was the strongest to occur in that area since the 1934 Nepal-Bihar magnitude 8.0 event and caused significant regional damage and a humanitarian crisis. Scientists with the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis project (ARIA), a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, analyzed interferometric synthetic aperture radar images from the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite, operated by the European Space Agency and also available from the Alaska Satellite Facility (https://www.asf.alaska.edu), to calculate a map of the deformation of Earth's surface caused by the quake. This false-color map shows the amount of permanent surface movement caused almost entirely by the earthquake, as viewed by the satellite, during a 12-day interval between two Sentinel-1 images acquired on April 17 and April 29, 2015. In the map, surface displacements are seen as color contours (or "fringes"), where each color cycle represents 8 inches (20 centimeters) of surface motion. The contours show the land around Kathmandu has moved upward by more than 40 inches (1 meter). Areas without the color contours have snow or heavy vegetation that affects the radar measurements. Scientists use these maps to build detailed models of the fault and associated land movements to better understand the impact on future earthquake activity. The background image is from Google Earth. The map contains Copernicus data (2015). http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19535

Universal Quake Statistics: From Compressed Nanocrystals to Earthquakes.

PubMed

Uhl, Jonathan T; Pathak, Shivesh; Schorlemmer, Danijel; Liu, Xin; Swindeman, Ryan; Brinkman, Braden A W; LeBlanc, Michael; Tsekenis, Georgios; Friedman, Nir; Behringer, Robert; Denisov, Dmitry; Schall, Peter; Gu, Xiaojun; Wright, Wendelin J; Hufnagel, Todd; Jennings, Andrew; Greer, Julia R; Liaw, P K; Becker, Thorsten; Dresen, Georg; Dahmen, Karin A

2015-11-17

Slowly-compressed single crystals, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), rocks, granular materials, and the earth all deform via intermittent slips or "quakes". We find that although these systems span 12 decades in length scale, they all show the same scaling behavior for their slip size distributions and other statistical properties. Remarkably, the size distributions follow the same power law multiplied with the same exponential cutoff. The cutoff grows with applied force for materials spanning length scales from nanometers to kilometers. The tuneability of the cutoff with stress reflects "tuned critical" behavior, rather than self-organized criticality (SOC), which would imply stress-independence. A simple mean field model for avalanches of slipping weak spots explains the agreement across scales. It predicts the observed slip-size distributions and the observed stress-dependent cutoff function. The results enable extrapolations from one scale to another, and from one force to another, across different materials and structures, from nanocrystals to earthquakes.

Influence of climate on the growth of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Colorado and southern Wyoming

Treesearch

M. M. Dudley; Jose Negron; N. A. Tisserat; W. D. Shepperd; W. R. Jacobi

2015-01-01

We analyzed a series of increment cores collected from 260 adult dominant or co-dominant quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) trees from national forests across Colorado and southern Wyoming in 2009 and 2010. Half of the cores were collected from trees in stands with a high amount of crown dieback, and half were from lightly damaged stands. We define the level of...

ConvNetQuake: Convolutional Neural Network for Earthquake Detection and Location

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Denolle, M.; Perol, T.; Gharbi, M.

2017-12-01

Over the last decades, the volume of seismic data has increased exponentially, creating a need for efficient algorithms to reliably detect and locate earthquakes. Today's most elaborate methods scan through the plethora of continuous seismic records, searching for repeating seismic signals. In this work, we leverage the recent advances in artificial intelligence and present ConvNetQuake, a highly scalable convolutional neural network for probabilistic earthquake detection and location from single stations. We apply our technique to study two years of induced seismicity in Oklahoma (USA). We detect 20 times more earthquakes than previously cataloged by the Oklahoma Geological Survey. Our algorithm detection performances are at least one order of magnitude faster than other established methods.

Structural analysis of the Quaking homodimerization interface

PubMed Central

Beuck, Christine; Qu, Song; Fagg, W. Samuel; Ares, Manuel; Williamson, James R.

2012-01-01

Quaking is a prototypical member of the STAR protein family, which plays key roles in posttranscriptional gene regulation by controlling mRNA translation, stability and splicing. QkI-5 has been shown to regulate mRNA expression in the central nervous system, but little is known about its roles in other tissues. STAR proteins function as dimers and bind to bipartite RNA sequences, however, the structural and functional roles of homo- and hetero-dimerization are still unclear. Here, we present the crystal structure of the QkI dimerization domain, which adopts a similar stacked helix-turn-helix arrangement as its homologs GLD-1 and Sam68, but differs by an additional helix inserted in the dimer interface. Variability of the dimer interface residues likely ensures selective homodimerization by preventing association with non-cognate STAR family proteins in the cell. Mutations that inhibit dimerization also significantly impair RNA binding in vitro, alter QkI-5 protein levels, and impair QkI function in a splicing assay in vivo. Together our results indicate that a functional Qua1 homodimerization domain is required for QkI-5 function in mammalian cells. PMID:22982292

Sensitive and specific detection of classical scrapie prions in the brain of goats by real-time quaking-induced conversion

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) is a rapid, specific, and sensitive prion seeding activity detection assay that uses recombinant prion protein (rPrPSen) to detect sub-infectious levels of the abnormal isoforms of the prion protein (PrPSc). Although RT-QuIC has been successfully us...

Habitone analysis of quaking aspen in the Utah Book Cliffs: Effects of site water demand and conifer cover

Treesearch

Joseph O. Sexton; R. Douglas Ramsey; Dale L. Bartos

2006-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most widely distributed tree species in North America, but its presence is declining across much of the Western United States. Aspen decline is complex, but results largely from two factors widely divergent in temporal scale: (1) Holocene climatic drying of the region has led to water limitation of aspen seedling...

Advantages to Geoscience and Disaster Response from QuakeSim Implementation of Interferometric Radar Maps in a GIS Database System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, Jay; Donnellan, Andrea; Glasscoe, Margaret; Fox, Geoffrey; Wang, Jun; Pierce, Marlon; Ma, Yu

2015-08-01

High-resolution maps of earth surface deformation are available in public archives for scientific interpretation, but are primarily available as bulky downloads on the internet. The NASA uninhabited aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar (UAVSAR) archive of airborne radar interferograms delivers very high resolution images (approximately seven meter pixels) making remote handling of the files that much more pressing. Data exploration requiring data selection and exploratory analysis has been tedious. QuakeSim has implemented an archive of UAVSAR data in a web service and browser system based on GeoServer (http://geoserver.org). This supports a variety of services that supply consistent maps, raster image data and geographic information systems (GIS) objects including standard earthquake faults. Browsing the database is supported by initially displaying GIS-referenced thumbnail images of the radar displacement maps. Access is also provided to image metadata and links for full file downloads. One of the most widely used features is the QuakeSim line-of-sight profile tool, which calculates the radar-observed displacement (from an unwrapped interferogram product) along a line specified through a web browser. Displacement values along a profile are updated to a plot on the screen as the user interactively redefines the endpoints of the line and the sampling density. The profile and also a plot of the ground height are available as CSV (text) files for further examination, without any need to download the full radar file. Additional tools allow the user to select a polygon overlapping the radar displacement image, specify a downsampling rate and extract a modest sized grid of observations for display or for inversion, for example, the QuakeSim simplex inversion tool which estimates a consistent fault geometry and slip model.

NetQuakes - A new approach to urban strong-motion seismology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luetgert, J. H.; Evans, J. R.; Hamilton, J.; Hutt, C. R.; Jensen, E. G.; Oppenheimer, D. H.

2009-12-01

There is a recognized need for more densely sampled strong ground motion recordings in urban areas to provide more accurate ShakeMaps for post-earthquake disaster assessment and to provide data for structural engineers to improve design standards. Ideally, the San Francisco Bay area would have a strong ground motion recorder every 1-2 km to adequately sample the region’s varied geology and built environment. This would require the addition of thousands of instruments to the existing network. There are several fiscal and logistical constraints that prevent us from doing this with traditional strong motion instrumentation and telemetry. In addition to the initial expense of instruments and their installation, there are the continuing costs of telemetry and maintenance. To address these issues, the USGS implemented the NetQuakes project to deploy small, relatively inexpensive seismographs for installation in 1-2 story homes and businesses that utilize the host’s existing Internet connection. The recorder has 18 bit resolution with ±3g internal tri-axial MEMS accelerometers. Data is continuously recorded at 200 sps into a 1-2 week ringbuffer. When triggered, a miniSEED file is sent to USGS servers via the Internet. Data can also be recovered from the ringbuffer by a remote request through the servers. Following a power failure, the instrument can run for 36 hours using its internal battery. All client-server interactions are initiated by the instrument, so it safely resides behind a host’s firewall. Instrument and battery replacement can be performed by hosts to reduce maintenance costs. A connection to the host’s LAN, and thence to the public Internet, can be made using WiFi to minimize cabling. Although timing via a cable to an external GPS antenna is possible, it is simpler to use the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize the internal clock. NTP achieves timing accuracy generally better than a sample interval. Since February, 2009, we have installed

QuakeUp: An advanced tool for a network-based Earthquake Early Warning system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zollo, Aldo; Colombelli, Simona; Caruso, Alessandro; Elia, Luca; Brondi, Piero; Emolo, Antonio; Festa, Gaetano; Martino, Claudio; Picozzi, Matteo

2017-04-01

The currently developed and operational Earthquake Early warning, regional systems ground on the assumption of a point-like earthquake source model and 1-D ground motion prediction equations to estimate the earthquake impact. Here we propose a new network-based method which allows for issuing an alert based upon the real-time mapping of the Potential Damage Zone (PDZ), e.g. the epicentral area where the peak ground velocity is expected to exceed the damaging or strong shaking levels with no assumption about the earthquake rupture extent and spatial variability of ground motion. The platform includes the most advanced techniques for a refined estimation of the main source parameters (earthquake location and magnitude) and for an accurate prediction of the expected ground shaking level. The new software platform (QuakeUp) is under development at the Seismological Laboratory (RISSC-Lab) of the Department of Physics at the University of Naples Federico II, in collaboration with the academic spin-off company RISS s.r.l., recently gemmated by the research group. The system processes the 3-component, real-time ground acceleration and velocity data streams at each station. The signal quality is preliminary assessed by checking the signal-to-noise ratio both in acceleration, velocity and displacement and through dedicated filtering algorithms. For stations providing high quality data, the characteristic P-wave period (τ_c) and the P-wave displacement, velocity and acceleration amplitudes (P_d, Pv and P_a) are jointly measured on a progressively expanded P-wave time window. The evolutionary measurements of the early P-wave amplitude and characteristic period at stations around the source allow to predict the geometry and extent of PDZ, but also of the lower shaking intensity regions at larger epicentral distances. This is done by correlating the measured P-wave amplitude with the Peak Ground Velocity (PGV) and Instrumental Intensity (I_MM) and by mapping the measured and

NASA ARIA Project Provides New Look at Earth Surface Deformation from Nepal Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-05-04

NASA and its partners are contributing important observations and expertise to the ongoing response to the April 25, 2015, magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. The quake was the strongest to occur in that area since the 1934 Nepal-Bihar magnitude 8.0 event and caused significant regional damage and a humanitarian crisis. Scientists with the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis project (ARIA), a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, analyzed interferometric synthetic aperture radar images from the PALSAR-2 instrument on the ALOS-2 satellite operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to calculate a map of the deformation of Earth's surface caused by the quake. This false-color map shows the amount of permanent surface movement caused almost entirely by the earthquake, as viewed by the satellite, during a 70-day interval between two ALOS-2 images, acquired February 21 and May 2, 2015. In the map, surface displacements are seen as color contours (or "fringes"), where each color cycle represents 4.7 inches (11.9 centimeters) of surface motion. The contours show the land around Kathmandu has moved toward the satellite by up to 4.6 feet (1.4 meter), or 5.2 feet (1.6 meters) if we assume purely vertical motion. Areas without the color contours have snow or heavy vegetation that affects the radar measurements. Scientists use these maps to build detailed models of the fault and associated land movements to better understand the impact on future earthquake activity. The PALSAR-2 data were provided by JAXA through the Committee on Earth Observation Satellite (CEOS) in support of the response effort. The background image is from Google Earth. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19383

Citizen Science and Event-Based Science Education with the Quake-Catcher Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeGroot, R. M.; Sumy, D. F.; Benthien, M. L.

2017-12-01

The Quake-Catcher Network (QCN, quakecatcher.net) is a collaborative, citizen-science initiative to develop the world's largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network through the utilization of sensors in laptops and smartphones or small microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers attached to internet-connected computers. The volunteer computers monitor seismic motion and other vibrations and send the "triggers" in real-time to the QCN server hosted at the University of Southern California. The QCN servers sift through these signals and determine which ones represent earthquakes and which ones represent cultural noise. Data collected by the Quake-Catcher Network can contribute to better understanding earthquakes, provide teachable moments for students, and engage the public with authentic science experiences. QCN partners coordinate sensor installations, develop QCN's scientific tools and engagement activities, and create next generation online resources. In recent years, the QCN team has installed sensors in over 225 K-12 schools and free-choice learning institutions (e.g. museums) across the United States and Canada. One of the current goals of the program in the United States is to establish several QCN stations in K-12 schools around a local museum hub as a means to provide coordinated and sustained educational opportunities leading up to the yearly Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drill, to encourage citizen science, and enrich STEM curriculum. Several school districts and museums throughout Southern California have been instrumental in the development of QCN. For educators QCN fulfills a key component of the Next Generation Science Standards where students are provided an opportunity to utilize technology and interface with authentic scientific data and learn about emerging programs such as the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system. For example, Sunnylands Center in Rancho Mirage, CA leads Coachella Valley Hub, which serves 31 K-12 schools, many of

On the reliability of Quake-Catcher Network earthquake detections

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yildirim, Battalgazi; Cochran, Elizabeth S.; Chung, Angela I.; Christensen, Carl M.; Lawrence, Jesse F.

2015-01-01

Over the past two decades, there have been several initiatives to create volunteer‐based seismic networks. The Personal Seismic Network, proposed around 1990, used a short‐period seismograph to record earthquake waveforms using existing phone lines (Cranswick and Banfill, 1990; Cranswicket al., 1993). NetQuakes (Luetgert et al., 2010) deploys triaxial Micro‐Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors in private homes, businesses, and public buildings where there is an Internet connection. Other seismic networks using a dense array of low‐cost MEMS sensors are the Community Seismic Network (Clayton et al., 2012; Kohler et al., 2013) and the Home Seismometer Network (Horiuchi et al., 2009). One main advantage of combining low‐cost MEMS sensors and existing Internet connection in public and private buildings over the traditional networks is the reduction in installation and maintenance costs (Koide et al., 2006). In doing so, it is possible to create a dense seismic network for a fraction of the cost of traditional seismic networks (D’Alessandro and D’Anna, 2013; D’Alessandro, 2014; D’Alessandro et al., 2014).

Impact of epidermal leaf mining by the aspen leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella) on the growth, physiology, and leaf longevity of quaking aspen.

Treesearch

Diane L. Wagner; Linda DeFoliart; Patricia Doak; Jenny Schneiderheinze

2008-01-01

The aspen leaf miner, Phyllocnistis populiella, feeds on the contents of epidermal cells on both top (adaxial) and bottom (abaxial) surfaces of quaking aspen leaves, leaving the photosynthetic tissue of the mesophyll intact. This type of feeding is taxonomically restricted to a small subset of leaf mining insects but can cause widespread plant...

NASA Looks at Land Surface Changes Following Chilean Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-10-12

On Sept. 16, 2015, a magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck near the coast of central Chile along the boundary of the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. Dubbed the Illapel earthquake, the shaking lasted at least three minutes and propelled a 15-foot (4.5-meter) tsunami that washed into Coquimbo and other coastal areas. Smaller tsunami waves raced across the Pacific and showed up on the shores of Hawaii and other islands. The earthquake and tsunami caused substantial damage in several Chilean coastal towns, and at least 13 deaths have been reported. Demanding building codes and extensive disaster preparedness helped to limit the loss of life and property. The maps above, known as interferograms, show how the quake moved the ground, as observed by the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite (operated by the European Space Agency) and reported by ground stations to the U.S. Geological Survey. Sentinel-1A carries a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument, which beams radio signals toward the ground and measures the reflections to determine the distance between the ground and the satellite. By comparing measurements made on Aug. 24 and Sept. 17, Cunren Liang, Eric Fielding, and other researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory were able to determine how the land surface shifted during and after the earthquake. Interferograms can be used to estimate where the fault moved deep in Earth and which areas have increased stress and higher likelihood of future earthquakes. The details can also provide important information to better understand the earthquake process. On both the close-up and the broad-view maps, the amount of land motion is represented in shades from yellow to purple. Areas where the ground shifted the most (vertically, horizontally, or both) are represented in yellow, while areas with little change are represented in purple. Circles show the location of earthquakes and aftershocks in the two days after the initial 8.3 earthquake, as reported by the USGS

The QuakeSim Project: Web Services for Managing Geophysical Data and Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierce, Marlon E.; Fox, Geoffrey C.; Aktas, Mehmet S.; Aydin, Galip; Gadgil, Harshawardhan; Qi, Zhigang; Sayar, Ahmet

2008-04-01

We describe our distributed systems research efforts to build the “cyberinfrastructure” components that constitute a geophysical Grid, or more accurately, a Grid of Grids. Service-oriented computing principles are used to build a distributed infrastructure of Web accessible components for accessing data and scientific applications. Our data services fall into two major categories: Archival, database-backed services based around Geographical Information System (GIS) standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium, and streaming services that can be used to filter and route real-time data sources such as Global Positioning System data streams. Execution support services include application execution management services and services for transferring remote files. These data and execution service families are bound together through metadata information and workflow services for service orchestration. Users may access the system through the QuakeSim scientific Web portal, which is built using a portlet component approach.

Neuronal avalanches, epileptic quakes and other transient forms of neurodynamics.

PubMed

Milton, John G

2012-07-01

Power-law behaviors in brain activity in healthy animals, in the form of neuronal avalanches, potentially benefit the computational activities of the brain, including information storage, transmission and processing. In contrast, power-law behaviors associated with seizures, in the form of epileptic quakes, potentially interfere with the brain's computational activities. This review draws attention to the potential roles played by homeostatic mechanisms and multistable time-delayed recurrent inhibitory loops in the generation of power-law phenomena. Moreover, it is suggested that distinctions between health and disease are scale-dependent. In other words, what is abnormal and defines disease it is not the propagation of neural activity but the propagation of activity in a neural population that is large enough to interfere with the normal activities of the brain. From this point of view, epilepsy is a disease that results from a failure of mechanisms, possibly located in part in the cortex itself or in the deep brain nuclei and brainstem, which truncate or otherwise confine the spatiotemporal scales of these power-law phenomena. © 2012 The Author. European Journal of Neuroscience © 2012 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

On the powerful use of simulations in the quake-catcher network to efficiently position low-cost earthquake sensors

USGS Publications Warehouse

Benson, K.; Estrada, T.; Taufer, M.; Lawrence, J.; Cochran, E.

2011-01-01

The Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) uses low-cost sensors connected to volunteer computers across the world to monitor seismic events. The location and density of these sensors' placement can impact the accuracy of the event detection. Because testing different special arrangements of new sensors could disrupt the currently active project, this would best be accomplished in a simulated environment. This paper presents an accurate and efficient framework for simulating the low cost QCN sensors and identifying their most effective locations and densities. Results presented show how our simulations are reliable tools to study diverse scenarios under different geographical and infrastructural constraints. ?? 2011 IEEE.

Antibiosis/antixenosis in tulip tree and quaking aspen leaves against the polyphagous southern armyworm, Spodoptera eridania.

PubMed

Manuwoto, S; Scriber, J M; Hsia, M T; Sunarjo, P

1985-08-01

Previous studies have shown leaves of tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera L. (of the Magnoliaceae) and of Populus tremuloides Michx. (of the Salicaceae) to be antixenotic/antibiotic to many Lepidoptera, including one of the most polyphagous of all phytophagous insects, the southern armyworm, Spodoptera eridania Cramer (Noctuidae). We investigated the physiological responses to this phytochemical activity on neonate and late instar armyworm larvae in controlled environments with particular emphasis upon the leaf extracts containing condensed tannins and hydrolysable tannins. These tannin-containing extracts of tulip tree leaves and quaking aspen leaves were generally toxic to neonate larvae. For later instars, growth suppression was not due to digestibility-reduction, but instead to suppressed consumption rates and greatly increased metabolic (respiratory) costs as reflected in reduced biomass conversion efficiencies.

A review of the potential effects of climate change on quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Western United States and a new tool for surveying sudden aspen decline

Treesearch

Toni Lyn Morelli; Susan C. Carr

2011-01-01

We conducted a literature review of the effects of climate on the distribution and growth of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) in the Western United States. Based on our review, we summarize models of historical climate determinants of contemporary aspen distribution. Most quantitative climate-based models linked aspen presence and growth...

Quaking and PTB control overlapping splicing regulatory networks during muscle cell differentiation

PubMed Central

Hall, Megan P.; Nagel, Roland J.; Fagg, W. Samuel; Shiue, Lily; Cline, Melissa S.; Perriman, Rhonda J.; Donohue, John Paul; Ares, Manuel

2013-01-01

Alternative splicing contributes to muscle development, but a complete set of muscle-splicing factors and their combinatorial interactions are unknown. Previous work identified ACUAA (“STAR” motif) as an enriched intron sequence near muscle-specific alternative exons such as Capzb exon 9. Mass spectrometry of myoblast proteins selected by the Capzb exon 9 intron via RNA affinity chromatography identifies Quaking (QK), a protein known to regulate mRNA function through ACUAA motifs in 3′ UTRs. We find that QK promotes inclusion of Capzb exon 9 in opposition to repression by polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (PTB). QK depletion alters inclusion of 406 cassette exons whose adjacent intron sequences are also enriched in ACUAA motifs. During differentiation of myoblasts to myotubes, QK levels increase two- to threefold, suggesting a mechanism for QK-responsive exon regulation. Combined analysis of the PTB- and QK-splicing regulatory networks during myogenesis suggests that 39% of regulated exons are under the control of one or both of these splicing factors. This work provides the first evidence that QK is a global regulator of splicing during muscle development in vertebrates and shows how overlapping splicing regulatory networks contribute to gene expression programs during differentiation. PMID:23525800

Detection of chronic wasting disease prion seeding activity in deer and elk feces by real-time quaking-induced conversion

PubMed Central

Tennant, Joanne M.; Haley, Nicholas J.; Denkers, Nathaniel D.; Mathiason, Candace K.; Hoover, Edward A.

2017-01-01

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emergent prion disease affecting cervid species in North America, Canada, South Korea, and recently, Norway. Detection of CWD has been advanced by techniques that rely on amplification of low levels of prion amyloid to a detectable level. However, the increased sensitivity of amplification assays is often compromised by inhibitors and/or activators in complex biologic samples including body fluids, excreta, or the environment. Here, we adapt real-time quaking-induced conversion conditions to specifically detect CWD prions in fecal samples from both experimentally infected deer and naturally infected elk and estimate environmental contamination. The results have application to detection, surveillance and management of CWD, and potentially to other protein-misfolding diseases. PMID:28703697

Testing the Rapid Detection Capabilities of the Quake-Catcher Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chung, A. I.; Cochran, E.; Yildirim, B.; Christensen, C. M.; Kaiser, A. E.; Lawrence, J. F.

2013-12-01

The Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) is a versatile network of MEMS accelerometers that are used in combination with distributed volunteer computing to detect earthquakes around the world. Using a dense network of QCN stations installed in Christchurch, New Zealand after the 2010 M7.1 Darfield earthquake, hundreds of events in the Christchurch area were detected and rapidly characterized. When the M6.3 Christchurch event occurred on 21 February 2011, QCN sensors recorded the event and calculated its magnitude, location, and created a map of estimated shaking intensity within 7 seconds of the earthquake origin time. Successive iterations improved the calculations and, within 24 seconds of the earthquake, magnitude and location values were calculated that were comparable to those provided by GeoNet. We have rigorously tested numerous methods to create a working magnitude scaling relationship. In this presentation, we show a drastic improvement in the magnitude estimates using the maximum acceleration at the time of the first trigger and updated ground accelerations from one to three seconds after the initial trigger. 75% of the events rapidly detected and characterized by QCN are within 0.5 magnitude units of the official GeoNet reported magnitude values, with 95% of the events within 1 magnitude unit. We also test the QCN detection algorithms using higher quality data from the SCSN network in Southern California. We examine a dataset of M5 and larger earthquakes that occurred since 1995. We present the performance of the QCN algorithms for this dataset, including time to detection as well as location and magnitude accuracy.

Crowd-Sourcing Seismic Data: Lessons Learned from the Quake-Catcher Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cochran, E. S.; Sumy, D. F.; DeGroot, R. M.; Clayton, R. W.

2015-12-01

The Quake Catcher Network (QCN; qcn.caltech.edu) uses low cost micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensors hosted by volunteers to collect seismic data. Volunteers use accelerometers internal to laptop computers, phones, tablets or small (the size of a matchbox) MEMS sensors plugged into desktop computers using a USB connector to collect scientifically useful data. Data are collected and sent to a central server using the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) distributed computing software. Since 2008, when the first citizen scientists joined the QCN project, sensors installed in museums, schools, offices, and residences have collected thousands of earthquake records. We present and describe the rapid installations of very dense sensor networks that have been undertaken following several large earthquakes including the 2010 M8.8 Maule Chile, the 2010 M7.1 Darfield, New Zealand, and the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake. These large data sets allowed seismologists to develop new rapid earthquake detection capabilities and closely examine source, path, and site properties that impact ground shaking at a site. We show how QCN has engaged a wide sector of the public in scientific data collection, providing the public with insights into how seismic data are collected and used. Furthermore, we describe how students use data recorded by QCN sensors installed in their classrooms to explore and investigate earthquakes that they felt, as part of 'teachable moment' exercises.

Defensive effects of extrafloral nectaries in quaking aspen differ with scale.

PubMed

Mortensen, Brent; Wagner, Diane; Doak, Patricia

2011-04-01

The effects of plant defenses on herbivory can differ among spatial scales. This may be particularly common with indirect defenses, such as extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), that attract predatory arthropods and are dependent on predator distribution, abundance, and behavior. We tested the defensive effects of EFNs in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) against damage by a specialist herbivore, the aspen leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella Cham.), at the scale of individual leaves and entire ramets (i.e., stems). Experiments excluding crawling arthropods revealed that the effects of aspen EFNs differed at the leaf and ramet scales. Crawling predators caused similar reductions in the percent leaf area mined on individual leaves with and without EFNs. However, the extent to which crawling predators increased leaf miner mortality and, consequently, reduced mining damage increased with EFN expression at the ramet scale. Thus, aspen EFNs provided a diffuse defense, reducing damage to leaves across a ramet regardless of leaf-scale EFN expression. We detected lower leaf miner damage and survival unassociated with crawling predators on EFN-bearing leaves, suggesting that direct defenses (e.g., chemical defenses) were stronger on leaves with than without EFNs. Greater direct defenses on EFN-bearing leaves may reduce the probability of losing these leaves and thus weakening ramet-scale EFN defense. Aspen growth was not related to EFN expression or the presence of crawling predators over the course of a single season. Different effects of aspen EFNs at the leaf and ramet scales suggest that future studies may benefit from examining indirect defenses simultaneously at multiple scales.

Latest Results From the QuakeFinder Statistical Analysis Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kappler, K. N.; MacLean, L. S.; Schneider, D.; Bleier, T.

2017-12-01

Since 2005 QuakeFinder (QF) has acquired an unique dataset with outstanding spatial and temporal sampling of earth's magnetic field along several active fault systems. This QF network consists of 124 stations in California and 45 stations along fault zones in Greece, Taiwan, Peru, Chile and Indonesia. Each station is equipped with three feedback induction magnetometers, two ion sensors, a 4 Hz geophone, a temperature sensor, and a humidity sensor. Data are continuously recorded at 50 Hz with GPS timing and transmitted daily to the QF data center in California for analysis. QF is attempting to detect and characterize anomalous EM activity occurring ahead of earthquakes. There have been many reports of anomalous variations in the earth's magnetic field preceding earthquakes. Specifically, several authors have drawn attention to apparent anomalous pulsations seen preceding earthquakes. Often studies in long term monitoring of seismic activity are limited by availability of event data. It is particularly difficult to acquire a large dataset for rigorous statistical analyses of the magnetic field near earthquake epicenters because large events are relatively rare. Since QF has acquired hundreds of earthquakes in more than 70 TB of data, we developed an automated approach for finding statistical significance of precursory behavior and developed an algorithm framework. Previously QF reported on the development of an Algorithmic Framework for data processing and hypothesis testing. The particular instance of algorithm we discuss identifies and counts magnetic variations from time series data and ranks each station-day according to the aggregate number of pulses in a time window preceding the day in question. If the hypothesis is true that magnetic field activity increases over some time interval preceding earthquakes, this should reveal itself by the station-days on which earthquakes occur receiving higher ranks than they would if the ranking scheme were random. This can

Structure–function studies of STAR family Quaking proteins bound to their in vivo RNA target sites

PubMed Central

Teplova, Marianna; Hafner, Markus; Teplov, Dmitri; Essig, Katharina; Tuschl, Thomas; Patel, Dinshaw J.

2013-01-01

Mammalian Quaking (QKI) and its Caenorhabditis elegans homolog, GLD-1 (defective in germ line development), are evolutionarily conserved RNA-binding proteins, which post-transcriptionally regulate target genes essential for developmental processes and myelination. We present X-ray structures of the STAR (signal transduction and activation of RNA) domain, composed of Qua1, K homology (KH), and Qua2 motifs of QKI and GLD-1 bound to high-affinity in vivo RNA targets containing YUAAY RNA recognition elements (RREs). The KH and Qua2 motifs of the STAR domain synergize to specifically interact with bases and sugar-phosphate backbones of the bound RRE. Qua1-mediated homodimerization generates a scaffold that enables concurrent recognition of two RREs, thereby plausibly targeting tandem RREs present in many QKI-targeted transcripts. Structure-guided mutations reduced QKI RNA-binding affinity in vitro and in vivo, and expression of QKI mutants in human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293) significantly decreased the abundance of QKI target mRNAs. Overall, our studies define principles underlying RNA target selection by STAR homodimers and provide insights into the post-transcriptional regulatory function of mammalian QKI proteins. PMID:23630077

Mechanism of mRNA-STAR domain interaction: Molecular dynamics simulations of Mammalian Quaking STAR protein.

PubMed

Sharma, Monika; Anirudh, C R

2017-10-03

STAR proteins are evolutionary conserved mRNA-binding proteins that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression at all stages of RNA metabolism. These proteins possess conserved STAR domain that recognizes identical RNA regulatory elements as YUAAY. Recently reported crystal structures show that STAR domain is composed of N-terminal QUA1, K-homology domain (KH) and C-terminal QUA2, and mRNA binding is mediated by KH-QUA2 domain. Here, we present simulation studies done to investigate binding of mRNA to STAR protein, mammalian Quaking protein (QKI). We carried out conventional MD simulations of STAR domain in presence and absence of mRNA, and studied the impact of mRNA on the stability, dynamics and underlying allosteric mechanism of STAR domain. Our unbiased simulations results show that presence of mRNA stabilizes the overall STAR domain by reducing the structural deviations, correlating the 'within-domain' motions, and maintaining the native contacts information. Absence of mRNA not only influenced the essential modes of motion of STAR domain, but also affected the connectivity of networks within STAR domain. We further explored the dissociation of mRNA from STAR domain using umbrella sampling simulations, and the results suggest that mRNA binding to STAR domain occurs in multi-step: first conformational selection of mRNA backbone conformations, followed by induced fit mechanism as nucleobases interact with STAR domain.

The Quake Catcher Network: Cyberinfrastructure Bringing Seismology into Schools and Homes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lawrence, J. F.; Cochran, E. S.

2007-12-01

We propose to implement a high density, low cost strong-motion network for rapid response and early warning by placing sensors in schools, homes, and offices. The Quake Catcher Network (QCN) will employ existing networked laptops and desktops to form the world's largest high-density, distributed computing seismic network. Costs for this network will be minimal because the QCN will use 1) strong motion sensors (accelerometers) already internal to many laptops and 2) nearly identical low-cost universal serial bus (USB) accelerometers for use with desktops. The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC!) provides a free, proven paradigm for involving the public in large-scale computational research projects. As evidenced by the SETI@home program and others, individuals are especially willing to donate their unused computing power to projects that they deem relevant, worthwhile, and educational. The client- and server-side software will rapidly monitor incoming seismic signals, detect the magnitudes and locations of significant earthquakes, and may even provide early warnings to other computers and users before they can feel the earthquake. The software will provide the client-user with a screen-saver displaying seismic data recorded on their laptop, recently detected earthquakes, and general information about earthquakes and the geosciences. Furthermore, this project will install USB sensors in K-12 classrooms as an educational tool for teaching science. Through a variety of interactive experiments students will learn about earthquakes and the hazards earthquakes pose. For example, students can learn how the vibrations of an earthquake decrease with distance by jumping up and down at increasing distances from the sensor and plotting the decreased amplitude of the seismic signal measured on their computer. We hope to include an audio component so that students can hear and better understand the difference between low and high frequency seismic signals

Estimating chronic wasting disease susceptibility in cervids using real-time quaking-induced conversion.

PubMed

Haley, Nicholas J; Rielinger, Rachel; Davenport, Kristen A; O'Rourke, Katherine; Mitchell, Gordon; Richt, Jürgen A

2017-11-01

In mammals, susceptibility to prion infection is primarily modulated by the host's cellular prion protein (PrP C ) sequence. In the sheep scrapie model, a graded scale of susceptibility has been established both in vivo and in vitro based on PrP C amino acids 136, 154 and 171, leading to global breeding programmes to reduce the prevalence of scrapie in sheep. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) resistance in cervids is often characterized as decreased prevalence and/or protracted disease progression in individuals with specific alleles; at present, no PrP C allele conferring absolute resistance in cervids has been identified. To model the susceptibility of various naturally occurring and hypothetical cervid PrP C alleles in vitro, we compared the amplification rates and amyloid extension efficiencies of eight distinct CWD isolates in recombinant cervid PrP C substrates using real-time quaking-induced conversion. We hypothesized that the in vitro conversion characteristics of these isolates in cervid substrates would correlate to in vivo susceptibility - permitting susceptibility prediction for the rare alleles found in nature. We also predicted that hypothetical alleles with multiple resistance-associated codons would be more resistant to in vitro conversion than natural alleles with a single resistant codon. Our studies demonstrate that in vitro conversion metrics align with in vivo susceptibility, and that alleles with multiple amino acid substitutions, each influencing resistance independently, do not necessarily contribute additively to conversion resistance. Importantly, we found that the naturally occurring whitetail deer QGAK substrate exhibited the slowest amplification rate among those evaluated, suggesting that further investigation of this allele and its resistance in vivo is warranted.

Estimating chronic wasting disease susceptibility in cervids using real-time quaking-induced conversion

PubMed Central

Haley, Nicholas J.; Rielinger, Rachel; Davenport, Kristen A.; O'Rourke, Katherine; Mitchell, Gordon; Richt, Jürgen A.

2017-01-01

In mammals, susceptibility to prion infection is primarily modulated by the host’s cellular prion protein (PrPC) sequence. In the sheep scrapie model, a graded scale of susceptibility has been established both in vivo and in vitro based on PrPC amino acids 136, 154 and 171, leading to global breeding programmes to reduce the prevalence of scrapie in sheep. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) resistance in cervids is often characterized as decreased prevalence and/or protracted disease progression in individuals with specific alleles; at present, no PrPC allele conferring absolute resistance in cervids has been identified. To model the susceptibility of various naturally occurring and hypothetical cervid PrPC alleles in vitro, we compared the amplification rates and amyloid extension efficiencies of eight distinct CWD isolates in recombinant cervid PrPC substrates using real-time quaking-induced conversion. We hypothesized that the in vitro conversion characteristics of these isolates in cervid substrates would correlate to in vivo susceptibility – permitting susceptibility prediction for the rare alleles found in nature. We also predicted that hypothetical alleles with multiple resistance-associated codons would be more resistant to in vitro conversion than natural alleles with a single resistant codon. Our studies demonstrate that in vitro conversion metrics align with in vivo susceptibility, and that alleles with multiple amino acid substitutions, each influencing resistance independently, do not necessarily contribute additively to conversion resistance. Importantly, we found that the naturally occurring whitetail deer QGAK substrate exhibited the slowest amplification rate among those evaluated, suggesting that further investigation of this allele and its resistance in vivo is warranted. PMID:29058651

miR-200/375 control epithelial plasticity-associated alternative splicing by repressing the RNA-binding protein Quaking.

PubMed

Pillman, Katherine A; Phillips, Caroline A; Roslan, Suraya; Toubia, John; Dredge, B Kate; Bert, Andrew G; Lumb, Rachael; Neumann, Daniel P; Li, Xiaochun; Conn, Simon J; Liu, Dawei; Bracken, Cameron P; Lawrence, David M; Stylianou, Nataly; Schreiber, Andreas W; Tilley, Wayne D; Hollier, Brett G; Khew-Goodall, Yeesim; Selth, Luke A; Goodall, Gregory J; Gregory, Philip A

2018-06-05

Members of the miR-200 family are critical gatekeepers of the epithelial state, restraining expression of pro-mesenchymal genes that drive epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and contribute to metastatic cancer progression. Here, we show that miR-200c and another epithelial-enriched miRNA, miR-375, exert widespread control of alternative splicing in cancer cells by suppressing the RNA-binding protein Quaking (QKI). During EMT, QKI-5 directly binds to and regulates hundreds of alternative splicing targets and exerts pleiotropic effects, such as increasing cell migration and invasion and restraining tumour growth, without appreciably affecting mRNA levels. QKI-5 is both necessary and sufficient to direct EMT-associated alternative splicing changes, and this splicing signature is broadly conserved across many epithelial-derived cancer types. Importantly, several actin cytoskeleton-associated genes are directly targeted by both QKI and miR-200c, revealing coordinated control of alternative splicing and mRNA abundance during EMT These findings demonstrate the existence of a miR-200/miR-375/QKI axis that impacts cancer-associated epithelial cell plasticity through widespread control of alternative splicing. © 2018 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

Fire regimes of quaking aspen in the Mountain West

USGS Publications Warehouse

Shinneman, Douglas J.; Baker, William L.; Rogers, Paul C.; Kulakowski, Dominik

2013-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most widespread tree species in North America, and it is found throughout much of the Mountain West (MW) across a broad range of bioclimatic regions. Aspen typically regenerates asexually and prolifically after fire, and due to its seral status in many western conifer forests, aspen is often considered dependent upon disturbance for persistence. In many landscapes, historical evidence for post-fire aspen establishment is clear, and following extended fire-free periods senescing or declining aspen overstories sometimes lack adequate regeneration and are succeeding to conifers. However, aspen also forms relatively stable stands that contain little or no evidence of historical fire. In fact, aspen woodlands range from highly fire-dependent, seral communities to relatively stable, self-replacing, non-seral communities that do not require fire for persistence. Given the broad geographic distribution of aspen, fire regimes in these forests likely co-vary spatially with changing community composition, landscape setting, and climate, and temporally with land use and climate – but relatively few studies have explicitly focused on these important spatiotemporal variations. Here we reviewed the literature to summarize aspen fire regimes in the western US and highlight knowledge gaps. We found that only about one-fourth of the 46 research papers assessed for this review could be considered fire history studies (in which mean fire intervals were calculated), and all but one of these were based primarily on data from fire-scarred conifers. Nearly half of the studies reported at least some evidence of persistent aspen in the absence of fire. We also found that large portions of the MW have had little or no aspen fire history research. As a result of this review, we put forth a classification framework for aspen that is defined by key fire regime parameters (fire severity and probability), and that reflects underlying biophysical

A direct assessment of human prion adhered to steel wire using real-time quaking-induced conversion

PubMed Central

Mori, Tsuyoshi; Atarashi, Ryuichiro; Furukawa, Kana; Takatsuki, Hanae; Satoh, Katsuya; Sano, Kazunori; Nakagaki, Takehiro; Ishibashi, Daisuke; Ichimiya, Kazuko; Hamada, Masahisa; Nakayama, Takehisa; Nishida, Noriyuki

2016-01-01

Accidental transmission of prions during neurosurgery has been reported as a consequence of re-using contaminated surgical instruments. Several decontamination methods have been studied using the 263K-hamster prion; however, no studies have directly evaluated human prions. A newly developed in vitro amplification system, designated real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC), has allowed the activity of abnormal prion proteins to be assessed within a few days. RT-QuIC using human recombinant prion protein (PrP) showed high sensitivity for prions as the detection limit of our assay was estimated as 0.12 fg of active prions. We applied this method to detect human prion activity on stainless steel wire. When we put wires contaminated with human Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease brain tissue directly into the test tube, typical PrP-amyloid formation was observed within 48 hours, and we could detect the activity of prions at 50% seeding dose on the wire from 102.8 to 105.8 SD50. Using this method, we also confirmed that the seeding activities on the wire were removed following treatment with NaOH. As seeding activity closely correlated with the infectivity of prions using the bioassay, this wire-QuIC assay will be useful for the direct evaluation of decontamination methods for human prions. PMID:27112110

Quaking Is a Key Regulator of Endothelial Cell Differentiation, Neovascularization, and Angiogenesis

PubMed Central

Cochrane, Amy; Kelaini, Sophia; Tsifaki, Marianna; Bojdo, James; Vilà‐González, Marta; Drehmer, Daiana; Caines, Rachel; Magee, Corey; Eleftheriadou, Magdalini; Hu, Yanhua; Grieve, David; Stitt, Alan W.; Zeng, Lingfang; Xu, Qingbo

2017-01-01

Abstract The capability to derive endothelial cell (ECs) from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) holds huge therapeutic potential for cardiovascular disease. This study elucidates the precise role of the RNA‐binding protein Quaking isoform 5 (QKI‐5) during EC differentiation from both mouse and human iPSCs (hiPSCs) and dissects how RNA‐binding proteins can improve differentiation efficiency toward cell therapy for important vascular diseases. iPSCs represent an attractive cellular approach for regenerative medicine today as they can be used to generate patient‐specific therapeutic cells toward autologous cell therapy. In this study, using the model of iPSCs differentiation toward ECs, the QKI‐5 was found to be an important regulator of STAT3 stabilization and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) activation during the EC differentiation process. QKI‐5 was induced during EC differentiation, resulting in stabilization of STAT3 expression and modulation of VEGFR2 transcriptional activation as well as VEGF secretion through direct binding to the 3′ UTR of STAT3. Importantly, mouse iPS‐ECs overexpressing QKI‐5 significantly improved angiogenesis and neovascularization and blood flow recovery in experimental hind limb ischemia. Notably, hiPSCs overexpressing QKI‐5, induced angiogenesis on Matrigel plug assays in vivo only 7 days after subcutaneous injection in SCID mice. These results highlight a clear functional benefit of QKI‐5 in neovascularization, blood flow recovery, and angiogenesis. Thus, they provide support to the growing consensus that elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying EC differentiation will ultimately advance stem cell regenerative therapy and eventually make the treatment of cardiovascular disease a reality. The RNA binding protein QKI‐5 is induced during EC differentiation from iPSCs. RNA binding protein QKI‐5 was induced during EC differentiation in parallel with the EC marker CD144

Crowd-Sourcing Seismic Data for Education and Research Opportunities with the Quake-Catcher Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sumy, D. F.; DeGroot, R. M.; Benthien, M. L.; Cochran, E. S.; Taber, J. J.

2016-12-01

The Quake Catcher Network (QCN; quakecatcher.net) uses low cost micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensors hosted by volunteers to collect seismic data. Volunteers use accelerometers internal to laptop computers, phones, tablets or small (the size of a matchbox) MEMS sensors plugged into desktop computers using a USB connector to collect scientifically useful data. Data are collected and sent to a central server using the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) distributed computing software. Since 2008, sensors installed in museums, schools, offices, and residences have collected thousands of earthquake records, including the 2010 M8.8 Maule, Chile, the 2010 M7.1 Darfield, New Zealand, and 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquakes. In 2016, the QCN in the United States transitioned to the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Consortium and the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), which are facilities funded through the National Science Foundation and the United States Geological Survey, respectively. The transition has allowed for an influx of new ideas and new education related efforts, which include focused installations in several school districts in southern California, on Native American reservations in North Dakota, and in the most seismically active state in the contiguous U.S. - Oklahoma. We present and describe these recent educational opportunities, and highlight how QCN has engaged a wide sector of the public in scientific data collection, particularly through the QCN-EPIcenter Network and NASA Mars InSight teacher programs. QCN provides the public with information and insight into how seismic data are collected, and how researchers use these data to better understand and characterize seismic activity. Lastly, we describe how students use data recorded by QCN sensors installed in their classrooms to explore and investigate felt earthquakes, and look towards the bright future of the network.

Overexpression of miR-29a reduces the oncogenic properties of glioblastoma stem cells by downregulating Quaking gene isoform 6.

PubMed

Xi, Zhuo; Wang, Ping; Xue, Yixue; Shang, Chao; Liu, Xiaobai; Ma, Jun; Li, Zhiqing; Li, Zhen; Bao, Min; Liu, Yunhui

2017-04-11

Glioblastoma is the most common type of malignant primary brain tumor and has high recurrence and lethality rates. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs), a subpopulation of glioblastoma cells, may promote rapid tumor recurrence and therapy resistance. Because altered microRNA (miR) expression in GSCs may lead to glioblastoma progression, we assessed the effects of miR-29a expression on the oncogenic behavior of GSCs. MiR-29a expression was lower in GSCs than non-GSCs, and overexpression of miR-29a in GSCs inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, but promoted apoptosis. MiR-29a directly inhibited the expression of Quaking gene isoform 6 (QKI-6) by binding to its 3'-UTR, and thus inhibited GSC malignant behavior. In addition, Wilms' tumor 1-associating protein (WTAP) was identified as a downstream target of QKI-6. Overexpression of miR-29a in GSCs inhibited expression of WTAP and suppressed both phosphoinositide 3-kinase/AKT and extracellular signal-related kinase pathways by downregulating QKI-6, thereby inhibiting cell proliferation, migration, and invasion but promoting apoptosis. We have characterized a novel miR-29a/QKI-6/WTAP axis in GSCs, which may provide theoretical support for the treatment of glioblastoma with miR-29a agomirs.

The Virtual Quake Earthquake Simulator: Earthquake Probability Statistics for the El Mayor-Cucapah Region and Evidence of Predictability in Simulated Earthquake Sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, K.; Yoder, M. R.; Heien, E. M.; Rundle, J. B.; Turcotte, D. L.; Parker, J. W.; Donnellan, A.

2015-12-01

We introduce a framework for developing earthquake forecasts using Virtual Quake (VQ), the generalized successor to the perhaps better known Virtual California (VC) earthquake simulator. We discuss the basic merits and mechanics of the simulator, and we present several statistics of interest for earthquake forecasting. We also show that, though the system as a whole (in aggregate) behaves quite randomly, (simulated) earthquake sequences limited to specific fault sections exhibit measurable predictability in the form of increasing seismicity precursory to large m > 7 earthquakes. In order to quantify this, we develop an alert based forecasting metric similar to those presented in Keilis-Borok (2002); Molchan (1997), and show that it exhibits significant information gain compared to random forecasts. We also discuss the long standing question of activation vs quiescent type earthquake triggering. We show that VQ exhibits both behaviors separately for independent fault sections; some fault sections exhibit activation type triggering, while others are better characterized by quiescent type triggering. We discuss these aspects of VQ specifically with respect to faults in the Salton Basin and near the El Mayor-Cucapah region in southern California USA and northern Baja California Norte, Mexico.

Sentinel-1 Radar Shows Ground Motion From Sept. 2017 Oaxaca-Chiapas, Mexico Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-20

NASA and its partners are contributing important observations and expertise to the ongoing response to the Sept. 7, 2017 (local time), magnitude 8.1 Oaxaca-Chiapas earthquake in Mexico. This earthquake was the strongest in more than a century in Mexico. It has caused a significant humanitarian crisis, with widespread building damage and triggered landslides throughout the region. Scientists with the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis project (ARIA), a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; and Caltech, also in Pasadena, analyzed interferometric synthetic aperture radar images from the radar instrument on the Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) to calculate a map of the deformation of Earth's surface caused by the quake. This false-color map shows the amount of permanent surface movement caused almost entirely by the earthquake, as viewed by the satellite, during a six-day interval between radar images acquired by the two Sentinel-1 satellites on Sept. 7 and Sept. 13, 2017. In this map, the colors of the surface displacements are proportional to the surface motion. The red tones show the areas along the coast of Chiapas and Oaxaca have moved toward the satellite by as much as 9 inches (22 centimeters) in a combination of up and eastward motion. The area in between and farther north with various shades of blue moved away from the satellite, mostly downward or westward, by as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters). Areas without color are open water or heavy vegetation, which prevent the radar from measuring change between the satellite images. Scientists use these maps to build detailed models of the fault slip at depth and associated land movements to better understand the impact on future earthquake activity. The green star shows the location of the earthquake epicenter estimated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center. Map

The QuakeFinder Magnetometer Network - a Platform for Earth and Space Science Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bleier, T.; Kappler, K. N.; Schneider, D.

2016-12-01

QuakeFinder (QF) is a humanitarian research and development project attempting to characterize earth-emitting electromagnetic (EM) signals as potential precursors to earthquakes. Beginning in 2005, QF designed, built, deployed and now maintains an array of 165 remote monitoring stations in 6 countries (US/California, Taiwan, Greece, Indonesia, Peru and Chile). Having amassed approximately 70 TB of data and greater than 140 earthquakes (M4+), QF is focused on the data analysis and signal processing algorithms in our effort to enable a forecasting capability. QF's autonomous stations, located along major fault lines, collect and transmit electromagnetic readings from 3-axis induction magnetometers and positive/negative ion sensors, a geophone, as well as various station health status and local conditions. The induction magnetometers, oriented N-S,E-W and vertically, have a 40 nT range and 1 pT sensitivity. Data is continuously collected at 50 samples/sec (sps), GPS time-stamped and transmitted, primarily through cell phone networks, to our data center in Palo Alto, California. The induction magnetometers routinely detect subtle geomagnetic and ionospheric disturbances as observed worldwide. QF seeks to make available both historic data and the array platform to strategic partners in the EM-related research and operation fields. The QF system will be described in detail with examples of local and regional geomagnetic activity. The stations are robust and will be undergoing a system-level upgrade in the near future. Domestically, QF maintains a 98% `up time' among the 120 stations in California while internationally our metric is typically near 80%. Irregular cell phone reception is chief among the reasons for outages although little data has been lost as the stations can store up to 90 days of data. These data are retrieved by QF personnel or, when communication is reestablished, the QF data ingest process automatically updates the database. Planned station upgrades

The Virtual Quake earthquake simulator: a simulation-based forecast of the El Mayor-Cucapah region and evidence of predictability in simulated earthquake sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoder, Mark R.; Schultz, Kasey W.; Heien, Eric M.; Rundle, John B.; Turcotte, Donald L.; Parker, Jay W.; Donnellan, Andrea

2015-12-01

In this manuscript, we introduce a framework for developing earthquake forecasts using Virtual Quake (VQ), the generalized successor to the perhaps better known Virtual California (VC) earthquake simulator. We discuss the basic merits and mechanics of the simulator, and we present several statistics of interest for earthquake forecasting. We also show that, though the system as a whole (in aggregate) behaves quite randomly, (simulated) earthquake sequences limited to specific fault sections exhibit measurable predictability in the form of increasing seismicity precursory to large m > 7 earthquakes. In order to quantify this, we develop an alert-based forecasting metric, and show that it exhibits significant information gain compared to random forecasts. We also discuss the long-standing question of activation versus quiescent type earthquake triggering. We show that VQ exhibits both behaviours separately for independent fault sections; some fault sections exhibit activation type triggering, while others are better characterized by quiescent type triggering. We discuss these aspects of VQ specifically with respect to faults in the Salton Basin and near the El Mayor-Cucapah region in southern California, USA and northern Baja California Norte, Mexico.

The Quake-Catcher Network: Improving Earthquake Strong Motion Observations Through Community Engagement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cochran, E. S.; Lawrence, J. F.; Christensen, C. M.; Chung, A. I.; Neighbors, C.; Saltzman, J.

2010-12-01

The Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) involves the community in strong motion data collection by utilizing volunteer computing techniques and low-cost MEMS accelerometers. Volunteer computing provides a mechanism to expand strong-motion seismology with minimal infrastructure costs, while promoting community participation in science. Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) triaxial accelerometers can be attached to a desktop computer via USB and are internal to many laptops. Preliminary shake table tests show the MEMS accelerometers can record high-quality seismic data with instrument response similar to research-grade strong-motion sensors. QCN began distributing sensors and software to K-12 schools and the general public in April 2008 and has grown to roughly 1500 stations worldwide. We also recently tested whether sensors could be quickly deployed as part of a Rapid Aftershock Mobilization Program (RAMP) following the 2010 M8.8 Maule, Chile earthquake. Volunteers are recruited through media reports, web-based sensor request forms, as well as social networking sites. Using data collected to date, we examine whether a distributed sensing network can provide valuable seismic data for earthquake detection and characterization while promoting community participation in earthquake science. We utilize client-side triggering algorithms to determine when significant ground shaking occurs and this metadata is sent to the main QCN server. On average, trigger metadata are received within 1-10 seconds from the observation of a trigger; the larger data latencies are correlated with greater server-station distances. When triggers are detected, we determine if the triggers correlate to others in the network using spatial and temporal clustering of incoming trigger information. If a minimum number of triggers are detected then a QCN-event is declared and an initial earthquake location and magnitude is estimated. Initial analysis suggests that the estimated locations and magnitudes are

Changes in metabolic profiles after the Great East Japan Earthquake: a retrospective observational study.

PubMed

Tsubokura, Masaharu; Takita, Morihito; Matsumura, Tomoko; Hara, Kazuo; Tanimoto, Tetsuya; Kobayashi, Kazuhiko; Hamaki, Tamae; Oiso, Giichiro; Kami, Masahiro; Okawada, Tadaichi; Tachiya, Hidekiyo

2013-03-23

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off eastern Japan in March 2011. Many survivors have been living in temporary houses provided by the local government since they lost their houses as a result of the great tsunami (tsunami group) or the expected high-dose radiation resulting from the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (radiation group). The tsunami was more than 9 m high in Soma, Fukushima, which is located 30 km north of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and adjacent to the mandatory evacuation area. A health screening program was held for the evacuees in Soma in September 2011. The aim of this study was to compare the metabolic profiles of the evacuees before and after the disaster. We hypothesized that the evacuees would experience deteriorated metabolic status based on previous reports of natural disasters. Data on 200 subjects who attended a health screening program in September or October of 2010 (pre-quake) and 2011 (post-quake) were retrospectively reviewed and included in this study. Pre-quake and post-quake results of physical examinations and laboratory tests were compared in the tsunami and radiation groups. A multivariate regression model was used to determine pre-quake predictive factors for elevation of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in the tsunami group. Significantly higher values of body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and HbA1c and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were found at the post-quake screening when compared with the pre-quake levels (p = 0.004, p = 0.03, p = 0.008, p < 0.001, and p = 0.03, respectively). A significantly higher proportion of subjects in the tsunami group with high HbA1c, defined as ≥ 5.7%, was observed after the quake (34.3%) than before the quake (14.8%) (p < 0.001). Regional factors, periodic clinic visits, and waist circumference before the quake were identified as predictive factors on multivariate analysis for the deterioration of HbA1c. Post-quake metabolic

Use of "Crowd-Sourcing" and other collaborations to solve the short-term, earthquake forecasting problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bleier, T.; Heraud, J. A.; Dunson, J. C.

2015-12-01

QuakeFinder (QF) and its international collaborators have installed and currently maintain 165 three-axis induction magnetometer instrument sites in California, Peru, Taiwan, Greece, Chile and Sumatra. The data from these instruments are being analyzed for pre-quake signatures. This analysis consists of both private research by QuakeFinder, and institutional collaborators (PUCP in Peru, NCU in Taiwan, PUCC in Chile, NOA in Greece, Syiah Kuala University in Indonesia, LASP at U of Colo., Stanford, and USGS). Recently, NASA Hq and QuakeFinder tried a new approach to help with the analysis of this huge (50+TB) data archive. A collaboration with Apirio/TopCoder, Harvard University, Amazon, QuakeFinder, and NASA Hq. resulted in an open algorithm development contest called "Quest for Quakes" in which contestants (freelance algorithm developers) attempted to identify quakes from a subset of the QuakeFinder data (3TB). The contest included a $25K prize pool, and contained 100 cases where earthquakes (and null sets) included data from up to 5 remote sites, near and far from quakes greater than M4. These data sets were made available through Amazon.com to hundreds of contestants over a two week contest period. In a more traditional approach, several new algorithms were tried by actively sharing the QF data with universities over a longer period. These algorithms included Principal Component Analysis-PCA and deep neural networks in an effort to automatically identify earthquake signals within typical, noise-filled environments. This presentation examines the pros and cons of employing these two approaches, from both logistical and scientific perspectives.

Exploring physical and chemical factors influencing the properties of recombinant prion protein and the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay.

PubMed

Cheng, Keding; Sloan, Angela; Avery, Kristen M; Coulthart, Michael; Carpenter, Michael; Knox, J David

2014-01-01

Real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC), a highly specific and sensitive assay able to detect low levels of the disease-inducing isoform of the prion protein (PrP(d)) in brain tissue biopsies and cerebral spinal fluid, has great potential to become a method for diagnosing prion disease ante mortem. In order to standardize the assay method for routine analysis, an understanding of how physical and chemical factors affect the stability of the recombinant prion protein (rPrP) substrate and the RT-QuIC assay's sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility is required. In this study, using sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease brain homogenate to seed the reactions and an in vitro-expressed recombinant prion protein, hamster rPrP, as the substrate, the following factors affecting the RT-QuIC assay were examined: salt and substrate concentrations, substrate storage, and pH. Results demonstrated that both the generation of the quality and quantities of rPrP substrate critical to the reaction, as well as the RT-QuIC reaction itself required strict adherence to specific physical and chemical conditions. Once optimized, the RT-QuIC assay was confirmed to be a very specific and sensitive assay method for sCJD detection. Findings in this study indicate that further optimization and standardization of RT-QuIC assay is required before it can be adopted as a routine diagnostic test.

Changes in metabolic profiles after the Great East Japan Earthquake: a retrospective observational study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off eastern Japan in March 2011. Many survivors have been living in temporary houses provided by the local government since they lost their houses as a result of the great tsunami (tsunami group) or the expected high-dose radiation resulting from the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (radiation group). The tsunami was more than 9 m high in Soma, Fukushima, which is located 30 km north of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and adjacent to the mandatory evacuation area. A health screening program was held for the evacuees in Soma in September 2011. The aim of this study was to compare the metabolic profiles of the evacuees before and after the disaster. We hypothesized that the evacuees would experience deteriorated metabolic status based on previous reports of natural disasters. Methods Data on 200 subjects who attended a health screening program in September or October of 2010 (pre-quake) and 2011 (post-quake) were retrospectively reviewed and included in this study. Pre-quake and post-quake results of physical examinations and laboratory tests were compared in the tsunami and radiation groups. A multivariate regression model was used to determine pre-quake predictive factors for elevation of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in the tsunami group. Results Significantly higher values of body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and HbA1c and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were found at the post-quake screening when compared with the pre-quake levels (p = 0.004, p = 0.03, p = 0.008, p < 0.001, and p = 0.03, respectively). A significantly higher proportion of subjects in the tsunami group with high HbA1c, defined as ≥5.7%, was observed after the quake (34.3%) than before the quake (14.8%) (p < 0.001). Regional factors, periodic clinic visits, and waist circumference before the quake were identified as predictive factors on multivariate analysis for the deterioration

Detection and partial discrimination of atypical and classical bovine spongiform encephalopathies in cattle and primates using real-time quaking-induced conversion assay.

PubMed

Levavasseur, Etienne; Biacabe, Anne-Gaëlle; Comoy, Emmanuel; Culeux, Audrey; Grznarova, Katarina; Privat, Nicolas; Simoneau, Steve; Flan, Benoit; Sazdovitch, Véronique; Seilhean, Danielle; Baron, Thierry; Haïk, Stéphane

2017-01-01

The transmission of classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (C-BSE) through contaminated meat product consumption is responsible for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans. More recent and atypical forms of BSE (L-BSE and H-BSE) have been identified in cattle since the C-BSE epidemic. Their low incidence and advanced age of onset are compatible with a sporadic origin, as are most cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. Transmissions studies in primates and transgenic mice expressing a human prion protein (PrP) indicated that atypical forms of BSE may be associated with a higher zoonotic potential than classical BSE, and require particular attention for public health. Recently, methods designed to amplify misfolded forms of PrP have emerged as promising tools to detect prion strains and to study their diversity. Here, we validated real-time quaking-induced conversion assay for the discrimination of atypical and classical BSE strains using a large series of bovine samples encompassing all the atypical BSE cases detected by the French Centre of Reference during 10 years of exhaustive active surveillance. We obtained a 100% sensitivity and specificity for atypical BSE detection. In addition, the assay was able to discriminate atypical and classical BSE in non-human primates, and also sporadic CJD and vCJD in humans. The RT-QuIC assay appears as a practical means for a reliable detection of atypical BSE strains in a homologous or heterologous PrP context.

Sensitive and specific detection of classical scrapie prions in the brains of goats by real-time quaking-induced conversion.

PubMed

Dassanayake, Rohana P; Orrú, Christina D; Hughson, Andrew G; Caughey, Byron; Graça, Telmo; Zhuang, Dongyue; Madsen-Bouterse, Sally A; Knowles, Donald P; Schneider, David A

2016-03-01

Real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) is a rapid, specific and highly sensitive prion seeding activity detection assay that uses recombinant prion protein (rPrPSen) to detect subinfectious levels of the abnormal isoforms of the prion protein (PrPSc). Although RT-QuIC has been successfully used to detect PrPSc in various tissues from humans and animals, including sheep, tissues from goats infected with classical scrapie have not yet been tested. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to (1) evaluate whether prion seeding activity could be detected in the brain tissues of goats with scrapie using RT-QuIC, (2) optimize reaction conditions to improve scrapie detection in goats, and (3) compare the performance of RT-QuIC for the detection of PrPSc with the more commonly used ELISA and Western blot assays. We further optimized RT-QuIC conditions for sensitive and specific detection of goat scrapie seeding activity in brain tissue from clinical animals. When used with 200  mM sodium chloride, both full-length sheep rPrPSen substrates (PrP genotypes A136R154Q171 and V136R154Q171) provided good discrimination between scrapie-infected and normal goat brain samples at 10(- )3 dilution within 15  h. Our findings indicate that RT-QuIC was at least 10,000-fold more sensitive than ELISA and Western blot assays for the detection of scrapie seeding activity in goat brain samples. In addition to PRNP WT samples, positive RT-QuIC reactions were also observed with three PRNP polymorphic goat brain samples (G/S127, I/M142 and H/R143) tested. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that RT-QuIC sensitively detects prion seeding activity in classical scrapie-infected goat brain samples.

Sensitive and specific detection of classical scrapie prions in the brains of goats by real-time quaking-induced conversion

PubMed Central

Dassanayake, Rohana P.; Orrú, Christina D.; Hughson, Andrew G.; Caughey, Byron; Graça, Telmo; Zhuang, Dongyue; Madsen-Bouterse, Sally A.; Knowles, Donald P.; Schneider, David A.

2016-01-01

Real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) is a rapid, specific and highly sensitive prion seeding activity detection assay that uses recombinant prion protein (rPrPSen) to detect subinfectious levels of the abnormal isoforms of the prion protein (PrPSc). Although RT-QuIC has been successfully used to detect PrPSc in various tissues from humans and animals, including sheep, tissues from goats infected with classical scrapie have not yet been tested. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to (1) evaluate whether prion seeding activity could be detected in the brain tissues of goats with scrapie using RT-QuIC, (2) optimize reaction conditions to improve scrapie detection in goats, and (3) compare the performance of RT-QuIC for the detection of PrPSc with the more commonly used ELISA and Western blot assays. We further optimized RT-QuIC conditions for sensitive and specific detection of goat scrapie seeding activity in brain tissue from clinical animals. When used with 200 mM sodium chloride, both full-length sheep rPrPSen substrates (PrP genotypes A136R154Q171 and V136R154Q171) provided good discrimination between scrapie-infected and normal goat brain samples at 10− 3 dilution within 15 h. Our findings indicate that RT-QuIC was at least 10 000-fold more sensitive than ELISA and Western blot assays for the detection of scrapie seeding activity in goat brain samples. In addition to PRNP WT samples, positive RT-QuIC reactions were also observed with three PRNP polymorphic goat brain samples (G/S127, I/M142 and H/R143) tested. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that RT-QuIC sensitively detects prion seeding activity in classical scrapie-infected goat brain samples. PMID:26653410

Employing the Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) to Investigate Site Effects in Christchurch, New Zealand Using the κ Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neighbors, C.; Liao, E. J.; Cochran, E. S.; Chung, A. I.; Lawrence, J.; Kaiser, A. E.; Fry, B.; Christensen, C. M.

2011-12-01

The 3 September 2010 Mw 7.1 Darfield earthquake was felt over 900 km from the source. The maximum felt-intensity was estimated to be at Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) 9 and measured near-field accelerations were found to exceed 1 g. The mainshock damaged or destroyed over 100,000 buildings and spatially variable effects (such as liquefaction, slumping, and amplification) were observed throughout the city of Christchurch. Following the mainshock, a vigorous aftershock sequence has continued for months in the region. To record the aftershocks for early warning and other hazard mitigation efforts, a network of over 192 low-cost, 14-bit accelerometers were deployed in local buildings as part of the Quake-Catcher Network Rapid Aftershock Mobilization Project (RAMP). With a large number of sensors covering a city area of ~300 km2, the RAMP collected vastly more data and at a finer scale relative to the deployment of costly traditional broadband sensors. Recent comparison of the signal-to-noise quality of the 14-bit QCN sensors to the strong motion 24-bit New Zealand GeoNet sensors show similar responses. Initial analyses of the data show that aftershocks of magnitude >M4.5 within 30 km of the hypocentral distance were well recorded by QCN sensors. Utilizing the dense coverage, we investigate local site amplification by analyzing the spectra decay parameter, kappa (κ). Following the routine outlined in Douglas et al. (2010, Pure Appl. Geophys.), whereby a 5-sec S-wave window is used to calculate the Fourier spectra and κ for each station, investigations of κ values between stations are used to estimate site conditions on seismic wave behavior at each location. Results from this study will be compared to work performed by New Zealand researchers using other methods to calculate site response, such as the spectral ratio method. Together, these studies will highlight areas of the Christchurch region that may be more susceptible to ground shaking, which can be used to

Towards a healthier Gulf of Finland - results of the International Gulf of Finland Year 2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myrberg, Kai; Lips, Urmas; Orlova, Marina

2017-07-01

The international collaboration to protect the marine environment of the Gulf of Finland (GoF) dates back to 1968. Since then, Finland and the Soviet Union, and later on, Estonia, Finland, and Russia have collaborated trilaterally in the environmental front with a vision of a healthier GoF. The first Gulf of Finland Year organized in 1996 was a major step forward in trilateral cooperation and GoF research. It produced comprehensive scientific reports on different aspects of the GoF environment (Sarkkula, 1997), including an updated review of the physical oceanography of the Gulf (Alenius et al., 1998; Soomere et al., 2008) and recognition of the internal nutrient fluxes as a factor counteracting the decrease in external load (Pitkänen et al., 2001).

RNA-binding protein GLD-1/quaking genetically interacts with the mir-35 and the let-7 miRNA pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans

PubMed Central

Akay, Alper; Craig, Ashley; Lehrbach, Nicolas; Larance, Mark; Pourkarimi, Ehsan; Wright, Jane E.; Lamond, Angus; Miska, Eric; Gartner, Anton

2013-01-01

Messenger RNA translation is regulated by RNA-binding proteins and small non-coding RNAs called microRNAs. Even though we know the majority of RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs that regulate messenger RNA expression, evidence of interactions between the two remain elusive. The role of the RNA-binding protein GLD-1 as a translational repressor is well studied during Caenorhabditis elegans germline development and maintenance. Possible functions of GLD-1 during somatic development and the mechanism of how GLD-1 acts as a translational repressor are not known. Its human homologue, quaking (QKI), is essential for embryonic development. Here, we report that the RNA-binding protein GLD-1 in C. elegans affects multiple microRNA pathways and interacts with proteins required for microRNA function. Using genome-wide RNAi screening, we found that nhl-2 and vig-1, two known modulators of miRNA function, genetically interact with GLD-1. gld-1 mutations enhance multiple phenotypes conferred by mir-35 and let-7 family mutants during somatic development. We used stable isotope labelling with amino acids in cell culture to globally analyse the changes in the proteome conferred by let-7 and gld-1 during animal development. We identified the histone mRNA-binding protein CDL-1 to be, in part, responsible for the phenotypes observed in let-7 and gld-1 mutants. The link between GLD-1 and miRNA-mediated gene regulation is further supported by its biochemical interaction with ALG-1, CGH-1 and PAB-1, proteins implicated in miRNA regulation. Overall, we have uncovered genetic and biochemical interactions between GLD-1 and miRNA pathways. PMID:24258276

Emerging Trends in China’s Development of Unmanned Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

missions is another area of emphasis, as highlighted by reports about such systems’ use during the 2008 Sichuan earth - quake , and unmanned systems could...China Strategic Perspectives No. 5, National Defense University, September 2012. 27 “Drones Dispatched to Capture Images of Quake -Hit Regions,” Xinhua...china-deliver-packages-even-a- birthday-cake/ “Drones Dispatched to Capture Images of Quake -Hit Regions,” Xinhua, April 20, 2013. Easton, Ian M

The Hayward Fault - Is It Due for a Repeat of the Powerful 1868 Earthquake?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brocher, Thomas M.; Boatwright, Jack; Lienkaemper, James J.; Prentice, Carol S.; Schwartz, David P.; Bundock, Howard

2008-01-01

On October 21, 1868, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay region. Although the region was then sparsely populated, this quake on the Hayward Fault was one of the most destructive in California?s history. Recent studies show that such powerful Hayward Fault quakes have repeatedly jolted the region in the past. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists describe this fault as a tectonic time bomb, due anytime for another magnitude 6.8 to 7.0 earthquake. Because such a quake could cause hundreds of deaths, leave thousands homeless, and devastate the region?s economy, the USGS and other organizations are working together with new urgency to help prepare Bay Area communities for this certain future quake.

Elevated Rocky Mountain elk numbers prevent positive effects of fire on quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) recruitment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, David Solance; Fettig, Stephen M.; Bowker, Matthew A.

2016-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is the most widespread tree species in North America and has supported a unique ecosystem for tens of thousands of years, yet is currently threatened by dramatic loss and possible local extinctions. While multiple factors such as climate change and fire suppression are thought to contribute to aspen’s decline, increased browsing by elk (Cervus elaphus), which have experienced dramatic population increases in the last ∼80 years, may severely inhibit aspen growth and regeneration. Fires are known to favor aspen recovery, but in the last several decades the spatial scale and intensity of wildfires has greatly increased, with poorly understood ramifications for aspen growth. Here, focusing on the 2000 Cerro Grande fire in central New Mexico – one of the earliest fires described as a “mega-fire” - we use three methods to examine the impact of elk browsing on aspen regeneration after a mega-fire. First, we use an exclosure experiment to show that aspen growing in the absence of elk were 3× taller than trees growing in the presence of elk. Further, aspen that were both protected from elk and experienced burning were 8.5× taller than unburned trees growing in the presence of elk, suggesting that the combination of release from herbivores and stimulation from fire creates the largest aspen growth rates. Second, using surveys at the landscape level, we found a correlation between elk browsing intensity and aspen height, such that where elk browsing was highest, aspen were shortest. This relationship between elk browsing intensity and aspen height was stronger in burned (r = −0.53) compared to unburned (r = −0.24) areas. Third, in conjunction with the landscape-level surveys, we identified possible natural refugia, microsites containing downed logs, shrubs etc. that may inhibit elk browsing by physically blocking aspen from elk or by impeding elk’s ability to move through the forest patch. We did not find any

Forecasting California's earthquakes: What can we expect in the next 30 years?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Field, Edward H.; Milner, Kevin R.; ,

2008-01-01

In a new comprehensive study, scientists have determined that the chance of having one or more magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquakes in the California area over the next 30 years is greater than 99%. Such quakes can be deadly, as shown by the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta and the 1994 magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquakes. The likelihood of at least one even more powerful quake of magnitude 7.5 or greater in the next 30 years is 46%?such a quake is most likely to occur in the southern half of the State. Building codes, earthquake insurance, and emergency planning will be affected by these new results, which highlight the urgency to prepare now for the powerful quakes that are inevitable in California?s future.

Kinect Technology Game Play to Mimic Quake Catcher Network (QCN) Sensor Deployment During a Rapid Aftershock Mobilization Program (RAMP)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kilb, D. L.; Yang, A.; Rohrlick, D.; Cochran, E. S.; Lawrence, J.; Chung, A. I.; Neighbors, C.; Choo, Y.

2011-12-01

The Kinect technology allows for hands-free game play, greatly increasing the accessibility of gaming for those uncomfortable using controllers. How it works is the Kinect camera transmits invisible near-infrared light and measures its "time of flight" to reflect off an object, allowing it to distinguish objects within 1 centimeter in depth and 3 mm in height and width. The middleware can also respond to body gestures and voice commands. Here, we use the Kinect Windows SDK software to create a game that mimics how scientists deploy seismic instruments following a large earthquake. The educational goal of the game is to allow the players to explore 3D space as they learn about the Quake Catcher Network's (QCN) Rapid Aftershock Mobilization Program (RAMP). Many of the scenarios within the game are taken from factual RAMP experiences. To date, only the PC platform (or a Mac running PC emulator software) is available for use, but we hope to move to other platforms (e.g., Xbox 360, iPad, iPhone) as they become available. The game is written in programming language C# using Microsoft XNA and Visual Studio 2010, graphic shading is added using High Level Shader Language (HLSL), and rendering is produced using XNA's graphics libraries. Key elements of the game include selecting sensor locations, adequately installing the sensor, and monitoring the incoming data. During game play aftershocks can occur unexpectedly, as can other problems that require attention (e.g., power outages, equipment failure, and theft). The player accrues points for quickly deploying the first sensor (recording as many initial aftershocks as possible), correctly installing the sensors (orientation with respect to north, properly securing, and testing), distributing the sensors adequately in the region, and troubleshooting problems. One can also net points for efficient use of game play time. Setting up for game play in your local environment requires: (1) the Kinect hardware ( $145); (2) a computer

Strong-motion observations of the M 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake sequence and development of the N-shake strong-motion network

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dixit, Amod; Ringler, Adam; Sumy, Danielle F.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.; Hough, Susan E.; Martin, Stacey; Gibbons, Steven; Luetgert, James H.; Galetzka, John; Shrestha, Surya; Rajaure, Sudhir; McNamara, Daniel E.

2015-01-01

We present and describe strong-motion data observations from the 2015 M 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake sequence collected using existing and new Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) and U.S. Geological Survey NetQuakes sensors located in the Kathmandu Valley. A comparison of QCN data with waveforms recorded by a conventional strong-motion (NetQuakes) instrument validates the QCN data. We present preliminary analysis of spectral accelerations, and peak ground acceleration and velocity for earthquakes up to M 7.3 from the QCN stations, as well as preliminary analysis of the mainshock recording from the NetQuakes station. We show that mainshock peak accelerations were lower than expected and conclude the Kathmandu Valley experienced a pervasively nonlinear response during the mainshock. Phase picks from the QCN and NetQuakes data are also used to improve aftershock locations. This study confirms the utility of QCN instruments to contribute to ground-motion investigations and aftershock response in regions where conventional instrumentation and open-access seismic data are limited. Initial pilot installations of QCN instruments in 2014 are now being expanded to create the Nepal–Shaking Hazard Assessment for Kathmandu and its Environment (N-SHAKE) network.

California quake assessed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wuethrich, Bernice

On January 17, at 4:31 A.M., a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Los Angeles area, crippling much of the local infrastructure and claiming 51 lives. Members of the Southern California Earthquake Network, a consortium of scientists at universities and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), entered a controlled crisis mode. Network scientists, including David Wald, Susan Hough, Kerry Sieh, and a half dozen others went into the field to gather information on the earthquake, which apparently ruptured an unmapped fault.

Quake Final Video

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

Critical infrastructures of the world are at constant risks for earthquakes. Most of these critical structures are designed using archaic, seismic, simulation methods that were built from early digital computers from the 1970s. Idaho National Laboratory’s Seismic Research Group are working to modernize the simulation methods through computational research and large-scale laboratory experiments.

Seeded amplification of chronic wasting disease prions in nasal brushings and recto-anal mucosal associated lymphoid tissues from elk by real time quaking-induced conversion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haley, Nicholas J.; Siepker, Chris; Hoon-Hanks , Laura L.; Mitchell, Gordon; Walter, W. David; Manca, Matteo; Monello, Ryan J.; Powers, Jenny G.; Wild, Margaret A.; Hoover, Edward A.; Caughey, Byron; Richt, Jürgen a.; Fenwick, B.W.

2016-01-01

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of cervids, was first documented nearly 50 years ago in Colorado and Wyoming and has since been detected across North America and the Republic of Korea. The expansion of this disease makes the development of sensitive diagnostic assays and antemortem sampling techniques crucial for the mitigation of its spread; this is especially true in cases of relocation/reintroduction or prevalence studies of large or protected herds, where depopulation may be contraindicated. This study evaluated the sensitivity of the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay of recto-anal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (RAMALT) biopsy specimens and nasal brushings collected antemortem. These findings were compared to results of immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of ante- and postmortem samples. RAMALT samples were collected from populations of farmed and free-ranging Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni; n = 323), and nasal brush samples were collected from a subpopulation of these animals (n = 205). We hypothesized that the sensitivity of RT-QuIC would be comparable to that of IHC analysis of RAMALT and would correspond to that of IHC analysis of postmortem tissues. We found RAMALT sensitivity (77.3%) to be highly correlative between RT-QuIC and IHC analysis. Sensitivity was lower when testing nasal brushings (34%), though both RAMALT and nasal brush test sensitivities were dependent on both the PRNP genotype and disease progression determined by the obex score. These data suggest that RT-QuIC, like IHC analysis, is a relatively sensitive assay for detection of CWD prions in RAMALT biopsy specimens and, with further investigation, has potential for large-scale and rapid automated testing of antemortem samples for CWD.

The Role of Military Forces in Disaster Response: Remove the Impediments

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-08

5Alicia Acuna, “As U.S. Preps for Nuclear Disaster Drills, Scientists Reassure About Quake Zone Facilities,” March 28, 2011, http...www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/28/preps- nuclear - disaster -drills-scientists-reassure-quake-zone-facilities (accessed January 1, 2012). 30 6The Federal

Antemortem detection of chronic wasting disease prions in nasal brush collections and rectal biopsies from white-tailed deer by real time quaking-induced conversion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haley, Nicholas J.; Siepker, Chris; Walter, W. David; Thomsen, Bruce V.; Greenlee, Justin J.; Lehmkuhl, Aaron D.; Richt, Jürgen a.

2016-01-01

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of cervids, was first documented nearly 50 years ago in Colorado and Wyoming and has since spread to cervids in 23 states, two Canadian provinces, and the Republic of Korea. The expansion of this disease makes the development of sensitive diagnostic assays and antemortem sampling techniques crucial for the mitigation of its spread; this is especially true in cases of relocation/reintroduction of farmed or free-ranging deer and elk or surveillance studies of private or protected herds, where depopulation is contraindicated. This study sought to evaluate the sensitivity of the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay by using recto-anal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (RAMALT) biopsy specimens and nasal brush samples collected antemortem from farmed white-tailed deer (n = 409). Antemortem findings were then compared to results from ante- and postmortem samples (RAMALT, brainstem, and medial retropharyngeal lymph nodes) evaluated by using the current gold standard in vitro assay, immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis. We hypothesized that the sensitivity of RT-QuIC would be comparable to IHC analysis in antemortem tissues and would correlate with both the genotype and the stage of clinical disease. Our results showed that RAMALT testing by RT-QuIC assay had the highest sensitivity (69.8%) compared to that of postmortem testing, with a specificity of >93.9%. These data suggest that RT-QuIC, like IHC analysis, is an effective assay for detection of PrPCWD in rectal biopsy specimens and other antemortem samples and, with further research to identify more sensitive tissues, bodily fluids, or experimental conditions, has potential for large-scale and rapid automated testing for CWD diagnosis.

Earthquakes in Hawai‘i—an underappreciated but serious hazard

USGS Publications Warehouse

Okubo, Paul G.; Nakata, Jennifer S.

2011-01-01

The State of Hawaii has a history of damaging earthquakes. Earthquakes in the State are primarily the result of active volcanism and related geologic processes. It is not a question of "if" a devastating quake will strike Hawai‘i but rather "when." Tsunamis generated by both distant and local quakes are also an associated threat and have caused many deaths in the State. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and its cooperators monitor seismic activity in the State and are providing crucial information needed to help better prepare emergency managers and residents of Hawai‘i for the quakes that are certain to strike in the future.

[Strategy and effect of schistosomiasis emergency control after earthquake in Lushan County].

PubMed

Wang, Chao-Fu; Wang, Cheng-Xiang; Mou, Li-Rong; Zhong, Bo; Liu, Yang; Wu, Zi-Song; Xu, Liang; Meng, Xian-Hong; Yang, Zong-Cai; Cheng, Yong; Zhu, Jin-Hua; Zhou, Qi-Fu

2014-10-01

To evaluate the effects of measures on the schistosomiasis control after the earth quake in Lushan County, so as to provide the experiences for post-disaster schistosomiasis control. The measures taken in schistosomiasis control after the earth quake were reviewed in Lushan County in 2013, and the epidemic situation of schistosomiasis was investigated and the results were analyzed. The schistosomiasis control in floating population and the control of Oncomelania hupensis snails were enhanced, and no schistosome infections were found in both human and livestock. No infected snails and infested water were found. The measures of schistosomiasis control after the disaster are effective in Lushan County, and the goal to prevent major plague after the earth quake is achieved.

Reviews Equipment: Time Trial R/C Race Track Timer Book: A Universe from Nothing Equipment: Locktronics Electronics, Magnestism and Materials Unit Report: Nuclear Physics and Technology Book: Particle Physics Booklet: Radiation and You Book: The Million Death Quake Web Watch

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2013-03-01

WE RECOMMEND Locktronics Electronics, Magnestism and Materials Unit Robust, reliable and proven classroom kit The Million Death Quake: the Science of Predicting the Earth's Deadliest Natural Disaster Accessible and well-written book covers everything you might (and perhaps should) want to know about earthquakes WORTH A LOOK Time Trial R/C Race Track Timer Fun kit for use with toy cars but little flexibility for other uses A Universe From Nothing: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing Up-to-date account of cosmology explains very well but becomes polemical and loses focus Nuclear physics and technology—inside the atom IOP report useful for students considering a career in physics Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction Passages of good writing undermined by editing as the structure and illustrations disappoint Radiation and You Report is an interesting insight into radiation information from 25 years back, but some errors and a slow start let it down WEB WATCH App that aids star identification is highly recommended and videos for students and teachers also make the grade

Understanding Earthquakes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Amanda; Gray, Ron

2018-01-01

December 26, 2004 was one of the deadliest days in modern history, when a 9.3 magnitude earthquake--the third largest ever recorded--struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia (National Centers for Environmental Information 2014). The massive quake lasted at least 10 minutes and devastated the Indian Ocean. The quake displaced an estimated…

Ionospheric Effects Prior to the Napa Earthquake of August 24, 2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelley, M. C.; Swartz, W. E.; Komjathy, A.; Mannucci, A. J.; Shume, E. B.; Heki, K.; Fraser-Smith, A. C.; McCready, M. A.

2014-12-01

Recently, evidence that the ionosphere reacts in a reliable, reproducible manner before major earthquakes has been increasing. Fraser-Smith (1990) reported ULF magnetic field fluctuations prior to the Loma Prieta quake. Although not an ionospheric measurement, such magnetic fields before a quake are part of our explanation for the ionospheric effect. Heki (2011) and Heki and Enomoto (2013) reported in great detail the devastating March 11, 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in which numerous GPS satellite/ground-station pairs showed apparent changes, both increases and decreases, starting 40 minutes before the event. We say "apparent" since our theory is that electric fields associated with stresses before an earthquake map through the ionosphere at the speed of light and raise or lower the main ionosphere. Both effects have been detected. Heki's results for four quakes exceeding M = 7 are shown in Figure 4 of Heki (2011). Based on the inserted curve of Heki's Figure 4 relating the size of the ionospheric effect to the quake's magnitude, we were not optimistic about detecting an effect for the 6.0 Napa quake. However, it occurred at night, when the well-known shielding effect of the ionospheric D and lower E regions for EM fields becomes very small. When this special session with a later abstract deadline was announced, JPL researchers were asked to examine GPS data from California stations. Based on their data, the plot shown (left panel) combined with a similar plot for the Tohoku-Oki earthquake (right panel, based on Heki's data) was produced. Both panels show fluctuations of STEC (Slant Total Electron Content) before the quake times (indicated by asterisks showing the positions of ionospheric penetration points (IPP) at the respective quake times). Although alternative explanations for the TEC fluctuations cannot be ruled out entirely, these results suggest that a patent-pending system able to predict an earthquake some 30 minutes before an event by using satellites

Anomalous decrease in relatively large shocks and increase in the p and b values preceding the April 16, 2016, M7.3 earthquake in Kumamoto, Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nanjo, K. Z.; Yoshida, A.

2017-01-01

The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes in Kyushu, Japan, started with a magnitude ( M) 6.5 quake on April 14 on the Hinagu fault zone (FZ), followed by active seismicity including an M6.4 quake. Eventually, an M7.3 quake occurred on April 16 on the Futagawa FZ. We investigated if any sign indicative of the M7.3 quake could be found in the space-time changes in seismicity after the M6.5 quake. As a quality control, we determined in advance the threshold magnitude, above which all earthquakes are completely recorded. We then showed that the occurrence rate of relatively large ( M ≥ 3) earthquakes significantly decreased 1 day before the M7.3 quake. Significance of this decrease was evaluated by one standard deviation of sampled changes in the rate of occurrence. We next confirmed that seismicity with M ≥ 3 was well modeled by the Omori-Utsu law with p 1.5 ± 0.3, which indicates that the temporal decay of seismicity was significantly faster than a typical decay with p = 1. The larger p value was obtained when we used data of the longer time period in the analysis. This significance was confirmed by a bootstrapping approach. Our detailed analysis shows that the large p value was caused by the rapid decay of the seismicity in the northern area around the Futagawa FZ. Application of the slope (the b value) of the Gutenberg-Richter frequency-magnitude distribution to the spatiotemporal change in the seismicity revealed that the b value in the northern area increased significantly, the increase being Δ b = 0.3-0.5. Significance was verified by a statistical test of Δ b and a test using bootstrapping errors. Based on our findings, combined with the results obtained by a stress inversion analysis performed by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, we suggested that stress near the Futagawa FZ had reduced just prior to the occurrence of the M7.3 quake. We proposed, with some other observations, that a reduction in stress might have been

Growth-climate relationships across topographic gradients in the northern Great Lakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dymond, S.F.; D'Amato, A.W.; Kolka, R.K.; Bolstad, P.V.; Sebestyen, S.D.; Bradford, John B.

2016-01-01

Climatic conditions exert important control over the growth, productivity, and distribution of forests, and characterizing these relationships is essential for understanding how forest ecosystems will respond to climate change. We used dendrochronological methods to develop climate–growth relationships for two dominant species, Populus tremuloides (quaking aspen) and Pinus resinosa (red pine), in the upper Great Lakes region to understand how climate and water availability influence annual forest productivity. Trees were sampled along a topographic gradient at the Marcell Experimental Forest (Minnesota, USA) to assess growth response to variations in temperature and different water availability metrics (precipitation, potential evapotranspiration (PET), cumulative moisture index (CMI), and soil water storage). Climatic variables were able to explain 33–58% of the variation in annual growth (as measured by ring-width increment) for quaking aspen and 37–74% of the variation for red pine. Climate–growth relationships were influenced by topography for quaking aspen but not for red pine. Annual ring growth for quaking aspen decreased with June CMI on ridges, decreased with temperature in the November prior to the growing season on sideslopes, and decreased with June PET on toeslopes. Red pine growth increased with increasing July PET across all topographic positions. These results indicate the sensitivity of both quaking aspen and red pine to local climate and show several vulnerabilities of these species to shifts in water supply and temperature because of climate change.

Quake warnings, seismic culture

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Richard M.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.; Huggins, Tom; Miles, Scott; Otegui, Diego

2017-01-01

Since 1990, nearly one million people have died from the impacts of earthquakes. Reducing those impacts requires building a local seismic culture in which residents are aware of earthquake risks and value efforts to mitigate harm. Such efforts include earthquake early warning (EEW) systems that provide seconds to minutes notice of pending shaking. Recent events in Mexico provide an opportunity to assess performance and perception of an EEW system and highlight areas for further improvement. We have learned that EEW systems, even imperfect ones, can help people prepare for earthquakes and build local seismic culture, both beneficial in reducing earthquake-related losses.

Fault- and Area-Based PSHA in Nepal using OpenQuake: New Insights from the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha-Nepal Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stevens, Victoria

2017-04-01

The 2015 Gorkha-Nepal M7.8 earthquake (hereafter known simply as the Gorkha earthquake) highlights the seismic risk in Nepal, allows better characterization of the geometry of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), and enables comparison of recorded ground-motions with predicted ground-motions. These new data, together with recent paleoseismic studies and geodetic-based coupling models, allow for good parameterization of the fault characteristics. Other faults in Nepal remain less well studied. Unlike previous PSHA studies in Nepal that are exclusively area-based, we use a mix of faults and areas to describe six seismic sources in Nepal. For each source, the Gutenberg-Richter a and b values are found, and the maximum magnitude earthquake estimated, using a combination of earthquake catalogs, moment conservation principals and similarities to other tectonic regions. The MHT and Karakoram fault are described as fault sources, whereas four other sources - normal faulting in N-S trending grabens of northern Nepal, strike-slip faulting in both eastern and western Nepal, and background seismicity - are described as area sources. We use OpenQuake (http://openquake.org/) to carry out the analysis, and peak ground acceleration (PGA) at 2 and 10% chance in 50 years is found for Nepal, along with hazard curves at various locations. We compare this PSHA model with previous area-based models of Nepal. The Main Himalayan Thrust is the principal seismic hazard in Nepal so we study the effects of changing several parameters associated with this fault. We compare ground shaking predicted from various fault geometries suggested from the Gorkha earthquake with each other, and with a simple model of a flat fault. We also show the results from incorporating a coupling model based on geodetic data and microseismicity, which limits the down-dip extent of rupture. There have been no ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) developed specifically for Nepal, so we compare the results of

Macroscopic anomalies before the September 2010 M = 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitehead, N. E.; Ulusoy, Ü.

2013-01-01

Previous published work after the Kobe and İzmit earthquakes (1995 and 1999, respectively) demonstrated some reported meteorological and animal behaviour precursors were valid. Predictions were freshly tested for the Christchurch earthquake (M = 7.1, 4 September 2010). An internet survey with nearly 400 valid replies showed relative numbers of reports in precursor categories the day before the quake, were statistically significantly different from those in the preceding three days (excess meteorological events and animal behaviour). The day before the quake, there was also altered relative precursor class occurrence within 56 km compared with further away. Both these confirmed the earlier published work. Owners were woken up by unique pet behaviour 12 times as often in the hour before the quake compared with other hours immediately before (statistically highly significant). Lost and Found pet reports were double normal the week before, and 4.5 times normal both the day before the quake, and 9 days before. (Results were again statistically significant). Unique animal behaviour before the quake was often repeated before the numerous aftershocks. These pet owners claimed an approximate 80% prediction reliability. However, a preliminary telephone survey suggested that animals showing any precursor response are a minority. Some precursors seem real, but usefulness seemed mostly restricted to 7 cases where owners were in, or near, a place of safety through disruptive pet behaviour, and one in which owners were diverted by a pet from being struck by falling fixtures. For a later 22 February 2011 M = 6.3 quake no reports of escape through warning by pets were recorded, which raises serious questions whether such prediction is practically useful, because lives claimed saved are extremely low compared with fatalities. It is shown the lost-pet statistics dates, correspond to ionospheric anomalies recorded using the GPS satellite system and geomagnetic disturbance data, and

A Collaborative Approach for Providing Low-Cost ELF Monitoring from Ground and Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bleier, T. E.; Franklin, L.

2003-12-01

This paper describes a collaborative effort among several groups, including a small business (QuakeFinder,LLC), dozens of high schools in northern California, several universities (Stanford and Cal Poly SLO), and Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale to build a combined ground-based and space-based ELF monitoring system. The goal is to monitor and characterize the raw RF spectrum in the ELF band, and to look for pre- and post-earthquake signatures. Previous attempts at monitoring ELF signals associated with earthquakes have always been summarized with the statement, more data is needed. QuakeFinder is a small business that approached the problem with a different strategy. Rather than deploy a few, expensive, commercial high sensitivity, AC magnetometers on the ground, a collaboration was formed with high school physics classes to build a large number of medium sensitivity magnetometers from partially-assembled kits, and to deploy these sensors in a close spacing along the major California earthquake faults. The strategy was to have a 3-axis ELF ground monitor within 15 km of any large (>M5) quake-- before, during, and after the event. To date, 34 sites have been deployed (out of 50 planned), and they now collect and display daily averages from these 3-axis monitors on a web site (www.earthquaketracker.com). Likewise, satellite-based monitoring is severely restricted by the high cost of building and flying space-based ELF monitors. QuakeFinder formed a collaboration between Stanford Space System Development Laboratory and Lockheed Martin to design and build a nano-satellite (4.5 kg) whose mission was to collect ELF background signatures. QuakeFinder built and donated a single axis ELF (1-1000Hz) magnetometer payload and provided integration and a launch opportunity for "QuakeSat I". The satellite was launched on June 30, 2003 into a 820 km circular polar orbit, and has recorded natural signals (lightning, whistlers, auroral noise, and several unidentified signatures) as well

The Next Lightweight Fighter: Not Your Grandfather’s Combat Aircraft

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-01

devastat- ing Arabian quake in Somalia, which has almost no infrastructure and suffers from ongoing clan warfare. The United States deployed forces to...Kassim, which the quake had virtually leveled. A joint task force based in Djibouti stood up to direct the relief effort, exercising airborne com- mand...the earth prevent low-altitude or dis- tant aircraft from looking into “the next valley” directly. Consequently, many a reconnaissance mission or

Use of bovine recombinant prion protein and real-time quaking-induced conversion to detect cattle transmissible mink encephalopathy prions and discriminate classical and atypical L- and H-Type bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

PubMed

Hwang, Soyoun; Greenlee, Justin J; Nicholson, Eric M

2017-01-01

Prions are amyloid-forming proteins that cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies through a process involving conversion from the normal cellular prion protein to the pathogenic misfolded conformation (PrPSc). This conversion has been used for in vitro assays including serial protein misfolding amplification and real-time quaking induced conversion (RT-QuIC). RT-QuIC can be used for the detection of prions in a variety of biological tissues from humans and animals. Extensive work has been done to demonstrate that RT-QuIC is a rapid, specific, and highly sensitive prion detection assay. RT-QuIC uses recombinant prion protein to detect minute amounts of PrPSc. RT-QuIC has been successfully used to detect PrPSc from different prion diseases with a variety of substrates including hamster, human, sheep, bank vole, bovine and chimeric forms of prion protein. However, recombinant bovine prion protein has not been used to detect transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) or to differentiate types of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in samples from cattle. We evaluated whether PrPSc from TME and BSE infected cattle can be detected with RT-QuIC using recombinant bovine prion proteins, and optimized the reaction conditions to specifically detect cattle TME and to discriminate between classical and atypical BSE by conversion efficiency. We also found that substrate composed of the disease associated E211K mutant protein can be effective for the detection of TME in cattle and that wild type prion protein appears to be a practical substrate to discriminate between the different types of BSEs.

Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) drumming log and habitat use in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

USGS Publications Warehouse

Buhler, M.L.; Anderson, S.H.

2001-01-01

We described 15 Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) drumming logs and adjacent habitat within Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Drumming logs and adjacent habitat differed from 30 random non-drumming sites. Drumming logs had fewer limbs (8; P = 0.003) and a smaller percentage of bark remaining (12%; P = 0.0001). These logs were in advanced stages of decay but were still firm to the touch. Additionally, drumming logs were found close to clearings but in areas with increased amounts of undergrowth and mature trees. Adjacent habitat analysis (0.04-ha circular plot centered on logs) indicated drumming locations had significantly greater average canopy height, more vegetative cover consisting of conifer and total canopy cover, and more vertical foliage between 0.3 m and 3.0 m in height. Adjacent habitat was in advanced stages of maturity as indicated by significant numbers of both large-diameter logs and large-diameter lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) snags. Tree species dominating the canopy and subcanopy were large-diameter Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), lodgepole pine, and quaking aspen. Subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and quaking aspen saplings were more numerous at used sites. Ruffed Grouse drummed in coniferous areas within close proximity of quaking aspen.

A Chance in Hell: Evaluating the Efficacy of U.S. Military Health Systems in Foreign Disaster Relief

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-10

no direct access to rail or sea. Many of these roads were severed in the 2005 quake due to landslides.127 Regional tensions with India and...to the timing of the quake , many of the dead and injured were schoolchildren whose classrooms collapsed around them. 132Sharon Wiharta et al., The...139According to NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Response Center Report dated October 8, the top two priorities were rescue/cargo helicopters and earth moving

It’s our Fault: Immersing Young Learners in Authentic Practices of Seismology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kilb, D. L.; Moher, T.; Wiley, J.

2009-12-01

The scalable RoomQuake seismology project uses a learning technology framework-embedded phenomena (Moher, 2006)—that simulates seismic phenomena mapped directly onto the physical space of classrooms. This project, aimed at the upper elementary level, situates students as the scientists engaged in an extended investigation designed to discover the spatial, temporal, and intensity distributions of a series of earthquakes. This project emulates earthquake occurrence over a condensed time and spatial span, with students mapping an earthquake fault imagined to be running through their classroom. The students learn: basic seismology terms; ability to identify seismic P- and S-waves; skills associated with trilateration; nomogram/graph reading skills; and the ability to recognize the emergence of a fault based on RoomQuake geometries. From the students’ perspectives, and similar to real-world earthquakes, RoomQuakes occur at unknown times over the course of several weeks. Multiple computers distributed around the perimeter of the classroom serve as simulated seismographs that depict continuous strip-chart seismic recordings. Most of the time the seismograms reflect background noise, but at (apparently) unpredictable times a crescendoing rumble (emanating from a subwoofer) signals a RoomQuake. Hearing this signal, students move to the seismic stations to read the strip charts. Next, the students trilaterate the RoomQuake epicenter by arcing calibrated strings of length proportional to S-P latencies from each seismic station until a common point is identified. Each RoomQuake epicenter is marked by hanging a Styrofoam ball (color-coded by magnitude) from the ceiling. The developing ‘fault’ within the classroom provides an immersive historic record of the RoomQuake’s spatial distribution. Students also maintain a temporal record of events on a large time-line on the wall (recognizing time-related phenomena like aftershocks) and a record of magnitude frequencies on

Earthquakes - on the moon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nakamura, Y.

1981-01-01

Information obtained with the Apollo lunar seismic stations is discussed. The four types of natural seismic sources that have been identified are described, viz., thermal moonquakes, deep moonquakes, meteoroid impacts, and shallow moonquakes. It is suggested that: (1) the thermal quakes represent the slow cracking and movement of surface rocks; (2) the deep quakes are induced by the tide-generating force of the earth's gravity; (3) the meteoroids responsible for most of the observed impacts are in the mass range from 1 to 100 kg and are clustered in groups near the earth's orbit; and (4) the shallow quakes are similar to intraplate earthquakes and indicate that the moon is as seismically active as the interior regions of the earth's tectonic plates. The structure of the lunar interior as inferred from seismic signals due to both the last three natural sources and 'artificial' impacts of used spacecraft is examined in detail.

The Development of Several Electromagnetic Monitoring Strategies and Algorithms for Validating Pre-Earthquake Electromagnetic Signals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bleier, T. E.; Dunson, J. C.; Roth, S.; Mueller, S.; Lindholm, C.; Heraud, J. A.

2012-12-01

QuakeFinder, a private research group in California, reports on the development of a 100+ station network consisting of 3-axis induction magnetometers, and air conductivity sensors to collect and characterize pre-seismic electromagnetic (EM) signals. These signals are combined with daily Infra Red signals collected from the GOES weather satellite infrared (IR) instrument to compare and correlate with the ground EM signals, both from actual earthquakes and boulder stressing experiments. This presentation describes the efforts QuakeFinder has undertaken to automatically detect these pulse patterns using their historical data as a reference, and to develop other discriminative algorithms that can be used with air conductivity sensors, and IR instruments from the GOES satellites. The overall big picture results of the QuakeFinder experiment are presented. In 2007, QuakeFinder discovered the occurrence of strong uni-polar pulses in their magnetometer coil data that increased in tempo dramatically prior to the M5.1 earthquake at Alum Rock, California. Suggestions that these pulses might have been lightning or power-line arcing did not fit with the data actually recorded as was reported in Bleier [2009]. Then a second earthquake occurred near the same site on January 7, 2010 as was reported in Dunson [2011], and the pattern of pulse count increases before the earthquake occurred similarly to the 2007 event. There were fewer pulses, and the magnitude of them was decreased, both consistent with the fact that the earthquake was smaller (M4.0 vs M5.4) and farther away (7Km vs 2km). At the same time similar effects were observed at the QuakeFinder Tacna, Peru site before the May 5th, 2010 M6.2 earthquake and a cluster of several M4-5 earthquakes.

Optimized volume models of earthquake-triggered landslides

PubMed Central

Xu, Chong; Xu, Xiwei; Shen, Lingling; Yao, Qi; Tan, Xibin; Kang, Wenjun; Ma, Siyuan; Wu, Xiyan; Cai, Juntao; Gao, Mingxing; Li, Kang

2016-01-01

In this study, we proposed three optimized models for calculating the total volume of landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan, China Mw 7.9 earthquake. First, we calculated the volume of each deposit of 1,415 landslides triggered by the quake based on pre- and post-quake DEMs in 20 m resolution. The samples were used to fit the conventional landslide “volume-area” power law relationship and the 3 optimized models we proposed, respectively. Two data fitting methods, i.e. log-transformed-based linear and original data-based nonlinear least square, were employed to the 4 models. Results show that original data-based nonlinear least square combining with an optimized model considering length, width, height, lithology, slope, peak ground acceleration, and slope aspect shows the best performance. This model was subsequently applied to the database of landslides triggered by the quake except for two largest ones with known volumes. It indicates that the total volume of the 196,007 landslides is about 1.2 × 1010 m3 in deposit materials and 1 × 1010 m3 in source areas, respectively. The result from the relationship of quake magnitude and entire landslide volume related to individual earthquake is much less than that from this study, which reminds us the necessity to update the power-law relationship. PMID:27404212

Optimized volume models of earthquake-triggered landslides.

PubMed

Xu, Chong; Xu, Xiwei; Shen, Lingling; Yao, Qi; Tan, Xibin; Kang, Wenjun; Ma, Siyuan; Wu, Xiyan; Cai, Juntao; Gao, Mingxing; Li, Kang

2016-07-12

In this study, we proposed three optimized models for calculating the total volume of landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan, China Mw 7.9 earthquake. First, we calculated the volume of each deposit of 1,415 landslides triggered by the quake based on pre- and post-quake DEMs in 20 m resolution. The samples were used to fit the conventional landslide "volume-area" power law relationship and the 3 optimized models we proposed, respectively. Two data fitting methods, i.e. log-transformed-based linear and original data-based nonlinear least square, were employed to the 4 models. Results show that original data-based nonlinear least square combining with an optimized model considering length, width, height, lithology, slope, peak ground acceleration, and slope aspect shows the best performance. This model was subsequently applied to the database of landslides triggered by the quake except for two largest ones with known volumes. It indicates that the total volume of the 196,007 landslides is about 1.2 × 10(10) m(3) in deposit materials and 1 × 10(10) m(3) in source areas, respectively. The result from the relationship of quake magnitude and entire landslide volume related to individual earthquake is much less than that from this study, which reminds us the necessity to update the power-law relationship.

Analysis of Digitized Seismograms from Russian Geophysical Survey Stations of Soviet Peaceful Nuclear Explosions

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-30

YAK ). Seismograms are plotted both as raw data (Figure 5 top) and with a 4 Hz high pass filter (Figure 5 bottom). In both cases, relative Lg/P...amplitude ratios are high for the earthquake (green) and low for the PNE (red). Neva PNE vs Quake At YAK IfrmHlH" i.MlTCBnWft*1 YAK A Neva 2-2 o...26 April 1994 km 0 wo isu* | Time - seconds Nevo PNE vs Quake At YAK - HP 4 HZ - 20 sps Time - seconds Figure 5

NASA Response to Nepal Quake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diaz, E.; Webb, F.; Green, D. S.; Stough, T.; Kirschbaum, D.; Goodman, H. M.; Molthan, A.

2015-12-01

In the hours following the magnitude 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake on April 25, 2015, NASA and its partners began the process of assessing their ability to provide actionable data from a variety of space resources and scientific capabiltiies in order to provide responders with actionable information to assist in the relief and humanitarian operations. Working with the USGS, NGA, ASI, and JAXA, in the hours and days following the event, the team generated a number of scientific data products that were distributed to organizations responding to the event. Data included, ground based geodetic observations, optical and radar data from international and domestic partners, to compile a variety of products, including "vulnerability maps," used to determine risks that may be present, and "damage proxy maps," used to determine the type and extent of existing damage. This talk will focus on the response process, highlighting some of the products generated and distributed and lessons learned that would be useful for responding to future events that would improve the effectiveness of such a broad, agency wide response.

Cankers on Western Quaking Aspen

Treesearch

David W. Johnson; Jerome S. Beatty; Thomas E. Hinds

1995-01-01

Long appreciated for its esthetic and shade tree value and its importance for wildlife, aspen is also capable of excellent growth and high yields and thus is an important commercial timber species. However, aspen has one major drawback-its soft bark is easily wounded by abiotic factors, animals, and insects. Subsequently, these wounds can be invaded by disease...

The "LARSE" Project - Working Toward a Safer Future for Los Angeles

USGS Publications Warehouse

Henyey, Thomas L.; Fuis, Gary S.; Benthien, Mark L.; Burdette, Thomas R.; Christofferson, Shari A.; Clayton, Robert W.; Davis, Paul M.; Hendley, James W.; Kohler, Monica D.; Lutter, William J.; McRaney, John K.; Murphy, Janice M.; Okaya, David A.; Ryberg, Trond; Similia, Gerald W.; Stauffer, Peter H.

1999-01-01

The Los Angeles region is underlain by a network of active faults, including many that are deep and do not break the Earth's surface. These hidden faults include the previously unknown one responsible for the devastating January 1994 Northridge earthquake, the costliest quake in U.S. history. So that structures can be built or strengthened to withstand the quakes that are certain in the future, the Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE) is locating hidden earthquake hazards beneath the region to help scientists determine where the strongest shaking will occur.

A before and after study on personality assessment in adolescents exposed to the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy: influence of sports practice

PubMed Central

Vinciguerra, Maria Giulia; Masedu, Francesco; Tiberti, Sergio; Sconci, Vittorio

2012-01-01

Objective To assess and estimate the personality changes that occurred before and after the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila and to model the ways that the earthquake affected adolescents according to gender and sport practice. The consequences of earthquakes on psychological health are long lasting for portions of the population, depending on age, gender, social conditions and individual experiences. Sports activities are considered a factor with which to test the overall earthquake impact on individual and social psychological changes in adolescents. Design Before and after design. Setting Population-based study conducted in L'Aquila, Italy, before and after the 2009 earthquake. Participants Before the earthquake, a random sample of 179 adolescent subjects who either practised or did not practise sports (71 vs 108, respectively). After the earthquake, of the original 179 subjects, 149 were assessed a second time. Primary outcome measure Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—Adolescents (MMPI-A) questionnaire scores, in a supervised environment. Results An unbalanced split plot design, at a 0.05 significance level, was carried out using a linear mixed model with quake, sex and sports practice as predictive factors. Although the overall scores indicated no deviant behaviours in the adolescents tested, changes were detected in many individual content scale scores, including depression (A-dep score mean ± SEM: before quake =47.54±0.73; after quake =52.67±0.86) and social discomfort (A-sod score mean ± SEM: before quake =49.91±0.65; after quake =51.72±0.81). The MMPI-A profiles show different impacts of the earthquake on adolescents according to gender and sport practice. Conclusions The differences detected in MMPI-A scores raise issues about social policies required to address the psychological changes in adolescents. The current study supports the idea that sport should be considered part of a coping strategy to assist adolescents in dealing with the

Defeating Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

Correlation between hypocenter depth, antecedent precipitation and earthquake-induced landslide spatial distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukuoka, Hiroshi; Watanabe, Eisuke

2017-04-01

Since Keefer published the paper on earthquake magnitude and affected area, maximum epicentral/fault distance of induced landslide distribution in 1984, showing the envelope of plots, a lot of studies on this topic have been conducted. It has been generally supposed that landslides have been triggered by shallow quakes and more landslides are likely to occur with heavy rainfalls immediately before the quake. In order to confirm this, we have collected 22 case records of earthquake-induced landslide distribution in Japan and examined the effect of hypocenter depth and antecedent precipitation. Earthquake magnitude by JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) of the cases are from 4.5 to 9.0. Analysis on hycpocenter depth showed the deeper quake cause wider distribution. Antecedent precipitation was evaluated using the Soil Water Index (SWI), which was developed by JMA for issuing landslide alert. We could not find meaningful correlation between SWI and the earthquake-induced landslide distribution. Additionally, we found that smaller minimum size of collected landslides results in wider distribution especially between 1,000 to 100,000 m2.

Mesoscopic fluctuations and intermittency in aging dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sibani, P.

2006-01-01

Mesoscopic aging systems are characterized by large intermittent noise fluctuations. In a record dynamics scenario (Sibani P. and Dall J., Europhys. Lett., 64 (2003) 8) these events, quakes, are treated as a Poisson process with average αln (1 + t/tw), where t is the observation time, tw is the age and α is a parameter. Assuming for simplicity that quakes constitute the only source of de-correlation, we present a model for the probability density function (PDF) of the configuration autocorrelation function. Beside α, the model has the average quake size 1/q as a parameter. The model autocorrelation PDF has a Gumbel-like shape, which approaches a Gaussian for large t/tw and becomes sharply peaked in the thermodynamic limit. Its average and variance, which are given analytically, depend on t/tw as a power law and a power law with a logarithmic correction, respectively. Most predictions are in good agreement with data from the literature and with the simulations of the Edwards-Anderson spin-glass carried out as a test.

The threat of silent earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

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.

A Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake in the Tacoma Fault Zone-A Plausible Scenario for the Southern Puget Sound Region, Washington

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gomberg, Joan; Sherrod, Brian; Weaver, Craig; Frankel, Art

2010-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey and cooperating scientists have recently assessed the effects of a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on the Tacoma Fault Zone in Pierce County, Washington. A quake of comparable magnitude struck the southern Puget Sound region about 1,100 years ago, and similar earthquakes are almost certain to occur in the future. The region is now home to hundreds of thousands of people, who would be at risk from the shaking, liquefaction, landsliding, and tsunamis caused by such an earthquake. The modeled effects of this scenario earthquake will help emergency planners and residents of the region prepare for future quakes.

Using the Ionosphere as a Detector of Earthquakes Before They Happen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelley, M. C.; Swartz, W. E.; Heki, K.

2015-12-01

Concerning the obvious need to predict earthquakes, many ideas have existed for hundreds of years, including observed animal and bird responses to some unknown trigger. Although not to be dismissed, these predictors have proved unreliable. Scrutiny of seismic data has not yielded a repeatable signature preceding earthquakes. The ionosphere, the topic of this session, has the potential of being a harbinger of impending seismic events when used as an enormous worldwide detector with the total mass of only a few pickup trucks. Here, we report on the ionospheric response to impending seismic events, not days or weeks before a quake, but a reliable 45±5 minutes beforehand. We support this report with data from hundreds of GPS stations in Japan operating before and during the recent, very large earthquake/tsunami event. We also show similar precursors from other large quakes, in addition to data from the Stanford ELF/VLF system before the Loma Prieta (aka, the World Series earthquake). This system detected a magnetic field fluctuation at ground level 40 minutes before that quake. A theory explaining the mechanism for these ionospheric changes will be presented.

Quake clamps down on slow slip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallace, Laura M.; Bartlow, Noel; Hamling, Ian; Fry, Bill

2014-12-01

Using continuous GPS (cGPS) data from the Hikurangi subduction zone in New Zealand, we show for the first time that stress changes induced by a local earthquake can arrest an ongoing slow slip event (SSE). The cGPS data show that the slip rate in the northern portion of the 2013/2014 Kapiti SSE decreased abruptly following a nearby intraslab earthquake. We suggest that deceleration of the Kapiti SSE in early 2014 occurred due to a tenfold increase in the normal stress relative to shear stress in the SSE source, induced by the nearby Mw 6.3 earthquake, consistent with expectations of rate and state friction. Our observation of an abrupt halting/slowing of the SSE in response to stress changes imposed by a local earthquake has implications for the strength of fault zones hosting SSEs and supports the premise that static stress changes are an important ingredient in triggering (or delaying) fault slip.

U.S.-Japan Quake Prediction Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kisslinger, Carl; Mikumo, Takeshi; Kanamori, Hiroo

For the seventh time since 1964, a seminar on earthquake prediction has been convened under the U.S.-Japan Cooperation in Science Program. The purpose of the seminar was to provide an opportunity for researchers from the two countries to share recent progress and future plans in the continuing effort to develop the scientific basis for predicting earthquakes and practical means for implementing prediction technology as it emerges. Thirty-six contributors, 15 from Japan and 21 from the U.S., met in Morro Bay, Calif.September 12-14. The following day they traveled to nearby sections of the San Andreas fault, including the site of the Parkfield prediction experiment. The conveners of the seminar were Hiroo Kanamori, Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), for the U.S., and Takeshi Mikumo, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, for Japan . Funding for the participants came from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Japan Society forthe Promotion of Science, supplemented by other agencies in both countries.

As the Earth Quakes... What Happens?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanif, Muhammad

1990-01-01

Discussed are several phenomena associated with earthquakes. Included are seismic waves, plate movement, and earthquake measurement. Diagrams of different plate boundary types are included. An activity for teaching these events to elementary school children is provided. (CW)

Earthquake Warning Performance in Vallejo for the South Napa Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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.

Fundamentals studies in geodynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, D. L.

1980-01-01

Research in geodynamics, seismology, and planetary quakes is presented. Terradynamics and plate tectonics are described using dynamic models. The early evolution of the Earth's mantle is also discussed.

Sequencing Single Cell Microbial Genomes with Microfluidic Amplifications Tools (MICW - Metagenomics Informatics Challenges Workshop: 10K Genomes at a Time)

ScienceCinema

Quake, Steve

2018-02-02

Stanford University's Steve Quake on "Sequencing Single Cell Microbial Genomes with Microfluidic Amplification Tools" at the Metagenomics Informatics Challenges Workshop held at the DOE JGI on October 12-13, 2011.

Sequencing Single Cell Microbial Genomes with Microfluidic Amplifications Tools (MICW - Metagenomics Informatics Challenges Workshop: 10K Genomes at a Time)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Quake, Steve

2011-10-12

Stanford University's Steve Quake on "Sequencing Single Cell Microbial Genomes with Microfluidic Amplification Tools" at the Metagenomics Informatics Challenges Workshop held at the DOE JGI on October 12-13, 2011.

Earthquake watch to be discussed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katzoff, Judith A.

The most intensive earthquake monitoring program ever mounted in this country is going on near Parkfield, Calif., about midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the San Andreas fault. Although no particularly large or destructive quake is feared in Parkfield, the regularity with which earthquakes have occurred there in the past makes the site unique. Since the next quake has been forecast for 1988 (±5 years), seismologists have decided to blanket the area with data-gathering equipment in hopes of having front-row seats for the expected seismic show. The studies in Parkfield will be the topic of an all-day session sponsored by the Seismology Section on Friday, December 13, at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

NASA Satellite Image of Japan Captured March 11, 2011

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Japan one hour and 41 minutes before the quake hit. At the time Aqua passed overhead, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument captured a visible of Japan covered by clouds. The image was taken at 0405 UTC on March 11 (1:05 p.m. local time Japan /11:05 p.m. EST March 10). The quake hit at 2:46 p.m. local time/Japan. Satellite: Aqua Credit: NASA/GSFC/Aqua NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Antonino D'Antona (1842-1913) was the first in describing the crush syndrome with renal failure following the Messina earthquake of December 28, 1908.

PubMed

Bisaccia, Carmela; De Santo, Natale Gaspare; De Santo, Luca S

2016-02-01

There is confusion about the first description of the association between crush syndrome and renal failure. It has been traditionally attributed to Bywaters and Beall. The present study aims to analyze the problem by analyzing medical reports on the Messina-Reggio Calabria earth-quake of December 28, 1908 by using documents heretofore unknown. It demonstrates that first description of rabdomyolysis with renal failure is attributed to Antonino DAntona (1842- 1913). DAntona, professor of surgery at the University of Naples, coordinated the health net organized in Naples to assist persons wounded during the quake. Many of them in shock were transferred to Naples by ships. Franz von Colmers (1875-1960) was the chief surgeon of the German Mission of the Red Cross after the quake. Because his late arrival, he did not treat patients with shock. He described rabdomyolysis. The third medical report is that of Rocco Caminiti (1868-1946), collaborator of DAntona at the University of Naples, and chief of surgery at the Loreto Hospital. He directed a rescue group in Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria. In 1910, he reported on rabdomyolysis in patients treated in the place of the disaster. Therefore the present study indicates that Antonino DAntona holds the priority for description of rabdomyolysis and kidney injury. There is no longer a place for the eponym Bywaters syndrome.

New earthquake catalog reexamines Hawaii's seismic history

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wright, Thomas L.; Klein, Fred W.

2000-01-01

On April 2,1868, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 occurred beneath the southern part of the island of Hawaii. The quake, which was felt throughout all of the Hawaiian Islands, had a Modified Mercalli (MM) intensity of XII near its source.The destruction caused by a quake that large is nearly complete. A landslide triggered by the quake buried a small village, killing 31 people, and a tsunami that swept over coastal settlements added to the death toll. We know as much as we do about this and other early earthquakes thanks to detailed records kept by Hawaiian missionaries, including the remarkable diary maintained by the Lyman family that documented every earthquake felt at their home in Hilo between 1833 and 1917 [Wyss et al., 1992].Our analysis of these and other historical records indicates that Hawaii was at least as intensely seismic in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century as in its more recent past, with 26 M ≥6.0 earthquakes occurring from 1823 to 1903 and 20 M ≥6.0 earthquakes from 1904 to 1959. Just five M ≥6.0 earthquakes occurred from 1960 to 1999. The potential damage caused by a repeat of some of the larger historic events could be catastrophic today.

Comparing performance of three oscillating positive expiratory pressure devices at similar amplitude and frequencies of oscillations on displacement of mucus inside trachea during cough.

PubMed

Ragavan, Anpalaki J

2012-03-13

Performance of Flutter® (Axcan Scandipharm Inc, Birmingham, AL), Acapella® (Smiths Medicals Inc, Rockland, MA) and Quake® (Thayer Medical, Tucson, AZ) were compared at similar frequencies and amplitudes of oscillations at nine angles of the device in clearing simulated mucus inside a tracheal model (trachea) oriented at three angles with or without simulated constrictions in airway upstream of trachea. Displacement of 0.4mL of simulated mucus prepared with viscoelastic properties similar to healthy individuals (syrup-like) or patients with COPD (gel-like) using locust bean gum(LBG) solution (0.38g LBG in 100mL water) cross-linked with 3mL or 12mL borax solution (0.02 molar), respectively were measured inside trachea during coughs of 300ms at low cough velocity (15±0.5m/s) generated using a computer controlled solenoid valve. Oscillations were superimposed on cough by connecting the oscillator device to the outlet of the trachea. Frequency and amplitude of oscillations generated by Quake and Acapella and resulting mucus displacement were independent of angle of oscillator, while amplitude of oscillations and resulting mucus displacement generated by Flutter, increased up to 30o upward and 20o downward angles of Flutter from horizontal but decreased significantly thereafter. Displacement with Quake increased significantly with frequencies of oscillations up to 25 Hz and decreased thereafter but increased with amplitudes of oscillations up to 22±4.7 m/s. Quake showed significantly larger displacements than Flutter and Acapella at equal frequencies and amplitudes (p<0.05). Displacements were significantly larger with trachea positioned 30o upwards than horizontal or 20o downwards (p<0.0001). Displacement was the greatest for gel-like mucus than syrup-like (p<0.0001). Airway constrictions upstream resulted in enhanced displacement of mucus (p<0.0001). Mucus clearance can be significantly enhanced by coughing through oscillating positive expiratory devices that

"Price-quakes" shaking the world's stock exchanges.

PubMed

Andersen, Jørgen Vitting; Nowak, Andrzej; Rotundo, Giulia; Parrott, Lael; Martinez, Sebastian

2011-01-01

Systemic risk has received much more awareness after the excessive risk taking by major financial instituations pushed the world's financial system into what many considered a state of near systemic failure in 2008. The IMF for example in its yearly 2009 Global Financial Stability Report acknowledged the lack of proper tools and research on the topic. Understanding how disruptions can propagate across financial markets is therefore of utmost importance. Here, we use empirical data to show that the world's markets have a non-linear threshold response to events, consistent with the hypothesis that traders exhibit change blindness. Change blindness is the tendency of humans to ignore small changes and to react disproportionately to large events. As we show, this may be responsible for generating cascading events--pricequakes--in the world's markets. We propose a network model of the world's stock exchanges that predicts how an individual stock exchange should be priced in terms of the performance of the global market of exchanges, but with change blindness included in the pricing. The model has a direct correspondence to models of earth tectonic plate movements developed in physics to describe the slip-stick movement of blocks linked via spring forces. We have shown how the price dynamics of the world's stock exchanges follows a dynamics of build-up and release of stress, similar to earthquakes. The nonlinear response allows us to classify price movements of a given stock index as either being generated internally, due to specific economic news for the country in question, or externally, by the ensemble of the world's stock exchanges reacting together like a complex system. The model may provide new insight into the origins and thereby also prevent systemic risks in the global financial network.

NASA Spacecraft Shows Location of China Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-04-22

This image from NASA Terra spacecraft highlights the epicenter of a powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake which struck Sichuan Province in southwest China on April 20, 2013. Vegetation is displayed in red; clouds and snow are in white.

Earthquake Triggering in the September 2017 Mexican Earthquake Sequence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

Fracking and labquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baró, Jordi; Planes, Antoni; Salje, Ekhard K. H.; Vives, Eduard

2016-12-01

Local fracture events (or labquakes) during compression of shale rocks have been studied by acoustic emission. They are assumed to simulate quakes induced by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) or other water injection activities. Results are compared with those obtained during compression of porous Vycor glass, which are known to display statistical features very similar to those characterising natural earthquakes. Our acoustic emission results show that labquake energies are power law distributed, which is consistent with recent statistical analysis of fracking-/water injection-induced quakes. The data confirm a Gutenberg-Richter behaviour with exponents larger than the exponents characterising the energy distribution of natural earthquakes. In contrast to natural earthquakes, labquakes in shales do not show time correlations, which indicates that the probability of aftershocks is smaller than in the natural scenario (e.g. during Californian earthquakes).

Estimating aspen volume and weight for individual trees, diameter classes, or entire stands.

Treesearch

Bryce E. Schlaegel

1975-01-01

Presents allometric volume and weight equations for Minnesota quaking aspen. Volume, green weight, and dry weight estimates can be made for wood, bark, and limbs on the basis of individual trees, diameter classes, or entire stands.

ARC-2007-ACD07-0089-364

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-05-11

Disaster preparedness; 'The Great Worden Quake of 2007' Ames Research Center resident staff participate in responding to a simulated disaster, followed by a picnic in front of bldg N-200. Ames DART rescue teams - Deb Feng

Aspen wood characteristics, properties and uses: a review of recent literature.

Treesearch

Fred M. Lamb

1967-01-01

Summarizes information on wood properties and uses of quaking aspen from recent literature. Includes current data on the growth and production of aspen in the Lake States. Outlines additional research needs concerning aspen wood properties and uses.

Earthquakes, September-October, 1979

USGS Publications Warehouse

Person, W.J.

1980-01-01

In the United States, California experienced the strongest earthquake in that State since 1971. The quake, a M=6.8, occurred on October 15, in Baja California, Mexico, near the California border and caused injuries and damage. 

Exploring Venus Interior Structure by Detection of Infrasonic Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mimoun, D.; Cutts, J.; Stevenson, D.; Garcia, R. F.

2015-04-01

Knowledge of the interior structure of Venus is currently impeded by the limited time that a seismometer can survive in the atmosphere of Venus. We propose to remotely detect quakes by infrasonic measurements at the top of the cloud layer.

Comparisons of Wet and Ovendry Analyses of Compression Debarking Tests on Wood Chips

Treesearch

Rodger A. Arola

1974-01-01

Compares the level of bark removal from chips and resultant wood losses when measured on both a wet and ovendry basis with several chip debarking trials for quaking aspen, jack pine, and sugar maple cut at different times of the year.

Automatic Processing and Interpretation of Long Records of Endogenous Micro-Seismicity: the Case of the Super-Sauze Soft-Rock Landslide.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Provost, F.; Malet, J. P.; Hibert, C.; Doubre, C.

2017-12-01

The Super-Sauze landslide is a clay-rich landslide located the Southern French Alps. The landslide exhibits a complex pattern of deformation: a large number of rockfalls are observed in the 100 m height main scarp while the deformation of the upper part of the accumulated material is mainly affected by material shearing along stable in-situ crests. Several fissures are locally observed. The shallowest layer of the accumulated material tends to behave in a brittle manner but may undergo fluidization and/or rapid acceleration. Previous studies have demonstrated the presence of a rich endogenous micro-seismicity associated to the deformation of the landslide. However, the lack of long-term seismic records and suitable processing chains prevented a full interpretation of the links between the external forcings, the deformation and the recorded seismic signals. Since 2013, two permanent seismic arrays are installed in the upper part of the landslide. We here present the methodology adopted to process this dataset. The processing chain consists of a set of automated methods for automatic and robust detection, classification and location of the recorded seismicity. Thousands of events are detected and further automatically classified. The classification method is based on the description of the signal through attributes (e.g. waveform, spectral content properties). These attributes are used as inputs to classify the signal using a Random Forest machine-learning algorithm in four classes: endogenous micro-quakes, rockfalls, regional earthquakes and natural/anthropogenic noises. The endogenous landslide sources (i.e. micro-quake and rockfall) are further located. The location method is adapted to the type of event. The micro-quakes are located with a 3D velocity model derived from a seismic tomography campaign and an optimization of the first arrival picking with the inter-trace correlation of the P-wave arrivals. The rockfalls are located by optimizing the inter

Great Basin aspen ecosystems

Treesearch

Dale L. Bartos

2008-01-01

The health of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Great Basin is of growing concern. The following provides an overview of aspen decline and die-off in areas within and adjacent to the Great Basin and suggests possible directions for research and management.

Caldera collapse in the Galápagos Islands, 1968

USGS Publications Warehouse

Simkin, T.; Howard, K.A.

1970-01-01

The summit caldera of Isla Fernandina, a large, uninhabited basaltic shield volcano, was further enlarged by 1 to 2 km3 in June 1968. A small quake and large vapor cloud on 11 June were followed 4 hours later by a remarkable volcanic ash cloud and, after another hour, by a major explosion recorded at infrasonic stations throughout the hemisphere. Seismic activity increased to a peak on 19 June, when more than 200 events per day were recorded by a seismograph 140 km away. Several hundred quakes were in the magnitude range 4.0 to 5.4 mb, but few such events were recorded after 23 June. Unusual lightning accompanied the major cloud, and, during the evening of 11 June, distant observers reported red glow and flashes from the area. Fine ash fell that night and much of the next day to distances at least 350 km from the volcano.

Design and first tests of a Macroseismic Sensor System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brueckl, Ewald; Polydor, Stefan; Ableitinger, Klaus; Rafeiner-Magor, Walter; Kristufek, Werner; Mertl, Stefan; Lenhardt, Wolfgang

2017-04-01

Seismic observatories are located in remote, low-noise areas for good reason and do not probe areas of dense and sensitive infrastructure. Complementary macroseismic data provide dense, qualitative information on ground motion in populated areas. Motivated by the QCN (Quake Catcher Network), a new low-cost sensor system (Macroseismic Sensor System = MSS) has been developed to support the evaluation of macroseismic data with quantitative information on ground movement in populated and industrial areas. Scholars, alumni and teachers from a technical high school contributed substantially to this development within the Sparkling Science project Schools & Quakes and the Citizen Science project QuakeWatch Austria. The MSS uses horizontal 4.5 Hz geophones and 16Bit AD conversion, and 100 Hz sampling, formatting to MiniSeed, and continuous data transmission via LAN or WLAN to a server are controlled by an integrated microcomputer (Raspberry Pi). Real-time generation of shake and source maps (based on proxies of the PGV in successive time windows) allows for differentiation between local seismic events (e.g., traffic noise, shock close to the sensor) and signals from earthquakes or quarry blasts. The inherent noise of the MSS is about 1% of the PGV corresponding to the lower boundary of intensity I = 2, which is below the ambient noise level at stations in highly populated or industrial areas. The MSS is already being tested at locations around a quarry with regular production blasts. An expansion to a local network in the Vienna Basin will be the next step.

International board-foot volume tables for trees in the Susitna River Basin, Alaska.

Treesearch

Frederic R. Larson

1990-01-01

International 1/4-inch board-foot volume equations and tables were derived from fall, buck, and scale data for 374 trees at 78 locations in the Susitna River Basin, Alaska. Tree species included white and black spruce, paper birch, black cottonwood, and quaking aspen.

Interpreting the strongest deep earthquake ever observed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, Colin

2013-12-01

Massive earthquakes that strike deep within the Earth may be more efficient at dissipating pent-up energy than similar quakes near the surface, according to new research by Wei et al. The authors analyzed the rupture of the most powerful deep earthquake ever recorded.

Flammulated Owls (Otus flammeolus) breeding in deciduous forests

Treesearch

Carl D. Marti

1997-01-01

The first studies of nesting Flammulated Owls (Otus flammeolus) established the idea that the species needs ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests for breeding. In northern Utah, Flammulated Owls nested in montane deciduous forests dominated by quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). No pines were present but...

Consequences of elevated levels of amospheric CO2 and O3 for growth of Poplus tremuloides clones: the role of competition

Treesearch

Evan P. McDonald; E. L. Kruger; Don E. Riemenschneider; J. G. Isebrands

2001-01-01

Concomitant increases in atmospheric CO2 and 03 are expected to impact temperate forest ecosystems. Free air CO2 and 03 enrichment (FACE) was used to examine the interactive effects of these gases on shoot growth responses of quaking aspen grown in an experimental system (...

Italy feels the effect of another deadly quake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banks, Michael

2016-12-01

Using radar data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites, the European Space Agency has released images showing the devastating effect of the 6.5-magnitude earthquake that struck central Italy on 30 October - the largest in the country for over three decades.

Universal Quake Statistics: From Compressed Nanocrystals to Earthquakes

DOE PAGES

Uhl, Jonathan T.; Pathak, Shivesh; Schorlemmer, Danijel; ...

2015-11-17

Slowly-compressed single crystals, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), rocks, granular materials, and the earth all deform via intermittent slips or “quakes”. We find that although these systems span 12 decades in length scale, they all show the same scaling behavior for their slip size distributions and other statistical properties. Remarkably, the size distributions follow the same power law multiplied with the same exponential cutoff. The cutoff grows with applied force for materials spanning length scales from nanometers to kilometers. The tuneability of the cutoff with stress reflects “tuned critical” behavior, rather than self-organized criticality (SOC), which would imply stress-independence. A simplemore » mean field model for avalanches of slipping weak spots explains the agreement across scales. It predicts the observed slip-size distributions and the observed stressdependent cutoff function. In conclusion, the results enable extrapolations from one scale to another, and from one force to another, across different materials and structures, from nanocrystals to earthquakes.« less

NASA Images Topography of Quake-Stricken Eastern Turkey

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-10-25

On Oct. 23, 2011, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck eastern Turkey, near the city of Van, the result of the collision between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Turkey is a tectonically active country, experiencing frequent devastating earthquakes.

Ice, quakes, and a wobble shake San Francisco

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kerr, R.A.

1995-01-06

The fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco last month was bumped to the Moscone Center while the Civic Auditorium, its venue in past years, was being reinforced against earthquakes. And that may have been fitting, given the meeting`s focus on sudden events in Earth history; the first moments of fault rupture, repeated outbursts of icebergs during the last ice age, and a shift in the seasons in the middle of this century.

Successful ShakeAlert Performance for the Napa Quake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allen, R. M.; Given, D. D.; Heaton, T. H.; Vidale, J. E.

2014-12-01

ShakeAlert, the demonstration earthquake early warning system, developed by the USGS, UC Berkeley, Caltech, ETH, and the University of Washington, functioned as expected for the August 24, 2014, M6.0 Napa earthquake. The first ShakeAlert was generated by the ElarmS algorithm 5.1 sec after the origin time of the earthquake, and 3.3 sec after the P-wave arrived at the closest station 6.5 km from the epicenter. This initial alert, based on P-wave triggers from four stations, estimated the magnitude to be 5.7. The warning was received at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory 5 seconds before the S-wave and about 10 sec prior to the onset of the strongest shaking. ShakeAlert beta-testers across the San Francisco Bay Area simultaneously received the alert, including the San Francisco 911 center with 8 sec warning, and the BART train system. BART has implemented an automated train-stopping system that was activated (although no trains were running at 3:20 am). With the available network geometry and communications, the blind zone of the first alert had a radius of 16 km. The four stations that contributed to the first alert all encapsulate data into 1-second packets, but the latency in transmitting data to the processing center ranged from 0.27 to 2.62 seconds. If all the stations were to deliver data in 0.27 seconds, then the alert would have been available 2.3 sec sooner and the blind zone would be reduced to about 8 km. This would also mean that the city of Napa would have received about 1 second of warning. The magnitude estimate and event location were accurate from the initial alert onwards. The magnitude estimate did first increase to 5.8 and then dip to 5.4 2.6 sec after the initial alert, stayed at that level for 2 sec, and then returned to 5.7. The final magnitude estimate was 6.0, consistent with the ANSS catalog.

Ice, quakes, and a wobble shake san francisco.

PubMed

Kerr, R A

1995-01-06

The fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco last month was bumped to the Moscone Center while the Civic Auditorium, its venue in past years, was being reinforced against earthquakes. And that may have been fitting, given the meeting's focus on sudden events in Earth history: the first moments of fault rupture, repeated outbursts of icebergs during the last ice age, and a shift in the seasons in the middle of this century.

Universal Quake Statistics: From Compressed Nanocrystals to Earthquakes

PubMed Central

Uhl, Jonathan T.; Pathak, Shivesh; Schorlemmer, Danijel; Liu, Xin; Swindeman, Ryan; Brinkman, Braden A. W.; LeBlanc, Michael; Tsekenis, Georgios; Friedman, Nir; Behringer, Robert; Denisov, Dmitry; Schall, Peter; Gu, Xiaojun; Wright, Wendelin J.; Hufnagel, Todd; Jennings, Andrew; Greer, Julia R.; Liaw, P. K.; Becker, Thorsten; Dresen, Georg; Dahmen, Karin A.

2015-01-01

Slowly-compressed single crystals, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), rocks, granular materials, and the earth all deform via intermittent slips or “quakes”. We find that although these systems span 12 decades in length scale, they all show the same scaling behavior for their slip size distributions and other statistical properties. Remarkably, the size distributions follow the same power law multiplied with the same exponential cutoff. The cutoff grows with applied force for materials spanning length scales from nanometers to kilometers. The tuneability of the cutoff with stress reflects “tuned critical” behavior, rather than self-organized criticality (SOC), which would imply stress-independence. A simple mean field model for avalanches of slipping weak spots explains the agreement across scales. It predicts the observed slip-size distributions and the observed stress-dependent cutoff function. The results enable extrapolations from one scale to another, and from one force to another, across different materials and structures, from nanocrystals to earthquakes. PMID:26572103

Hypoxylon canker

Treesearch

Michael E. Ostry

2013-01-01

Entoleuca mammata (Wahlenb.) J.D. Rogers & Y.M. Ju (syn. Hypoxylon mammatum (Wahlenb.) P. Karst.) causes the most damaging canker disease of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) - Hypoxylon canker - in many areas of North America. A study by Anderson (1964) in the Lake States (Michigan, Minnesota and...

Tables and equations for estimating volumes of trees in the Susitna River Basin, Alaska.

Treesearch

Frederic R. Larson; Kenneth C. Winterberger

1988-01-01

Scribner board-foot, merchantable cubic-foot, and total cubic-foot volume equations were derived from fall, buck, and scale data for 441 trees at 78 locations in the Susitna River basin, Alaska. Tree species included white and black spruce, paper birch, black cottonwood, and quaking aspen.

Using Forest Health Monitoring to assess aspen forest cover change in the southern Rockies ecoregion

Treesearch

Paul Rogers

2002-01-01

Long-term qualitative observations suggest a marked decline in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) primarily due to advancing succession and fire suppression. This study presents an ecoregional coarse-grid analysis of the current aspen situation using Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) data from Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado. A...

Earthquakes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walter, Edward J.

1977-01-01

Presents an analysis of the causes of earthquakes. Topics discussed include (1) geological and seismological factors that determine the effect of a particular earthquake on a given structure; (2) description of some large earthquakes such as the San Francisco quake; and (3) prediction of earthquakes. (HM)

Impacts of the 2011 tsunami on the subtidal polychaete assemblage and the following recolonization in Onagawa Bay, northeastern Japan.

PubMed

Abe, Hirokazu; Kobayashi, Genki; Sato-Okoshi, Waka

2015-12-01

The ecological impacts of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami and the following recolonization of the subtidal benthic polychaete community were examined by monthly pre- and post-quake field surveys that were conducted in Onagawa Bay from 2007 to 2013. Before the tsunami, the species composition in this benthic community was constant and was dominated by cirratulid and magelonid polychaetes. The density and biomass of benthic polychaetes drastically decreased after the tsunami, and the polychaete community fluctuated during the 2 years after the natural disaster. Spionid and capitellid polychaetes were dominant at this period. In June 2013, the community entered a new constant stage dominated by maldanids, which is different from the pre-quake community. Ecological impacts due to chemical pollution were suggested in addition to the tsunami disturbance. These overlapping effects and physical, chemical and biological factors affected the recovery and recolonization of the polychaete community after the natural disaster. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Earthquake Simulator Finds Tremor Triggers

ScienceCinema

Johnson, Paul

2018-01-16

Using a novel device that simulates earthquakes in a laboratory setting, a Los Alamos researcher has found that seismic waves-the sounds radiated from earthquakes-can induce earthquake aftershocks, often long after a quake has subsided. The research provides insight into how earthquakes may be triggered and how they recur. Los Alamos researcher Paul Johnson and colleague Chris Marone at Penn State have discovered how wave energy can be stored in certain types of granular materials-like the type found along certain fault lines across the globe-and how this stored energy can suddenly be released as an earthquake when hit by relatively small seismic waves far beyond the traditional “aftershock zone” of a main quake. Perhaps most surprising, researchers have found that the release of energy can occur minutes, hours, or even days after the sound waves pass; the cause of the delay remains a tantalizing mystery.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johnson, Paul

Using a novel device that simulates earthquakes in a laboratory setting, a Los Alamos researcher has found that seismic waves-the sounds radiated from earthquakes-can induce earthquake aftershocks, often long after a quake has subsided. The research provides insight into how earthquakes may be triggered and how they recur. Los Alamos researcher Paul Johnson and colleague Chris Marone at Penn State have discovered how wave energy can be stored in certain types of granular materials-like the type found along certain fault lines across the globe-and how this stored energy can suddenly be released as an earthquake when hit by relatively smallmore » seismic waves far beyond the traditional “aftershock zone” of a main quake. Perhaps most surprising, researchers have found that the release of energy can occur minutes, hours, or even days after the sound waves pass; the cause of the delay remains a tantalizing mystery.« less

ACCUMULATION OF ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY IN FOREST FOLIAGE. (R827622E02)

EPA Science Inventory

We used unique mesocosms to examine the role that plants play in accumulating and transforming atmospheric Hg. Several stands of quaking aspen were grown in large gas-exchange chambers in Hg-enriched soil (12.3±1.3 Wood utilization

Treesearch

Eugene M. Wengert; Dennis M. Donnelly; Donald C. Markstrom; Harold E. Worth

1985-01-01

In the past, markets for quaking aspen timber from the Rocky Mountains have been insufficient to support significant harvesting. This shortage of markets severely restrained the potential for aspen management. As a result, many stands protected from wildfire gradually reverted to conifers (see the VEGETATIVE REGENERATION and FIRE chapters).

A synthetic sex pheromone for the large aspen tortrix in Alaska.

Treesearch

Richard A. Werner; J. Weatherston

1980-01-01

Cis-11-tetradecenal was found to be the specific attractant for adult male large aspen tortrix, Choristoneura conflictana (Walker), populations in quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides Michx., forests of interior Alaska. The attractant was dispersed from polyethylene caps in Pherocon® -2 traps placed 1.5 m above ground.

Restoring High Priority Habitats for Birds: Aspen and Pine in the Interior West

Treesearch

Rex Sallabanks; Nils D. Christoffersen; Whitney W. Weatherford; Ralph Anderson

2005-01-01

This paper describes a long-term habitat restoration project in the Blue Mountains ecoregion, northeast Oregon, that we initiated in May 2000. We focused our restoration activities on two habitats previously identified as being high priority for birds: quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa). In...

Debarking chips from whole trees in the Lake States.

Treesearch

James A. Mattson

1975-01-01

Presents the results of a one-year study to evaluate the efficiency of the bark-chip separation-segregation system on whole-tree chips of quaking aspen, sugar maple, and jack pine. A residual bark content of 3% or less was achieved with all three species during all cutting seasons.

Modeling aspen and red pine shoot growth to daily weather variations.

Treesearch

Donald A. Perala

1983-01-01

Quantifies daily shoot growth of quaking aspen and red pine in response to daily variation in air temperature, soil moisture, solar radiation, evapotranspiration, and inherent seasonal plant growth rhythm. Discusses potential application of shoot growth equations to silvicultural problems related to microclimatic variation. Identifies limitations and areas for...

Taxonomy

Treesearch

Kimball T. Harper; John D. Shane; John R. Jones

1985-01-01

Quaking aspen, or trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), was named and described by Michaux in 1803. It exhibits marked phenotypic variability throughout its transcontinental range. Numerous authors, especially the early ones, tried to give order to the variability by subdividing it taxonomically. Quahng aspen has been subdivided by various...

Operational Models of Infrastructure Resilience

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

Wiemer S. A stochastic forecast of California earth - quakes based on fault slip and smoothed seismicity. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America...California faults. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth , 2011; 116:1978–2012. 29. Hiemer S, Jackson DD, Wang Q, Kagan YY, Woessner J, Zechar J

Wood property variation in Populus

Treesearch

Dean W. Einspahr; Miles K. Benson; John R. Peckham

1968-01-01

The use of bigtooth aspen (Populus grandidentata Michx.), quaking aspen (P. tremuloides Michx.), and cottonwood (P. deltoides Bartr.) by the pulp and paper industry has increased greatly during the past decade. This expanded use has stimulated research on the genetic improvement of Populus. For the past 12 years...

A Review of Successful Health Care Coalitions and Partnerships

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-01

status in communities, and are often viewed as financial commodities which derive their importance solely as entities and players in the free market ...Quake Likely to Strike Within the Next 30 Years?" UCGS Fact Sheet 039-03, 2003. 35 Hospital Preparedness Program 2008 End of Year data. 36

Constructing Game Agents from Video of Human Behavior

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-01

Future Work Constructing autonomous agents is an important task in video game development. Games such as Quake, Warcraft III, and Halo 2 (Damian 2005...Vision. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: IEEE Press. Kelley, J. P.; Botea, A.; and Koenig, S. 2008. Offline planning with hierarchical task networks in video ...

Variable performance of outbreak defoliators on aspen clones exposed to elevated CO2 and O3

Treesearch

Daniel A. Herms; William J. Mattson; David N. Karowe; Mark D. Coleman; Terry M. Trier; Bruce A. Birr; J. G. Isebrands

1996-01-01

Increasing atmospheric concentrations of ozone and CO2 affect many aspects of tree physiology. However, their effects on tree resistance to insects have received relatively little attention. The objectives of this study were to test the effects of elevated CO2 and ozone on the resistance of three quaking aspen (...

Lichen community change in response to succession in aspen forests of the southern Rocky Mountains

Treesearch

Paul C. Rogers; Ronald J. Ryel

2008-01-01

In western North America, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is the most common hardwood in montane landscapes. Fire suppression, grazing and wildlife management practices, and climate patterns of the past century are all potential threats to aspen coverage in this region. If aspen-dependent species are losing habitat, this raises concerns about...

Occupancy modeling of ruffed grouse in the Black Hills National Forest

Treesearch

Christopher Paul Hansen

2009-01-01

Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) are important game birds and the management indicator species for quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF). As a result, a robust monitoring protocol which reflects the status, trends, and habitat associations of ruffed grouse in the BHNF is necessary. To evaluate...

Factors influencing epiphytic lichen communities in aspen-associated forests of the Bear River Range, Idaho and Utah

Treesearch

Paul C. Rogers

2007-01-01

In western North America, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most common hardwood in montane landscapes. Fire suppression, grazing, wildlife management practices, and climate patterns of the past century are some of the threats to aspen coverage in this region. Researchers are concerned that aspen-dependent species may be losing...

Mapping aspen in the Interior West

Treesearch

Charles E. Werstak

2012-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is a critical species that supports wildlife and livestock, watershed function, the forest products industry, landscape diversity, and recreation opportunities in the Interior West (Bartos and Campbell 1998). Studies have indicated that changes in fire regimes, an increase in herbivore presence in young aspen stands, and...

Estimating red pine site index in northern Minnesota.

Treesearch

1976-01-01

Methods are presented for estimating red pine site index from the height growth of red pine, site index of several associated species (jack pine, white pine, white spruce, or quaking aspen), and from easily measured soil properties. The restrictions and limitations of each method and their relative precision are discussed.

Cytotype differences in radial increment provide novel insight into aspen reproductive ecology and stand dynamics

Treesearch

R. Justin DeRose; Karen E. Mock; James N. Long

2015-01-01

High rates of triploidy have recently been described in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) of the Intermountain West, raising questions about the contributions of triploidy to stand persistence and dynamics. In this study, we investigated cytotype differences between diploid and triploid aspen clones using dendrochronological techniques. We used tree-ring data...

Distribution

Treesearch

John R. Jones

1985-01-01

Quaking aspen is the most widely distributed native North American tree species (Little 1971, Sargent 1890). It grows in a great diversity of regions, environments, and communities (Harshberger 1911). Only one deciduous tree species in the world, the closely related Eurasian aspen (Populus tremula), has a wider range (Weigle and Frothingham 1911)....

Genetics and variation

Treesearch

John R. Jones; Norbert V. DeByle

1985-01-01

The broad genotypic variability in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), that results in equally broad phenotypic variability among clones is important to the ecology and management of this species. This chapter considers principles of aspen genetics and variation, variation in aspen over its range, and local variation among clones. For a more...

Do pine trees in aspen stands increase bird diversity?

Treesearch

Mark A. Rumble; Lester D. Flake; Todd R. Mills; Brian L. Dykstra

2001-01-01

In the Black Hills of South Dakota, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is being replaced by conifers through fire suppression and successional processes. Although the Black Hills National forest is removing conifers (primarily ponderosa pine [Pinus ponderosa]) to increase the aspen communities in some mixed stands, Forest Plan guidelines allow four conifers per...

Effects of water and temperature

Treesearch

John R. Jones; Merrill R. Kaufmann; E. Arlo Richardson

1985-01-01

Aspen's geographic and elevational ranges indicate a species that tolerates severe cold but does not tolerate sustained high temperatures, or semiarid or even dry, subhumid conditions. Much can be inferred from observation of the sites on which quaking aspen grows in the West. Aspen's distribution is related to its regeneration characteristics, its pathology...

Relationship between foliar chemistry and insect performance: the forest tent caterpillar

Treesearch

Francois Lorenzetti; Yves Mauffette; Eric Bauce

1999-01-01

Forest tent caterpillar (FTC) feeds on several species of deciduous trees (Stehr and Cook 1968), in northeastern North America, quaking aspen is the preferred host of this spring-feeding insect. FTC commonly defoliates several thousands of hectares of aspen stands each year in Quebec (Bordeleau 1990), although its secondary hosts seldom are attacked.

Site-index comparisons for tree species in northern Minnesota.

Treesearch

Willard H. Carmean; Alexander Vasilevsky

1971-01-01

Presents site-index comparisons for the following forest species in northern Minnesota: quaking aspen, paper birch, basswood, red oak, black ash, jack pine, red pine, white pine, white spruce, black spruce, balsam fir, white-cedar, and tamarack. Shows site-index relationships among these species by using site-index ratios and species-comparison graphs.

How will aspen respond to mountain pine beetle? A review of literature and discussion of knowledge gaps

Treesearch

Kristen A. Pelz; Frederick W. Smith

2013-01-01

There has been speculation that quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) dominance of forests will increase due to mortality caused by mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) (MPB). High aspen sucker densities have been observed inthe years following MPB-caused pine mortality, but it remains unclear if this disturbance will result in a pulse of aspen...

Associations between heterozygosity and growth rate variables in three western forest trees

Treesearch

Jeffry B. Milton; Peggy Knowles; Kareen B. Sturgeon; Yan B. Linhart; Martha Davis

1981-01-01

For each of three species, quaking aspen, ponderosa pine, and lodgepole pine, we determined the relationships between a ranking of heterozygosity of individuals and measures of growth rate. Genetic variation was assayed by starch gel electrophoresis of enzymes. Growth rates were characterized by the mean, standard deviation, logarithm of the variance, and coefficient...

Postmodern Pedagogy and Sustainability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skolnik, Christine

A graduate teaching assistant who lived through the Northridge quake in Los Angeles County reached some realizations about her habits of thinking in the wake of that experience. As students schooled or even trained in poststructuralist critical theory and/or protocols of postmodern cultural critique, this teaching assistant and some of her…

Imperial Parallels: Analyzing the U.S. Army Regionally Aligned Force Strategy in the Context of Historical Imperialism

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-13

bicycle. If it slows down, it could fall off, and the earth might quake ” (Behar 2008c). In order to maintain this momentum, China aggressively...ANALYSIS Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number — Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in your sleep had fallen on you— Ye are

Sequential combination of multi-source satellite observations for separation of surface deformation associated with serial seismic events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Qiang; Xu, Qian; Zhang, Yijun; Yang, Yinghui; Yong, Qi; Liu, Guoxiang; Liu, Xianwen

2018-03-01

Single satellite geodetic technique has weakness for mapping sequence of ground deformation associated with serial seismic events, like InSAR with long revisiting period readily leading to mixed complex deformation signals from multiple events. It challenges the observation capability of single satellite geodetic technique for accurate recognition of individual surface deformation and earthquake model. The rapidly increasing availability of various satellite observations provides good solution for overcoming the issue. In this study, we explore a sequential combination of multiple overlapping datasets from ALOS/PALSAR, ENVISAT/ASAR and GPS observations to separate surface deformation associated with the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki major quake and two strong aftershocks including the Mw 6.6 Iwaki and Mw 5.8 Ibaraki events. We first estimate the fault slip model of major shock with ASAR interferometry and GPS displacements as constraints. Due to the used PALSAR interferogram spanning the period of all the events, we then remove the surface deformation of major shock through forward calculated prediction thus obtaining PALSAR InSAR deformation associated with the two strong aftershocks. The inversion for source parameters of Iwaki aftershock is conducted using the refined PALSAR deformation considering that the higher magnitude Iwaki quake has dominant deformation contribution than the Ibaraki event. After removal of deformation component of Iwaki event, we determine the fault slip distribution of Ibaraki shock using the remained PALSAR InSAR deformation. Finally, the complete source models for the serial seismic events are clearly identified from the sequential combination of multi-source satellite observations, which suggest that the major quake is a predominant mega-thrust rupture, whereas the two aftershocks are normal faulting motion. The estimated seismic moment magnitude for the Tohoku-Oki, Iwaki and Ibaraki evens are Mw 9.0, Mw 6.85 and Mw 6.11, respectively.

Ruffed grouse selection of drumming sites in the Black Hills National Forest

Treesearch

Christopher P. Hansen; Mark A. Rumble; Joshua J. Millspaugh

2011-01-01

Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) are important game birds that depend on multiple forest age-classes of aspen (Populus spp.) for food and cover, which makes them an appropriate management indicator species for the condition of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) communities in the Black Hills National Forest of western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming (BHNF)....

Landscape composition in aspen woodlands under various modeled fire regimes

Treesearch

Eva K. Strand; Stephen C. Bunting; Lee A. Vierling

2012-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is declining across the western United States. Aspen habitats are diverse plant communities in this region and loss of these habitats can cause shifts in biodiversity, productivity, and hydrology across spatial scales. Western aspen occurs on the majority of sites seral to conifer species, and long-term maintenance of these aspen...

Moderate-scale mapping methods of aspen stand types: a case study for Cedar Mountain in southern Utah

Treesearch

Chad M. Oukrop; David M. Evans; Dale L. Bartos; R. Douglas Ramsey; Ronald J. Ryel

2011-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) are the most widely distributed tree species across North America, but its dominance is declining in many areas of the western United States, with certain areas experiencing rapid mortality events over the past decade. The loss of aspen from western landscapes will continue to profoundly impact biological, commercial, and...

Current trends in the management of aspen and mixed aspen forests for sustainable production

Treesearch

A. J. David; John C. Zasada; D. W. Gilmore; S. M. Landhausser

2001-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is a remarkable species that performs several significant ecological roles throughout its range while at the same time is facing ever-increasing harvesting pressure. Although its full product potential remains untapped, aspen utilization has increased noticeably in the past 15 years as it has become a desired species for...

Haiti: From Charity to Justice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaMastra, Kevin

2010-01-01

It is not easy to learn the "real story" of Haiti; mainstream historical accounts are often told through a distorted lens of racism and colonial exploitation. Even today, in the aftermath of the quake, Haiti's poverty is blamed on poor leadership, a lack of democratic traditions, and isolation due to language. Commentators describe it as…

Forest Service's Northern Research Station FIA launches 24-state study of forest regeneration

Treesearch

Will McWilliams; Shawn Lehman; Paul Roth; Jim. Westfall

2012-01-01

Inventory foresters often quake when asked to count tree seedlings, because the work is tedious and sometimes means tallying hundreds of stems. They also know that the density and quality of advance regeneration are key to the success of new stand establishment. Seedling counts provide valuable information on regeneration adequacy, forest diversity, wildlife habitat,...

Occupancy modeling of ruffed grouse in the Black Hills National Forest

Treesearch

Christopher P. Hansen; Joshua J. Millspaugh; Mark A. Rumble

2011-01-01

Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) are a popular game bird and the management indicator species for quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF), which requires development of a robust monitoring protocol to evaluate trends in ruffed grouse populations. We used roadside drumming surveys in spring 2007 and 2008 to estimate ruffed grouse...

Evaluation of techniques to protect aspen suckers from ungulate browsing in the Black Hills

Treesearch

Andrew M. Kota; Dale L. Bartos

2010-01-01

Excessive browsing by cattle (Bos taurus L.) and wild ungulates, particularly elk (Cervus elaphus L.), sometimes inhibits growth and maturity of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) suckers in Western North America. In areas where aspen stands are in poor condition or declining, protecting suckers from ungulates may be necessary. This study compared the utility...

Mechanisms of Alpha-synuclein Aggregation and Toxicity

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-09-01

Chung, H. Huang, V.L. Dawson, T.M. Hyslop , Mutation of the conserved N-terminal cysteine (Cys92) of Dawson, Parkin functions as an E2-dependent...in carbonic anhydrase and adenylate cyclase in quaking mice. Brain Res, 1980 . 185(2): p. 373-83. 18 47. Kiefer, L.L. and C.A. Fierke, Functional

Aspen in the Sierra Nevada: Regional conservation of a continental species

Treesearch

Paul C. Rogers; Wayne D. Shepperd; Dale L. Bartos

2007-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) a common species in North America, is a minor species in the Sierra Nevada of California. However, the limited coverage of aspen in this area appears to carry a disproportionate biodiversity load: numerous species are dependent on the unique components of aspen forests habitat. Land managers in the region...

Management for esthetics and recreation, forage, water, and wildlife

Treesearch

Norbert V. DeByle

1985-01-01

In the West, aspen forests have not been actively managed for wood products largely because of the lack of markets for quaking aspen timber from the Rocky Mountains (see the WOOD UTILIZATION chapter). Despite this, the aspen ecosystem has been used to provide a variety of resources and opportunities (see PART 111. RESOURCES AND USES).

Monitoring ruffed grouse in the Black Hills: Protocol and user's manual for the occupancy spreadsheet program

Treesearch

Christopher P. Hansen; Mark A. Rumble; Joshua J. Millspaugh

2010-01-01

Monitoring ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) in the Black Hills National Forest is a priority for forest managers due to the bird's status as the management indicator species for quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and its value to hunters and other recreational groups. We conducted drumming surveys, estimated occupancy, and assessed the influence of sampling and...

Allozyme and microsatellite data reveal small clone size and high genetic diversity in aspen in the southern Cascade Mountains

Treesearch

Jennifer DeWoody; Thomas H. Rickman; Bobette E. Jones; Valerie D. Hipkins

2009-01-01

The most widely distributed tree in North America, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides, Michx.), reproduces sexually via seed and clonally via suckers. The size of aspen clones varies geographically, generally smaller in the east and large in the arid Intermountain West. In order to describe clone size and genetic structure of aspen in the southern Cascade...

Earthquakes May-June 1980.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Person, W.J.

1981-01-01

The months were seismically active, although only one major event (7.0-7.9) occurred in an unpopulated Philippine Island. Mexico was struck by a 6.3 quake on June 9 killing at least two people. The most significant earthquake in the United States was in the Mammoth Lakes area of California. -from Author

Aspen: Ecology and management in the western United States

Treesearch

Norbert V. DeByle; Robert P. Winokur

1985-01-01

Information about the biology, ecology, and management of quaking aspen on the mountains and plateaus of the interior western United States, and to a lesser extent, Canada, is summarized and discussed. The biology of aspen as a tree species, community relationships in the aspen ecosystem, environments, and factors affecting aspen forests are reviewed. The resources...

Venusian Earthquakes Detection by Ionospheric Sounding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Occhipinti, G.; Lognonne, P.; Garcia, R. F.; Gudkova, T.

2010-12-01

Thanks to technological advances over the past fifteen years the ionosphere is now a new medium for seismological investigation. As a consequence of density structure in Venus atmosphere, the coupling between solid and fluid part of Venus induce a more significant atmospheric responce to quakes and volcanic eruptions (Lognonné & Johnson, 2007). Equivalent perturbation induced by internal activity has been detected on Earth through their subsequent ionospheric signature imaged by ionospheric tools (Doppler sounding or GPS) (Lognonné et al., 2006, Occhipinti et al., 2010). The strong solid/atmosphere coupling on Venus (Garcia et al., 2005, 2009), the thin ionospheric layer as well as absence of magnetic field present optimal circumstances for a better detection of these signals on Venus than on Earth. Consequently, ionospheric Doppler sounders on-board orbiters or balloons will provide informations on the infrasonic response of the atmosphere/ionosphere to quakes, and will help to constrain the interior structure of Venus through the solid/atmosphere coupling. With this paper we explore the future mission possibility and constrains.

A General Introduction of the Earthquake Early Warning System Technology Developed in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, T.

2015-12-01

Since the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, a dramatic progress on earthquake early warning (EEW) has been made by Institute of Care-life (ICL) in China. The research on EEW by ICL covers choosing appropriate sensors, methods of installing the sensors, data automatic process methods of the seismic waves for EEW, methods of applying of EEW warnings for public, schools and life-line projects. ICL innovatively applies distributed computing and cloud computing technology. So far, ICL has deployed over 5500 EEW sensors in China, which is 5 times the number of EEW sensors in Japan, covering more than 2.1 million square kilometers. Since June, 2011, over 5000 earthquakes, with 28 of them are destructive quakes, have triggered the EEWS with no false alert. The root mean square (RMS) error of the magnitude for the 28 destructive quakes is 0.32. In addition, innovative work is done to suppress false alarm and miss alarm, which pushes forward the application of EEW in China. The technology is also being applied in Nepal now.

NASA Radar Images Show Continued Deformation from Mexico Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-08-04

This image shows a UAVSAR interferogram swath overlaid atop a Google Earth image. New NASA airborne radar images show the continuing deformation in Earth surface resulting from the magnitude 7.2 temblor in Baja California on April 4, 2010.

QuakeCaster, an earthquake physics demonstration and exploration tool

USGS Publications Warehouse

Linton, K.; Stein, R.S.

2012-01-01

A fundamental riddle of earthquake occurrence is that tectonic motions at plate interiors are steady, changing only subtly over millions of years, but at plate boundary faults, the plates are stuck for hundreds of years and then suddenly jerk forward in earthquakes. Why does this happen? The answer, as formulated by Harry F. Reid (Reid 1910, 192) is that the Earth’s crust is elastic, behaving like a very stiff slab of rubber sliding over a substrate of “honey”-like asthenosphere, and that faults are restrained by friction. The crust near the faults—zones of weakness that separate the plates—slowly deforms, building up stress until frictional resistance on the fault is overcome and the fault suddenly slips. For the past century, scientists have sought ways to use this knowledge to forecast earthquakes.

Iran-Iraq Border Quake Region Imaged by NASA Satellite

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-11-15

On Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck along the Iran-Iraq border near Halabjah, Iraq. The earthquake was felt as far away as Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon and Israel. Extensive damage and numerous casualties were reported in the area near the epicenter (yellow star on image). The earthquake occurred along the boundary between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates. This is an earthquake-prone area, and has experienced many deadly earthquakes in the past. In this perspective-view image, bright red areas are crops in fields, pale red on mountain ridges are shrubs and trees, dark gray areas are traces of earlier brush fires, and gray and tan colors are different rock types. The image was acquired Sept. 8, 2017, and the star marks the earthquake epicenter at 34.9 degrees north, 45.9 degrees east. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22112

In the Wake of the Quake: Teaching the Emergency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sturm, Sean; Turner, Stephen

2018-01-01

The university today finds itself in a global state of emergency, at once financial, military and ecological. Teaching must assume this emergency as premise and responsibility: it must consider the grounds of the classroom, both figurative and literal, and generate emergent lines of inquiry that address the pressing global and local situation. For…

Damage Map of Latest Italian Quake Produced by NASA

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-11-16

Damage Proxy Map (DPM) v0.5, derived from the Italian Space Agency's COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired from an ascending orbit, covering an area of 6.2-by-6.2 miles (10-by-10 kilometers), centered at Norcia, Italy. Red pixels (pixel size about 16 feet, or 5 meters)represent areas of potential damage due to the Magnitude 6.6 Oct 30, 2016, Central Italy earthquakes, as well as ground surface change during the time period Oct. 30, 2016 -- Oct. 31, 2016. The color variation from yellow to red indicate increasingly more significant ground surface change. Preliminary validation was carried out by comparing with high-resolution pre- and post-event optical imagery acquired by DigitalGlobe's WorldView satellites, and a damage map produced by the European Commission Copernicus Emergency Management Service based upon visual inspection of high-resolution pre- (Orthophoto) and post-event (Pleiades-1) optical imagery. This DPM provides broad geographic coverage of the earthquake's impact in the region. Areas that fall in radar shadow and layover were masked out. The DPM should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15374

Stacked propagation: a new way to grow native plants from root cuttings

Treesearch

David R. Dreesen; Thomas D. Landis; Jeremy R. Pinto

2006-01-01

Stacked propagation is a novel method of growing quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx. [Salicaceae]) and other plants that reproduce from underground stems or root cuttings. Because the mother plant is not damaged, it is particularly well suited for rare plants or those that can’t be propagated by normal methods. Our initial trials indicate that...

Landscape-scale dynamics of aspen in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Treesearch

Margot W. Kaye; Kuni Suzuki; Dan Binkley; Thomas J. Stohlgren

2001-01-01

Past studies of quaking aspen in Rocky Mountain National Park suggested that the aspen population is declining due to intensive browsing by elk (Cervus elaphus). These studies were conducted in the elk winter range, an area of intensive elk impact. The elk summer range experiences less intense grazing pressure. We tested the hypothesis that impacts of elk would be...

Populus tremuloides mortality near the southwestern edge of its range

Treesearch

Thomas J. Zegler; Margaret M. Moore; Mary L. Fairweather; Kathryn B. Ireland; Peter Z. Fule

2012-01-01

Mortality and crown dieback of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) were extensive on the Williams Ranger District, Kaibab National Forest in northern Arizona. We collected data from a random sample of 48 aspen sites to determine the relationship of predisposing site and stand factors and contributing agents to ramet mortality. Mortality of overstory (P10.1 cm DBH)...

Earthquakes; July-August 1982

USGS Publications Warehouse

Person, W.J.

1983-01-01

During this reporting period, there were three major (7.0-7.9) earthquakes all in unpopulated areas. The quakes occurred north of Macquarie Island on July 7, in the Santa Cruz Islands on August 5, and south of Panama on August 19. In the United Stats, a number of earthquakes occurred, but no damage was reported. 

Water and watershed

Treesearch

Norbert V. DeByle

1985-01-01

Quaking aspen dominates several million acres on mountainous watersheds in the West. The sites occupied receive enough precipitation to yield water to lower elevations. Most aspen areas receive 16 inches (40 cm) or more precipitation annually; many receive more than 39 inches (100 cm) (see the CLIMATES chapter), well in excess of on-site loss from evapotranspiration....

Aspen encroachment on meadows of the North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park

Treesearch

Margaret M. Moore; David W. Huffman

2001-01-01

Composition and structure data were analyzed to determine the characteristics of trees encroaching on the montane meadows and subalpine grasslands of the North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park. Tree invasion in the 1900s showed a pattern of increasing establishment, with quaking aspen comprising the majority (52%) of encroaching trees. Most aspen established in the last...

Aspen [Chapter 3

Treesearch

Dale L. Bartos

2007-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most widely distributed broadleaf tree in North American (Little 1971; Sargent 1890). Aspen forests occur from Labrador on the east coast to Alaska in the north to Mexico in the south. In its eastern range, aspen is relatively continuously distributed. In the western United States, however, it occurs on the more...

Characterizing forest vegetation of the Tanana Valley: what can forest inventory and analysis deliver?

Treesearch

Bethany Schulz

2015-01-01

Vegetation profile data were collected as part of a forest inventory project in the Tanana Valley in interior Alaska, providing a means of characterizing the forest vegetation. The black spruce forest type was most common, followed by Alaska paper birch, and white spruce, quaking aspen, and balsam poplar. For individual tree species, black spruce was recorded on 68...

Aspen biology, community classification, and management in the Blue Mountains

Treesearch

David K. Swanson; Craig L. Schmitt; Diane M. Shirley; Vicky Erickson; Kenneth J. Schuetz; Michael L. Tatum; David C. Powell

2010-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is a valuable species that is declining in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon. This publication is a compilation of over 20 years of aspen management experience by USDA Forest Service workers in the Blue Mountains. It includes a summary of aspen biology and occurrence in the Blue Mountains, and a...

Decay and Discoloration of Aspen

Treesearch

Gerald W. Anderson; Thomas E. Hinds; Donald M. Knutson

1977-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most widely distributed tree species in North America. It has a transcontinental range and grows under a wide variety of climatic and edaphic conditions. The commercial range includes the Lake States as well as parts of New England; it also includes Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, Canada. Although many stands in...

Decay of aspen in Colorado

Treesearch

Ross W. Davidson; Thomas E. Hinds; Frank G. Hawksworth

1959-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) stands are extensive in the central Rocky Mountains. The species reaches its maximum development in the mountains and high mesas west of the Continental Divide in Colorado (Baker, 1925). On the better sites aspen yields a greater volume of wood in a shorter period than most of the conifers growing at comparable elevations. The...

Introduction

Treesearch

Norbert V. DeByle; Robert P. Winokur

1985-01-01

Quaking or trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the only aspen in western North America. Therefore, in this part of the continent, it is commonly and correctly referred to simply as "aspen". Throughout much of the interior West, it is the only upland hardwood. Aspen occupies millions of acres, and, in some states, it is the most...

Impact of Earthquake Preperation Process On Hydrodeformation Field Evolution In The Caucasus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Melikadze, G.; Aliev, A.; Bendukidze, G.; Biagi, P. F.; Garalov, B.; Mirianashvili, V.

The paper studies relation between geodeformation regime variations of underground water observed in boreholes and deformation processes in the Earth crust, asso- ciated with formation of earthquakes with M=3 and higher. Monitoring of hydro- geodeformation field (HGDF) has been carried out thanks to the on-purpose gen- eral network of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia. The wells are uniformly distributed throughout the Caucasus and cover all principal geological blocks of the region. The paper deals with results associated with several earthquakes occured in Georgia and one in Azerbaijan. As the network comprises boreholes of different depths, varying from 250 m down to 3,500 m, preliminary calibration of the boreholes involved was carried out, based on evaluation of the water level variation due to known Earth tide effect. This was necessary for sensitivity evaluation and normalization of hydro-dynamic signals. Obtained data have been processed by means of spectral anal- ysis to dissect background field of disturbances from the valid signal. The processed data covered the period of 1991-1993 comprising the following 4 strong earthquakes of the Caucasus, namely in: Racha (1991, M=6.9), Java (1991, M=6.2), Barisakho (1992, M=6.5) and Talish (1993, M=5.6). Formation of the compression zone in the east Caucasus and that of extension in the western Georgia and north Caucasus was observed 7 months prior to Racha quake. Boundary between the above 2 zones passed along the known submeridional fault. The area where maximal gradient was observed, coincided with the joint of deep faults and appeared to be the place for origination of the earthquake. After the quake occurred, the zone of maximal gradient started to mi- grate towards East and residual deformations in HGDF have outlined source first of Java quake (on 15.06.1991), than that of Barisakho (on 23.10.1992) and Talish (on 2.10.1993) ones. Thus, HGDF indicated migration of the deformation field along the slope of

Environmental Impact Research Program. Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) Section 4.1.1, US Army Corps of Engineers Wildlife Resources Management Manual.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-07-01

to the fall diet (Beer 1948, Hungerford 1957, Phillips 1967, McGowan 1973). Hazelnut, chokecherry , and juneberry supplement aspen and other foods...bigtooth aspen (Svoboda and Gullion 1972). Chokecherry is a locally preferred winter food (Phillips 1967). Nutrition. Korschgen (1966) determined...grandidentata Quaking aspen P. tremuloide8 Beech Fags app. Birch Betula spp. Blackberry Rubus app. Cherry Prunus spp. Chokecherry P. virginiana

Aspen restoration in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon

Treesearch

Diane M. Shirley; Vicky Erickson

2001-01-01

In the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon, quaking aspen is on the western fringe of its range. It exists as small, scattered, remnant stands of rapidly declining trees. Although little is known about the historic distribution of aspen in Oregon, it is believed that stands were once larger and more widely distributed. Decline of the species is attributed to fire...

Vegetation associations

Treesearch

W. F. Mueggler

1985-01-01

Aspen trees grow along moist stream bottoms as well as on dry ridges and southerly exposures, on talus slopes, and on shallow to deep soils of varied origins. Quaking aspen is one of the few plant species that can grow in all mountain vegetational zones from the alpine to the basal plain (Daubenmire 1943). As a consequence, aspen dominated communities are found...

Using inventory data to determine the impact of drought on tree mortality

Treesearch

Greg C. Liknes; Christopher W. Woodall; Charles H. Perry

2012-01-01

Drought has been the subject of numerous recent studies that hint at an acceleration of tree mortality due to climate change. In particular, a recent global survey of tree mortality events implicates drought as the cause of quaking aspen mortality in Minnesota, USA in 2007. In this study, data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis program of the USDA Forest Service...

Landscape dynamics of aspen and conifer forests

Treesearch

Dale L. Bartos

2001-01-01

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is widely dispersed across the landscape of North America. Seventy-five percent of the aspen in the western United States occurs in the states of Colorado (50%) and Utah (25%). Reproduction in aspen is primarily by asexual means, e.g., root sprouts that are generally referred to as suckers. An aspen clone consists of numerous...

Changes in forest species composition and structure after stand-replacing wildfire in the mountains of southeastern Arizona

Treesearch

Ronald D. Quinn; Lin Wu

2005-01-01

A wildfire in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona apparently altered the long-term structure of the forest. The pre-fire canopy forest, which had not burned for 100 years, was an even mixture of Arizona pines and Rocky Mountain Douglas-firs. A decade later the new forest was numerically dominated by quaking aspen seedlings in clumps separated by persistent...

Forage

Treesearch

W. F. Mueggler

1985-01-01

The extensive forests and isolated clones of quaking aspen in the western United States have been valued for many years as wildlife habitat and livestock summer range (Sampson 1919). The actual amount of forage produced beneath the aspen trees differs appreciably among sites. Houston (1954) indicated that although many sites produce 1,000 to 2,000 pounds per acre (1,...

Generic Environmental Impact Statement. Air Force Low Altitude Flying Operations. Preliminary Draft. Volume 3

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-01-01

landing strip at Circle. Lodging is available primarily at Circle Hot Springs, approximately 30 miles southwest of Circle. In general, hiking, snowmobiling... timberline ), coniferous forest, and several widespread deciduous species. Coniferous and deciduous forest, alpine and deciduous scrub, shrub tundra, and...white and paper birch, quaking aspen, and balsam poplar. Common shrub species (above and below timberline ) are alder, willow, glandular birch

Seismic maps foster landmark legislation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Borcherdt, Roger D.; Brown, Robert B.; Page, Robert A.; Wentworth, Carl M.; Hendley, James W.

1995-01-01

When a powerful earthquake strikes an urban region, damage concentrates not only near the quake's source. Damage can also occur many miles from the source in areas of soft ground. In recent years, scientists have developed ways to identify and map these areas of high seismic hazard. This advance has spurred pioneering legislation to reduce earthquake losses in areas of greatest hazard.

Post-earthquake dilatancy recovery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scholz, C. H.

1974-01-01

Geodetic measurements of the 1964 Niigata, Japan earthquake and of three other examples are briefly examined. They show exponentially decaying subsidence for a year after the quakes. The observations confirm the dilatancy-fluid diffusion model of earthquake precursors and clarify the extent and properties of the dilatant zone. An analysis using one-dimensional consolidation theory is included which agrees well with this interpretation.

Modelling environmentally friendly fairways using Lagrangian trajectories: a case study for the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soomere, Tarmo; Berezovski, Mihhail; Quak, Ewald; Viikmäe, Bert

2011-10-01

We address possibilities of minimising environmental risks using statistical features of current-driven propagation of adverse impacts to the coast. The recently introduced method for finding the optimum locations of potentially dangerous activities (Soomere et al. in Proc Estonian Acad Sci 59:156-165, 2010) is expanded towards accounting for the spatial distributions of probabilities and times for reaching the coast for passively advecting particles released in different sea areas. These distributions are calculated using large sets of Lagrangian trajectories found from Eulerian velocity fields provided by the Rossby Centre Ocean Model with a horizontal resolution of 2 nautical miles for 1987-1991. The test area is the Gulf of Finland in the northeastern Baltic Sea. The potential gain using the optimum fairways from the Baltic Proper to the eastern part of the gulf is an up to 44% decrease in the probability of coastal pollution and a similar increase in the average time for reaching the coast. The optimum fairways are mostly located to the north of the gulf axis (by 2-8 km on average) and meander substantially in some sections. The robustness of this approach is quantified as the typical root mean square deviation (6-16 km) between the optimum fairways specified from different criteria. Drastic variations in the width of the `corridors' for almost optimal fairways (2-30 km for the average width of 15 km) signifies that the sensitivity of the results with respect to small changes in the environmental criteria largely varies in different parts of the gulf.

Cross-validation of independent ultra-low-frequency magnetic recording systems for active fault studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Can; Bin, Chen; Christman, Lilianna E.; Glen, Jonathan M. G.; Klemperer, Simon L.; McPhee, Darcy K.; Kappler, Karl N.; Bleier, Tom E.; Dunson, J. Clark

2018-04-01

When working with ultra-low-frequency (ULF) magnetic datasets, as with most geophysical time-series data, it is important to be able to distinguish between cultural signals, internal instrument noise, and natural external signals with their induced telluric fields. This distinction is commonly attempted using simultaneously recorded data from a spatially remote reference site. Here, instead, we compared data recorded by two systems with different instrumental characteristics at the same location over the same time period. We collocated two independent ULF magnetic systems, one from the QuakeFinder network and the other from the United States Geological Survey (USGS)-Stanford network, in order to cross-compare their data, characterize data reproducibility, and characterize signal origin. In addition, we used simultaneous measurements at a remote geomagnetic observatory to distinguish global atmospheric signals from local cultural signals. We demonstrated that the QuakeFinder and USGS-Stanford systems have excellent coherence, despite their different sensors and digitizers. Rare instances of isolated signals recorded by only one system or only one sensor indicate that caution is needed when attributing specific recorded signal features to specific origins.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

Citizen seismology in Taiwan: what went wrong and what is the future?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2017-12-01

Citizen seismology encourages the public involvement to data collection, analysis, and reporting, and has the potential to greatly improve the emergency response to seismic hazard. This of course, is important for scientific achievement due to the dense network. We believed the value of citizen seismology and started with distributing Quake-Catcher-Network (QCN) sensor at schools in Taiwan. While working with teachers, we hoped to motivate the learning of how to read seismograms, what to see in the data, and what to teach in the class. Through lots of workshops and activities, even with near-real time earthquake game competition and board game (quake-nopoly) developed along the way, we came to realize the huge gap between what people need and what we do. And to bridge the gap, a new generation of citizen seismic network is needed. Imagine at work, you receive the alarm from sensors at home that tells you the location, size, and type of anomalous shaking events in the neighborhood. Can this future "warning" system happen, allowing citizen to do emergence response? This is a story about facing the challenge, transforming the doubt of "why do I care" to a future IoT world.

Lunar seismicity and tectonics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lammlein, D. R.

1977-01-01

Results are presented for an analysis of all moonquake data obtained by the Apollo seismic stations during the period from November 1969 to May 1974 and a preliminary analysis of critical data obtained in the interval from May 1974 to May 1975. More accurate locations are found for previously located moonquakes, and additional sources are located. Consideration is given to the sources of natural seismic signals, lunar seismic activity, moonquake periodicities, tidal periodicities in moonquake activity, hypocentral locations and occurrence characteristics of deep and shallow moonquakes, lunar tidal control over moonquakes, lunar tectonism, the locations of moonquake belts, and the dynamics of the lunar interior. It is concluded that: (1) moonquakes are distributed in several major belts of global extent that coincide with regions of the youngest and most intense volcanic and tectonic activity; (2) lunar tides control both the small quakes occurring at great depth and the larger quakes occurring near the surface; (3) the moon has a much thicker lithosphere than earth; (4) a single tectonic mechanism may account for all lunar seismic activity; and (5) lunar tidal stresses are an efficient triggering mechanism for moonquakes.

Insects and other invertebrates

Treesearch

John R. Jones; Norbert V. DeByle; Diane M. Bowers

1985-01-01

Quaking aspen throughout its range appears to be host to several insect and other invertebrate pests (fig. 1). It is a short-lived species that is palatable to a large variety of animals. Furniss and Carolin (1977) listed 33 insect species that use aspen as a food source. Some are quite damaging and may kill otherwise healthy stands of aspen; others feed on weakened or...

AMEDD Clinical Psychology Short Course Held in Letterman Army Medical Center, San Francisco, California on 5-9 February 1990

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-02-02

and identity by block number) FIELD GROUP SUB-GROUP Clinical psychology; neuropsychology; health psychology; stress; military families; separate...and Carl Settles 14 Post-Quake Support: Project Caring LTG Harrison 21 Military Families Arthur M. Bodin 24 Family Psychology: A Burgeoning Field A...Russell 48 Workshop--Psychological Software into the 1790s: Applications for Military Mtdical Facilities Bruce E. Crow 53 The Practice of Psychology within

Assessing urban forest effects and values, Scranton's urban forest

Treesearch

David J. Nowak; Robert E. III Hoehn; Daniel E. Crane; Jack C. Stevens; Vincent Cotrone

2010-01-01

An analysis of trees in the urbanized portion of Scranton, PA, reveals that this area has about 1.2 million trees with canopies that cover 22.0 percent of the area. The most common tree species are red maple, gray birch, black cherry, northern red oak, and quaking aspen. Scranton's urban forest currently store about 93,300 tons of carbon valued at $1.9 million. In...

Geohazards on the Moon and the Importance of the International Lunar Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, Barbara A.

2009-01-01

Seven of the 28 shallow seismic events recorded by the Apollo passive seismic experiment (PSE) network released energy equivalent to earthquakes with magnitudes of 5 or greater. On Earth, such quakes can cause extensive damage to structures near the epicenter. Unexpected structural damage to a lunar habitat could have devastating results and thus, lunar seismicity may present a significant geohazard to long-term human habitation.

The Benefits and Limitations of Crowdsourced Information for Rapid Damage Assessment of Global Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossu, R.; Landès, M.; Roussel, F.

2017-12-01

The Internet has fastened the collection of felt reports and macroseismic data after global earthquakes. At the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), where the traditional online questionnaires have been replace by thumbnail-based questionnaires, an average of half of the reports are collected within 10 minutes of an earthquake's occurrence. In regions where EMSC is well identified this goes down to 5 min. The user simply specifies the thumbnail corresponding to observed effects erasing languages barriers and improving collection via small smartphone screens. A previous study has shown that EMSC data is well correlated with "Did You Feel It" (DYFI) data and 3 independent, manually collected datasets. The efficiency and rapidity of felt report collection through thumbnail-based questionnaires does not necessarily mean that they offer a complete picture of the situation for all intensities values, especially the higher ones. There are several potential limitations. Demographics probably play a role but so might eyewitnesses' behaviors: it is probably not their priority to report when their own safety and that of their loved ones is at stake. We propose to test this hypothesis on EMSC felt reports and to extend the study to LastQuake smartphone application uses. LastQuake is a free smartphone app providing very rapid information on felt earthquakes. There are currently 210 000 active users around the world covering almost every country except for a few ones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Along with felt reports we also analyze the characteristics of LastQuake app launches. For both composite datasets created from 108 earthquakes, we analyze the rapidity of eyewitnesses' reaction and how it changes with intensity values and surmise how they reflect different types of behaviors. We will show the intrinsic limitations of crowdsourced information for rapid situation awareness. More importantly, we will show in which cases the lack of crowdsourced information could

The Global Earthquake Model and Disaster Risk Reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smolka, A. J.

2015-12-01

Advanced, reliable and transparent tools and data to assess earthquake risk are inaccessible to most, especially in less developed regions of the world while few, if any, globally accepted standards currently allow a meaningful comparison of risk between places. The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) is a collaborative effort that aims to provide models, datasets and state-of-the-art tools for transparent assessment of earthquake hazard and risk. As part of this goal, GEM and its global network of collaborators have developed the OpenQuake engine (an open-source software for hazard and risk calculations), the OpenQuake platform (a web-based portal making GEM's resources and datasets freely available to all potential users), and a suite of tools to support modelers and other experts in the development of hazard, exposure and vulnerability models. These resources are being used extensively across the world in hazard and risk assessment, from individual practitioners to local and national institutions, and in regional projects to inform disaster risk reduction. Practical examples for how GEM is bridging the gap between science and disaster risk reduction are: - Several countries including Switzerland, Turkey, Italy, Ecuador, Papua-New Guinea and Taiwan (with more to follow) are computing national seismic hazard using the OpenQuake-engine. In some cases these results are used for the definition of actions in building codes. - Technical support, tools and data for the development of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and risk models for regional projects in South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. - Going beyond physical risk, GEM's scorecard approach evaluates local resilience by bringing together neighborhood/community leaders and the risk reduction community as a basis for designing risk reduction programs at various levels of geography. Actual case studies are Lalitpur in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal and Quito/Ecuador. In agreement with GEM's collaborative approach, all

Investigating the Concept of Using Airglow Measurements to Detect Seismicity on Venus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kenda, Balthasar; Lognonné, Philippe; Komjathy, Attila; Banerdt, Bruce; Cutts, Jim; Soret, Lauriane; Jackson, Jennifer

2017-04-01

The internal structure and dynamics of Venus are poorly constrained by observations. Seismology is among the best candidates for probing the interior of the planet, and it would also provide indispensable information about the present-day tectonic activity of Venus. However, due to the extreme surface temperatures, a long-duration seismic station seems to be beyond the technical capabilities achievable today. Nonetheless, the thick and dense atmosphere, which strongly couples with the ground, gives rise to the attractive option of detecting seismic waves from quakes within the atmosphere itself (Garcia et al., 2005, Lognonné and Johnson, 2007, 2015) using in-situ or remote-sensing measurements (Cutts et al., 2015). Here, we consider the bright airglow emission of O2 at 1.27 μm on the nightside of Venus and we model the intensity fluctuations induced by Venus quakes. Synthetic seismograms in the airglow layer, at 90-120 km altitude, are computed using normal-mode summation for a fully coupled solid planet-atmosphere system, including the effects of molecular relaxation of CO2 and a radiative boundary condition at the top of the atmosphere (Lognonné et al., 2016). The corresponding variations in the volumetric emission rate, calculated for realistic background intensities of the airglow (Soret et al., 2012), are then vertically integrated to reproduce the signals that would be seen from orbit. The noise level of existing airglow cameras suggests that the Rayleigh waves generated by quakes of magnitude 5 and above occurring on the nightside of the planet may be detectable up to about 60° in epicentral distance. A significant advantage of this technique is that a single orbiting camera may be sufficient to serve the role of a seismic network. By identifying and tracking the waves it is indeed possible to locate the source, estimate the magnitude and measure the horizontal surface-wave propagation velocities on Venus. In particular, it is expected that this would

Prioritizing earthquake and tsunami alerting efforts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allen, R. M.; Allen, S.; Aranha, M. A.; Chung, A. I.; Hellweg, M.; Henson, I. H.; Melgar, D.; Neuhauser, D. S.; Nof, R. N.; Strauss, J. A.

2015-12-01

The timeline of hazards associated with earthquakes ranges from seconds for the strong shaking at the epicenter, to minutes for strong shaking at more distant locations in big quakes, to tens of minutes for a local tsunami. Earthquake and tsunami warning systems must therefore include very fast initial alerts, while also taking advantage of available time in bigger and tsunami-generating quakes. At the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory we are developing a suite of algorithms to provide the fullest possible information about earthquake shaking and tsunami inundation from seconds to minutes after a quake. The E-larmS algorithm uses the P-wave to rapidly detect an earthquake and issue a warning. It is currently issuing alerts to test users in as little as 3 sec after the origin time. Development of a new waveform detector may lead to even faster alerts. G-larmS uses permanent deformation estimates from GNSS stations to estimate the geometry and extent of rupture underway providing more accurate ground shaking estimates in big (M>~7) earthquakes. It performed well in the M6.0 2014 Napa earthquake. T-larmS is a new algorithm designed to extend alert capabilities to tsunami inundation. Rapid estimates of source characteristics for subduction zones event can not only be used to warn of the shaking hazard, but also the local tsunami inundation hazard. These algorithms are being developed, implemented and tested with a focus on the western US, but are also now being tested in other parts of the world including Israel, Turkey, Korea and Chile. Beta users in the Bay Area are receiving the alerts and beginning to implement automated actions. They also provide feedback on users needs, which has led to the development of the MyEEW smartphone app. This app allows beta users to receive the alerts on their cell phones. All these efforts feed into our ongoing assessment of directions and priorities for future development and implementation efforts.

Tales of quakes and consequences garner 2012 AGU journalism awards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weiss, Peter

2012-11-01

When a court last month convicted seismologists of wrongdoing for how they characterized earthquake risk in the weeks preceding a deadly 2009 temblor in the city of L'Aquila, Italy, the verdict shocked scientists around the world. More than a year before that judgment came down, freelance reporter Stephen S. Hall had explored the legal case and its implications for scientists and for society in an article published in the 15 September 2011 issue of Nature. Because of the deep and compelling way in which Hall reported on the case, AGU in July chose Hall as the 2012 winner of the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism - Features. Remarkable coverage of an earthquake also stood out for judges of the other of this year's AGU journalism honors: the 2012 David Perlman Award for Excellence in Journalism - News. Also in July, AGU selected a team at The Washington Post, including two staff writers, Brian Vastag and Steven Mufson, and the Post's graphics staff, to receive the Perlman Award for their superb reporting on the unusual 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook the Washington, D. C., region in August 2011.

Growth and yield of quaking aspen in North-central Minnesota.

Treesearch

Bryce E. Schlaegel

1971-01-01

Summaries of total and merchantable stand data from 34 permanent sample plots were used to derive equations for predicting present and future stand volumes. Equations are presented for predicting total cubic-foot volume, ratio of merchantable volume to total volume, and future stand diameter, heights, and basal area. Yield tables are given for total stand volume and...

Quaking aspen and the human experience: Dimensions, issues, and challenges

Treesearch

Stephen F. McCool

2001-01-01

Humans assign four types of meanings to aspen landscapes: (1) instrumental meanings dealing with the attainment of a goal - such as production of pulp or provision of recreation opportunities; (2) aesthetic meanings; (3) cultural/symbolic meanings dealing with spiritual and social attachments to landscapes; and (4) individual/expressive meanings derived out of...

The QuakeSim Project: Numerical Simulations for Active Tectonic Processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donnellan, Andrea; Parker, Jay; Lyzenga, Greg; Granat, Robert; Fox, Geoffrey; Pierce, Marlon; Rundle, John; McLeod, Dennis; Grant, Lisa; Tullis, Terry

2004-01-01

In order to develop a solid earth science framework for understanding and studying of active tectonic and earthquake processes, this task develops simulation and analysis tools to study the physics of earthquakes using state-of-the art modeling, data manipulation, and pattern recognition technologies. We develop clearly defined accessible data formats and code protocols as inputs to the simulations. these are adapted to high-performance computers because the solid earth system is extremely complex and nonlinear resulting in computationally intensive problems with millions of unknowns. With these tools it will be possible to construct the more complex models and simulations necessary to develop hazard assessment systems critical for reducing future losses from major earthquakes.

NASA/Caltech Team Images Nepal Quake Fault Rupture, Surface Movements

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-05-04

Using a combination of GPS-measured ground motion data, satellite radar data, and seismic observations from instruments distributed around the world, scientists have constructed preliminary estimates of how much the fault responsible for the April 25, 2015, magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal moved below Earth's surface (Figure 1). This information is useful for understanding not only what happened in the earthquake but also the potential for future events. It can also be used to infer a map of how Earth's surface moved due to the earthquake over a broader region (Figure 2). The maps created from these data can be viewed at PIA19384. In the first figure, the modeled slip on the fault is shown as viewed from above and indicated by the colors and contours within the rectangle. The peak slip in the fault exceeds 19.7 feet (6 meters). The ground motion measured with GPS is shown by the red and purple arrows and was used to develop the fault slip model. In the second figure, color represents vertical movement and the scaled arrows indicate direction and magnitude of horizontal movement. In both figures, aftershocks are indicated by red dots. Background color and shaded relief reflect regional variations in topography. The barbed lines show where the main fault reaches Earth's surface. The main fault dives northward into the Earth below the Himalaya. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19384

Satellite Radar Detects Damage from Sept. 2017 Chiapas, Mexico Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-19

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Caltech, also in Pasadena, created this Damage Proxy Map (DPM) depicting areas of Southern Mexico that are likely damaged (shown by red and yellow pixels) from the magnitude 8.1 Chiapas earthquake of Sept. 7, 2017 (near midnight local time, early morning on Sept. 8 UTC). The map is derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The images were taken before (Sept. 7, 2017 UTC) and after (Sept. 13, 2017 UTC) the earthquake. The map covers an area of 155 by 106 miles (250 by 170 kilometers). Each pixel measures about 33 yards (30 meters) across. The color variation from yellow to red indicates increasingly more significant ground surface change. Preliminary validation was done by comparing the SAR images to optical satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe. This damage proxy map should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas. Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA-JPL/Caltech ARIA team. This research was carried out at JPL under a contract with NASA. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21956

NASA Radar Captures Earth Deformation from 2010 Baja Calif. Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-03-04

This radar image from NASA Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar UAVSAR shows the deformed Earth caused by a 7.2 earthquake in Mexico state of Baja California and parts of the American Southwest on April 4, 2010.

Normalized Implicit Radial Models for Scattered Point Cloud Data without Normal Vectors

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-03-23

points by shrinking a discrete membrane, Computer Graphics Forum, Vol. 24-4, 2005, pp. 791-808 [8] Floater , M. S., Reimers, M.: Meshless...Parameterization and Surface Reconstruction, Computer Aided Geometric Design 18, 2001, pp 77-92 [9] Floater , M. S.: Parameterization of Triangulations and...Unorganized Points, In: Tutorials on Multiresolution in Geometric Modelling, A. Iske, E. Quak and M. S. Floater (eds.), Springer , 2002, pp. 287-316 [10

Re-Purposing Commercial Entertainment Software for Military Use

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-09-01

and simulation needs of the military can be awkward or impossible. Video games are designed to be both technologically advanced and flexible in design...We evaluated current games and modified Quake 3 Arena(Q3A) to serve as both an architectural walkthrough and a primitive team trainer. To accomplish...weapons models and characteristics, and overall game play. By re-purposing commercial entertainment software, we have produced a viable military virtual

Temporal variations of radon in soil related to earthquakes.

PubMed

Planinić, J; Radolić, V; Lazanin, Z

2001-08-01

A radon detector with LR-115 nuclear track film was constructed for radon concentration measurements in soil. Temporal radon variations, as well as the barometric pressure, precipitation and temperature were measured for two years. Negative correlation between radon concentration in soil and barometric pressure was found. For some of the recorded earthquakes that occurred during the observation period, soil radon anomalies may be noticed one month before the quakes.

Spatial earthquake hazard assessment of Evansville, Indiana

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rockaway, T.D.; Frost, J.D.; Eggert, D.L.; Luna, R.

1997-01-01

The earthquake hazard has been evaluated for a 150-square-kilometer area around Evansville, Indiana. GIS-QUAKE, a system that combines liquefaction and ground motion analysis routines with site-specific geological, geotechnical, and seismological information, was used for the analysis. The hazard potential was determined by using 586 SPT borings, 27 CPT sounding, 39 shear-wave velocity profiles and synthesized acceleration records for body-wave magnitude 6.5 and 7.3 mid-continental earthquakes, occurring at distances of 50 km and 250 km, respectively. The results of the GIS-QUAKE hazard analyses for Evansville identify areas with a high hazard potential that had not previously been identified in earthquake zonation studies. The Pigeon Creek area specifically is identified as having significant potential for liquefaction-induced damage. Damage as a result of ground motion amplification is determined to be a moderate concern throughout the area. Differences in the findings of this zonation study and previous work are attributed to the size and range of the database, the hazard evaluation methodologies, and the geostatistical interpolation techniques used to estimate the hazard potential. Further, assumptions regarding the groundwater elevations made in previous studies are also considered to have had a significant effect on the results.

Technological Lessons from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Accident

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-01

for human consumption . Fish from the area are now being assessed using a non-destructive testing regimen developed by Tohoku University. Monitoring...radioactivity limits for human consumption , even though much of the rice was grown in con- taminated soil. Fish were contaminated both by the initial event...a devastating earth- quake and tsunami. One of the many secondary effects of these disas- ters was a loss of control of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear

Conflict Management and Peacebuilding: Pillars of a New American Grand Strategy

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-01

it the “age-quake.” The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the phrase “a silent social revolution.” This silence echoes (yes, even silence has an...improvements have been the result of intense fighting and the use of high-impact weapons systems not normally associated with the protect-the...concept that is being used at the political- strategic level , or the Political, Military, Social , Economic, Infor- mation, and Infrastructure (PMSEII

The Shock and Vibration Digest. Volume 18, Number 9

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-09-01

microprocessors. ods for mobility measurements, methods for Modeling and computation of transient rotor analyzing mobility data, mathematical modeling...behavior and nonlinear fluid-film bearing from mobility data, and applications of modal behavior will be described. Sessions will be test results will be...Zoned Viscoelastic Analysis of the Response of Dams to Earth- soil, quakesR. Abascal, J. Dominguez V. Lotfi , N6 445 • . , .-e ’SJ. PP %-’ , Ph.D. Thesis

Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES)-Web Portal Developments for Interactive Access to Earthquake Data on a European Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spinuso, A.; Trani, L.; Rives, S.; Thomy, P.; Euchner, F.; Schorlemmer, D.; Saul, J.; Heinloo, A.; Bossu, R.; van Eck, T.

2009-04-01

The Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES) is European Commission (EC) project whose focus is networking together seismological observatories and research institutes into one integrated European infrastructure that provides access to data and data products for research. Seismological institutes and organizations in European and Mediterranean countries maintain large, geographically distributed data archives, therefore this scenario suggested a design approach based on the concept of an internet service oriented architecture (SOA) to establish a cyberinfrastructure for distributed and heterogeneous data streams and services. Moreover, one of the goals of NERIES is to design and develop a Web portal that acts as the uppermost layer of the infrastructure and provides rendering capabilities for the underlying sets of data The Web services that are currently being designed and implemented will deliver data that has been adopted to appropriate formats. The parametric information about a seismic event is delivered using a seismology-specific Extensible mark-up Language(XML) format called QuakeML (https://quake.ethz.ch/quakeml), which has been formalized and implemented in coordination with global earthquake-information agencies. Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) are used to assign identifiers to (1) seismic-event parameters described by QuakeML, and (2) generic resources, for example, authorities, locations providers, location methods, software adopted, and so on, described by use of a data model constructed with the resource description framework (RDF) and accessible as a service. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) has implemented a unique event identifier (UNID) that will create the seismic event URI used by the QuakeML data model. Access to data such as broadband waveform, accelerometric data and stations inventories will be also provided through a set of Web services that will wrap the middleware used by the

Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES) - Web Portal Developments for Interactive Access to Earthquake Data on a European Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spinuso, A.; Trani, L.; Rives, S.; Thomy, P.; Euchner, F.; Schorlemmer, D.; Saul, J.; Heinloo, A.; Bossu, R.; van Eck, T.

2008-12-01

The Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES) is European Commission (EC) project whose focus is networking together seismological observatories and research institutes into one integrated European infrastructure that provides access to data and data products for research. Seismological institutes and organizations in European and Mediterranean countries maintain large, geographically distributed data archives, therefore this scenario suggested a design approach based on the concept of an internet service oriented architecture (SOA) to establish a cyberinfrastructure for distributed and heterogeneous data streams and services. Moreover, one of the goals of NERIES is to design and develop a Web portal that acts as the uppermost layer of the infrastructure and provides rendering capabilities for the underlying sets of data The Web services that are currently being designed and implemented will deliver data that has been adopted to appropriate formats. The parametric information about a seismic event is delivered using a seismology- specific Extensible mark-up Language(XML) format called QuakeML (https://quake.ethz.ch/quakeml), which has been formalized and implemented in coordination with global earthquake-information agencies. Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) are used to assign identifiers to (1) seismic-event parameters described by QuakeML, and (2) generic resources, for example, authorities, locations providers, location methods, software adopted, and so on, described by use of a data model constructed with the resource description framework (RDF) and accessible as a service. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) has implemented a unique event identifier (UNID) that will create the seismic event URI used by the QuakeML data model. Access to data such as broadband waveform, accelerometric data and stations inventories will be also provided through a set of Web services that will wrap the middleware used by the

An Algorithm Framework for Isolating Anomalous Signals in Electromagnetic Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kappler, K. N.; Schneider, D.; Bleier, T.; MacLean, L. S.

2016-12-01

QuakeFinder and its international collaborators have installed and currently maintain an array of 165 three-axis induction magnetometer instrument sites in California, Peru, Taiwan, Greece, Chile and Sumatra. Based on research by Bleier et al. (2009), Fraser-Smith et al. (1990), and Freund (2007), the electromagnetic data from these instruments are being analyzed for pre-earthquake signatures. This analysis consists of both private research by QuakeFinder, and institutional collaborators (PUCP in Peru, NCU in Taiwan, NOA in Greece, LASP at University of Colorado, Stanford, UCLA, NASA-ESI, NASA-AMES and USC-CSEP). QuakeFinder has developed an algorithm framework aimed at isolating anomalous signals (pulses) in the time series. Results are presented from an application of this framework to induction-coil magnetometer data. Our data driven approach starts with sliding windows applied to uniformly resampled array data with a variety of lengths and overlap. Data variance (a proxy for energy) is calculated on each window and a short-term average/ long-term average (STA/LTA) filter is applied to the variance time series. Pulse identification is done by flagging time intervals in the STA/LTA filtered time series which exceed a threshold. Flagged time intervals are subsequently fed into a feature extraction program which computes statistical properties of the resampled data. These features are then filtered using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based method to cluster similar pulses. We explore the extent to which this approach categorizes pulses with known sources (e.g. cars, lightning, etc.) and the remaining pulses of unknown origin can be analyzed with respect to their relationship with seismicity. We seek a correlation between these daily pulse-counts (with known sources removed) and subsequent (days to weeks) seismic events greater than M5 within 15km radius. Thus we explore functions which map daily pulse-counts to a time series representing the likelihood of a

Temblor, an App to Transform Seismic Science into Personal Risk Reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sevilgen, V.; Jacobson, D. S.; Stein, R. S.; Lotto, G. C.; Sevilgen, S.; Kim, A.

2016-12-01

Government agencies and academic researchers provide a rich stream of seismic and engineering data. In addition to rapid earthquake notifications and damage assessments, these form the basis of probabilistic seismic hazard assessments and loss evaluations used by emergency management agencies, practicing engineers and geologists, and the insurance industry. But the data and the assessments that grow out of them are notoriously difficult for the public to comprehend. For example, who but the cognoscenti understands what "2% exceedance probability in 50 years," "0.5 g peak ground acceleration," or "moment-magnitude" mean? Nowhere is this divide more stark than in earthquake insurance. Using proprietary models, insurers calculate the probability of a payout above the deductible for your home policy, but sell the policy as "peace of mind" or "the strength to rebuild." How can a homeowner act in her best financial interests under these circumstances? Temblor (temblor.net) is our attempt to make seismic risk lucid, personal, and actionable. Free and ad-free, Temblor uses the best available public data and methods. Temblor gives you the seismic hazard rank of your location anywhere in the U.S. In its maps, you can see the active faults and recent quakes, and the landslide, liquefaction, tsunami inundation, and flood zones around you. Temblor also displays the Global Earthquake Activity Rate (GEAR) model of Bird et al. (2015). By entering the construction year and square footage for homes within the U.S., you learn the likely cost for seismic damage, and how that cost could be reduced by retrofit or covered by insurance. To give context to this decision, the app compares your seismic risk to other risks homeowners protect themselves against or insure for. Temblor estimates the cost and the most probable financial and safety benefits of a retrofit based on your location, home age and size, so you can decide if the expenditure makes sense. Seeking to make quakes more

Lessons learnt from the Wenchuan earthquake: performance evaluation of treatment of critical injuries in hardest-hit areas.

PubMed

Jiang, Jie; Li, Youping; Huang, Xiaolin; Li, Bing; Su, Lin; Zhong, Dake; Shi, Chenghu; Li, Mingxu; Shan, Juan; Chen, Yin

2012-08-01

Critical injury treatment in the hardest-hit areas after a great earthquake was retrospectively analyzed to determine how best to reduce mortality and disability and increase the rehabilitation rate through postquake medical relief. Retrospective analysis, primary sources, and secondary sources were comprehensively retrieved and analyzed. According to incomplete data, 30,620 injured were rescued by themselves among the hardest-hit areas in the 72 hours immediately following the earthquake. Critically injured patients accounted for 22% of total inpatients. Mortality rates declined with greater distance from the epicenter: rates were 12.21% for municipal healthcare centers in the hardest-hit areas, 4.50% for municipal medical units in peripheral quake-hit areas, 2.50% for provincial medical units in peripheral quake-hit areas, and 2.17% for Ministry of Health-affiliated hospitals in peripheral quake-hit areas. The number of injured with fractures on body, limbs or unknown-parts, severe conditions as well as other kinds of non-traumatic diseases received in second-line hospitals was much more than those treated in first-line hospitals with more severe injuries. Among 10,373 injured in stable condition transferred to third-line hospitals, 99.07% were discharged from hospitals within four months, while the mortality rate was 0.017%. The medical relief model of "supervising body helping subordinate unit, severely stricken areas assisting hardest-hit areas, least-hit areas supporting both hardest-hit and severely stricken areas, and self help and mutual assistance applied between hardest-hit areas" was roughly established for injured from severely stricken areas after the Wenchuan Earthquake. The "four-centralization" treatment principle, which referred to concentrating patients, experts, resources and treatment for those injured in critical condition effectively reduced the mortality from 15.06% to 2.9%. Timely, scientific, and standard on-site triage and postmedical

Hydro-fractured reservoirs: A study using double-difference location techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kahn, Dan Scott

The mapping of induced seismicity in enhanced geothermal systems presents the best tool available for understanding the resulting hydro-fractured reservoir. In this thesis, two geothermal systems are studied; one in Krafla, Iceland and the other in Basel Switzerland. The purpose of the Krafla survey was to determine the relation between water injection into the fault system and the resulting earthquakes and fluid pressure in the subsurface crack system. The epicenters obtained from analyzing the seismic data gave a set of locations that are aligned along the border of a high resistivity zone ˜2500 meters below the injection well. Further magneto-telluric/seismic-data correlation was seen in the polarity of the cracks through shear wave splitting. The purpose of the Basel project was to examine the creation of a reservoir by the initial stimulation, using an injection well bored to 5000 meters. This stimulation triggered a M3.4 event, extending the normal range of event sizes commonly incurred in hydro-fractured reservoirs. To monitor the seismic activity 6 seismometer sondes were deployed at depths from 317 to 2740 meters below the ground surface. During the seven-day period over 13,000 events were recorded and approximately 3,300 located. These events were first located by single-difference techniques. Subsequently, after calculating their cross-correlation coefficients, clusters of events were relocated using a double-difference algorithm. The event locations support the existence of a narrow reservoir spreading form the injection well. Analysis of the seismic data indicates that the reservoir grew at a uniform rate punctuated by fluctuations which occurred at times of larger events, which were perhaps caused by sudden changes in pressure. The orientation and size of the main fracture plane was found by determining focal mechanisms and locating events that were similar to the M3.4 event. To address the question of whether smaller quakes are simply larger quakes

Tehuantepec and Morelos-Puebla earthquakes lived and reported by the Servicio Sismológico Nacional, Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perez-Campos, X.

2017-12-01

On September 2017, Mexico experienced two significant inslab earthquakes with only 11 days apart from each other. Both caused severe damage in the epicentral states: Chiapas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Morelos, and Mexico City. In all senses, they tested the capabilities of the Servicio Sismológico Nacional (SSN, Mexican National Seismological Service), from the acquisition, processing, and reporting systems (both, automatic and manual), to social network and media response. In this work, we present the various aspects of the performance of the SSN and the results obtained real-time and the days after. The first earthquake occurred on 8 September within the Gulf of Tehuantepec. The SSN estimated its magnitude as Mww8.2, from W-phase inversion of local and regional data. Forty days later, it has had more than 7750 aftershocks with magnitudes larger than 2.5, making restless to inhabitants in the epicentral area. A preliminary hypo-DD relocation of the aftershocks shows two parallel SE-NW alignments. The mainshock seemed to have triggered seismicity in central Mexico, an effect previously observed by Singh et al. (1998) for coastal earthquakes. Barely 11 days had passed since this major quake. The SSN was in the middle of an intense aftershock sequence and conducting several outreach activities due to the anniversary of the 19 September 1985 (Mw8.0) earthquake, when the second quake hit. SSN located its epicenter at the border of the states of Morelos and Puebla and estimated its magnitude as Mww7.1. In this case, SSN identified only eight aftershocks, which was a similar behavior for previous inslab earthquakes in the region. Important aspects that these events have highlighted are the media and social network responses. Immediately after the first quake, SSN faced misinformation due to viral videos and social media messages predicting massive earthquakes and their relation to a solar storm that took place days before. Outreach to the public and the media became essential

Whole stand volume tables for quaking aspen in the Rocky Mountains

Treesearch

Wayne D. Shepperd; H. Todd Mowrer

1984-01-01

Linear regression equations were developed to predict stand volumes for aspen given average stand basal area and average stand height. Tables constructed from these equations allow easy field estimation of gross merchantable cubic and board foot Scribner Rules per acre, and cubic meters per hectare using simple prism cruise data.

Region Hit by Large Pakistan Quake as Shown by NASA Spacecraft

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

On September 24 at 11:29 GMT, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in south-central Pakistan at a relatively shallow depth of 20 kilometers. The earthquake occurred as the result of oblique strike-slip motion, consistent with rupture within the Eurasian tectonic plate. Tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi as well as Karachi in Pakistan. Even though the immediate area to the epicenter is sparsely populated, the majority of houses are of mud brick construction and damage is expected to be extensive. The perspective view, looking to the east, shows the location of the epicenter in Pakistan's Makran fold belt. The image is centered near 27 degrees north latitude, 65.5 degrees east longitude, and was acquired December 13, 2012. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and data products. The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance. The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. More information about ASTER is available at asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team Image Addition Date: 2013-09-24 NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Child Care Reacts to Hugo and the Quake. Dateline Child Care.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Child Care Information Exchange, 1990

1990-01-01

Describes the effects of Hurricane Hugo and the San Francisco earthquake on child care and child care centers and the responses of the centers to the disasters. Announces the openings of new child care centers and an expansion of Head Start.(RJC)

Probing failure susceptibilities of earthquake faults using small-quake tidal correlations.

PubMed

Brinkman, Braden A W; LeBlanc, Michael; Ben-Zion, Yehuda; Uhl, Jonathan T; Dahmen, Karin A

2015-01-27

Mitigating the devastating economic and humanitarian impact of large earthquakes requires signals for forecasting seismic events. Daily tide stresses were previously thought to be insufficient for use as such a signal. Recently, however, they have been found to correlate significantly with small earthquakes, just before large earthquakes occur. Here we present a simple earthquake model to investigate whether correlations between daily tidal stresses and small earthquakes provide information about the likelihood of impending large earthquakes. The model predicts that intervals of significant correlations between small earthquakes and ongoing low-amplitude periodic stresses indicate increased fault susceptibility to large earthquake generation. The results agree with the recent observations of large earthquakes preceded by time periods of significant correlations between smaller events and daily tide stresses. We anticipate that incorporating experimentally determined parameters and fault-specific details into the model may provide new tools for extracting improved probabilities of impending large earthquakes.

Simulation of quaking aspen potential fire behavior in Northern Utah, USA

Treesearch

R. Justin DeRose; A. Joshua Leffler

2014-01-01

Current understanding of aspen fire ecology in western North America includes the paradoxical characterization that aspen-dominated stands, although often regenerated following fire, are “fire-proof”. We tested this idea by predicting potential fire behavior across a gradient of aspen dominance in northern Utah using the Forest Vegetation Simulator and the Fire and...

Satellite Radar Detects Damage from Sept. 19, 2017 Raboso, Mexico, Quake

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-20

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Caltech, also in Pasadena, created this Damage Proxy Map (DPM) depicting areas of Central Mexico, including Mexico City, that are likely damaged (shown by red and yellow pixels) from the magnitude 7.1 Raboso earthquake of Sept. 19, 2017 (local time). The map is derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The images were taken before (Sept. 8, 2017) and after (Sept. 20, 2017) the earthquake. The map covers an area of 109 by 106 miles (175 by 170 kilometers). Each pixel measures about 33 yards (30 meters) across. The color variation from yellow to red indicates increasingly more significant ground and building surface change. Preliminary validation was done by comparing the DPM to a crowd-sourced Google Map (https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1_-V97lbdgLFHpx-CtqhLWlJAnYY&ll=19.41452166501326%2C-99.16498240436704&z=16). This damage proxy map should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas. Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA-JPL/Caltech ARIA team. This research was carried out at JPL under contract with NASA. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21963

JPRS Report, Soviet Union, Military Affairs, The Armed Forces Disaster Relief Effort in Armenia.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-23

coordinate nationwide efforts to eliminate the effects of the strong earthquake which shook northern Armenia on December 7 and which inflicted consider...involved in efforts dealing with the earth- quake’s effects . The whole country at this hour of trial shares the grief that has befallen Armenia... effects of the earthquake in Arme- nia, the death of many people, it has been decided to proclaim 10 December 1988 a day of national mourning in the

SINGER: A Computer Code for General Analysis of Two-Dimensional Reinforced Concrete Structures. Volume 1. Solution Process

DTIC Science & Technology

1975-05-01

Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Santiago de Chile, 13-18 January 1969, Vol. I , Session B2, Chilean Association oil Seismology and Earth- quake...Nuclear Agency May 1975 DISTRIBUTED BY: KJ National Technical Information Service U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE ^804J AFWL-TR-74-228, Vol. I ...CM o / i ’•fu.r ) V V AFWL-TR- 74-228 Vol. I SINGER: A COMPUTER CODE FOR GENERAL ANALYSIS OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL CONCRETE STRUCTURES Volum« I

Translationa on Environmental Quality No. 184.

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-11-06

sonnel and facilities for quak« defection . The team sent by the Minis- try of Science and Technology also urged the government to conduct a nation...Municipal Department of Water and Sewers, Napoleao Rodrigues de Freitas shows why. Pesticides DMAE [Municipal Department of Water and Sewers] report...do Sul region," the report states, "causes great concern for the DMAE because it serves as a supply 15 source for the city of Porto Alegre. The

St. John’s Bayou Cultural Resources Survey and Testing in Scott, Mississippi and New Madrid Counties, Missouri

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-04-01

the New Madrid earthquakes . These quakes ravaged the central Mississippi River valley between December 16, 1811 and February 7, 1812; followed by many...The effect of the earthquake on the town of New Madrid was devastating. Most of the structures in the town were leveled after the first tremors, and...end of the war by burning the Methodist Church and a number of other buildings (J. Price, Morrow and C. Price 1978:132). By the 1870s, New Madrid

Cascadia's Staggering Losses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Y.; Vogt, B.

2001-05-01

Recent worldwide earthquakes have resulted in staggering losses. The Northridge, California; Kobe, Japan; Loma Prieta, California; Izmit, Turkey; Chi-Chi, Taiwan; and Bhuj, India earthquakes, which range from magnitudes 6.7 to 7.7, have all occurred near populated areas. These earthquakes have resulted in estimated losses between \\3 and \\300 billion, with tens to tens of thousands of fatalities. Subduction zones are capable of producing the largest earthquakes. The 1939 M7.8 Chilean, the 1960 M9.5 Chilean, the 1964 M9.2 Alaskan, the 1970 M7.8 Peruvian, the 1985 M7.9 Mexico City and the 2001 M7.7 Bhuj earthquakes are damaging subduction zone quakes. The Cascadia fault zone poses a tremendous hazard in the Pacific Northwest due to the ground shaking and tsunami inundation hazards combined with the population. To address the Cascadia subduction zone threat, the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries conducted a preliminary statewide loss study. The 1998 Oregon study incorporated a M8.5 quake, the influence of near surface soil effects and default building, social and economic data available in FEMA's HAZUS97 software. Direct financial losses are projected at over \\$12 billion. Casualties are estimated at about 13,000. Over 5,000 of the casualties are estimated to result in fatalities from hazards relating to tsunamis and unreinforced masonry buildings.

Learning Science in the 21st century - a shared experience between schools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pinto, Tânia; Soares, Rosa; Ruas, Fátima

2015-04-01

Problem Based Learning is considered an innovative teaching and learning inquiry methodology that is student centered, focused in the resolution of an authentic problem and in which the teacher acts like a facilitator of the work in small groups. In this process, it is expected that students develop attitudinal, procedural and communication skills, in addition to the cognitive typically valued. PBL implementation also allows the use of multiple educational strategies, like laboratorial experiments, analogue modeling or ICT (video animations, electronic presentations or software simulations, for instance), which can potentiate a more interactive environment in the classroom. In this study, taken in three schools in the north of Portugal, which resulted from the cooperation between three science teachers, with a 75 individuals sample, were examined students' opinions about the main difficulties and strengths concerning the PBL methodology, having as a common denominator the use of a laboratorial experiment followed by an adequate digital software as educational resource to interpret the obtained results and to make predictions (e.g. EarthQuake, Virtual Quake, Stellarium). The data collection methods were based on direct observation and questionnaires. The results globally show that this educational approach motivates students' towards science, helping them to solve problems from daily life and that the use of software was relevant, as well as the collaborative working. The cognitive strand continues to be the most valued by pupils.

Surface rupture of the 1933 M 7.5 Diexi earthquake in eastern Tibet: implications for seismogenic tectonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Junjie; Xu, Xiwei; Zhang, Shimin; Yeats, Robert S.; Chen, Jiawei; Zhu, Ailan; Liu, Shao

2018-03-01

The 1933 M 7.5 Diexi earthquake is another catastrophic event with the loss of over 10 000 lives in eastern Tibet comparable to the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. Because of its unknown surface rupture, the seismogenic tectonics of the 1933 earthquake remains controversial. We collected unpublished reports, literatures and old photos associated with the 1933 earthquake and conducted field investigations based on high-resolution Google Earth imagery. Combined with palaeoseismological analysis, radiocarbon dating and relocated earthquakes, our results demonstrate that the source of the 1933 earthquake is the northwest-trending Songpinggou fault. This quake produced a > 30 km long normal-faulting surface rupture with the coseismic offset of 0.9-1.7 m. Its moment magnitude (Mw) is ˜6.8. The Songpinggou fault undergoes an average vertical slip rate of ˜0.25 mm yr-1 and has a recurrence interval of ˜6700 yr of large earthquakes. The normal-faulting surface rupture of this quake is probably the reactivation of the Mesozoic Jiaochang tectonic belt in gravitational adjustment of eastern Tibet. Besides the major boundary faults, minor structures within continental blocks may take a role in strain partitioning of eastern Tibet and have the potential of producing large earthquake. This study contributes to a full understanding of seismotectonics of large earthquakes and strain partitioning in eastern Tibet.

Steven Mufson, Brian Vastag, and The Washington Post Graphics Staff Receive 2012 David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism-News: Response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mufson, Steven; Vastag, Brian; Graphics Staff, Washington Post

2013-01-01

When the Washington Post's fifth floor newsroom began to sway one slow afternoon last August, my colleague Joel Achenbach barked, "That's an earthquake." It was good to put a name on this strange movement; I had never felt anything like it. The building swayed, then shook. One reporter ducked under his desk and I started to do the same. Before I could scoot my rear end to safety though, the shaking stopped and the building settled. The great East Coast quake was over.

Reactions to the 1985 Mexican earthquake: case vignettes.

PubMed

Gavalya, A S

1987-12-01

In September 1985 the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Mexico City devastated parts of a city already burdened by complex economic, political, and social problems. Overall, residents of the city demonstrated resilience and strength in dealing with the physical and psychosocial aspects of the disaster. Many in the unaffected areas responded quickly to provide assistance, and most residents continued to function in spite of the trauma. Primarily through case vignettes, the author describes reactions of individuals and families to the quake.

The earthquake educational institute at San Francisco State University

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sullivan, R.; Pestrong, R.; Strongin, H.

1980-01-01

The Earthquake Educational Institute was established in 1978 at San Francisco State University under a grant from the U.S National Science Foundation. The goal of the Institute is to develop earthquake-related curricula for use in elementary and secondary schools in the hope that, by educating students about earthquakes, they will be better prepared for the disruptions associated with a major quake. To date, about 140 elementary and secondary school teachers and administrators have enrolled in the program. 

Earthquakes, November-December 1977

USGS Publications Warehouse

Person, W.J.

1978-01-01

In the United States, the largest earthquake during this reporting period was a magntidue 6.6 in the Andreanof Islands, which are part of the Aleutian Islands chain, on November 4 that caused some minor damage. Northern California was struck by a magnitude 4.8 earthquake on November 22 causing moderate damage in the Willits area. This was the most damaging quake in the United States during the year. Two major earthquakes of magntidues 7.0 or above to 14 for the year. 

Megacity megaquakes—Two near misses

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stein, Ross S.; Toda, Shinji

2013-01-01

Two recent earthquakes left their mark on Santiago de Chile and Tokyo, well beyond the rupture zones, raising questions about the future vulnerability of these and other cities that lie in seismically active regions. Though spared strong shaking, the megacities nevertheless lit up in small quakes, perhaps signaling an abrupt change in the condition for failure on the faults beneath the cities. To detect such changes in earthquake rate requires good seismic monitoring networks; to respond to such hazard increases with civic preparations requires good government.

R&D 100, 2016: T-Quake – Quantum-Mechanical Transmitter/Receiver Microchip

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tauke-Pedretti, Anna; Camacho, Ryan; Thayer, Gayle

2016-11-07

Applying advanced microfabrication techniques and innovative microdesign, the Sandia Enabled Communications and Authentication Network (SECANT) team has designed and produced photonic microchips capable of sending, receiving, and processing quantum signals for applications in cyber and physical security.

New dimension analyses with error analysis for quaking aspen and black spruce

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woods, K. D.; Botkin, D. B.; Feiveson, A. H.

1987-01-01

Dimension analysis for black spruce in wetland stands and trembling aspen are reported, including new approaches in error analysis. Biomass estimates for sacrificed trees have standard errors of 1 to 3%; standard errors for leaf areas are 10 to 20%. Bole biomass estimation accounts for most of the error for biomass, while estimation of branch characteristics and area/weight ratios accounts for the leaf area error. Error analysis provides insight for cost effective design of future analyses. Predictive equations for biomass and leaf area, with empirically derived estimators of prediction error, are given. Systematic prediction errors for small aspen trees and for leaf area of spruce from different site-types suggest a need for different predictive models within species. Predictive equations are compared with published equations; significant differences may be due to species responses to regional or site differences. Proportional contributions of component biomass in aspen change in ways related to tree size and stand development. Spruce maintains comparatively constant proportions with size, but shows changes corresponding to site. This suggests greater morphological plasticity of aspen and significance for spruce of nutrient conditions.

The elastic energy and character of quakes in solid stars and planets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pines, D.; Shaham, J.

1972-01-01

The quadrupolar mechanical energy of a rotating axially symmetric solid planet (with or without a liquid interior) is calculated using methods previously developed for neutron stars in which an elastic reference tensor is introduced to describe the build-up of elastic energy in the star. The basic parameters of the theory (the gravitational energy A and elastic energy B) depend upon the internal structure of the planet and may be calculated from specific planetary models. Explicit expressions are obtained for the Love numbers, and for the planetary wobble frequency. The theory provides a simple relationship between changes in shape or axis of figure of the planet and elastic energy release. The theory is extended to describe the Earth by taking into account isostasy, triaxiality and the observed lithospheric configuration.

Automatic Detection of Landslides at Stromboli Volcano

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giudicepietro, F.; Esposito, A. M.; D'Auria, L.; Peluso, R.; Martini, M.

2011-12-01

In this work we present an automatic system for the landslide detection at Stromboli volcano that has proved to be effective both during the 2007 effusive eruption and in the recent (2 August 2011) volcanic activity. The study of the landslides at Stromboli is important because they could be considered short-term precursors of effusive eruptions, as seen during the 2007 eruption, and in addition they allow to improve the monitoring of the gravitational instabilities of the Sciara del Fuoco flank. The proposed system uses a two-class MLP (Multi Layer Perceptron) neural network in order to discriminate the landslides from other seismic signals usually recorded at Stromboli, such as explosion-quakes and volcanic tremor. To train and test the network we used a dataset of 537 signals, including 267 landslides and 270 other events (130 explosion-quakes and 140 tremor signals). The net performance is of 98.7%, if averaged over different net configurations, and of 99.5% for the best net performance. Based on the neural network response, the automatic system calculates a Landslide Percentage Index (LPI) defined on the number of signals identified as landslides by the net on a given temporal interval in order to recognize anomalies in the landslide rate. This system was sensitive to the signals produced by the flow of lava front during a recent mild effusive episode on the "La Sciara del Fuoco" slope.

Fabrication of microscale materials with programmable composition gradients.

PubMed

Laval, Cédric; Bouchaudy, Anne; Salmon, Jean-Baptiste

2016-04-07

We present an original microfluidic technique coupling pervaporation and the use of Quake valves to fabricate microscale materials (∼10 × 100 μm(2) × 1 cm) with composition gradients along their longest dimension. Our device exploits pervaporation of water through a thin poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) membrane to continuously pump solutions (or dispersions) contained in different reservoirs connected to a microfluidic channel. This pervaporation-induced flow concentrates solutes (or particles) at the tip of the channel up to the formation of a dense material. The latter invades the channel as it is constantly enriched by an incoming flux of solutes/particles. Upstream Quake valves are used to select which reservoir is connected to the pervaporation channel and thus which solution (or dispersion) enriches the material during its growth. The microfluidic configuration of the pervaporation process is used to impose controlled growth along the channel thus enabling one to program spatial composition gradients using appropriate actuations of the valves. We demonstrate the possibilities offered by our technique through the fabrication of dense assemblies of nanoparticles and polymer composites with programmed gradients of fluorescent dyes. We also address the key issue of the spatial resolution of our gradients and we show that well-defined spatial modulations down to ≈50 μm can be obtained within colloidal materials, whereas gradients within polymer materials are resolved on length scales down to ≈1 mm due to molecular diffusion.

Connecting crustal seismicity and earthquake-driven stress evolution in Southern California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pollitz, Fred; Cattania, Camilla

2017-01-01

Tectonic stress in the crust evolves during a seismic cycle, with slow stress accumulation over interseismic periods, episodic stress steps at the time of earthquakes, and transient stress readjustment during a postseismic period that may last months to years. Static stress transfer to surrounding faults has been well documented to alter regional seismicity rates over both short and long time scales. While static stress transfer is instantaneous and long lived, postseismic stress transfer driven by viscoelastic relaxation of the ductile lower crust and mantle leads to additional, slowly varying stress perturbations. Both processes may be tested by comparing a decade-long record of regional seismicity to predicted time-dependent seismicity rates based on a stress evolution model that includes viscoelastic stress transfer. Here we explore crustal stress evolution arising from the seismic cycle in Southern California from 1981 to 2014 using five M≥6.5 source quakes: the M7.3 1992 Landers, M6.5 1992 Big Bear, M6.7 1994 Big Bear, M7.1 1999 Hector Mine, and M7.2 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquakes. We relate the stress readjustment in the surrounding crust generated by each quake to regional seismicity using rate-and-state friction theory. Using a log likelihood approach, we quantify the potential to trigger seismicity of both static and viscoelastic stress transfer, finding that both processes have systematically shaped the spatial pattern of Southern California seismicity since 1992.

The Key Role of Eyewitnesses in Rapid Impact Assessment of Global Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossu, R.; Steed, R.; Mazet-Roux, G.; Roussel, F.; Etivant, C.; Frobert, L.; Godey, S.

2014-12-01

Uncertainties in rapid impact assessments of global earthquakes are intrinsically large because they rely on 3 main elements (ground motion prediction models, building stock inventory and related vulnerability) which values and/or spatial variations are poorly constrained. Furthermore, variations of hypocentral location and magnitude within their respective uncertainty domain can lead to significantly different shaking level for centers of population and change the scope of the disaster. We present the strategy and methods implemented at the Euro-Med Seismological Centre (EMSC) to rapidly collect in-situ observations on earthquake effects from eyewitnesses for reducing uncertainties of rapid earthquake impact assessment. It comprises crowdsourced information (online questionnaires, pics) as well as information derived from real time analysis of web traffic (flashourcing technique), and more recently deployment of QCN (Quake Catcher Network) low cost sensors. We underline the importance of merging results of different methods to improve performances and reliability of collected data.We try to better understand and respond to public demands and expectations after earthquakes through improved information services and diversification of information tools (social networks, smartphone app., browsers adds-on…), which, in turn, drive more eyewitnesses to our services and improve data collection. We will notably present our LastQuake Twitter feed (Quakebot) and smartphone applications (IOs and android) which only report earthquakes that matter for the public and authorities, i.e. felt and damaging earthquakes identified thanks to citizen generated information.

Christchurch earthquakes: how did former refugees cope?

PubMed

Osman, Mohamud; Hornblow, Andrew; Macleod, Sandy; Coope, Pat

2012-06-29

This study investigated how former refugees now living in Christchurch (Canterbury Province, New Zealand) communities coped after the 4 September 2010 and subsequent earthquakes. A systematic sample of one in three former refugees from five ethnic groupings (Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Bhutan) was selected from a list of 317 refugees provided by the Canterbury Refugee Council and invited to participate in the study. Seventy-two out of 105 potential participants completed a 26 item questionnaire regarding the impact of the quakes, their concerns and anxieties, coping strategies and social supports. The methodology was complicated by ongoing aftershocks, particularly that of 22 February 2011. Three-quarters of participants reported that they had coped well, spirituality and religious practice being an important support for many, despite less then 20% receiving support from mainstream agencies. Most participants (72%) had not experienced a traumatic event or natural disaster before. Older participants and married couples with children were more likely to worry about the earthquakes and their impact than single individuals. There was a significant difference in the level of anxiety between males and females. Those who completed the questionnaire after the 22 February 2011 quake were more worried overall than those interviewed before this. Overall, the former refugees reported they had coped well despite most of them not experiencing an earthquake before and few receiving support from statutory relief agencies. More engagement from local services is needed in order to build trust and cooperation between the refugee and local communities.

Earthquakes, July-August 1992

USGS Publications Warehouse

Person, W.J.

1992-01-01

There were two major earthquakes (7.0≤M<8.0) during this reporting period. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred in Kyrgyzstan on August 19 and a magnitude 7.0 quake struck the Ascension Island region on August 28. In southern California, aftershocks of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake on June 28, 1992, continued. One of these aftershocks caused damage and injuries, and at least one other aftershock caused additional damage. Earthquake-related fatalities were reportred in Kyrgzstan and Pakistan. 

Possible connection between two Alaskan catastrophes occurring 25 yr apart (1964 and 1989)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kvenvolden, K.A.; Carlson, P.R.; Threlkeld, C.N.; Warden, A.

1993-01-01

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez supertanker grounded on Bligh Reef, spilling North Slope crude oil into Prince william Sound, Alaska. Tracking the geochemical fate of this spilled oil has revealed, in addition to weathered products from the spill, minor oil residues on beaches from a distinctly different source. This probably was the Great Alaska Earthquake of March 27, 1964. This quake and the subsequent tsunami destroyed asphalt storage facilities at the old Valdez town site, spilling asphalt into Port Valdez fjord. From there the asphalt apparently advanced south into the sound. -from Authors

Complex Faulting Across the Los Angeles Portion of the Pacific-North American Plate Boundary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donnellan, Andrea; Parker, Jay; Granat, Robert; Glasscae, Maggi; Lyzenga, Greg; Grant Ludwig, Lisa; Rundle, John

2011-01-01

We propose to observe seismically and tectonically active regions in northern and southern California using UAVSAR to support EarthScope activities. We will test the earthquake forecasting methodology developed by Rundle through NASA's QuakeSim project by observing regions indicated as having high probability for earthquakes in the near future (5-10 years). The UAVSAR flights will serve as a baseline for pre-earthquake activity. Should an earthquake occur during the course of this project, we will also be able to observe postseismic motions associated with the earthquakes.

Tempo and mode of evolution in the tangled nature model.

PubMed

Jones, Dominic; Jensen, Henrik Jeldtoft; Sibani, Paolo

2010-09-01

The fossil record has been interpreted as exhibiting a gradual decrease in the extinction rate. We use the individual based Tangled Nature model of evolutionary ecology to study the mechanisms behind this kind of nonstationary macrodynamics. We demonstrate that the long time aging in the system (manifested as a slowing down of the rate of large jumps, or quakes, that the system undergoes) is related to decreasing fluctuations in the offspring probability. The scenario is reminiscent of relaxation in a quenched spin glass but purely dynamical in nature since no energy barriers can be defined.

Electric Currents in Granite and Gabbro Generated by Impacts Up To 1 km/sec

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hollerman, W. A.; Lau, B. L.; Moore, R. J.; Malespin, C. A.; Bergeron, N. P.; Freund, F. T.; Wasilewski, P. J.

2006-12-01

For many years, radio noise, strange lights coming out of the ground, and other unusual phenomena have been detected prior to major earthquakes. Only recently have these signals been systematically monitored and their correlations to earthquakes have been more firmly established. A glow in the sky sometimes heralds a big quake. In January 1995, white, blue, or orange lights extending some 200 m into the air and spreading 1 to 8 km across the ground were reported by at least 23 eyewitnesses in and around Kobe, Japan. Hours later, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake killed more than 4,500 people. Such signals imply the movement of electric currents through rock and soil and their discharge into the air. During summer 2006 a research project started using the single-stage light gas gun at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The gun fires 63 mm diameter aluminum sabots of a few grams to 1.2 kilograms. A catcher was designed to stop the sabot while allowing a smaller projectile to impact a desired target at velocities up to 1 km/s. This presentation documents first results of the production of electric currents during impacts on granite and gabbro instrumented with capacitive sensors, contact electrodes, magnetic pick-up coils and photo diodes for light detection. This research is critical towards the development of techniques that could be used to monitor quakes on the Earth and estimate secondary effects of meteorite impacts on the Moon and Mars during the next phase of human space exploration.

Anomalous geomagnetic variations associated with Parkfield (Ms=6.0, 28-SEP-2004, California, USA) earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotsarenko, A. A.; Pilinets, S. A.; Perez Enriquez, R.; Lopez Cruz Abeyro, J. A.

2007-05-01

Analysis of geomagnetic and telluric data, measured at the station PRK (Parkfield, ULF flux-gate 3-axial magnetometer) 1 week before (including) the day of the major EQ (EarthQuake, Ms=6.0, 28-SEP-2004, 17:15:24) near Parkfield, California, USA, are presented. Spectral analysis reveal the ULF geomagnetic disturbances observed the day before the event, Sep 27, at 15:00- 20:00 by UT, and at the day of the EQ, Sep 28, at 11:00-19:00. Filtering in the corresponding frequency band f = 0.25-0.5 Hz gives the following estimations of the amplitudes of the signals: up to 20 pT for the magnetic channels and 1.5 mkV/km for the telluric ones. Observed phenomena occurs under quiet geomagnetic conditions (|Dst|<20 nT); revision of the referent stations data situated far away from the EQ epicenter (330 km) does not reveal any similar effect. Moreover, the Quake Finder research group (http:www.quakefinder.com) received very similar results (ELF range instrument, placed about 50 km from the EQ epicenter) for the day of the EQ. Mentioned above suggests the localized character of the source, possibly of the ionosphere or tectonic origin rather than of magnetosphere. Comparative analysis of the mentioned 2 stations show that we observed the lower-frequency part of the ULF- ELF burst, localized in the frequency range 0.25-1 Hz, generated 9 hours before the earthquake. Acknowledgements. The authors are grateful to Malcolm Johnston for providing us with the geomagnetic data.

Static-stress impact of the 1992 Landers earthquake sequence on nucleation and slip at the site of the 1999 M=7.1 Hector Mine earthquake, southern California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Parsons, Tom; Dreger, Douglas S.

2000-01-01

The proximity in time (∼7 years) and space (∼20 km) between the 1992 M=7.3 Landers earthquake and the 1999 M=7.1 Hector Mine event suggests a possible link between the quakes. We thus calculated the static stress changes following the 1992 Joshua Tree/Landers/Big Bear earthquake sequence on the 1999 M=7.1 Hector Mine rupture plane in southern California. Resolving the stress tensor into rake-parallel and fault-normal components and comparing with changes in the post-Landers seismicity rate allows us to estimate a coefficient of friction on the Hector Mine plane. Seismicity following the 1992 sequence increased at Hector Mine where the fault was unclamped. This increase occurred despite a calculated reduction in right-lateral shear stress. The dependence of seismicity change primarily on normal stress change implies a high coefficient of static friction (µ≥0.8). We calculated the Coulomb stress change using µ=0.8 and found that the Hector Mine hypocenter was mildly encouraged (0.5 bars) by the 1992 earthquake sequence. In addition, the region of peak slip during the Hector Mine quake occurred where Coulomb stress is calculated to have increased by 0.5–1.5 bars. In general, slip was more limited where Coulomb stress was reduced, though there was some slip where the strongest stress decrease was calculated. Interestingly, many smaller earthquakes nucleated at or near the 1999 Hector Mine hypocenter after 1992, but only in 1999 did an event spread to become a M=7.1 earthquake.

Impact of a natural catastrophe on life events.

PubMed

Janney, J G; Masuda, M; Holmes, T H

1977-06-01

A major earthquake struck Peru in May 1970. This post-quake study compares the impact of this natural catastrophe on the residents of two different cities; one was 90 percent levelled by the quake and one was untouched. A relatively homogeneous population of Peruvians obtained from the two cities completed two paper-and-pencil tests, the Social Readjustment Rating Questionnaire (SRRQ) and the Schedule of Recent Experience (SRE). Both questionnaires were adapted from the SRRQ which had been translated for studies in Spain and EL Salvador. The data from the SRRQ generated two Peruvian Social Readjustment Rating Scales (SRRS), one for each of the cities studied. The differences in the two scales were striking. The lowest intra-cultural correlation yet observed on four studies was obtained. Comparison with a United States population yielded no significant relationships (rs = 0.15), the first time this has occurred in nine intercultural studies. A comparison of the profile of items generated by their subjective magnitude estimations indicated striking qualitative and quantitative differences between the two populations. The SRE generated frequency of occurrence of items and life change magnitudes in five proscribed time intervals. Significant differences in these two quantitative indices (including the health change items) were observed in the two populations in some of the time intervals and not in others. The data formulated suggest that the occurrence of a natural catastrophe--an earthquake which devastated one city--accounted for much of the difference observed between the populations of the two cities.

Biosafety of Prions.

PubMed

Bistaffa, Edoardo; Rossi, Martina; De Luca, Chiara M G; Moda, Fabio

2017-01-01

Prions are the infectious agents that cause devastating and untreatable disorders known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs). The pathologic events and the infectious nature of these transmissible agents are not completely understood yet. Due to the difficulties in inactivating prions, working with them requires specific recommendations and precautions. Moreover, with the advent of innovative technologies, such as the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) and the Real Time Quaking-Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC), prions could be amplified in vitro and the infectious features of the amplified products need to be carefully assessed. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Disasters as a necessary part of benefit-cost analyses.

PubMed

Mark, R K; Stuart-Alexander, D E

1977-09-16

Benefit-cost analyses for water projects generally have not included the expected costs (residual risk) of low-probability disasters such as dam failures, impoundment-induced earthquakes, and landslides. Analysis of the history of these types of events demonstrates that dam failures are not uncommon and that the probability of a reservoir-triggered earth-quake increases with increasing reservoir depth. Because the expected costs from such events can be significant and risk is project-specific, estimates should be made for each project. The cost of expected damage from a "high-risk" project in an urban area could be comparable to project benefits.

News and Views: Take the long view; Postgraduate degrees produce employable people - it's official; Airborne radar reveals fault rupture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2010-08-01

Academics in the field have long thought that postgraduate degrees in astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science and particle physics are a good bet for careers. But now a survey has confirmed that they bring excellent long-term employment prospects and above-average salaries, within sciences and elsewhere, boosting the case for funding studentships in order to support science and industry. Satellite synthetic aperture radar is a valuable tool for understanding the deformation of the surface of the Earth at earthquake faults; now NASA scientists have used SAR on planes to get an altogether closer look at quake effects.

Immediate and Ongoing Detection of Prions in the Blood of Hamsters and Deer following Oral, Nasal, or Blood Inoculations

PubMed Central

Elder, Alan M.; Henderson, Davin M.; Nalls, Amy V.; Hoover, Edward A.; Kincaid, Anthony E.; Bartz, Jason C.

2015-01-01

Infectious prions traverse epithelial barriers to gain access to the circulatory system, yet the temporal parameters of transepithelial transport and persistence in the blood over time remain unknown. We used whole-blood real-time quaking-induced conversion (wbRT-QuIC) to analyze whole blood collected from transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE)-inoculated deer and hamsters throughout the incubation period for the presence of common prion protein-conversion competent amyloid (PrPC-CCA). We observed PrPC-CCA in the blood of TSE-inoculated hosts throughout the disease course from minutes postexposure to terminal disease. PMID:25926635

Odua Weston Jambi Hotel’s Structural Building Design with Prestressed Concrete Slab System Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bayuaji, R.; Darmawan, M. S.; Rofiq, M. A.; Santoso, S. E.; Hardiyanto, E.

2017-11-01

Odua Weston Jambi Hotel is an eight-floor hotel and located in a prone to earth-quake area. This building used conventional concrete to its structural beam and column. This research’s purpose was to maximize the second-floor’s function by modifing its architectural design. Special Moment Resisting Frame System (SMRFS) approach was used in the structural design, referred to SNI 03-2847-2013 dan SNI 1726-2012 and to compensate the needs of a spacious hall without any column in the centre of the hall, so therefore, prestressed concrete plate is used to solve this problem.

[Dentist's work at the treatment of maxillofacial injuries under extraordinary circumstances].

PubMed

Novosel, M

1990-01-01

In the article the author describes the possibilities of dentist's work with maxillo-facially injured persons in cases of greater mass disasters as earth-quakes, floods, greater traffic accidents, and recently also the accidents at sports stadiums and demonstrations. Owing to extraordinary circumstances and a great number of injured people on a small place, and short time available, simple methods of temporary immobilisation are used, which are carried out from the place of the injury to the transport in a specialist institution, where the final specialist treatment begins. Some of these methods are described by the author.

Catastrophic volcanic collapse: relation to hydrothermal processes.

PubMed

López, D L; Williams, S N

1993-06-18

Catastrophic volcanic collapse, without precursory magmatic activity, is characteristic of many volcanic disasters. The extent and locations of hydrothermal discharges at Nevado del Ruiz volcano, Colombia, suggest that at many volcanoes collapse may result from the interactions between hydrothermal fluids and the volcanic edifice. Rock dissolution and hydrothermal mineral alteration, combined with physical triggers such as earth-quakes, can produce volcanic collapse. Hot spring water compositions, residence times, and flow paths through faults were used to model potential collapse at Ruiz. Caldera dimensions, deposits, and alteration mineral volumes are consistent with parameters observed at other volcanoes.

The Sasso Pizzuto landslide dam and seismically induced rockfalls along the Nera River gorge (Central Italy).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romeo, Saverio; Di Matteo, Lucio; Melelli, Laura; Cencetti, Corrado; Dragoni, Walter; Fredduzzi, Andrea; De Rosa, Pierluigi

2017-04-01

The seismically induced landslides are among the most destructive and dangerous effects of an earthquake. In the Italian contest, this is also documented by a national catalogue that collects data related to earthquake-induced ground failures in the last millennium (CEDIT database). In particular, Central Italy has been affected by several historical landslides triggered by significant earthquakes, the last of which occurred in August-October 2016, representing the Italian strongest event after the 1980 Irpinia earthquake (Mw 6.9). The study presents the effects of recent seismically induced rockfalls occurred within the Central Italy seismic sequence (October 30, 2016) along the Nera River gorge between Umbria and Marche. The study area is completely included in the Monti Sibillini National Park, where the highest mountain chain in the Umbrian-Marchean Apennine is located. Most of rockfalls have affected the "Maiolica" formation, a stratified and fractured pelagic limestone dating to the Early Cretaceous. The seismic sequence produced diffuse instabilities along the SP 209 road within the Nera River gorge: boulders, debris accumulations and diffuse rockfalls have been mapped. Most of boulders have size ranging from 0.3 to 2.0 m in diameter. Although several strong quakes (Mw > 5) occurred during the August-October sequence, only the main quake triggered the Sasso Pizzuto rockfall producing a landslide dam along the Nera River. The landslide appears to have originated as a wedge failure, which evolved to free fall when the rock block lost the contact with the stable rock mass. In other words, the quake produced the "explosion" of the rock wall allowing the rockfall process. Once the rock mass reached the toe of the slope, it was broken triggering a rock avalanche that obstructed both the Nera River and SP 209 road. With the aim to estimate the total volume of involved rock, a field survey was carried out by using a laser rangefinder. Remote measures were acquired

The 7.9 Denali Fault Earthquake: Aftershock Locations, Moment Tensors and Focal Mechanisms from the Regional Seismic Network Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ratchkovski, N. A.; Hansen, R. A.; Christensen, D.; Kore, K.

2002-12-01

The largest earthquake ever recorded on the Denali fault system (magnitude 7.9) struck central Alaska on November 3, 2002. It was preceded by a magnitude 6.7 foreshock on October 23. This earlier earthquake and its zone of aftershocks were located slightly to the west of the 7.9 quake. Aftershock locations and surface slip observations from the 7.9 quake indicate that the rupture was predominately unilateral in the eastward direction. Near Mentasta Lake, a village that experienced some of the worst damage in the quake, the surface rupture scar turns from the Denali fault to the adjacent Totschunda fault, which trends toward more southeasterly toward the Canadian border. Overall, the geologists found that measurable scarps indicate that the north side of the Denali fault moved to the east and vertically up relative to the south. Maximum offsets on the Denali fault were 8.8 meters at the Tok Highway cutoff, and were 2.2 meters on the Totschunda fault. The Alaska regional seismic network consists of over 250 station sites, operated by the Alaska Earthquake Information Center (AEIC), the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC). Over 25 sites are equipped with the broad-band sensors, some of which have in addition the strong motion sensors. The rest of the stations are either 1 or 3-component short-period instruments. The data from these stations are collected, processed and archived at the AEIC. The AEIC staff installed a temporary network with over 20 instruments following the 6.7 Nenana Mountain and the 7.9 events. Prior to the M 7.9 Denali Fault event, the automatic earthquake detection system at AEIC was locating between 15 and 30 events per day. After the event, the system had over 200-400 automatic locations per day for at least 10 days following the 7.9 event. The processing of the data is ongoing with the priority given to the larger events. The cumulative length of the 6.7 and 7.9 aftershock locations along the Denali

Building Quakes: Detection of Weld Fractures in Buildings using High-Frequency Seismic Techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heckman, V.; Kohler, M. D.; Heaton, T. H.

2009-12-01

Catastrophic fracture of welded beam-column connections in buildings was observed in the Northridge and Kobe earthquakes. Despite the structural importance of such connections, it can be difficult to locate damage in structural members underneath superficial building features. We have developed a novel technique to locate fracturing welds in buildings in real time using high-frequency information from seismograms. Numerical and experimental methods were used to investigate an approach for detecting the brittle fracture of welds of beam-column connections in instrumented steel moment-frame buildings through the use of time-reversed Green’s functions and wave propagation reciprocity. The approach makes use of a prerecorded catalogue of Green’s functions for an instrumented building to detect high-frequency failure events in the building during a later earthquake by screening continuous data for the presence of one or more of the events. This was explored experimentally by comparing structural responses of a small-scale laboratory structure under a variety of loading conditions. Experimentation was conducted on a polyvinyl chloride frame model structure with data recorded at a sample rate of 2000 Hz using piezoelectric accelerometers and a 24-bit digitizer. Green’s functions were obtained by applying impulsive force loads at various locations along the structure with a rubber-tipped force transducer hammer. We performed a blind test using cross-correlation techniques to determine if it was possible to use the catalogue of Green’s functions to pinpoint the absolute times and locations of subsequent, induced failure events in the structure. A finite-element method was used to simulate the response of the model structure to various source mechanisms in order to determine the types of elastic waves that were produced as well as to obtain a general understanding of the structural response to localized loading and fracture.

PROTOTYPIC CONTINUITY METHODS FOR FASTER RECOVERY OF OIL PRODUCTS SUPPLY AFTER GREAT QUAKE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasuno, Takato

In the Great East Japan Earthquake, some oil product farms and tanks had a lot of damages. Then we temporally run short of oil products such as gasoline, lamp oil. The oil product is indispensable to make cargo shipment, or rescue operations, and some trouble must come for everyday shopping and movement of business. The lifeline damages come out electric power, water service, gas and communication. In addition the oil product shortage overlaps then the importance to restore was recognized. After earthquake disaster, there is a possibility to interrupt supply services such as shipping from oil tanks and sale at stations. Even if their discontinuation comes, it needs some business continuity policies in order to recover supply service at early stage. This paper grasps oil product discontinuation of supply and restoration transition and tries to get disaster lessons. This paper proposes prototypic techniques to minimize the sum of penalties to supply no service for neighbor region with capacities of critical stations. It applies to Tohoku regions and their gas stations and comments the usefulness of techniques and implication of supply service continuity policy.

Quake Estate (board game). Crustal Evolution Education Project. Teacher's Guide [and] Student Investigation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoever, Edward C., Jr.

Crustal Evolution Education Project (CEEP) modules were designed to: (1) provide students with the methods and results of continuing investigations into the composition, history, and processes of the earth's crust and the application of this knowledge to man's activities and (2) to be used by teachers with little or no previous background in the…

Outline of the 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, Earthquakes and lessons for a large urban earthquake in Tokyo Metropolitan area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirata, N.

2016-12-01

A series of devastating earthquakes hit Kumamoto districts in Kyushu, Japan, in April, 2016. The M6.5 event occurred at 21:26 on April 14th (JST) and, 28 hours later, the M7.3 event occurred at 01:25 on April 17th (JST) at almost the same location with a depth of 10 km. The both earthquakes were felt with a seismic intensity of 7 in Japan Metrological Agency (JMA) scale at Mashiki Town. The intensity of 7 is the highest level by definition. Very strong accelerations are observed by the M6.5 event with 1,580 gal at KiK-net Mashiki station and 1,791 gal by the M7.3 event at Ohtsu City station. As a result, more than 8,000 houses are totally collapsed, 26,000 are heavily collapsed, and 120,000 are partially damaged. There are 49 people directly killed and 32 are indirectly killed by the quakes. The most important lesson from the Kumamoto earthquake is that a very strong ground motion may hit immediately after the first large event, say in a few days. This has serious impact to a house damaged by the first large quake. In the 2016 Kumamoto sequence there are also many strong aftershocks including 4 M5.8-5.9 events till April 18th. More than 180,000 people, at most, took shelter because of scaring many strong aftershocks. I will discuss both natural and human aspects of the Kumamoto earthquake disaster by the in-land shallow large earthquakes suggesting lessons for the large Metropolitan Earthquakes in Tokyo, Japan.

How citizen seismology is transforming rapid public earthquake information and interactions between seismologists and society

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossu, Rémy; Steed, Robert; Mazet-Roux, Gilles; Roussel, Fréderic; Caroline, Etivant

2015-04-01

Historical earthquakes are only known to us through written recollections and so seismologists have a long experience of interpreting the reports of eyewitnesses, explaining probably why seismology has been a pioneer in crowdsourcing and citizen science. Today, Internet has been transforming this situation; It can be considered as the digital nervous system comprising of digital veins and intertwined sensors that capture the pulse of our planet in near real-time. How can both seismology and public could benefit from this new monitoring system? This paper will present the strategy implemented at Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) to leverage this new nervous system to detect and diagnose the impact of earthquakes within minutes rather than hours and how it transformed information systems and interactions with the public. We will show how social network monitoring and flashcrowds (massive website traffic increases on EMSC website) are used to automatically detect felt earthquakes before seismic detections, how damaged areas can me mapped through concomitant loss of Internet sessions (visitors being disconnected) and the benefit of collecting felt reports and geolocated pictures to further constrain rapid impact assessment of global earthquakes. We will also describe how public expectations within tens of seconds of ground shaking are at the basis of improved diversified information tools which integrate this user generated contents. A special attention will be given to LastQuake, the most complex and sophisticated Twitter QuakeBot, smartphone application and browser add-on, which deals with the only earthquakes that matter for the public: the felt and damaging earthquakes. In conclusion we will demonstrate that eyewitnesses are today real time earthquake sensors and active actors of rapid earthquake information.

The 11 April 2012 east Indian Ocean earthquake triggered large aftershocks worldwide

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pollitz, Fred F.; Stein, Ross S.; Sevilgen, Volkan; Burgmann, Roland

2012-01-01

Large earthquakes trigger very small earthquakes globally during passage of the seismic waves and during the following several hours to days1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, but so far remote aftershocks of moment magnitude M≥5.5 have not been identified11, with the lone exception of an M=6.9 quake remotely triggered by the surface waves from an M=6.6 quake 4,800 kilometres away12. The 2012 east Indian Ocean earthquake that had a moment magnitude of 8.6 is the largest strike-slip event ever recorded. Here we show that the rate of occurrence of remote M≥5.5 earthquakes (>1,500 kilometres from the epicentre) increased nearly fivefold for six days after the 2012 event, and extended in magnitude to M≥7. These global aftershocks were located along the four lobes of Love-wave radiation; all struck where the dynamic shear strain is calculated to exceed 10-7 for at least 100 seconds during dynamic-wave passage. The other M≥8.5 mainshocks during the past decade are thrusts; after these events, the global rate of occurrence of remote M≥5.5 events increased by about one-third the rate following the 2012 shock and lasted for only two days, a weaker but possibly real increase. We suggest that the unprecedented delayed triggering power of the 2012 earthquake may have arisen because of its strike-slip source geometry or because the event struck at a time of an unusually low global earthquake rate, perhaps increasing the number of nucleation sites that were very close to failure.

Increase in avoidable hospital admissions after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

PubMed

Sasabuchi, Yusuke; Matsui, Hiroki; Yasunaga, Hideo; Fushimi, Kiyohide

2017-03-01

The Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear disaster on 11 March 2011 had a short-term influence on the increase in emergency department visits and hospital admissions due to various diseases. However, it remains unclear whether the earthquake and tsunami disaster affected the long-term health conditions of people in the affected areas. Using a national inpatient database in Japan, we investigated people's ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs), which are defined as conditions for which effective management and treatment should prevent admission to a hospital. We compared the number of admissions for ACSCs before-quake (July 2010 to February 2011) with after-quake (July 2012 to February 2013) periods in the disaster area compared with other areas using a difference-in-differences design. Linear regression models with the interaction between periods and areas were used to estimate the impact of the earthquake on admissions for ACSCs. No significant difference in difference was seen in preventable ACSCs (where immunisation and other interventions can prevent illness) or chronic ACSCs (where effective care can prevent flare-ups), while acute ACSCs (where early intervention can prevent more serious progression) increased significantly (3.3 admissions per 100 000 population; 95% CI 0.4 to 6.3; p=0.028). Preventable and chronic ACSCs may have increased just after the earthquake and then immediately decreased. However, avoidable admissions due to acute ACSCs remained high in the long term after the earthquake and tsunami disaster. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Simultaneous Determination of Structure and Event Location Using Body and Surface Wave Measurements at a Single Station: Preparation for Mars Data from the InSight Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panning, M. P.; Banerdt, W. B.; Beucler, E.; Blanchette-Guertin, J. F.; Boese, M.; Clinton, J. F.; Drilleau, M.; James, S. R.; Kawamura, T.; Khan, A.; Lognonne, P. H.; Mocquet, A.; van Driel, M.

2015-12-01

An important challenge for the upcoming InSight mission to Mars, which will deliver a broadband seismic station to Mars along with other geophysical instruments in 2016, is to accurately determine event locations with the use of a single station. Locations are critical for the primary objective of the mission, determining the internal structure of Mars, as well as a secondary objective of measuring the activity of distribution of seismic events. As part of the mission planning process, a variety of techniques have been explored for location of marsquakes and inversion of structure, and preliminary procedures and software are already under development as part of the InSight Mars Quake and Mars Structure Services. One proposed method, involving the use of recordings of multiple-orbit surface waves, has already been tested with synthetic data and Earth recordings. This method has the strength of not requiring an a priori velocity model of Mars for quake location, but will only be practical for larger events. For smaller events where only first orbit surface waves and body waves are observable, other methods are required. In this study, we implement a transdimensional Bayesian inversion approach to simultaneously invert for basic velocity structure and location parameters (epicentral distance and origin time) using only measurements of body wave arrival times and dispersion of first orbit surface waves. The method is tested with synthetic data with expected Mars noise and Earth data for single events and groups of events and evaluated for errors in both location and structural determination, as well as tradeoffs between resolvable parameters and the effect of 3D crustal variations.

Simplex GPS and InSAR Inversion Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donnellan, Andrea; Parker, Jay W.; Lyzenga, Gregory A.; Pierce, Marlon E.

2012-01-01

Changes in the shape of the Earth's surface can be routinely measured with precisions better than centimeters. Processes below the surface often drive these changes and as a result, investigators require models with inversion methods to characterize the sources. Simplex inverts any combination of GPS (global positioning system), UAVSAR (uninhabited aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar), and InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) data simultaneously for elastic response from fault and fluid motions. It can be used to solve for multiple faults and parameters, all of which can be specified or allowed to vary. The software can be used to study long-term tectonic motions and the faults responsible for those motions, or can be used to invert for co-seismic slip from earthquakes. Solutions involving estimation of fault motion and changes in fluid reservoirs such as magma or water are possible. Any arbitrary number of faults or parameters can be considered. Simplex specifically solves for any of location, geometry, fault slip, and expansion/contraction of a single or multiple faults. It inverts GPS and InSAR data for elastic dislocations in a half-space. Slip parameters include strike slip, dip slip, and tensile dislocations. It includes a map interface for both setting up the models and viewing the results. Results, including faults, and observed, computed, and residual displacements, are output in text format, a map interface, and can be exported to KML. The software interfaces with the QuakeTables database allowing a user to select existing fault parameters or data. Simplex can be accessed through the QuakeSim portal graphical user interface or run from a UNIX command line.

Sexual attitudes at northern latitudes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lanctot, Richard B.

1998-01-01

Spreading his wings to reveal their pearly white undersides, the male buff-breasted sandpiper tilted his head to the sky, puffed out his chest, and uttered a series of soft "tick-ticks.” He then proceeded to stamp his feet and vibrate his wings as if the ground were quaking beneath him. Soon, three females, attracted by this courtship display, entered the curve of his embracing wings. They then spread their own wings and turned so their backs were against his chest, each jostling for the position closest to him. Just when mating seemed inevitable, a neighboring male rushed into the group, forcing all the birds into the air.

Moonquakes and lunar tectonism results from the Apollo passive seismic experiment.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Latham, G.; Ewing, M.; Dorman, J.; Lammlein, D.; Press, F.; Toksoz, N.; Sutton, G.; Duennebier, F.; Nakamura, Y.

1972-01-01

The natural seismicity of the moon appears to be very low relative to that of the earth. However, moonquakes do occur. They are detected by the stations of the Apollo seismic network at an average rate of 1800/yr at Station 14 and at lower rates at Stations 12 and 15. All of the moonquakes are small, and in the few cases for which the foci have been located, they occur at great depth (about 800 km). The frequency of occurrence of moonquakes is strongly correlated with lunar tides. The dynamic processes that generate quakes are clearly much less vigorous within the moon than they are within the earth.

Megacity Megaquakes: Two Near-misses, and the Clues they Leave for Earthquake Interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shapiro, S. A.; Krüger, O.; Dinske, C.; Langenbruch, C.

2011-12-01

Two recent earthquakes left their mark on cities lying well beyond the mainshock rupture zones, raising questions of their future vulnerability, and about earthquake interaction broadly. The 27 February 2010 M=8.8 Maule earthquake struck the Chilean coast, killing 550 people. Chile's capital of Santiago lies 400 km from the high-slip portion of the rupture, and 100 km beyond its edge. The 11 March 2011 M=9.0 Tohoku oki earthquake struck the coast of Japan, its massive tsunami claiming most of its 18,564 victims. Reminiscent of Santiago, Japan's capital of Tokyo lies 400 km from the high-slip portion of the rupture, and 100 km beyond its edge. Because of this distance, both cities largely escaped damage. But it may not have been a clean get-away: The rate of small shocks beneath each city jumped by a factor of about 10 immediately after its megaquake. At Santiago, the quake rate remains two times higher today than it was before the Maule shock; at Tokyo it is three times higher. What this higher rate of moderate (M<6) quakes portends for the likelihood of large ones is difficult--but imperative--to answer, as Tokyo and Santiago are probably just the most striking cases of a common phenomenon: Seismicity increases well beyond the rupture zone, as also seen in the 1999 Izmit-Düzce and 2010 Darfield-Christchurch sequences. Are the Tokyo and Santiago earthquakes, 100 km from the fault rupture, aftershocks? The seismicity beneath Santiago is occurring on the adjacent unruptured section of the Chile-Peru trench megathrust, whereas shocks beneath Tokyo illuminate a deeper, separate fault system. In both cases, the rate of shocks underwent an Omori decay, although the decay ceased beneath Tokyo about a year after the mainshock. Coulomb calculations suggest that the stress imparted by the nearby megaquakes brought the faults beneath Santiago and Tokyo closer to failure (Lorito et al, Nature Geoscience 2010; Toda and Stein, GRL 2013). So, they are aftershocks in the sense

Megacity Megaquakes: Two Near-misses, and the Clues they Leave for Earthquake Interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stein, R. S.; Toda, S.

2013-12-01

Two recent earthquakes left their mark on cities lying well beyond the mainshock rupture zones, raising questions of their future vulnerability, and about earthquake interaction broadly. The 27 February 2010 M=8.8 Maule earthquake struck the Chilean coast, killing 550 people. Chile's capital of Santiago lies 400 km from the high-slip portion of the rupture, and 100 km beyond its edge. The 11 March 2011 M=9.0 Tohoku oki earthquake struck the coast of Japan, its massive tsunami claiming most of its 18,564 victims. Reminiscent of Santiago, Japan's capital of Tokyo lies 400 km from the high-slip portion of the rupture, and 100 km beyond its edge. Because of this distance, both cities largely escaped damage. But it may not have been a clean get-away: The rate of small shocks beneath each city jumped by a factor of about 10 immediately after its megaquake. At Santiago, the quake rate remains two times higher today than it was before the Maule shock; at Tokyo it is three times higher. What this higher rate of moderate (M<6) quakes portends for the likelihood of large ones is difficult--but imperative--to answer, as Tokyo and Santiago are probably just the most striking cases of a common phenomenon: Seismicity increases well beyond the rupture zone, as also seen in the 1999 Izmit-Düzce and 2010 Darfield-Christchurch sequences. Are the Tokyo and Santiago earthquakes, 100 km from the fault rupture, aftershocks? The seismicity beneath Santiago is occurring on the adjacent unruptured section of the Chile-Peru trench megathrust, whereas shocks beneath Tokyo illuminate a deeper, separate fault system. In both cases, the rate of shocks underwent an Omori decay, although the decay ceased beneath Tokyo about a year after the mainshock. Coulomb calculations suggest that the stress imparted by the nearby megaquakes brought the faults beneath Santiago and Tokyo closer to failure (Lorito et al, Nature Geoscience 2010; Toda and Stein, GRL 2013). So, they are aftershocks in the sense

Long-term impact of a leaf miner outbreak on the performance of quaking aspen

Treesearch

D. Wagner; P. Doak

2013-01-01

The aspen leaf miner, Phyllocnistis populiella Cham., has caused widespread and severe damage to aspen in the boreal forests of western North America for over a decade. We suppressed P. populiella on individual small aspen ramets using insecticide at two sites near Fairbanks, Alaska, annually for 7 years and compared plant...

Continental-scale assessment of genetic diversity and population structure in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides)

Treesearch

Colin M. Callahan; Carol A. Rowe; Ronald J. Ryel; John D. Shaw; Michael D. Madritch; Karen E. Mock

2013-01-01

Aspen populations in the south-western portion of the range are consistent with expectations for a historically stable edge, with low within-population diversity, significant geographical population structuring, and little evidence of northward expansion. Structuring within the southwestern cluster may result from distinct gene pools separated during the Pleistocene...

Morbidity pattern and impact of rehabilitative services in Earth quake victims of kashmir, India.

PubMed

Ali, Imtiyaz; Mir, Abid Ali; Jabeen, Rohul; Ahmad, Muzafar; Fazili, Anjum; Kaul, Rauf-Ur Rashid; Kumar, Ratenesh; Keshkar, S

2010-01-01

The Kashmir earthquake also known as South Asia earthquake, hit both sides of Jammu & Kashmir on October 8th 2005 and was quite devastating with official toll of deaths being 73,276 in Pakistan Administered Kashmir (POK) and 1,360 deaths in the Indian administered Kashmir. The injured registering on the two sides were around 100,000 and 6,300 respectively. This was followed by a series of aftershocks on both sides for another 3 weeks A follow up (retrospective) survey was conducted by the Department of Community Medicine SKIMS, Srinagar in collaboration with National Institute of Orthopedically Handicapped (NIOH), Kolkata, immediately after the devastating earthquake of October 2008 that hit Kashmir (Jammu & Kashmir- India) and northern parts of India with the objectives to know the nature of the injuries, magnitude of disabilities, rehabilitative services provided, and service satisfaction. Addresses of earthquake victims registered with various health institutions, Tertiary Care Centre, orthopaedic hospital, district hospital and Composite Regional Centre (CRC)(through which rehabilitative services were provided initially) were collected and referral details, if any, to various health institutions. They were visited at their residence and interviewed for the desired information as per proforma by a team comprising of a doctor, physiotherapist, prosthetist and orthotist by making house to house survey in the earthquake areas. An effort for non registered injured victims, if any in the locality, was also made with health or district authorities to trace non registered injured persons The study shows that majority of injured were young adults and adolescent females, and primarily upper extremities, cervical spine and head were injured. The severely injured were shifted within 12-24 hrs to referral hospitals. In 2/3rd of affected families, single member was injured, whereas in 1/3rd at least two were injured. The case fatality rate was <1% because of low prevalence of crush injuries, and quick medical relief/management of the injured. A significant number of seriously injured victims (40%) required rehabilitative services and assistive devices. Probably a quick intervention by medical rehabilitative services, including facility of assistive aids and necessary customised prosthetics and orthotics first time in such disaster, has resulted in high client satisfaction, early restoration of functional and psychological status of the injured victims. A collective effort by various public and private agencies with timely response at referral hospitals to various injuries reduced the frequency and chances of major disabling conditions. Intervention by CRC for providing assistive devices has also significantly helped in bringing back the functional and psychological status of the injured victims. Proper inter-sectorial coordination, better managerial skills, training of community volunteers (NGOs), and professionals on disaster management may further reduce the injury related disability and its impact. There is need of updating medico-surgical disaster management training for health care workers on continuous basis at various levels.

Morbidity Pattern and Impact of Rehabilitative Services in Earth Quake Victims of Kashmir, India.

PubMed Central

Ali, Imtiyaz; Mir, Abid Ali; Jabeen, Rohul; Ahmad, Muzafar; Fazili, Anjum; Kaul, Rauf-ur Rashid; kumar, Ratenesh; Keshkar, S.

2010-01-01

Background: The Kashmir earthquake also known as South Asia earthquake, hit both sides of Jammu & Kashmir on October 8th 2005 and was quite devastating with official toll of deaths being 73,276 in Pakistan Administered Kashmir (POK) and 1,360 deaths in the Indian administered Kashmir. The injured registering on the two sides were around 100,000 and 6,300 respectively. This was followed by a series of aftershocks on both sides for another 3 weeks Method: A follow up (retrospective) survey was conducted by the Department of Community Medicine SKIMS, Srinagar in collaboration with National Institute of Orthopedically Handicapped (NIOH), Kolkata, immediately after the devastating earthquake of October 2008 that hit Kashmir (Jammu & Kashmir- India) and northern parts of India with the objectives to know the nature of the injuries, magnitude of disabilities, rehabilitative services provided, and service satisfaction. Addresses of earthquake victims registered with various health institutions, Tertiary Care Centre, orthopaedic hospital, district hospital and Composite Regional Centre (CRC)(through which rehabilitative services were provided initially) were collected and referral details, if any, to various health institutions. They were visited at their residence and interviewed for the desired information as per proforma by a team comprising of a doctor, physiotherapist, prosthetist and orthotist by making house to house survey in the earthquake areas. An effort for non registered injured victims, if any in the locality, was also made with health or district authorities to trace non registered injured persons Results: The study shows that majority of injured were young adults and adolescent females, and primarily upper extremities, cervical spine and head were injured. The severely injured were shifted within 12–24 hrs to referral hospitals. In 2/3rd of affected families, single member was injured, whereas in 1/3rd at least two were injured. The case fatality rate was <1% because of low prevalence of crush injuries, and quick medical relief/management of the injured. A significant number of seriously injured victims (40%) required rehabilitative services and assistive devices. Probably a quick intervention by medical rehabilitative services, including facility of assistive aids and necessary customised prosthetics and orthotics first time in such disaster, has resulted in high client satisfaction, early restoration of functional and psychological status of the injured victims. Conclusion: A collective effort by various public and private agencies with timely response at referral hospitals to various injuries reduced the frequency and chances of major disabling conditions. Intervention by CRC for providing assistive devices has also significantly helped in bringing back the functional and psychological status of the injured victims. Proper inter-sectorial coordination, better managerial skills, training of community volunteers (NGOs), and professionals on disaster management may further reduce the injury related disability and its impact. There is need of updating medico-surgical disaster management training for health care workers on continuous basis at various levels PMID:21475527

Real-time Quaking-induced Conversion Assay for Detection of CWD Prions in Fecal Material.

PubMed

Cheng, Yo Ching; Hannaoui, Samia; John, Theodore Ralph; Dudas, Sandor; Czub, Stefanie; Gilch, Sabine

2017-09-29

The RT-QuIC technique is a sensitive in vitro cell-free prion amplification assay based mainly on the seeded misfolding and aggregation of recombinant prion protein (PrP) substrate using prion seeds as a template for the conversion. RT-QuIC is a novel high-throughput technique which is analogous to real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Detection of amyloid fibril growth is based on the dye Thioflavin T, which fluoresces upon specific interaction with ᵦ-sheet rich proteins. Thus, amyloid formation can be detected in real time. We attempted to develop a reliable non-invasive screening test to detect chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions in fecal extract. Here, we have specifically adapted the RT-QuIC technique to reveal PrP Sc seeding activity in feces of CWD infected cervids. Initially, the seeding activity of the fecal extracts we prepared was relatively low in RT-QuIC, possibly due to potential assay inhibitors in the fecal material. To improve seeding activity of feces extracts and remove potential assay inhibitors, we homogenized the fecal samples in a buffer containing detergents and protease inhibitors. We also submitted the samples to different methodologies to concentrate PrP Sc on the basis of protein precipitation using sodium phosphotungstic acid, and centrifugal force. Finally, the feces extracts were tested by optimized RT-QuIC which included substrate replacement in the protocol to improve the sensitivity of detection. Thus, we established a protocol for sensitive detection of CWD prion seeding activity in feces of pre-clinical and clinical cervids by RT-QuIC, which can be a practical tool for non-invasive CWD diagnosis.

R&D 100, 2016: T-Quake – Quantum-Mechanical Transmitter/Receiver Microchip

ScienceCinema

Tauke-Pedretti, Anna; Camacho, Ryan; Thayer, Gayle

2018-06-13

Applying advanced microfabrication techniques and innovative microdesign, the Sandia Enabled Communications and Authentication Network (SECANT) team has designed and produced photonic microchips capable of sending, receiving, and processing quantum signals for applications in cyber and physical security.

Propagation of acoustic-gravity waves in arctic zones with elastic ice-sheets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kadri, Usama; Abdolali, Ali; Kirby, James T.

2017-04-01

We present an analytical solution of the boundary value problem of propagating acoustic-gravity waves generated in the ocean by earthquakes or ice-quakes in arctic zones. At the surface, we assume elastic ice-sheets of a variable thickness, and show that the propagating acoustic-gravity modes have different mode shape than originally derived by Ref. [1] for a rigid ice-sheet settings. Computationally, we couple the ice-sheet problem with the free surface model by Ref. [2] representing shrinking ice blocks in realistic sea state, where the randomly oriented ice-sheets cause inter modal transition at the edges and multidirectional reflections. We then derive a depth-integrated equation valid for spatially slowly varying thickness of ice-sheet and water depth. Surprisingly, and unlike the free-surface setting, here it is found that the higher acoustic-gravity modes exhibit a larger contribution. These modes travel at the speed of sound in water carrying information on their source, e.g. ice-sheet motion or submarine earthquake, providing various implications for ocean monitoring and detection of quakes. In addition, we found that the propagating acoustic-gravity modes can result in orbital displacements of fluid parcels sufficiently high that may contribute to deep ocean currents and circulation, as postulated by Refs. [1, 3]. References [1] U. Kadri, 2016. Generation of Hydroacoustic Waves by an Oscillating Ice Block in Arctic Zones. Advances in Acoustics and Vibration, 2016, Article ID 8076108, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/8076108 [2] A. Abdolali, J. T. Kirby and G. Bellotti, 2015, Depth-integrated equation for hydro-acoustic waves with bottom damping, J. Fluid Mech., 766, R1 doi:10.1017/jfm.2015.37 [3] U. Kadri, 2014. Deep ocean water transportation by acoustic?gravity waves. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 119, doi:10.1002/ 2014JC010234

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) Project's Response to the April 25, 2015 M7.8 Nepal Earthquake: Rapid Measurements and Models for Science and Situational Awareness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Owen, S. E.; Fielding, E. J.; Yun, S. H.; Yue, H.; Polet, J.; Riel, B. V.; Liang, C.; Huang, M. H.; Webb, F.; Simons, M.; Moore, A. W.; Agram, P. S.; Barnhart, W. D.; Hua, H.; Liu, Z.; Milillo, P.; Sacco, G. F.; Rosen, P. A.; Manipon, G.

2015-12-01

On April 25, 2015, the M7.8 Gorkha earthquake struck Nepal and the city of Kathmandu. The quake caused a significant humanitarian crisis and killed more than 8,000 due to widespread building damage and triggered landslides throughout the region. This was the strongest earthquake to occur in the region since the 1934 Nepal-Bihar magnitude 8.0 quake caused more than 10,000 fatalities. In the days following the earthquake, the JPL/Caltech ARIA project produced coseismic GPS and SAR displacements, fault slip models, and damage assessments from SAR coherence change that were helpful in both understanding the event and in the response efforts. The ARIA project produced InSAR observations from two new SAR missions - JAXA's ALOS-2 and ESA's Sentinel 1a. The GPS coseismic displacements showed ~1.8 meters of southward motion and ~1.3 meters of uplift in Kathmandu. InSAR images of the displacement field and fault models show that the rupture extended 135 km southeast of the epicenter. The SAR imagery also confirmed that the fault slip did not extend to the surface, though localized offsets formed due to liquefaction. The GPS and SAR analysis has continued to image the large M7.3 aftershock and postseismic deformation. The damage assessments from coherence change were used by several organizations guiding the response effort, including the NGA, the World Bank, and OFDA/USAID. We will present imaging, modeling, and damage assessment results from the recent April 25, 2015 M7.8 earthquake in Nepal, and its largest aftershock, a M7.3 event on May 12, 2015. We also discuss how these data were used for understanding the event, guiding the response, and for educational outreach.

Tsunami Damage in Northwest Sumatra

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

The island of Sumatra suffered from both the rumblings of the submarine earthquake and the tsunamis that were generated on December 26, 2004. Within minutes of the quake, the sea surged ashore, bringing destruction to the coasts of the northern Sumatra. This pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite shows the Aceh province of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, on December 17, 2004, before the quake (bottom), and on December 29, 2004 (top), three days after the catastrophe. Although MODIS was not specifically designed to make the very detailed observations that are usually necessary for mapping coastline changes, the sensor nevertheless observed obvious differences in the Sumatran coastline. On December 17, the green vegetation along the west coast appears to reach all the way to the sea, with only an occasional thin stretch of white that is likely sand. After the earthquake and tsunamis, the entire western coast is lined with a noticeable purplish-brown border. The brownish border could be deposited sand, or perhaps exposed soil that was stripped bare of vegetation when the large waves rushed ashore and then raced away. Another possibility is that parts of the coastline may have sunk as the sea floor near the plate boundary rose. On a moderate-resolution image such as this, the affected area may seem small, but each pixel in the full resolution image is 250 by 250 meters. In places the brown strip reaches inland roughly 13 pixels, equal to a distance of 3.25 kilometers, or about 2 miles. On the northern tip of the island (shown in the large image), the incursion is even larger. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team and the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.

Intensity, magnitude, location, and attenuation in India for felt earthquakes since 1762

USGS Publications Warehouse

Szeliga, W.; Hough, S.; Martin, S.; Bilham, R.

2010-01-01

A comprehensive, consistently interpreted new catalog of felt intensities for India (Martin and Szeliga, 2010, this issue) includes intensities for 570 earth-quakes; instrumental magnitudes and locations are available for 100 of these events. We use the intensity values for 29 of the instrumentally recorded events to develop new intensity versus attenuation relations for the Indian subcontinent and the Himalayan region. We then use these relations to determine the locations and magnitudes of 234 historical events, using the method of Bakun and Wentworth (1997). For the remaining 336 events, intensity distributions are too sparse to determine magnitude or location. We evaluate magnitude and location accuracy of newly located events by comparing the instrumental-with the intensity-derived location for 29 calibration events, for which more than 15 intensity observations are available. With few exceptions, most intensity-derived locations lie within a fault length of the instrumentally determined location. For events in which the azimuthal distribution of intensities is limited, we conclude that the formal error bounds from the regression of Bakun and Wentworth (1997) do not reflect the true uncertainties. We also find that the regression underestimates the uncertainties of the location and magnitude of the 1819 Allah Bund earthquake, for which a location has been inferred from mapped surface deformation. Comparing our inferred attenuation relations to those developed for other regions, we find that attenuation for Himalayan events is comparable to intensity attenuation in California (Bakun and Wentworth, 1997), while intensity attenuation for cratonic events is higher than intensity attenuation reported for central/eastern North America (Bakun et al., 2003). Further, we present evidence that intensities of intraplate earth-quakes have a nonlinear dependence on magnitude such that attenuation relations based largely on small-to-moderate earthquakes may significantly

Satellite IR Thermal Measurements Prior to the September 2004 Earthquakes in Central California

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ouzounov, D.; Logan, T.; Taylor, Patrick

2004-01-01

We present and discuss observed variations in thermal transients and radiation fields prior to the earthquakes of September 18 near Bodie (M5.5) and September 28,2004 near Parkfield(M6.0) in California. Previous analysis of earthquake events have indicated the presence of a thermal anomaly, where temperatures increased or did not return to its usual nighttime value. The procedures used in our work is to analyze weather satellite data taken at night and to record the general condition where the ground cools after sunset. Two days before the Bodie earthquake lower temperature radiation was observed by the NOAA/AVHRR satellite. This occurred when the entire region was relatively cloud-free. IR land surface nighttime temperature from the MODIS instrument rose to +4 C in a 100 km radius around the Bodie epicenter. The thermal transient field recorded by MODIS in the vicinity of Parkfield, also with a cloud free environment, was around +l C and it is significantly smaller than the Parkfield epicenter, however, for that period showed a steady increase 4 days prior to the earthquake and a significant drop of the night before the quake. Geosynchronous weather satellite thermal IR measurements taken every half hour from sunset to dawn, were also recorded for 10 days prior to the Parkfield event and 5 days after as well as the day of the quake. To establish a baseline we also obtained GOES data for the same Julian sets were then used to systematically observe and record any thermal anomaly prior to the events that deviated from the baseline. Our recent results support the hypothesis of a possible relationship between an thermodynamic processes produced by increasing tectonic stress in the Earth's crust and a subsequent electro-chemical interaction between this crust and the atmosphere/ionosphere.

Shallow moonquakes - How they compare with earthquakes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nakamura, Y.

1980-01-01

Of three types of moonquakes strong enough to be detectable at large distances - deep moonquakes, meteoroid impacts and shallow moonquakes - only shallow moonquakes are similar in nature to earthquakes. A comparison of various characteristics of moonquakes with those of earthquakes indeed shows a remarkable similarity between shallow moonquakes and intraplate earthquakes: (1) their occurrences are not controlled by tides; (2) they appear to occur in locations where there is evidence of structural weaknesses; (3) the relative abundances of small and large quakes (b-values) are similar, suggesting similar mechanisms; and (4) even the levels of activity may be close. The shallow moonquakes may be quite comparable in nature to intraplate earthquakes, and they may be of similar origin.

The GED4GEM project: development of a Global Exposure Database for the Global Earthquake Model initiative

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gamba, P.; Cavalca, D.; Jaiswal, K.S.; Huyck, C.; Crowley, H.

2012-01-01

In order to quantify earthquake risk of any selected region or a country of the world within the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) framework (www.globalquakemodel.org/), a systematic compilation of building inventory and population exposure is indispensable. Through the consortium of leading institutions and by engaging the domain-experts from multiple countries, the GED4GEM project has been working towards the development of a first comprehensive publicly available Global Exposure Database (GED). This geospatial exposure database will eventually facilitate global earthquake risk and loss estimation through GEM’s OpenQuake platform. This paper provides an overview of the GED concepts, aims, datasets, and inference methodology, as well as the current implementation scheme, status and way forward.

News and Views: CSR: the devil will be in the detail; MPs invite researchers to show off success; Earthquake movies reveal ground movements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2010-12-01

The UK Government's Comprehensive Spending Review set out a distinctly tighter budget all round in October, but science funding as a whole was not as badly cut as some had feared. What this means for astronomy, planetary science and geophysics remains to be seen, as individual research council allocations have yet to be agreed. Early-career researchers with results to shout about have the opportunity to display and discuss their work at the House of Commons next year, as part of the SET for Britain event on 14 March. Seismology took a great step forward when international cooperation at the time of International Geophysical Year 1957/8 meant that earth movements resulting from quakes could be compared worldwide.

Earthquakes, May-June, 1992

USGS Publications Warehouse

Person, Waverly J.

1992-01-01

The months of May and June were very active in terms of earthquake occurrence. Six major earthquakes (7.0quake about three hours later.

New generation QuIC assays for prion seeding activity.

PubMed

Orrù, Christina D; Wilham, Jason M; Vascellari, Sarah; Hughson, Andrew G; Caughey, Byron

2012-01-01

The ability of abnormal TSE-associated forms of PrP to seed the formation of amyloid fibrils from recombinant PrP(Sen) has served as the basis for several relatively rapid and highly sensitive tests for prion diseases. These tests include rPrP-PMCA (rPMCA), standard quaking-induced conversion (S-QuIC), amyloid seeding assay (ASA), real-time QuIC (RT-QuIC) and enhanced QuIC (eQuIC). Here, we summarize recent improvements in the RT-QuIC-based assays that enhance the practicality, sensitivity and quantitative attributes of assays QuIC and promote the detection of prion seeding activity in dilute, inhibitor-laden fluids such as blood plasma.

Soil quality as a factor of the distribution of damages at the meizoseismal area of the Kozani-Grevena 1995 earthquake, in Greece ( Ms = 6.6)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christaras, B.; Dimitriou, An; Lemoni, Hel

The physical and mechanical properties of the soil formations were related to the damages observed in Kozani and Grevena area, in Northern Greece, after the earth-quake of 13th May 1995 ( Ms = 6.6). Properties such as grain size distribution, plasticity, shear strength, compression index, permeability and ultrasonic velocity were measured in order to classify the suitability of the soil formations, for urban planning, and correlate their mechanical behaviour with the damages observed in the construction. According to our observations, a great number of recent buildings were damaged also in areas far away from the seismotectonic zones, where silty and clayey soils dominate, presenting very low permeability, low ultrasonic velocity together with high plasticity and compressibility.

Glacier quakes mimicking volcanic earthquakes: The challenge of monitoring ice-clad volcanoes and some solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allstadt, K.; Carmichael, J. D.; Malone, S. D.; Bodin, P.; Vidale, J. E.; Moran, S. C.

2012-12-01

Swarms of repeating earthquakes at volcanoes are often a sign of volcanic unrest. However, glaciers also can generate repeating seismic signals, so detecting unrest at glacier-covered volcanoes can be a challenge. We have found that multi-day swarms of shallow, low-frequency, repeating earthquakes occur regularly at Mount Rainier, a heavily glaciated stratovolcano in Washington, but that most swarms had escaped recognition until recently. Typically such earthquakes were too small to be routinely detected by the seismic network and were often buried in the noise on visual records, making the few swarms that had been detected seem more unusual and significant at the time they were identified. Our comprehensive search for repeating earthquakes through the past 10 years of continuous seismic data uncovered more than 30 distinct swarms of low-frequency earthquakes at Rainier, each consisting of hundreds to thousands of events. We found that these swarms locate high on the glacier-covered edifice, occur almost exclusively between late fall and early spring, and that their onset coincides with heavy snowfalls. We interpret the correlation with snowfall to indicate a seismically observable glacial response to snow loading. Efforts are underway to confirm this by monitoring glacier motion before and after a major snowfall event using ground based radar interferometry. Clearly, if the earthquakes in these swarms reflect a glacial source, then they are not directly related to volcanic activity. However, from an operational perspective they make volcano monitoring difficult because they closely resemble earthquakes that often precede and accompany volcanic eruptions. Because we now have a better sense of the background level of such swarms and know that their occurrence is seasonal and correlated with snowfall, it will now be easier to recognize if future swarms at Rainier are unusual and possibly related to volcanic activity. To methodically monitor for such unusual activity, we are implementing an automatic detection algorithm to continuously search for repeating earthquakes at Mount Rainier, an algorithm that we eventually intend to apply to other Cascade volcanoes. We propose that a comprehensive routine that characterizes background levels of repeating earthquakes and the degree of correlation with weather and seasonal forcing, combined with real-time monitoring for repeating earthquakes, will provide a means to more rapidly discriminate between glacier seismicity and seismicity related to volcanic activity on monitored glacier-clad volcanoes.

Catalog of earthquake hypocenters at Alaskan volcanoes: January 1 through December 31, 2012

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dixon, James P.; Stihler, Scott D.; Power, John A.; Haney, Matthew M.; Parker, Tom; Searcy, Cheryl; Prejean, Stephanie

2013-01-01

Between January 1 and December 31, 2012, the Alaska Volcano Observatory located 4,787 earthquakes, of which 4,211 occurred within 20 kilometers of the 33 volcanoes monitored by a seismograph network. There was significant seismic activity at Iliamna, Kanaga, and Little Sitkin volcanoes in 2012. Instrumentation highlights for this year include the implementation of the Advanced National Seismic System Quake Monitoring System hardware and software in February 2012 and the continuation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act work in the summer of 2012. The operational highlight was the removal of Mount Wrangell from the list of monitored volcanoes. This catalog includes hypocenters, magnitudes, and statistics of the earthquakes located in 2012 with the station parameters, velocity models, and other files used to locate these earthquakes.

Volcanic-tectonic seismicity at Stromboli (2005-2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gambino, Salvatore; Scaltrito, Antonio

2018-01-01

The seismicity of Stromboli comprises explosion-quakes, volcanic tremor and volcano-tectonic (VT) events. We applied the double-difference approach of Waldhauser and Ellsworth (2000) on 42 VT events recorded during 2005-2016 in order to improve their standard locations. This approach has allowed to cluster hypocentres in two seismogenic sectors (G1 and G2), respectively, located inside and south of Stromboli at depths of 3.5-6 and 10-12 km. The seismicity belonging to G1 is located between the deep and intermediate magma storages of Stromboli and seems to precede the 2007 and 2014 effusive eruptions. This suggests that faulting episodes occur as a response to local stress linked to the pressurization of the magmatic system caused by magma ascent.

USGS-WHOI-DPRI Coulomb Stress-Transfer Model for the January 12, 2010, MW=7.0 Haiti Earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lin, Jian; Stein, Ross S.; Sevilgen, Volkan; Toda, Shinji

2010-01-01

Using calculated stress changes to faults surrounding the January 12, 2010, rupture on the Enriquillo Fault, and the current (January 12 to 26, 2010) aftershock productivity, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University (DPRI) have made rough estimates of the chance of a magnitude (Mw)=7 earthquake occurring during January 27 to February 22, 2010, in Haiti. The probability of such a quake on the Port-au-Prince section of the Enriquillo Fault is about 2 percent, and the probability for the section to the west of the January 12, 2010, rupture is about 1 percent. The stress changes on the Septentrional Fault in northern Haiti are much smaller, although positive.

Temblor, an app focused on your seismic risk and how to reduce it

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stein, R. S.; Sevilgen, V.; Sevilgen, S.; Kim, A.; Madden, E.

2015-12-01

Half of the world's population lives near active faults, and so could suffer earthquake damage. Most do not know they are at risk; many of the rest do too little, too late. So, Temblor is intended to enable everyone in the United States, and eventually the world, to learn their seismic hazard, to determine what most ensures their safety, and to determine the risk reduction measures in their best financial interest. In our free web and mobile app, and Chrome extension for real estate websites, Temblor estimates the likelihood of seismic shaking from all quakes at their occurrence rates, and the consequences of the shaking for home damage. The app then shows how the damage or its costs could be decreased by buying or renting a seismically safer home, securing fragile objects inside your home, retrofitting an older home, or buying earthquake insurance. Temblor uses public data from the USGS in the U.S., SHARE in Europe, and the GEAR model (Bird et al, in press, BSSA) for the globe. Through publicly available modeling methods, the hazard data is combined with public data on homes (construction date and square footage) to make risk calculations. This means that Temblor's results are independently reproducible. The app makes many simplifying assumptions, but users can provide additional information on their site and home for refined estimates. Temblor also lets one see active faults and recent quakes on the screen as they drive through an area. Because fear tends to trigger either panic or denial, Temblor seeks to make the world of earthquakes more fascinating than frightening. We are neither scaring nor soothing people, but rather talking straight. Through maps, globes, push notifications, family connections, and costs and benefit estimates, Temblor emphasizes the personal, local, realtime, and most importantly, rational. Temblor's goal is to distill scientific and engineering information into lucid, trusted, and ideally actionable guidance to renters, home owners, and

Decision making biases in the communication of earthquake risk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welsh, M. B.; Steacy, S.; Begg, S. H.; Navarro, D. J.

2015-12-01

L'Aquila, with 6 scientists convicted of manslaughter, shocked the scientific community, leading to urgent re-appraisal of communication methods for low-probability, high-impact events. Before the trial, a commission investigating the earthquake recommended risk assessment be formalised via operational earthquake forecasts and that social scientists be enlisted to assist in developing communication strategies. Psychological research has identified numerous decision biases relevant to this, including hindsight bias, where people (after the fact) overestimate an event's predictability. This affects experts as well as naïve participants as it relates to their ability to construct a plausible causal story rather than the likelihood of the event. Another problem is availability, which causes overestimation of the likelihood of observed rare events due to their greater noteworthiness. This, however, is complicated by the 'description-experience' gap, whereby people underestimate probabilities for events they have not experienced. That is, people who have experienced strong earthquakes judge them more likely while those who have not judge them less likely - relative to actual probabilities. Finally, format changes alter people's decisions. That is people treat '1 in 10,000' as different from 0.01% despite their mathematical equivalence. Such effects fall under the broad term framing, which describes how different framings of the same event alter decisions. In particular, people's attitude to risk depends significantly on how scenarios are described. We examine the effect of biases on the communication of change in risk. South Australian participants gave responses to scenarios describing familiar (bushfire) or unfamiliar (earthquake) risks. While bushfires are rare in specific locations, significant fire events occur each year and are extensively covered. By comparison, our study location (Adelaide) last had a M5 quake in 1954. Preliminary results suggest the description

Towards a Fault-based SHA in the Southern Upper Rhine Graben

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baize, Stéphane; Reicherter, Klaus; Thomas, Jessica; Chartier, Thomas; Cushing, Edward Marc

2016-04-01

A brief overview at a seismic map of the Upper Rhine Graben area (say between Strasbourg and Basel) reveals that the region is seismically active. The area has been hit recently by shallow and moderate quakes but, historically, strong quakes damaged and devastated populated zones. Several authors previously suggested, through preliminary geomorphological and geophysical studies, that active faults could be traced along the eastern margin of the graben. Thus, fault-based PSHA (probabilistic seismic hazard assessment) studies should be developed. Nevertheless, most of the input data in fault-based PSHA models are highly uncertain, based upon sparse or hypothetical data. Geophysical and geological data document the presence of post-Tertiary westward dipping faults in the area. However, our first investigations suggest that the available surface fault map do not provide a reliable document of Quaternary fault traces. Slip rate values that can be currently used in fault-PSHA models are based on regional stratigraphic data, but these include neither detailed datings nor clear base surface contours. Several hints on fault activity do exist and we have now relevant tools and techniques to figure out the activity of the faults of concern. Our preliminary analyses suggest that the LiDAR topography can adequately image the fault segments and, thanks to detailed geomorphological analysis, these data allow tracking cumulative fault offsets. Because the fault models can therefore be considered highly uncertain, our coming project for the next 3 years is to acquire and analyze these accurate topographical data, to trace the active faults and to determine slip rates through relevant features dating. Eventually, we plan to find a key site to perform a paleoseismological trench because this approach has been proved to be worth in the Graben, both to the North (Wörms and Strasbourg) and to the South (Basel). This would be done in order to definitely prove whether the faults ruptured

Research on Collection of Earthquake Disaster Information from the Crowd

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nian, Z.

2017-12-01

In China, the assessment of the earthquake disasters information is mainly based on the inversion of the seismic source mechanism and the pre-calculated population data model, the real information of the earthquake disaster is usually collected through the government departments, the accuracy and the speed need to be improved. And in a massive earthquake like the one in Mexico, the telecommunications infrastructure on ground were damaged , the quake zone was difficult to observe by satellites and aircraft in the bad weather. Only a bit of information was sent out through maritime satellite of other country. Thus, the timely and effective development of disaster relief was seriously affected. Now Chinese communication satellites have been orbiting, people don't only rely on the ground telecom base station to keep communication with the outside world, to open the web page,to land social networking sites, to release information, to transmit images and videoes. This paper will establish an earthquake information collection system which public can participate. Through popular social platform and other information sources, the public can participate in the collection of earthquake information, and supply quake zone information, including photos, video, etc.,especially those information made by unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) after earthqake, the public can use the computer, potable terminals, or mobile text message to participate in the earthquake information collection. In the system, the information will be divided into earthquake zone basic information, earthquake disaster reduction information, earthquake site information, post-disaster reconstruction information etc. and they will been processed and put into database. The quality of data is analyzed by multi-source information, and is controlled by local public opinion on them to supplement the data collected by government departments timely and implement the calibration of simulation results ,which will better guide

Using GPS to Detect Imminent Tsunamis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Song, Y. Tony

2009-01-01

A promising method of detecting imminent tsunamis and estimating their destructive potential involves the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) data in addition to seismic data. Application of the method is expected to increase the reliability of global tsunami-warning systems, making it possible to save lives while reducing the incidence of false alarms. Tsunamis kill people every year. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed about 230,000 people. The magnitude of an earthquake is not always a reliable indication of the destructive potential of a tsunami. The 2004 Indian Ocean quake generated a huge tsunami, while the 2005 Nias (Indonesia) quake did not, even though both were initially estimated to be of the similar magnitude. Between 2005 and 2007, five false tsunami alarms were issued worldwide. Such alarms result in negative societal and economic effects. GPS stations can detect ground motions of earthquakes in real time, as frequently as every few seconds. In the present method, the epicenter of an earthquake is located by use of data from seismometers, then data from coastal GPS stations near the epicenter are used to infer sea-floor displacements that precede a tsunami. The displacement data are used in conjunction with local topographical data and an advanced theory to quantify the destructive potential of a tsunami on a new tsunami scale, based on the GPS-derived tsunami energy, much like the Richter Scale used for earthquakes. An important element of the derivation of the advanced theory was recognition that horizontal sea-floor motions contribute much more to generation of tsunamis than previously believed. The method produces a reliable estimate of the destructive potential of a tsunami within minutes typically, well before the tsunami reaches coastal areas. The viability of the method was demonstrated in computational tests in which the method yielded accurate representations of three historical tsunamis for which well-documented ground

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

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2013-05-01

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

Mortality, crime and access to basic needs before and after the Haiti earthquake: a random survey of Port-au-Prince households.

PubMed

Kolbe, Athena R; Hutson, Royce A; Shannon, Harry; Trzcinski, Eileen; Miles, Bart; Levitz, Naomi; Puccio, Marie; James, Leah; Noel, Jean Roger; Muggah, Robert

2010-01-01

On 12 January 2010 an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale struck Haiti, causing unprecedented death, injury and destruction for an event of this magnitude. Our aim was to generate a rapid assessment of the primary consequences for the population of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, the national capital. During the summer of 2009 we conducted a survey of 1,800 households in metropolitan Port-au-Prince. Six weeks after the earthquake, we attempted to trace these households in order to re-interview them. The questionnaire examined mortality and injuries generated by the natural disaster, as well as the character of victimization, food security and living arrangements following the quake. Data analysis incorporated sampling weights and adjusted for clustering within households. The original 2009 survey featured a 90 per cent response rate; in 2010 we re-interviewed 93 per cent of these households. We estimate that 158,679 people in Port-au-Prince (95 per cent CI 136,813-180,545) died during the quake or in the six-week period afterwards owing to injuries or illness. Children were at particular risk for death. In the six weeks after the earthquake, 10,813 people (95 per cent CI 6,726-14,900) were sexually assaulted, the vast majority of whom were female. In the same period 4,645 individuals (95 per cent CI 1,943-7,347) were physically assaulted. Of all households, 18.6 per cent (95 per cent CI 16.6-20.8) were experiencing severe food insecurity six weeks after the earthquake. 24.4 per cent (95 per cent CI 22.1-26.9) of respondents' homes were completely destroyed. Many residents of Port-au-Prince died during or as a result of the earthquake, albeit fewer than were widely reported. More than half of the capital's population experienced moderate to severe food insecurity, though remittances are a major protective factor in promoting food security. Survivors continue to experience high levels of sexual assault and limited access to durable shelter.

Satellite IR thermal measurements prior to the September 2004 earthquakes in central California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouzounov, D.; Logan, T.; Braynt, N.; Taylor, P.

2004-12-01

We present and discuss observed variations in thermal transients and radiation fields prior to the earthquakes of September 18 near Bodie (M5.5) and September 28, 2004 near Parkfield(M6.0) in California. Previous analysis of earthquake events have indicated the presence of a thermal anomaly, where temperatures increased or did not return to its usual nighttime value. The procedures used in our work is to analyze weather satellite data taken at night and to record the general condition where the ground cools after sunset. Two days before the Bodie earthquake lower temperature radiation was observed by the NOAA/AVHRR satellite. This occurred when the entire region was relatively cloud-free. IR land surface nighttime temperature from the MODIS instrument rose to +4 degrees C in a 100 km radius around the Bodie epicenter. The thermal transient field recorded by MODIS in the vicinity of Parkfield, also with a cloud free environment,was around +1degree C and it is significantly smaller than the thermal anomaly around the Bodie epicenter. Ground surface temperature near the Parkfield epicenter, however, for that period showed a steady increase 4 days prior to the earthquake and a significant drop of the night before the quake. Geosynchronous weather satellite thermal IR measurements taken every half hour from sunset to dawn, were also recorded for 10 days prior to the Parkfield event and 5 days after as well as the day of the quake. To establish a baseline we also obtained GOES data for the same Julian days for the three years prior to the Parkfield earthquake. These September 2004 IR data sets were then used to systematically observe and record any thermal anomaly prior to the events that deviated from the baseline. Our recent results support the hypothesis of a possible relationship between an thermodynamic processes produced by increasing tectonic stress in the Earth's crust and a subsequent electro-chemical interaction between this crust and the atmosphere/ionosphere.

E-DECIDER: Using Earth Science Data and Modeling Tools to Develop Decision Support for Earthquake Disaster Response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glasscoe, Margaret T.; Wang, Jun; Pierce, Marlon E.; Yoder, Mark R.; Parker, Jay W.; Burl, Michael C.; Stough, Timothy M.; Granat, Robert A.; Donnellan, Andrea; Rundle, John B.; Ma, Yu; Bawden, Gerald W.; Yuen, Karen

2015-08-01

Earthquake Data Enhanced Cyber-Infrastructure for Disaster Evaluation and Response (E-DECIDER) is a NASA-funded project developing new capabilities for decision making utilizing remote sensing data and modeling software to provide decision support for earthquake disaster management and response. E-DECIDER incorporates the earthquake forecasting methodology and geophysical modeling tools developed through NASA's QuakeSim project. Remote sensing and geodetic data, in conjunction with modeling and forecasting tools allows us to provide both long-term planning information for disaster management decision makers as well as short-term information following earthquake events (i.e. identifying areas where the greatest deformation and damage has occurred and emergency services may need to be focused). This in turn is delivered through standards-compliant web services for desktop and hand-held devices.

Optimism Experiment and Development of Space-qualified Seismometers in France

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lognonne, P.; Karczewski, J. F.

1993-01-01

The OPTIMISM experiment will put two magnetometers and two seismometers on the Martian floor in 1995, within the framework of the Mars '94 mission. The seismometers are put within the two small surface stations. The seismometer sensitivity will be better than 10 exp -9 g at 1 Hz, 2 orders of magnitude higher than the Viking seismometer sensitivity. A priori waveform modeling for seismic signals on Mars shows that it will be sufficient to detect quakes with a seismic moment greater than 10 exp 15 Nm everywhere on Mars. Such events, according to the hypothesis of a thermoelastic cooling of the Martian lithosphere, are expected to occur at a rate close to one per week and may therefore be observed within the l-year lifetime of the experiment. Other aspects of the experiment are discussed.

Science & Technology Review September 2006

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Radousky, H B

2006-07-18

This month's article has the following articles: (1) Simulations Help Plan for Large Earthquakes--Commentary by Jane C. S. Long; (2) Re-creating the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake--Supercomputer simulations of Bay Area earthquakes are providing insight into the great 1906 quake and future temblors along several faults; (3) Decoding the Origin of a Bioagent--The microstructure of a bacterial organism can be linked to the methods used to formulate the pathogen; (4) A New Look at How Aging Bones Fracture--Livermore scientists find that the increased risk of fracture from osteoporosis may be due to a change in the physical structure of trabecular bone;more » and (5) Fusion Targets on the Double--Advances in precision manufacturing allow the production of double-shell fusion targets with submicrometer tolerances.« less

Convolutional neural network for earthquake detection and location

PubMed Central

Perol, Thibaut; Gharbi, Michaël; Denolle, Marine

2018-01-01

The recent evolution of induced seismicity in Central United States calls for exhaustive catalogs to improve seismic hazard assessment. Over the last decades, the volume of seismic data has increased exponentially, creating a need for efficient algorithms to reliably detect and locate earthquakes. Today’s most elaborate methods scan through the plethora of continuous seismic records, searching for repeating seismic signals. We leverage the recent advances in artificial intelligence and present ConvNetQuake, a highly scalable convolutional neural network for earthquake detection and location from a single waveform. We apply our technique to study the induced seismicity in Oklahoma, USA. We detect more than 17 times more earthquakes than previously cataloged by the Oklahoma Geological Survey. Our algorithm is orders of magnitude faster than established methods. PMID:29487899

PubMed

Trémolières, F; Garraffo, R; Lortholary, O

2005-08-01

The golden age of antibacterial antibiotics extend from year 1941 to the 1990s decade. At that time, something like an earth quake occurred: from the thirty molecules or so whose development was being achieved or was already marketed, only three were put on the French market, and faced the greatest difficulties to be prescribed by practicians, because: However, while the debate is raging, many of us think "yes we do", as it is a duty to anticipate today the consequences of tomorrow's bacterial resistances. This paper presents three types of propositions to optimise the development of future molecules: The development of new concepts to develop new drugs which would be active against tomorrow's bacteria compels us to manage in a new fashion today's systems, which have reached their own limits.

Neutron starquakes and the nature of gamma-ray bursts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Madau, P.; Blaes, O.; Blandford, R. D.; Goldreich, P.

1989-01-01

The possibility that gamma-ray bursts originate from quakes deep in the solid crust of a neutron star is investigated. Seismic waves are radiated if shear stress is relieved by brittle fracture. However they cannot propagate directly to the surface but are temporarily trapped below a reflecting layer. The shaking of the stellar surface couples the seismic waves to Alfven waves which propagate out into the magnetosphere. The crust-magnetosphere transmission coefficient strongly increases with wave frequency and magnetic field strength. Alfven wave luminosities sufficient to power galactic gamma-ray bursts are possible if magnetic fields greater than 100 billion G cover at least part of the stellar surface. As the Alfven waves propagate out into the low density magnetosphere, they become increasingly charge starved, thereby accelerating particles to relativistic energies.

Geomorphic and geologic controls of geohazards induced by Nepal’s 2015 Gorkha earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kargel, J.S.; Leonard, G.J.; Shugar, D. H.; Haritashya, U. K.; Bevington, A.; Fielding, E.J.; Fujita, K.; Geertsema, M.; Miles, E. S.; Steiner, J.; Anderson, E.; Bajracharya, S.; Bawden, G.W.; Breashears, D. F.; Byers, A.; Collins, B.; Dhital, M. R.; Donnellan, A.; Evans, T. L.; Geai, M. L.; Glasscoe, M. T.; Green, D.; Gurung, D. R.; Heijenk, R.; Hilborn, A.; Hudnut, K.; Huyck, C.; Immerzeel, W. W.; Liming, Jiang; Jibson, R.; Kaab, A.; Khanal, N. R.; Kirschbaum, D.; Kraaijenbrink, P. D. A.; Lamsal, D.; Shiyin, Liu; Mingyang, Lv; McKinney, D.; Nahirnick, N. K.; Zhuotong, Nan; Ojha, S.; Olsenholler, J.; Painter, T.H.; Pleasants, M.; Pratima, K. C.; Yuan, Q. I.; Raup, B.H.; Regmi, D.; Rounce, D. R.; Sakai, A.; Donghui, Shangguan; Shea, J. M.; Shrestha, A. B.; Shukla, A.; Stumm, D.; van der Kooij, M.; Voss, K.; Xin, Wang; Weihs, B.; Lizong, Wu; Xiaojun, Yao; Yoder, M. R.; Young, N.

2016-01-01

The Gorkha earthquake (magnitude 7.8) on 25 April 2015 and later aftershocks struck South Asia, killing ~9000 people and damaging a large region. Supported by a large campaign of responsive satellite data acquisitions over the earthquake disaster zone, our team undertook a satellite image survey of the earthquakes’ induced geohazards in Nepal and China and an assessment of the geomorphic, tectonic, and lithologic controls on quake-induced landslides. Timely analysis and communication aided response and recovery and informed decision-makers. We mapped 4312 coseismic and postseismic landslides. We also surveyed 491 glacier lakes for earthquake damage but found only nine landslide-impacted lakes and no visible satellite evidence of outbursts. Landslide densities correlate with slope, peak ground acceleration, surface downdrop, and specific metamorphic lithologies and large plutonic intrusions.

Observed Melt Season Seismicity of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carmichael, J. D.; Pettit, E. C.; Creager, K. C.

2006-12-01

Sufficient evidence exists to suggest that interaction of crevasses and meltwater accelerates ice cliff disintegration of tidewater glaciers. It is not clear what role meltwater plays in calving characteristics from dry- based polar glaciers. We have obtained seismic data from a six-sensor seismic array deployed in October of 2004 near the terminus cliffs of Taylor Glacier, West Antarctica, to analyze near-cliff seismicity throughout a melt season. Discharge data from the adjacent Lawson stream suggests that dramatic increases in meltwater volume temporally correlate with changes in seismic character near ice cliffs. We calculated source-locations for ice-quake during hours of melting and re-freezing and found most large energy events to be located near the ice cliffs. The associated spectra and waveform characteristics are indicative of literature descriptions of crevassing events.

Geomorphic and Geologic Controls of Geohazards induced by Nepal's 2015 Gorkha Earthquake

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kargel, J. S.; Leonard, G. J.; Shugar, D. H.; Haritashya, U.K.; Bevington, A.; Fielding, E. J.; Fujita, K.; Geertsema, M.; Miles, E. S.; Steiner, J.;

Earth Observations taken by the Expedition 22 Crew

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-22

ISS022-E-035426 (22 Jan. 2010) --- Photographed from the International Space Station orbiting Earth at an altitude of 211 statute miles, this image of the Port au Prince area of Haiti from Jan. 22 is centered on the area that was heavily damaged by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Jan. 12. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Center, a number of tremors of varying magnitudes up to 6.0 were recorded in ensuing days. Ships can be easily delineated in the harbor. The single runway of the airport, heavily damaged by the quake, is seen near center of the frame. The airport?s control tower was destroyed and has since been rebuilt and is now in service, thanks to part of the huge world-wide aid offered to the nation

Based on records of Three Gorge Telemetric Seismic Network to analyze Vibration process of micro fracture of rock landslide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

WANG, Q.

2017-12-01

Used the finite element analysis software GeoStudio to establish vibration analysis model of Qianjiangping landslide, which locates at the Three Gorges Reservoir area. In QUAKE/W module, we chosen proper Dynamic elasticity modulus and Poisson's ratio of soil layer and rock stratum. When loading, we selected the waveform data record of Three Gorge Telemetric Seismic Network as input ground motion, which includes five rupture events recorded of Lujiashan seismic station. In dynamic simulating, we mainly focused on sliding process when the earthquake date record was applied. The simulation result shows that Qianjiangping landslide wasn't not only affected by its own static force, but also experienced the dynamic process of micro fracture-creep-slip rupture-creep-slip.it provides a new approach for the early warning feasibility of rock landslide in future research.

The Red Atrapa Sismos (Quake Catcher Network in Mexico): assessing performance during large and damaging earthquakes.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dominguez, Luis A.; Yildirim, Battalgazi; Husker, Allen L.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.; Christensen, Carl; Cruz-Atienza, Victor M.

2015-01-01

Each volunteer computer monitors ground motion and communicates using the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC, Anderson, 2004). Using a standard short‐term average, long‐term average (STLA) algorithm (Earle and Shearer, 1994; Cochran, Lawrence, Christensen, Chung, 2009; Cochran, Lawrence, Christensen, and Jakka, 2009), volunteer computer and sensor systems detect abrupt changes in the acceleration recordings. Each time a possible trigger signal is declared, a small package of information containing sensor and ground‐motion information is streamed to one of the QCN servers (Chung et al., 2011). Trigger signals, correlated in space and time, are then processed by the QCN server to look for potential earthquakes.

Scale dependence of disease impacts on quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) mortality in the southwestern United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bell, David M.; Bradford, John B.; Lauenroth, William K.

2015-01-01

By examining variation in disease prevalence, mortality of healthy trees, and mortality of diseased trees, we showed that the role of disease in aspen tree mortality depended on the scale of inference. For variation among individuals in diameter, disease tended to expose intermediate-size trees experiencing moderate risk to greater risk. For spatial variation in summer temperature, disease exposed lower risk populations to greater mortality probabilities, but the magnitude of this exposure depended on summer precipitation. Furthermore, the importance of diameter and slenderness in mediating responses to climate supports the increasing emphasis on trait variation in studies of ecological responses to global change.

CISN Display - Reliable Delivery of Real-time Earthquake Information, Including Rapid Notification and ShakeMap to Critical End Users

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rico, H.; Hauksson, E.; Thomas, E.; Friberg, P.; Given, D.

2002-12-01

The California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) Display is part of a Web-enabled earthquake notification system alerting users in near real-time of seismicity, and also valuable geophysical information following a large earthquake. It will replace the Caltech/USGS Broadcast of Earthquakes (CUBE) and Rapid Earthquake Data Integration (REDI) Display as the principal means of delivering graphical earthquake information to users at emergency operations centers, and other organizations. Features distinguishing the CISN Display from other GUI tools are a state-full client/server relationship, a scalable message format supporting automated hyperlink creation, and a configurable platform-independent client with a GIS mapping tool; supporting the decision-making activities of critical users. The CISN Display is the front-end of a client/server architecture known as the QuakeWatch system. It is comprised of the CISN Display (and other potential clients), message queues, server, server "feeder" modules, and messaging middleware, schema and generators. It is written in Java, making it platform-independent, and offering the latest in Internet technologies. QuakeWatch's object-oriented design allows components to be easily upgraded through a well-defined set of application programming interfaces (APIs). Central to the CISN Display's role as a gateway to other earthquake products is its comprehensive XML-schema. The message model starts with the CUBE message format, but extends it by provisioning additional attributes for currently available products, and those yet to be considered. The supporting metadata in the XML-message provides the data necessary for the client to create a hyperlink and associate it with a unique event ID. Earthquake products deliverable to the CISN Display are ShakeMap, Ground Displacement, Focal Mechanisms, Rapid Notifications, OES Reports, and Earthquake Commentaries. Leveraging the power of the XML-format, the CISN Display provides prompt access to

The next new Madrid earthquake

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Atkinson, W.

1988-01-01

Scientists who specialize in the study of Mississippi Valley earthquakes say that the region is overdue for a powerful tremor that will cause major damage and undoubtedly some casualties. The inevitability of a future quake and the lack of preparation by both individuals and communities provided the impetus for this book. It brings together applicable information from many disciplines: history, geology and seismology, engineering, zoology, politics and community planning, economics, environmental science, sociology, and psychology and mental health to provide a perspective of the myriad impacts of a major earthquake on the Mississippi Valley. The author addresses such basic questionsmore » as What, actually, are earthquakes How do they occur Can they be predicted, perhaps even prevented He also addresses those steps that individuals can take to improve their chances for survival both during and after an earthquake.« less

Tsunami Early Warning via a Physics-Based Simulation Pipeline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, J. M.; Rundle, J. B.; Donnellan, A.; Ward, S. N.; Komjathy, A.

2017-12-01

Through independent efforts, physics-based simulations of earthquakes, tsunamis, and atmospheric signatures of these phenomenon have been developed. With the goal of producing tsunami forecasts and early warning tools for at-risk regions, we join these three spheres to create a simulation pipeline. The Virtual Quake simulator can produce thousands of years of synthetic seismicity on large, complex fault geometries, as well as the expected surface displacement in tsunamigenic regions. These displacements are used as initial conditions for tsunami simulators, such as Tsunami Squares, to produce catalogs of potential tsunami scenarios with probabilities. Finally, these tsunami scenarios can act as input for simulations of associated ionospheric total electron content, signals which can be detected by GNSS satellites for purposes of early warning in the event of a real tsunami. We present the most recent developments in this project.

A data-based model to locate mass movements triggered by seismic events in Sichuan, China.

PubMed

de Souza, Fabio Teodoro

2014-01-01

Earthquakes affect the entire world and have catastrophic consequences. On May 12, 2008, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale occurred in the Wenchuan area of Sichuan province in China. This event, together with subsequent aftershocks, caused many avalanches, landslides, debris flows, collapses, and quake lakes and induced numerous unstable slopes. This work proposes a methodology that uses a data mining approach and geographic information systems to predict these mass movements based on their association with the main and aftershock epicenters, geologic faults, riverbeds, and topography. A dataset comprising 3,883 mass movements is analyzed, and some models to predict the location of these mass movements are developed. These predictive models could be used by the Chinese authorities as an important tool for identifying risk areas and rescuing survivors during similar events in the future.

Ultrafast myoglobin structural dynamics observed with an X-ray free-electron laser

DOE PAGES

Levantino, Matteo; Schirò, Giorgio; Lemke, Henrik Till; ...

2015-04-02

Light absorption can trigger biologically relevant protein conformational changes. The light induced structural rearrangement at the level of a photoexcited chromophore is known to occur in the femtosecond timescale and is expected to propagate through the protein as a quake-like intramolecular motion. Here we report direct experimental evidence of such ‘proteinquake’ observed in myoglobin through femtosecond X-ray solution scattering measurements performed at the Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray free-electron laser. An ultrafast increase of myoglobin radius of gyration occurs within 1 picosecond and is followed by a delayed protein expansion. As the system approaches equilibrium it undergoes damped oscillations withmore » a ~3.6-picosecond time period. Our results unambiguously show how initially localized chemical changes can propagate at the level of the global protein conformation in the picosecond timescale.« less

Exsanguinating upper GI bleeds due to Unusual Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) of stomach and spleen: a case report.

PubMed

Khan, Mohammad Iqbal; Baqai, Muhammad Tariq; Baqai, Mohammad Fahd; Mufti, Naveed

2009-05-01

In this paper we are reporting one case of exsanguinating upper gastrointestinal tract (GIT) bleed requiring massive blood transfusion and immediate life saving surgery. A 30 years old female, 12 weeks pregnant was referred to our hospital from the earth-quake affected area of Kashmir with history of upper abdominal pain, haematemesis and melaena for one week. After stabilizing the patient, upper gastro-intestinal endoscopy was performed. It revealed gastric ulcer just distal to the gastro-esophageal junction on the lesser curvature. Biopsy from the ulcer edge led to profuse spurting of the blood and patient went into state of shock. Immediate resuscitation led to rebleeding and recurrence of post haemorrahagic shock. The patient was immediately explored and total gastrectectomy with splenectomy concluded as life saving procedure. A review of literature was conducted to make this report possible.

Geomorphic and geologic controls of geohazards induced by Nepal's 2015 Gorkha earthquake.

PubMed

Kargel, J S; Leonard, G J; Shugar, D H; Haritashya, U K; Bevington, A; Fielding, E J; Fujita, K; Geertsema, M; Miles, E S; Steiner, J; Anderson, E; Bajracharya, S; Bawden, G W; Breashears, D F; Byers, A; Collins, B; Dhital, M R; Donnellan, A; Evans, T L; Geai, M L; Glasscoe, M T; Green, D; Gurung, D R; Heijenk, R; Hilborn, A; Hudnut, K; Huyck, C; Immerzeel, W W; Liming, Jiang; Jibson, R; Kääb, A; Khanal, N R; Kirschbaum, D; Kraaijenbrink, P D A; Lamsal, D; Shiyin, Liu; Mingyang, Lv; McKinney, D; Nahirnick, N K; Zhuotong, Nan; Ojha, S; Olsenholler, J; Painter, T H; Pleasants, M; Pratima, K C; Yuan, Q I; Raup, B H; Regmi, D; Rounce, D R; Sakai, A; Donghui, Shangguan; Shea, J M; Shrestha, A B; Shukla, A; Stumm, D; van der Kooij, M; Voss, K; Xin, Wang; Weihs, B; Wolfe, D; Lizong, Wu; Xiaojun, Yao; Yoder, M R; Young, N

2016-01-08

The Gorkha earthquake (magnitude 7.8) on 25 April 2015 and later aftershocks struck South Asia, killing ~9000 people and damaging a large region. Supported by a large campaign of responsive satellite data acquisitions over the earthquake disaster zone, our team undertook a satellite image survey of the earthquakes' induced geohazards in Nepal and China and an assessment of the geomorphic, tectonic, and lithologic controls on quake-induced landslides. Timely analysis and communication aided response and recovery and informed decision-makers. We mapped 4312 coseismic and postseismic landslides. We also surveyed 491 glacier lakes for earthquake damage but found only nine landslide-impacted lakes and no visible satellite evidence of outbursts. Landslide densities correlate with slope, peak ground acceleration, surface downdrop, and specific metamorphic lithologies and large plutonic intrusions. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Search for Transient Gravitational Waves in Coincidence with Short-Duration Radio Transients During 2007-2013

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, B. P.; Hughey, Brennan; Zanolin, Michele; Szczepanczyk, Marek; Gill, Kiranjyot; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Abernathy, M. R.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.;

Non-Equilibrium Cytoquake Dynamics in Cytoskeletal Remodeling and Stabilization

PubMed Central

Alencar, Adriano Mesquita; Ferraz, Mariana Sacrini Ayres; Park, Chan Young; Millet, Emil; Trepat, Xavier; Butler, James P.; Fredberg, Jeffrey J.

2016-01-01

The cytoskeleton (CSK) is a tensed fiber framework that supports, shapes and stabilizes the cell. The CSK is in a constant state of remodeling, moreover, which is an active non-equilibrium thermodynamic process. We report here that cytoskeletal remodeling involves reconfigurations that are not only sudden but also are transmitted to great distances within the cell in a fashion reminiscent of quakes in the Earth's crust. Remarkably, these events in the cell conform both qualitatively and quantitatively to empirical laws typical of earthquakes, including hierarchical fault structures, cumulative energy distributions following the Gutenberg-Richter law, and rate of after-shocks following Omori's law. While it is well-established that remodeling and stabilization of the cytoskeleton are non-equilibrium process, these new unanticipated observations establish that these processes are also remarkably non-local and strongly cooperative. PMID:27722665

Scale-dependence of desease impacts on quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) mortality risk in the southwestern U.S.

Treesearch

David M. Bell; John B. Bradford; William K. Lauenroth

2015-01-01

Depending on how disease impacts tree exposure to risk, both the prevalence of disease and disease effects on survival may contribute to patterns of mortality risk across a species’ range. Disease may accelerate tree species’ declines in response to global change factors, such as drought, biotic interactions, such as competition, or functional traits, such as allometry...

Climate Variability, Melt-Flow Acceleration, and Ice Quakes at the Western Slope of the Greenland Ice Sheet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steffen, K.; Zwally, J. H.; Rial, J. A.; Behar, A.; Huff, R.

2006-12-01

The Greenland ice sheet experienced surface melt increase over the past 15 years with record melt years in 1987, 1991, 1998, 2002 and 2005. For the western part of the ice sheet the melt area increased by 30 percent (1979-2005). Monthly mean air temperatures increased in spring and fall by 0.23 deg. C per year since 1990, extending the length of melt and total ablation. Winter air temperatures increased by as much as 0.5 deg. C per year during the past 15 years. The equilibrium line altitude ranged between 400 and 1530 m above sea level at 70 deg. north along the western slope of the ice sheet for the past 15 years, equaling a horizontal distance of 100 km. The ELA has been below the Swiss Camp (1100 m elevation) in the nineties, and since 1997 moved above the Swiss Camp height. An increase in ELA leads to an increase in melt water run-off which has been verified by regional model studies (high-resolution re-analysis). Interannual variability of snow accumulation varies from 0.3 to 2.0 m, whereas snow and ice ablation ranges from 0 to 1.5 m water equivalent at Swiss Camp during 1990-2005. A GPS network (10 stations) monitors ice velocity, acceleration, and surface height change at high temporal resolution throughout the year. The network covers a range of 500 and 1500 m above sea level, close to the Ilulissat Icefjord World Heritage region. The ice sheet continued to accelerate during the height of the melt season with short-term velocity increases up to 100 percent, and vertical uplift rates of 0.5 m. There seems to be a good correlation between the change in ice velocity and total surface melt, suggesting that melt water penetrates to great depth through moulins and cracks, lubricating the bottom of the ice sheet. A new bore-hole video movie will be shown from a 110 m deep moulin close to Swiss Camp. A PASSCAL array of 10 portable, 3-component seismic stations deployed around Swiss Camp from May to August 2006 detected numerous microearthquakes within the ice sheet and possibly at its contact with the underlying bedrock some 60 km to the south of Swiss Camp. The seismic data collected will be discussed.

78 FR 61375 - Prospective Grant of Exclusive License: Use of Quaking-Induced Conversion (QUIC) for Detection of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-03

..., 2008; [E-109-2007/1-PCT-01], EPC application No 08796382.3 filed July 21, 2008 [E-109-2007/1-EP-03], US.../1-US-02], and US Application No. 13/489,321, filed June 5, 2012 [E-109-2007/1-US-04]; Each entitled ``Detection of Infectious Prion Protein by Seeded Conversion of Recombinant Prion Protein'' By Byron Caughey...

The Global Earthquake Model - Past, Present, Future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smolka, Anselm; Schneider, John; Stein, Ross

2014-05-01

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) is a unique collaborative effort that aims to provide organizations and individuals with tools and resources for transparent assessment of earthquake risk anywhere in the world. By pooling data, knowledge and people, GEM acts as an international forum for collaboration and exchange. Sharing of data and risk information, best practices, and approaches across the globe are key to assessing risk more effectively. Through consortium driven global projects, open-source IT development and collaborations with more than 10 regions, leading experts are developing unique global datasets, best practice, open tools and models for seismic hazard and risk assessment. The year 2013 has seen the completion of ten global data sets or components addressing various aspects of earthquake hazard and risk, as well as two GEM-related, but independently managed regional projects SHARE and EMME. Notably, the International Seismological Centre (ISC) led the development of a new ISC-GEM global instrumental earthquake catalogue, which was made publicly available in early 2013. It has set a new standard for global earthquake catalogues and has found widespread acceptance and application in the global earthquake community. By the end of 2014, GEM's OpenQuake computational platform will provide the OpenQuake hazard/risk assessment software and integrate all GEM data and information products. The public release of OpenQuake is planned for the end of this 2014, and will comprise the following datasets and models: • ISC-GEM Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (released January 2013) • Global Earthquake History Catalogue [1000-1903] • Global Geodetic Strain Rate Database and Model • Global Active Fault Database • Tectonic Regionalisation Model • Global Exposure Database • Buildings and Population Database • Earthquake Consequences Database • Physical Vulnerabilities Database • Socio-Economic Vulnerability and Resilience Indicators • Seismic

Limits on great earthquake size at subduction zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCaffrey, R.

2012-12-01

Subduction zones are where the world's greatest earthquakes occur due to the large fault area available to slip. Yet some subduction zones are thought to be immune from these massive events, where quake size is limited by some physical processes or properties. Accordingly, the size of the 2011 Tohoku-oki Mw 9.0 earthquake caught some in the earthquake research community by surprise. The expectations of these massive quakes have been driven in the past by reliance on our short, incomplete history of earthquakes and causal relationships derived from it. The logic applied is that if a great earthquake has not happened in the past, that we know of, one cannot happen in the future. Using the ~100-year global earthquake seismological history, and in some cases extended with geologic observations, relationships between maximum earthquake sizes and other properties of subduction zones are suggested, leading to the notion that some subduction zones, like the Japan Trench, would never produce a magnitude ~9 event. Empirical correlations of earthquake behavior with other subduction parameters can give false positive results when the data are incomplete or incorrect, of small numbers and numerous attributes are examined. Given multi-century return times of the greatest earthquakes, ignorance of those return times and our relatively limited temporal observation span (in most places), I suggest that we cannot yet rule out great earthquakes at any subduction zones. Alternatively, using the length of a subduction zone that is available for slip as the predominant factor in determining maximum earthquake size, we cannot rule out that any subduction zone of a few hundred kilometers or more in length may be capable of producing a magnitude 9 or larger earthquake. Based on this method, the expected maximum size for the Japan Trench was 9.0 (McCaffrey, Geology, p. 263, 2008). The same approach indicates that a M > 9 off Java, with twice the population density as Honshu and much lower

Satellite Infrared Radiation Measurements Prior to the Major Earthquakes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ouzounov, Dimitar; Pulintes, S.; Bryant, N.; Taylor, Patrick; Freund, F.

2005-01-01

This work describes our search for a relationship between tectonic stresses and increases in mid-infrared (IR) flux as part of a possible ensemble of electromagnetic (EM) phenomena that may be related to earthquake activity. We present and &scuss observed variations in thermal transients and radiation fields prior to the earthquakes of Jan 22, 2003 Colima (M6.7) Mexico, Sept. 28 .2004 near Parkfield (M6.0) in California and Northern Sumatra (M8.5) Dec. 26,2004. Previous analysis of earthquake events has indicated the presence of an IR anomaly, where temperatures increased or did not return to its usual nighttime value. Our procedures analyze nighttime satellite data that records the general condtion of the ground after sunset. We have found from the MODIS instrument data that five days before the Colima earthquake the IR land surface nighttime temperature rose up to +4 degrees C in a 100 km radius around the epicenter. The IR transient field recorded by MODIS in the vicinity of Parkfield, also with a cloud free environment, was around +1 degree C and is significantly smaller than the IR anomaly around the Colima epicenter. Ground surface temperatures near the Parkfield epicenter four days prior to the earthquake show steady increase. However, on the night preceding the quake, a significant drop in relative humidity was indicated, process similar to those register prior to the Colima event. Recent analyses of continuous ongoing long- wavelength Earth radiation (OLR) indicate significant and anomalous variability prior to some earthquakes. The cause of these anomalies is not well understood but could be the result of a triggering by an interaction between the lithosphere-hydrosphere and atmospheric related to changes in the near surface electrical field and/or gas composition prior to the earthquake. The OLR anomaly usually covers large areas surrounding the main epicenter. We have found strong anomalies signal (two sigma) along the epicentral area signals on Dec 21

Acceleration and volumetric strain generated by the Parkfield 2004 earthquake on the GEOS strong-motion array near Parkfield, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Borcherdt, Rodger D.; Johnston, Malcolm J.S.; Dietel, Christopher; Glassmoyer, Gary; Myren, Doug; Stephens, Christopher

2004-01-01

An integrated array of 11 General Earthquake Observation System (GEOS) stations installed near Parkfield, CA provided on scale broad-band, wide-dynamic measurements of acceleration and volumetric strain of the Parkfield earthquake (M 6.0) of September 28, 2004. Three component measurements of acceleration were obtained at each of the stations. Measurements of collocated acceleration and volumetric strain were obtained at four of the stations. Measurements of velocity at most sites were on scale only for the initial P-wave arrival. When considered in the context of the extensive set of strong-motion recordings obtained on more than 40 analog stations by the California Strong-Motion Instrumentation Program (Shakal, et al., 2004 http://www.quake.ca.gov/cisn-edc) and those on the dense array of Spudich, et al, (1988), these recordings provide an unprecedented document of the nature of the near source strong motion generated by a M 6.0 earthquake. The data set reported herein provides the most extensive set of near field broad band wide dynamic range measurements of acceleration and volumetric strain for an earthquake as large as M 6 of which the authors are aware. As a result considerable interest has been expressed in these data. This report is intended to describe the data and facilitate its use to resolve a number of scientific and engineering questions concerning earthquake rupture processes and resultant near field motions and strains. This report provides a description of the array, its scientific objectives and the strong-motion recordings obtained of the main shock. The report provides copies of the uncorrected and corrected data. Copies of the inferred velocities, displacements, and Psuedo velocity response spectra are provided. Digital versions of these recordings are accessible with information available through the internet at several locations: the National Strong-Motion Program web site (http://agram.wr.usgs.gov/), the COSMOS Virtual Data Center Web site

Seismic generated infrasounds on Telluric Planets: Modeling and comparisons between Earth, Venus and Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lognonne, P. H.; Rolland, L.; Karakostas, F. G.; Garcia, R.; Mimoun, D.; Banerdt, W. B.; Smrekar, S. E.

2015-12-01

Earth, Venus and Mars are all planets in which infrasounds can propagate and interact with the solid surface. This leads to infrasound generation for internal sources (e.g. quakes) and to seismic waves generations for atmospheric sources (e.g. meteor, impactor explosions, boundary layer turbulences). Both the atmospheric profile, surface density, atmospheric wind and viscous/attenuation processes are however greatly different, including major differences between Mars/Venus and Earth due to the CO2 molecular relaxation. We present modeling results and compare the seismic/acoustic coupling strength for Earth, Mars and Venus. This modeling is made through normal modes modelling for models integrating the interior, atmosphere, both with realistic attenuation (intrinsic Q for solid part, viscosity and molecular relaxation for the atmosphere). We complete these modeling, made for spherical structure, by integration of wind, assuming the later to be homogeneous at the scale of the infrasound wavelength. This allows us to compute either the Seismic normal modes (e.g. Rayleigh surface waves), or the acoustic or the atmospheric gravity modes. Comparisons are done, for either a seismic source or an atmospheric source, on the amplitude of expected signals as a function of distance and frequency. Effects of local time are integrated in the modeling. We illustrate the Rayleigh waves modelling by Earth data (for large quakes and volcanoes eruptions). For Venus, very large coupling can occur at resonance frequencies between the solid part and atmospheric part of the planet through infrasounds/Rayleigh waves coupling. If the atmosphere reduced the Q (quality coefficient) of Rayleigh waves in general, the atmosphere at these resonance soffers better propagation than Venus crust and increases their Q. For Mars, Rayleigh waves excitations by atmospheric burst is shown and discussed for the typical yield of impacts. The new data of the Nasa INSIGHT mission which carry both seismic and

Acoustic Gravity Waves Generated by an Oscillating Ice Sheet in Arctic Zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdolali, A.; Kadri, U.; Kirby, J. T., Jr.

2016-12-01

We investigate the formation of acoustic-gravity waves due to oscillations of large ice blocks, possibly triggered by atmospheric and ocean currents, ice block shrinkage or storms and ice-quakes.For the idealized case of a homogeneous weakly compressible water bounded at the surface by ice sheet and a rigid bed, the description of the infinite family of acoustic modes is characterized by the water depth h and angular frequency of oscillating ice sheet ω ; The acoustic wave field is governed by the leading mode given by: Nmax=\\floor {(ω h)/(π c)} where c is the sound speed in water and the special brackets represent the floor function (Fig1). Unlike the free-surface setting, the higher acoustic modes might exhibit a larger contribution and therefore all progressive acoustic modes have to be considered.This study focuses on the characteristics of acoustic-gravity waves generated by an oscillating elastic ice sheet in a weakly compressible fluid coupled with a free surface model [Abdolali et al. 2015] representing shrinking ice blocks in realistic sea state, where the randomly oriented ice sheets cause inter modal transition and multidirectional reflections. A theoretical solution and a 3D numerical model have been developed for the study purposes. The model is first validated against the theoretical solution [Kadri, 2016]. To overcome the computational difficulties of 3D models, we derive a depth-integrated equation valid for spatially varying ice sheet thickness and water depth. We show that the generated acoustic-gravity waves contribute significantly to deep ocean currents compared to other mechanisms. In addition, these waves travel at the sound speed in water carrying information on ice sheet motion, providing various implications for ocean monitoring and detection of ice-quakes. Fig1:Snapshots of dynamic pressure given by an oscillating ice sheet; h=4500m, c=1500m/s, semi-length b=10km, ζ =1m, omega=π rad/s. Abdolali, A., Kirby, J. T. and Bellotti, G

Stephen Hall Receives 2012 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism-Features: Citation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pearson, Helen

2013-01-01

Stephen Hall, a freelance science writer and science-communication teacher, received the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism-Features at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 5 December 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Hall was honored for the article "At Fault?" published 15 September 2011 in Nature. The article examines the legal, personal, and political repercussions from a 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy for seismologists who had attempted to convey seismic risk assessments to the public. The 6.3 magnitude quake devastated the medieval town and caused more than 300 deaths. Six scientists and one government official were subsequently convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison for inadequately assessing and mischaracterizing the risks to city residents, despite the inexact nature of seismic risk assessment. The Sullivan award is for work published with a deadline pressure of more than 1 week.

Vegetation, substrate and hydrology in floating marshes in the Mississippi river delta plain wetlands, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sasser, C.E.; Gosselink, J.G.; Swenson, E.M.; Swarzenski, C.M.; Leibowitz, N.C.

1996-01-01

In the 1940s extensive floating marshes (locally called 'flotant') were reported and mapped in coastal wetlands of the Mississippi River Delta Plain. These floating marshes included large areas of Panicum hemitomon-dominated freshwater marshes, and Spartina patens/Scirpus olneyi brackish marshes. Today these marshes appear to be quite different in extent and type. We describe five floating habitats and one non-floating, quaking habitat based on differences in buoyancy dynamics (timing and degree of floating), substrate characteristics, and dominant vegetation. All floating marshes have low bulk density, organic substrates. Nearly all are fresh marshes. Panicum hemitomon floating marshes presently occur within the general regions that were reported in the 1940's by O'Neil, but are reduced in extent. Some of the former Panicum hemitomon marshes have been replaced by seasonally or variably floating marshes dominated, or co-dominated by Sagittaria lancifolia or Eleocharis baldwinii. ?? 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Rumor Diffusion and Convergence during the 3.11 Earthquake: A Twitter Case Study

PubMed Central

Takayasu, Misako; Sato, Kazuya; Sano, Yukie; Yamada, Kenta; Miura, Wataru; Takayasu, Hideki

2015-01-01

We focus on Internet rumors and present an empirical analysis and simulation results of their diffusion and convergence during emergencies. In particular, we study one rumor that appeared in the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, which later turned out to be misinformation. By investigating whole Japanese tweets that were sent one week after the quake, we show that one correction tweet, which originated from a city hall account, diffused enormously. We also demonstrate a stochastic agent-based model, which is inspired by contagion model of epidemics SIR, can reproduce observed rumor dynamics. Our model can estimate the rumor infection rate as well as the number of people who still believe in the rumor that cannot be observed directly. For applications, rumor diffusion sizes can be estimated in various scenarios by combining our model with the real data. PMID:25831122

Searching for topological defect dark matter via nongravitational signatures.

PubMed

Stadnik, Y V; Flambaum, V V

2014-10-10

We propose schemes for the detection of topological defect dark matter using pulsars and other luminous extraterrestrial systems via nongravitational signatures. The dark matter field, which makes up a defect, may interact with standard model particles, including quarks and the photon, resulting in the alteration of their masses. When a topological defect passes through a pulsar, its mass, radius, and internal structure may be altered, resulting in a pulsar "quake." A topological defect may also function as a cosmic dielectric material with a distinctive frequency-dependent index of refraction, which would give rise to the time delay of a periodic extraterrestrial light or radio signal, and the dispersion of a light or radio source in a manner distinct to a gravitational lens. A topological defect passing through Earth may alter Earth's period of rotation and give rise to temporary nonzero electric dipole moments for an electron, proton, neutron, nuclei and atoms.

Risk Communication on Earthquake Prediction Studies -"No L'Aquila quake risk" experts probed in Italy in June 2010

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oki, S.; Koketsu, K.; Kuwabara, E.; Tomari, J.

2010-12-01

For the previous 6 months from the L'Aquila earthquake which occurred on 6th April 2009, the seismicity in that region had been active. Having become even more active and reached to magnitude 4 earthquake on 30th March, the government held Major Risks Committee which is a part of the Civil Protection Department and is tasked with forecasting possible risks by collating and analyzing data from a variety of sources and making preventative recommendations. At the press conference immediately after the committee, they reported that "The scientific community tells us there is no danger, because there is an ongoing discharge of energy. The situation looks favorable." 6 days later, a magunitude 6.3 earthquake attacked L'Aquila and killed 308 people. On 3rd June next year, the prosecutors opened the investigation after complaints of the victims that far more people would have fled their homes that night if there had been no reassurances of the Major Risks Committee the previous week. This issue becomes widely known to the seismological society especially after an email titled "Letter of Support for Italian Earthquake Scientists" from seismologists at the National Geophysics and Volcanology Institute (INGV) sent worldwide. It says that the L'Aquila Prosecutors office indicted of manslaughter the members of the Major Risks Committee and that the charges are for failing to provide a short term alarm to the population before the earthquake struck. It is true that there is no generalized method to predict earthquakes but failing the short term alarm is not the reason for the investigation of the scientists. The chief prosecutor stated that "the committee could have provided the people with better advice", and "it wasn't the case that they did not receive any warnings, because there had been tremors". The email also requests sign-on support for the open letter to the president of Italy from Earth sciences colleagues from all over the world and collected more than 5000 signatures in a week. Lessons from this issue are of significant. Science communication is now in currency and more efforts are made to reach out to the public or policy makers. But when we deal with disaster sciences, it contains a much bigger proportion of risk communication. A similar incident had happened with the outbreak of the BSE back in the late 1980’s. Many of the measures taken according to the Southwood Committee are laudable, but for one - science back then could not show whether or not it was contagious to humans, and is written in the committee minutes that "it is unlikely to infect humans". If read thoroughly, it does refer to the risk, but since it had not been stressed, the government started a campaign saying that "Cows in the UK are safe". Science in the UK fell into disrepute after infection to humans was confirmed in 1996, which became the motivation of the research on science communication. In the presentation, we would like to review the affair and suggest how scientists should behave when faced to give advice on the ongoing phenomena which we are not yet able to predicate scientifically.

Pre-earthquake Magnetic Pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scoville, J.; Heraud, J. A.; Freund, F. T.

2015-12-01

A semiconductor model of rocks is shown to describe unipolar magnetic pulses, a phenomenon that has been observed prior to earthquakes. These pulses are suspected to be generated deep in the Earth's crust, in and around the hypocentral volume, days or even weeks before earth quakes. Their extremely long wavelength allows them to pass through kilometers of rock. Interestingly, when the sources of these pulses are triangulated, the locations coincide with the epicenters of future earthquakes. We couple a drift-diffusion semiconductor model to a magnetic field in order to describe the electromagnetic effects associated with electrical currents flowing within rocks. The resulting system of equations is solved numerically and it is seen that a volume of rock may act as a diode that produces transient currents when it switches bias. These unidirectional currents are expected to produce transient unipolar magnetic pulses similar in form, amplitude, and duration to those observed before earthquakes, and this suggests that the pulses could be the result of geophysical semiconductor processes.

Tidal influence through LOD variations on the temporal distribution of earthquake occurrences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varga, P.; Gambis, D.; Bizouard, Ch.; Bus, Z.; Kiszely, M.

2006-10-01

Stresses generated by the body tides are very small at the depth of crustal earth- quakes (~10^2 N/m2). The maximum value of the lunisolar stress within the depth range of earthquakes is 10^3 N/m2 (at depth of about 600 km). Surface loads, due to oceanic tides, in coastal areas are ~ 104 N/m2. These influences are however too small to affect the outbreak time of seismic events. Authors show the effect on time distribution of seismic activity due to ΔLOD generated by zonal tides for the case of Mf, Mm, Ssa and Sa tidal constituents can be much more effective to trigger earthquakes. According to this approach we show that the tides are not directly triggering the seismic events but through the generated length of day variations. That is the reason why in case of zonal tides a correlation of the lunisolar effect and seismic activity exists, what is not the case for the tesseral and sectorial tides.

Van, Turkey Earthquake of 23 October 2011, Mw 7.2; An Overview on Disaster Management

PubMed Central

ZARÉ, Mehdi; NAZMAZAR, Behnaz

2013-01-01

An earthquake was happened on 23 October 2011 in Van, Turkey (Mw7.2) at the eastern most area of Anatolian plateau and in the neighborhood of Iranian border (West Azerbaijan Province). The study was performed based on field and office observations and has been focused on the process of disaster management in Turkey after the 23 October 2011 earthquake. We surveyed the quake from the view point of disaster management, and study the relief process during and after the catastrophe. The day-to-day disaster management procedure in seventeen days after the event has been scrutinized as well. The number of victims and extent of damage in Van earthquake was relatively limited according to the national experiences and recent modernization of infrastructures in Turkey. The Van earthquake caused 644 deaths and demolishing of several buildings in the cities of Van and Erciş in Van Province. The performance of the government organizations is however criticized based on their response to the event. PMID:23515082

Apollo 14 and 16 Active Seismic Experiments, and Apollo 17 Lunar Seismic Profiling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

Seismic refraction experiments were conducted on the moon by Apollo astronauts during missions 14, 16, and 17. Seismic velocities of 104, 108, 92, 114 and 100 m/sec were inferred for the lunar regolith at the Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 landing sites, respectively. These data indicate that fragmentation and comminution caused by meteoroid impacts has produced a layer of remarkably uniform seismic properties moonwide. Brecciation and high porosity are the probable causes of the very low velocities observed in the lunar regolith. Apollo 17 seismic data revealed that the seismic velocity increases very rapidly with depth to 4.7 km/sec at a depth of 1.4 km. Such a large velocity change is suggestive of compositional and textural changes and is compatible with a model of fractured basaltic flows overlying anorthositic breccias. 'Thermal' moonquakes were also detected at the Apollo 17 site, becoming increasingly frequent after sunrise and reaching a maximum at sunset. The source of these quakes could possibly be landsliding.

[The Fukushima nuclear accident: consequences for Japan and for us].

PubMed

Grosche, B

2013-04-01

The Fukushima accident was the consequence of a preceding 2-fold natural catastrophe: the earth quake of 11 March 2011 and the subsequent tsunami. Due to favourable winds and to evacuation measures the radiation exposure to the general population in Japan as a whole and with some exceptions in the region outside the evacuation zone, too, was low. In this article the attempt is made to give an estimate of health consequences to the public. This is based upon WHO's dose estimates, knowledge of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, of the atmospheric nuclear bomb testing in Kazakhstan and on the risk of childhood leukaemia after low dose radiation exposure. For Germany, there was no radiation threat due to the accident. Nonetheless, the events in Japan made clear that the rules and standards that were developed for the case of a reactor accident need to be revised. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Geology and neotectonism in the epicentral area of the 2011 M5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Burton, William C.; Spears, David B.; Harrison, Richard W.; Evans, Nicholas H.; Schindler, J. Stephen; Counts, Ronald C.

2015-01-01

arc (Ordovician Chopawamsic Formation) to Laurentia, intrusion of a granodiorite pluton (Ordovician Ellisville pluton), and formation of a post-Chopawamsic successor basin (Ordovician Quantico Formation), all accompanied by early Paleozoic regional deformation and metamorphism. Local transpressional faulting and retrograde metamorphism occurred in the late Paleozoic, followed by diabase dike intrusion and possible local normal faulting in the early Mesozoic. The overall goal of the bedrock mapping is to determine what existing geologic structures might have been reactivated during the 2011 seismic event, and surfi cial deposits along the South Anna River are being mapped in order to determine possible neotectonic uplift. In addition to bedrock and surfi cial studies, we have excavated trenches in an area that contains two late Paleozoic faults and represents the updip projection of the causative fault for the 2011 quake. The trenches reveal faulting that has offset surfi cial deposits dated as Quaternary in age, as well as numerous other brittle structures that suggest a geologically recent history of neotectonic activity.

Coping with earthquakes induced by fluid injection

USGS Publications Warehouse

McGarr, Arthur F.; Bekins, Barbara; Burkardt, Nina; Dewey, James W.; Earle, Paul S.; Ellsworth, William L.; Ge, Shemin; Hickman, Stephen H.; Holland, Austin F.; Majer, Ernest; Rubinstein, Justin L.; Sheehan, Anne

2015-01-01

Large areas of the United States long considered geologically stable with little or no detected seismicity have recently become seismically active. The increase in earthquake activity began in the mid-continent starting in 2001 (1) and has continued to rise. In 2014, the rate of occurrence of earthquakes with magnitudes (M) of 3 and greater in Oklahoma exceeded that in California (see the figure). This elevated activity includes larger earthquakes, several with M > 5, that have caused significant damage (2, 3). To a large extent, the increasing rate of earthquakes in the mid-continent is due to fluid-injection activities used in modern energy production (1, 4, 5). We explore potential avenues for mitigating effects of induced seismicity. Although the United States is our focus here, Canada, China, the UK, and others confront similar problems associated with oil and gas production, whereas quakes induced by geothermal activities affect Switzerland, Germany, and others.

Satellite laser ranging and geological constraints on plate motion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harrison, C. G. A.; Douglas, Nancy B.

1990-01-01

Satellite laser ranging (SLR) observed baseline rates of change were measured and compared with rates determined from sea floor spreading rates and directions, and earth-quake solutions. With the number of years of observation now over six for many of the baselines, the inaccuracy of determining baseline rates of change has diminished so that in some cases it is less than a few mm per year. Thus, a direct comparison between baseline rates of change and rates of change established using geophysical information (called geological rates) is now feasible. In most cases, there is good agreement between the rates determined from SLR and geological rates, but in some cases there appear to be discrepancies. These discrepancies involve many of the data for which one end of the baseline is either Quincy (California), Huahine (French Polynesia), or Simosato (Japan). A method for looking at the discrepancies for these SLR observatories has been devised which makes it possible to calculate the motion not modeled by the geologic information.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Madlazim,, E-mail: m-lazim@physics.its.ac.id; Hariyono, E., E-mail: m-lazim@physics.its.ac.id

The purpose of the study was to estimate P-wave rupture durations (T{sub dur}), dominant periods (T{sub d}) and exceeds duration (T{sub 50Ex}) simultaneously for local events, shallow earthquakes which occurred off the coast of Indonesia. Although the all earthquakes had parameters of magnitude more than 6,3 and depth less than 70 km, part of the earthquakes generated a tsunami while the other events (Mw=7.8) did not. Analysis using Joko Tingkir of the above stated parameters helped understand the tsunami generation of these earthquakes. Measurements from vertical component broadband P-wave quake velocity records and determination of the above stated parameters canmore » provide a direct procedure for assessing rapidly the potential for tsunami generation. The results of the present study and the analysis of the seismic parameters helped explain why the events generated a tsunami, while the others did not.« less

Ethnic Groups Differences in Domestic Recovery after the Catastrophe: A Case Study of the 2008 Magnitude 7.9 Earthquake in China.

PubMed

Wang, Ying; Zhu, Yingqi; Sui, Qi

2017-06-02

This research examined the ethnic differences in domestic recovery after the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China. In 2014, 866 valid questionnaires were collected. Han and Qiang & Zang households were analyzed using logistic regression to determine the factors influencing household recovery. It was found that the householder of the Qiang & Zang group played a more important role in household recovery. Different from the Han, females from Qiang & Zang households had negative attitudes on recovery, and Qiang & Zang households did not believe in the effectiveness of public donations for post-quake recovery. The study also showed that local workers in a household were more helpful for household recovery than were migrant workers in a household, regardless of ethnicity. Therefore, the government should create more local jobs in Han and Qiang & Zang households and pay more attention to women in Qiang households. Assistance should be established specifically for the psychological recovery of Qiang women and family recovery projects.

New Insights into the Seismicity and SO2 Degassing at Cotopaxi Volcano (Ecuador) During the 2015 Unrest and Eruptive Period

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hidalgo, S.; Battaglia, J.

2017-12-01

Cotopaxi (5897 m) had an unrest and eruption between April and November 2015. Seismic signals and SO2 emissions were recorded by the monitoring network of the Instituto Geofísico. The network includes 11 seismic stations, 6 broad band and 5 short period; and 4 NOVAC-Type 1 DOAS permanent instruments.We reviewed the seismic records to better understand the link between seismicity and SO2 emissions. Transient events detected include Volcano-Tectonic (VT), Long-Period (LP) events and Explosion Quakes (EQ), but also Ice Quakes (IQ) with various spectral signatures related to the glacier covering the volcano summit. An event-per-event exhaustive identification is, however, impossible because of the very large number of events and the wide range of signals, with variable spectral characteristics. Therefore, to identify the different types of events activated previous and during the eruption, we choose an approach based on the search of families of repeating events. Looking at the temporal evolution of these families, we determined 4 characteristic types. The first and more frequent, Type 1, is mainly composed by IQ. Type 2, mainly LPs appeared only in April and May 2015. Interestingly, its rate of occurrence starts increasing the first days of April, is maximum about mid-May when SO2 appears and then progressively drops to totally stop on June 4, replaced by tremor. Since then, and until the hydromagmatic explosions opening the system, SO2 emissions between 3000 and 5000 t/day were directly linked to seismic tremor. Type 3 families, are dominated by VTs, and are only active on 13 and 14 August, before and during the hydromagmatic explosions. These events should be considered as short term seismic precursors. Type 4 families starts at the beginning of September and included only few VTs. Nevertheless, since September, most of the observed events belong to Type 1 families, mainly IQ, hence the seismicity related to volcanic activity after the hydromagmatic explosions was

Activites to Support and Assess Student Understanding of Earth Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prothero, W. A.; Regev, J.

2004-12-01

In order to use data effectively, learners must construct a mental model that allows them to understand and express spatial relationships in data, relationships between different data types, and relationships between the data and a theoretical model. Another important skill is the ability to identify gross patterns and distinguish them from details that may require increasingly sophisticated models. Students must also be able to express their understanding, both to help them frame their understanding for themselves, and for assessment purposes. Research in learning unequivocally shows that writing about a subject increases understanding of that subject. In UCSB's general education oceanography class, a series of increasingly demanding activities culminates in two science papers that use earth data. These activities are: 1) homework problems, 2) in-class short writing activities, 3) lab section exploration activities and presentations, and 4) the science paper. The subjects of the two papers are: Plate Tectonics and Ocean and Climate. Each student is a member of a group that adopts a country and must relate their paper to the environment of their country. Data are accessed using the "Our Dynamic Planet" and "Global Ocean Data Viewer" (GLODV) CD's. These are integrated into EarthEd Online, a software package which supports online writing, review, commenting, and return to the student. It also supports auto-graded homework assignments, grade calculation, and other class management functions. The writing assignments emphasize the construction of a scientific argument. This process is explained explicitly, requiring statements that: 1) include an observation or description of an observation (e.g. elevation profiles, quakes), 2) name features based on the observation (e.g. trench, ridge), 3) describe of features (e.g. trends NW, xxxkm long), 4) describe relationships between features (e.g. quakes are parallel to trench), 5) describe a model or theory (e.g. cartoon type

GIS learning tool for world's largest earthquakes and their causes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chatterjee, Moumita

The objective of this thesis is to increase awareness about earthquakes among people, especially young students by showing the five largest and two most predictable earthquake locations in the world and their plate tectonic settings. This is a geographic based interactive tool which could be used for learning about the cause of great earthquakes in the past and the safest places on the earth in order to avoid direct effect of earthquakes. This approach provides an effective way of learning for the students as it is very user friendly and more aligned to the interests of the younger generation. In this tool the user can click on the various points located on the world map which will open a picture and link to the webpage for that point, showing detailed information of the earthquake history of that place including magnitude of quake, year of past quakes and the plate tectonic settings that made this place earthquake prone. Apart from knowing the earthquake related information students will also be able to customize the tool to suit their needs or interests. Students will be able to add/remove layers, measure distance between any two points on the map, select any place on the map and know more information for that place, create a layer from this set to do a detail analysis, run a query, change display settings, etc. At the end of this tool the user has to go through the earthquake safely guidelines in order to be safe during an earthquake. This tool uses Java as programming language and uses Map Objects Java Edition (MOJO) provided by ESRI. This tool is developed for educational purpose and hence its interface has been kept simple and easy to use so that students can gain maximum knowledge through it instead of having a hard time to install it. There are lots of details to explore which can help more about what a GIS based tool is capable of. Only thing needed to run this tool is latest JAVA edition installed in their machine. This approach makes study more fun and

The new 6 MV multi-nuclide AMS facility at the University of Tsukuba

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sasa, Kimikazu; Takahashi, Tsutomu; Matsumura, Masumi; Matsunaka, Tetsuya; Satou, Yukihiko; Izumi, Daiki; Sueki, Keisuke

2015-10-01

The former accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) system installed on the 12UD Pelletron tandem accelerator at the University of Tsukuba was completely destroyed by the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011. A replacement has been designed and constructed at the university as part of the post-quake reconstruction project. It consists of a 6 MV Pelletron tandem accelerator, two multiple cathode AMS ion sources (MC-SNICSs), and a rare-particle detection system. The 6 MV Pelletron tandem accelerator will be applied not only to AMS, but also to areas such as nanotechnology, ion beam analysis, heavy ion irradiation, and nuclear physics. The rare-particle detection system will be capable of measuring environmental levels of long-lived radioisotopes of 10Be, 14C, 26Al, 36Cl, 41Ca, and 129I. It is also expected to measure other radioisotopes such as 32Si and 90Sr. The 6 MV Pelletron tandem accelerator was installed in the spring of 2014 at the University of Tsukuba. Routine beam delivery and AMS experiments will start in 2015.

Global assessment of human losses due to earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Silva, Vitor; Jaiswal, Kishor; Weatherill, Graeme; Crowley, Helen

2014-01-01

Current studies have demonstrated a sharp increase in human losses due to earthquakes. These alarming levels of casualties suggest the need for large-scale investment in seismic risk mitigation, which, in turn, requires an adequate understanding of the extent of the losses, and location of the most affected regions. Recent developments in global and uniform datasets such as instrumental and historical earthquake catalogues, population spatial distribution and country-based vulnerability functions, have opened an unprecedented possibility for a reliable assessment of earthquake consequences at a global scale. In this study, a uniform probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) model was employed to derive a set of global seismic hazard curves, using the open-source software OpenQuake for seismic hazard and risk analysis. These results were combined with a collection of empirical fatality vulnerability functions and a population dataset to calculate average annual human losses at the country level. The results from this study highlight the regions/countries in the world with a higher seismic risk, and thus where risk reduction measures should be prioritized.

Anomalous variation in GPS based TEC measurements prior to the 30 September 2009 Sumatra Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karia, Sheetal; Pathak, Kamlesh

This paper investigates the features of pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies in the total elec-tron content (TEC) data obtained on the basis of regular GPS observations from the GPS receiver at SVNIT Surat (21.16 N, 72.78 E Geog) located at the northern crest of equatorial anomaly region. The data has been analysed for 5 different earthquakes that occurred during 2009 in India and its neighbouring regions. Our observation shows that for the cases of the earthquake, in which the preparation area lies between the crests of the equatorial anomaly close to the geomagnetic equator the enhancement in TEC was followed by a depletion in TEC on the day of earthquake, which may be connected to the equatorial anomaly shape distortions. For the analysis of the ionospheric effects of one of such case-the 30 September 2009 Sumatra earthquake, Global Ionospheric Maps of TEC were used. The possible influence of the earth-quake preparation processes on the main low-latitude ionosphere peculiarity—the equatorial anomaly—is discussed.

Development of Network-type Archaeological Investigation System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiba, F.; Yokokoyama, S.; Kaneda, A.; Konno, K.

2015-08-01

The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 is said to be a once-in-1000-year catastrophic quake. The Tsunami triggered by the earthquake destroyed broad coastal areas in northeast Japan. As recovery from the earthquake proceeds, the demand for new road construction, housing hill development, and residential construction is rapidly increasing. Culture plays a critical role in the district's recovery. For that reason, before development, cultural properties in the corresponding districts must be urgently investigated. This is a must, although balancing cultural recovery with rapid economic recovery is no easy task. With this in mind, we have developed a new system focusing on speedy archaeological investigation and adequate documentation. The authors reexamined the existing investigation process to categorize tasks into two types: those that must be done only at archaeological sites (site A) and ones available at other places (site B). We then formulated a scheme where the tasks on both sites are performed simultaneously in parallel over the network. Experiments are ongoing. This presentation reports the process and issues of our research and development.

Teamwork tools and activities within the hazard component of the Global Earthquake Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pagani, M.; Weatherill, G.; Monelli, D.; Danciu, L.

2013-05-01

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) is a public-private partnership aimed at supporting and fostering a global community of scientists and engineers working in the fields of seismic hazard and risk assessment. In the hazard sector, in particular, GEM recognizes the importance of local ownership and leadership in the creation of seismic hazard models. For this reason, over the last few years, GEM has been promoting different activities in the context of seismic hazard analysis ranging, for example, from regional projects targeted at the creation of updated seismic hazard studies to the development of a new open-source seismic hazard and risk calculation software called OpenQuake-engine (http://globalquakemodel.org). In this communication we'll provide a tour of the various activities completed, such as the new ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Catalogue, and of currently on-going initiatives like the creation of a suite of tools for the creation of PSHA input models. Discussion, comments and criticism by the colleagues in the audience will be highly appreciated.

The 1906 earthquake and a century of progress in understanding earthquakes and their hazards

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zoback, M.L.

2006-01-01

The 18 April 1906 San Francisco earthquake killed nearly 3000 people and left 225,000 residents homeless. Three days after the earthquake, an eight-person Earthquake Investigation Commission composed of 25 geologists, seismologists, geodesists, biologists and engineers, as well as some 300 others started work under the supervision of Andrew Lawson to collect and document physical phenomena related to the quake . On 31 May 1906, the commission published a preliminary 17-page report titled "The Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission". The report included the bulk of the geological and morphological descriptions of the faulting, detailed reports on shaking intensity, as well as an impressive atlas of 40 oversized maps and folios. Nearly 100 years after its publication, the Commission Report remains a model for post-earthquake investigations. Because the diverse data sets were so complete and carefully documented, researchers continue to apply modern analysis techniques to learn from the 1906 earthquake. While the earthquake marked a seminal event in the history of California, it served as impetus for the birth of modern earthquake science in the United States.

Teaching Elementary Particle Physics: Part I1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hobson, Art

2011-01-01

I'll outline suggestions for teaching elementary particle physics, often called high energy physics, in high school or introductory college courses for non-scientists or scientists. Some presentations of this topic simply list the various particles along with their properties, with little overarching structure. Such a laundry list approach is a great way to make a fascinating topic meaningless. Students need a conceptual framework from which to view the elementary particles. That conceptual framework is quantum field theory (QFT). Teachers and students alike tend to quake at this topic, but bear with me. We're talking here about concepts, not technicalities. My approach will be conceptual and suitable for non-scientists and scientists; if mathematical details are added in courses for future scientists, they should be simple and sparse. Introductory students should not be expected to do QFT, but only to understand its concepts. Those concepts take some getting used to, but they are simple and can be understood by any literate person, be she plumber, attorney, musician, or physicist.

Posttraumatic stress and change in lifestyle among the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake victims.

PubMed

Fukuda, S; Morimoto, K; Mure, K; Maruyama, S

1999-09-01

In 1995, Japan's Hanshin-Awaji area was severely damaged by a major earthquake. Lifestyle factors, sometimes associated with physical health and mortality, have also been known to be associated with mental health status. This report examines the relationship between the subsequent change in lifestyle and the psychological stress induced by the earth quake. An investigation was made of 108 male inhabitants of Awaji Island as to their individual lifestyle before and after the great earthquake, any posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and their demographic variables. The mean PTSD score was higher in the worse lifestyle group than in the no/better lifestyle change group. Category B or D of PTSD scores were higher in the worse lifestyle group than in the no/better lifestyle change group. The percentage of subjects who lived in temporary public housing was higher in the worse lifestyle group than in the no/better lifestyle change group. Worse change in lifestyle might be associated with high PTSD score in victims of Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. Copyright 1999 American Health Foundation and Academic Press.

A “natural and legitimate ambition . . . .”

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pyne, S. J.

1979-01-01

Grove Karl Gilbert (1843-1918) was Chief Geologist for the U.S Geological Survey from 1889 to 1892. Still working for the Survey, he was in Berkeley when the 1906 earthquake struck San Francisco. Immediately on waking, he began to study the motion of the light fixture hanging from the ceiling, trying to decipher the direction of Earth waves and to time the intervals between tremors and hoping to gain some insight into the quake's magnitude. What Gilbert called a "tumult of motions and noises" brought him "unalloyed pleasure." He later announced that it was the "natural and legitimate ambition of properly constituted geologist to see a glacier, witness an eruption and feel an earthquake..." Having narrowly missed the 1872 Inyo earthquake (while with the Wheeler Survey) and the 1899 Alaska earthquake (while with the Harriman Expedition), the 63-year-old Gilbert considered the 1906 earthquake to be one fo the highlights of his career. He was to be comissioned by both the State and Federal committees that investigated the earthquake. 

Geomorphic degradations on the surface of venus: an analysis of venera 9 and venera 10 data.

PubMed

Florensky, C P; Ronca, L B; Basilevsky, A T

1977-05-20

On the basis of the physical and chemical measurements made on the surface of Venus and transmitted back to Earth by the Soviet automatic landers Venera 9 and Venera 10, a geomorphically inactive environment should be expected. An analysis of the television photographs reveals, however, that at least two processes of degradation occur. One operates on a scale of decimeters to meters and is responsible for the fracturing of a layered source rock and the subsequent downslope movement of the fragments. Mass-wasting, perhaps activated by venusian quakes or by unknown geological processes, is likely to be the agent. Another geomorphic degradation process occurs on the scale of a centimeter or less and is responsible for the rounding of edges and the pitting of rock surfaces. The agents of this process are not known, but atmospheric action, perhaps in connection with volcanic episodes, may be the cause. From a geomorphic point of view, the landscape of the Venera 9 landing site can be considered young and that of the Venera 10 landing site, mature.

Tidal stress and failure in the moon of binary asteroid systems: Application to asteroid (65803) Didymos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sophal Pou, Laurent; Garcia, Raphael F.; Mimoun, David; Murdoch, Naomi; Karatekin, Ozgur

2017-04-01

Rocky remnants left over from the early formation of the Solar System, asteroids are a target of choice for planetary science since much about the history of planetary formation and small body evolution processes can be learnt by studying them. Here we consider the case of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, the target of several mission proposals e.g., AIM [1] and DART [2]. A mission to Didymos would be a great opportunity for in-situ geophysical investigation, providing information on the surface and interior of asteroids. Such studies would improve our knowledge of binary asteroid formation and subsequent evolution of asteroids, thus of the history of the Solar System. As Didymos is a binary asteroid [3] with the main 800-meter diameter asteroid named Didymain and a 150-meter sized moon named Didymoon, both are subject to tidal stress. Recent investigations suggest that Didymoon is tidally locked and moves in a retrograde motion around Didymain along an elliptic orbit with a 0.03 eccentricity at most. In the case of an eccentric orbit, the tidal stress varies periodically and may be strong enough to cause tidal quakes on Didymoon at some points of the orbit. For this study, we modelled Didymoon as a spherical, layered body with different internal structures: a homogeneous model, and two models with a 1-meter and 10-meter regolith layer on top of a stronger internal core. Simulations show that, for a cohesionless body with an internal friction angle of 30°, tidal stress is strong enough to cause failure at the surface of Didymoon. A maximal stress is reached around the poles and for a mean anomaly of 90°. These results would mean that if tidal quakes occur on Didymoon, then they are likely to happen at these locations. An extension of these results to an ellipsoidal model of Didymoon is also presented for comparison with the spherical case and for application to other bodies. [1]: P. Michel et al., Science case for the asteroid impact mission (aim): A

The next big earthquake in the Bay Area may come sooner than you think—Are you prepared?

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

1990-01-01

Many of us breathed a little easier after October 17, 1989. The Lorna Prieta earthquake, 7.1 on the Richter scale, meant that the big one, talked about for decades, had finally happened. And, bad as it was, we had survived.There are two things wrong with that. First, Lorna Prieta was not the big one. It was a moderately big one, certainly destructive to some parts of the Bay Area, but nowhere near the size of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Second, having an earthquake like Lorna Prieta has little to do with the likelihood of having another one on a different fault, somewhere else in the area.The inevitability of a damaging earthquake still confronts everybody in the Bay Area, and we still risk substantial damage. A new study, released in July 1990 by the United States Geological Survey, says that there is a 67 percent chance of another earthquake the size of Lorna Prieta during the next 30 years and that the quake could strike at any time, including today. In other words, scientists think that a magnitude 7 or larger earthquake is now twice as likely to happen as not to happen. This is a substantial increase, since in 1988, scientists thought the chance for such an earthquake was 50 percent Gust as likely to occur as not to occur) within 30 years.The new report also says that the next one will most likely strike farther north than Lorna Prieta, somewhere between San Jose and Santa Rosa on either side of the Bay. The epicenter of the October 1989 quake was in a sparsely populated area. The next one, according to the study, will likely be centered in a more populated area. During the Lorna Prieta earthquake, shaking was so severe in the Santa Cruz Mountains that a van overturned, treetops snapped off, and many people were thrown to the ground. Because the next one is expected to strike closer to an urban area, it will cause much more damage.Fortunately, there is something we can do about it. By taking actions, such as those described in this booklet, we

IMPROVING SCIENCE EDUCATION AND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN RURAL ALASKA:The Synergistic Connection between Educational Outreach Efforts in the Copper Valley, Alaska.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Solie, D. J.; McCarthy, S.

2004-12-01

four times a year. Even though the in-class time per year is not large, our experience suggests that a long term, multi-year connection enhances learning by the students. We coordinate with HAARP research campaigns so as to utilize the availability of top scientists for public lectures. We do not limit our scope to only ionospheric physics, but try to meet the demands and needs of the region as they arise. Less than two weeks after the November, 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake, we traveled to the villages most strongly effected by the quake and presented basic preliminary information about the quake (Sources: Alaska Earthquake Information Center, Alaska State Geological Survey & USGS). As a teachable moment it was unparalleled, but it was also an example of where even preliminary information on an event can truly help to calm people.

The NASA SCI Files[TM]: The Case of the Shaky Quake. A Lesson Guide with Activities in Mathematics, Science, and Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ricles, Shannon

The NASA SCI Files is a series of instructional programs consisting of broadcast, print, and online elements emphasizing standards-based instruction, problem-based learning, and science as inquiry. The series seeks to motivate students in grades 3-5 to become critical thinkers and active problem solvers. In this program, the tree house detectives…

Natural cavities used by wood ducks in north-central Minnesota

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gilmer, D.S.; Ball, I.J.; Cowardin, L.M.; Mathisen, J.

1978-01-01

Radio telemetry was used to locate 31 wood duck (Aix sponsa) nest cavity sites in 16 forest stands. Stands were of 2 types: (1) mature (mean = 107 years) northern hardwoods (10 nest sites), and (2) mature (mean = 68 years) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) (21 nest sites). Aspen was the most important cavity-producing tree used by wood ducks and accounted for 57 percent of 28 cavities inspected. In stands used by wood ducks, the average density of suitable cavities was about 4 per hectare. Trees containing nests were closer to water areas (P < 0.05) and the nearest forest canopy openings (P < 0.01) than was a random sample of trees from the same stands. A significant (P < 0.005) relationship existed between the orientation of the cavity entrance and the nearest canopy opening. Potential wood duck cavities usually were clustered within a stand rather than randomly distributed. Selection of trees by woodpeckers for nest hole construction probably influenced the availability of cavities used by wood ducks. A plan for managing forests to benefit wood ducks and other wildlife dependent on old-growth timber is discussed.

A geophone wireless sensor network for investigating glacier stick-slip motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez, Kirk; Hart, Jane K.; Basford, Philip J.; Bragg, Graeme M.; Ward, Tyler; Young, David S.

2017-08-01

We have developed an innovative passive borehole geophone system, as part of a wireless environmental sensor network to investigate glacier stick-slip motion. The new geophone nodes use an ARM Cortex-M3 processor with a low power design capable of running on battery power while embedded in the ice. Only data from seismic events was stored, held temporarily on a micro-SD card until they were retrieved by systems on the glacier surface which are connected to the internet. The sampling rates, detection and filtering levels were determined from a field trial using a standard commercial passive seismic system. The new system was installed on the Skalafellsjökull glacier in Iceland and provided encouraging results. The results showed that there was a relationship between surface melt water production and seismic event (ice quakes), and these occurred on a pattern related to the glacier surface melt-water controlled velocity changes (stick-slip motion). Three types of seismic events were identified, which were interpreted to reflect a pattern of till deformation (Type A), basal sliding (Type B) and hydraulic transience (Type C) associated with stick-slip motion.

Earthquake Intensity and Strong Motion Analysis Within SEISCOMP3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker, J.; Weber, B.; Ghasemi, H.; Cummins, P. R.; Murjaya, J.; Rudyanto, A.; Rößler, D.

2017-12-01

Measuring and predicting ground motion parameters including seismic intensities for earthquakes is crucial and subject to recent research in engineering seismology.gempa has developed the new SIGMA module for Seismic Intensity and Ground Motion Analysis. The module is based on the SeisComP3 framework extending it in the field of seismic hazard assessment and engineering seismology. SIGMA may work with or independently of SeisComP3 by supporting FDSN Web services for importing earthquake or station information and waveforms. It provides a user-friendly and modern graphical interface for semi-automatic and interactive strong motion data processing. SIGMA provides intensity and (P)SA maps based on GMPE's or recorded data. It calculates the most common strong motion parameters, e.g. PGA/PGV/PGD, Arias intensity and duration, Tp, Tm, CAV, SED and Fourier-, power- and response spectra. GMPE's are configurable. Supporting C++ and Python plug-ins, standard and customized GMPE's including the OpenQuake Hazard Library can be easily integrated and compared. Originally tailored to specifications by Geoscience Australia and BMKG (Indonesia) SIGMA has become a popular tool among SeisComP3 users concerned with seismic hazard and strong motion seismology.

Time-space variations in infrasound sources related to environmental dynamics around Lützow-Holm Bay, east Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murayama, Takahiko; Kanao, Masaki; Yamamoto, Masa-Yuki; Ishihara, Yoshiaki; Matsushima, Takeshi; Kakinami, Yoshihiro; Okada, Kazumi; Miyamachi, Hiroki; Nakamoto, Manami; Takeuchi, Yukari; Toda, Shigeru

2017-12-01

Characteristic features of infrasound waves observed in the Antarctic reflect the physical interaction between the surface environment along the continental margin and the surrounding Southern Ocean. The temporal-spatial variability of the source locations for infrasound excitation during the eight-month period between January and August 2015 was investigated using recordings made by two infrasound arrays deployed along a section of the coast of Lützow-Holm Bay (LHB), Antarctica. The infrasound arrays clearly detected temporal variations in frequency content and propagation direction during this period. A number of infrasound sources were identified, many located north of the arrays. Many of the events had a predominant frequency content of a few Hz, higher than microbaroms from the ocean. A comparison of the results with MODIS satellite images indicated that these infrasound sources were ice-quakes associated with the calving of glaciers, the breaking off of sea ice, and collisions between this sea ice and icebergs around the LHB. Continuous measurements of infrasound in the Antarctic may serve as a proxy for monitoring the regional surface environment in terms of climate change at high southern latitudes.

Tsunami overview.

PubMed

Morrow, Robert C; Llewellyn, D Mark

2006-10-01

Historically, floods and tsunamis have caused relatively few severe injuries; an exception to that tendency followed the great Andaman Island-Sumatra earthquake and tsunami of 2004. More than 280,000 people died, the coastal plains were massively scoured, and more than 1 million individuals were made homeless by the quake and resulting tsunami, which affected a 10-nation region around the Indian Ocean. This destruction overwhelmed local resources and called forth an unprecedented, prolonged, international response. The USNS Mercy deployed on a unique mission and rendered service to the people and government of Indonesia. This introduction provides background on the nature and extent of the damage, conditions upon arrival of the hospital ship 5 weeks after the initial destruction, and the configuration of professionals aboard (officers and sailors of the U.S. Navy, civilian volunteers from Project HOPE, officers of the U.S. Public Health Service, and officers and civilian mariners of the Military Sealift Command). Constraints on the mission provide context for the other articles of this issue that document and comment on the activities, challenges, methods, and accomplishments of this unique mission's "team of teams," performing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the Pacific theater.

Real-time earthquake data feasible

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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.

Abnormal animal behavior prior to the Vrancea (Romania) major subcrustal earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Constantin, Angela; Pantea, Aurelian

2013-04-01

The goal of this paper is to present some observations about abnormal animal behavior prior and during of some Romanian subcrustal earthquakes. The major Vrancea earthquakes of 4 March 1977 (Mw = 7.4, Imax = IX-X MSK), 30 August 1986 (Mw = 7.1, Io = VIII-IX MSK) and 30 May 1990 (Mw = 6.9, Io = VIII MSK), were preceded by extensive occurrences of anomalous animal behavior. These data were collected immediately after the earthquakes from the areas affected by these. Some species of animals became excited, nervous and panicked before and during the earthquakes, such as: dogs (barking and running in panic), cats, snakes, mice and rats (came into the houses and have lost their fear), birds (hens, geese, parrots), horses, fishes etc. These strange manifestations of the animals were observed on the entire territory of country, especially in the extra-Carpathian area. This unusual behavior was noticed within a few hours to days before the seismic events, but for the most of cases the time of occurrence was within two hours of the quakes. We can hope that maybe one day the abnormal animal behavior will be used as a reliable seismic precursor for the intermediate depth earthquakes.

Hypothesis testing and earthquake prediction.

PubMed

Jackson, D D

1996-04-30

Requirements for testing include advance specification of the conditional rate density (probability per unit time, area, and magnitude) or, alternatively, probabilities for specified intervals of time, space, and magnitude. Here I consider testing fully specified hypotheses, with no parameter adjustments or arbitrary decisions allowed during the test period. Because it may take decades to validate prediction methods, it is worthwhile to formulate testable hypotheses carefully in advance. Earthquake prediction generally implies that the probability will be temporarily higher than normal. Such a statement requires knowledge of "normal behavior"--that is, it requires a null hypothesis. Hypotheses can be tested in three ways: (i) by comparing the number of actual earth-quakes to the number predicted, (ii) by comparing the likelihood score of actual earthquakes to the predicted distribution, and (iii) by comparing the likelihood ratio to that of a null hypothesis. The first two tests are purely self-consistency tests, while the third is a direct comparison of two hypotheses. Predictions made without a statement of probability are very difficult to test, and any test must be based on the ratio of earthquakes in and out of the forecast regions.

Hypothesis testing and earthquake prediction.

PubMed Central

Jackson, D D

1996-01-01

Requirements for testing include advance specification of the conditional rate density (probability per unit time, area, and magnitude) or, alternatively, probabilities for specified intervals of time, space, and magnitude. Here I consider testing fully specified hypotheses, with no parameter adjustments or arbitrary decisions allowed during the test period. Because it may take decades to validate prediction methods, it is worthwhile to formulate testable hypotheses carefully in advance. Earthquake prediction generally implies that the probability will be temporarily higher than normal. Such a statement requires knowledge of "normal behavior"--that is, it requires a null hypothesis. Hypotheses can be tested in three ways: (i) by comparing the number of actual earth-quakes to the number predicted, (ii) by comparing the likelihood score of actual earthquakes to the predicted distribution, and (iii) by comparing the likelihood ratio to that of a null hypothesis. The first two tests are purely self-consistency tests, while the third is a direct comparison of two hypotheses. Predictions made without a statement of probability are very difficult to test, and any test must be based on the ratio of earthquakes in and out of the forecast regions. PMID:11607663

Downregulation of tumor suppressor QKI in gastric cancer and its implication in cancer prognosis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bian, Yongqian; Wang, Li; Lu, Huanyu

2012-05-25

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer QKI expression is decreased in gastric cancer samples. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Promoter hyper methylation contributes to the downregulation of QKI. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer QKI inhibits the growth of gastric cancer cells. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Decreased QKI expression predicts poor survival. -- Abstract: Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common cancer and second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. RNA-binding protein Quaking (QKI) is a newly identified tumor suppressor in multiple cancers, while its role in GC is largely unknown. Our study here aimed to clarify the relationship between QKI expression with the clinicopathologic characteristics and the prognosis of GC. In the 222 GCmore » patients' specimens, QKI expression was found to be significantly decreased in most of the GC tissues, which was largely due to promoter hypermethylation. QKI overexpression reduced the proliferation ability of GC cell line in vitro study. In addition, the reduced QKI expression correlated well with poor differentiation status, depth of invasion, gastric lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, advanced TNM stage, and poor survival. Multivariate analysis showed QKI expression was an independent prognostic factor for patient survival.« less

Caltech/USGS Southern California Seismic Network: Recent Developments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhadha, R.; Chen, S.; Crummey, J.; Hauksson, E.; Solanki, K.; Thomas, V. I.; Watkins, M.; Yip, R.; Yu, E.; Given, D.; Peats, R.; Schwarz, S.

2010-12-01

The SCSN is the modern digital ground motion seismic network in Southern California and performs the following tasks: 1) Operates remote seismic stations and the central data processing systems in Pasadena; 2) Generates and reports real-time products including location, magnitude, ShakeMap, and others; 3) Responds to FEMA, CalEMA, media, and public inquiries about earthquakes; 4) Manages the production, archival, and distribution of waveforms, phase picks, and other data at the SCEDC; 5) Contributes to development and maintenance of the ANSS Quake Monitoring System (AQMS) software to add new features and improve robustness; 6) Supports the deployment of AQMS to other ANSS member regional seismic networks. The public regularly accesses the CISN, SCSN, and SCEDC web pages for up-to-date quake info and more than 230,000 users subscribe to the Electronic Notification System (ENS) which sends rapid notifications via email and cell phones. We distribute our products via Internet (EIDS), email, and paging, to USGS in Reston and Golden, FEMA, CalEMA, local governments, partner members, and other subscribers. We have developed CISN Display and provide ShakeCast for customers who require real-time earthquake information. The SCSN also exchanges waveform, phase pick, and amplitude data in real-time with several other partner networks, including Menlo Park, UCB, UNR, Anza network, the Tsunami Warning Centers, IRIS, and the NEIC. We operate a number of 24/7 on-call rotations to provide quick response to verify seismic events as well as addressing systems and telemetry issues. As part of our goals to improve quality, robustness, and coverage, some of our recent efforts include: 1) Converting the digital stations in the network to Q330 dataloggers; 2) Developing command and control capabilities such as automated mass re-centering; 3) Migration from serial to Ethernet communications; 4) Clustering of data acquisition servers for fail-over to improve data availability; 5) Use of

Interseismic Deformation on the San Andreas Fault System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Segall, P.

2001-12-01

Interseismic deformation measurements are most often interpreted in terms of steady slip on buried elastic dislocations. While such models often yield slip-rates that are in reasonable accord with geologic observations, they are: 1) inconsistent with observations of transient deformation following large earthquakes, and 2) tend to predict locking depths significantly deeper than recent large earthquakes. An alternate two-dimensional model of repeating earthquakes that break an elastic plate of thickness H, overlying a viscoelastic half-space with relaxation time tR (Savage and Prescott, 1978) involves 5 parameters; H, tR, t, T, and ˙ {s}, where t is the time since the last quake, T is the earthquake cycle time, and ˙ {s} is the slip-rate. Many parts of the SAF system involve multiple parallel faults, which further increases the number of parameters to be estimated. All hope is not lost, however, if we make use of a priori constraints on slip-rate from geologic studies, and utilize measurements of time dependent strain following the 1906 earthquake, in addition to the present day spatial distribution of deformation-rate. GPS data from the Carrizo Plain segment of the SAF imply a considerably larger relaxation time than inferred from the post-1906 strain-rate transient. This indicates that either the crustal structure differs significantly between northern and central California, or that the simple model is deficient, either due to time-dependent down-dip slip following large earthquakes or non-linear rheology. To test the effect of regional variations in H and tR, I analyze data from the northern San Francisco Bay area (Prescott et al, 2001, JGR), and include the SAF, the Hayward-Rogers Creek (HRC), and Concord-Green Valley faults (CGV). Non-linear optimization using simulated annealing and constrained non-linear least squares yields an optimal model with: H ~ 10 km, tR ~ 34 years, TSAF = 205 years, ˙ {s}SAF ~ 18 mm/yr, tHRC = 225 years, T{ HRC} = 630 years, and

The 7.9 Denali Fault, Alaska Earthquake of November 3, 2002: Aftershock Locations, Moment Tensors and Focal Mechanisms from the Regional Seismic Network Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ratchkovski, N. A.; Hansen, R. A.; Kore, K. R.

2003-04-01

The largest earthquake ever recorded on the Denali fault system (magnitude 7.9) struck central Alaska on November 3, 2002. It was preceded by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake on October 23. This earlier earthquake and its zone of aftershocks were located ~20 km to the west of the 7.9 quake. Aftershock locations and surface slip observations from the 7.9 quake indicate that the rupture was predominately unilateral in the eastward direction. The geologists mapped a ~300-km-long rupture and measured maximum offsets of 8.8 meters. The 7.9 event ruptured three different faults. The rupture began on the northeast trending Susitna Glacier Thrust fault, a splay fault south of the Denali fault. Then the rupture transferred to the Denali fault and propagated eastward for 220 km. At about 143W the rupture moved onto the adjacent southeast-trending Totschunda fault and propagated for another 55 km. The cumulative length of the 6.7 and 7.9 aftershock zones along the Denali and Totschunda faults is about 380 km. The earthquakes were recorded and processed by the Alaska Earthquake Information Center (AEIC). The AEIC acquires and processes data from the Alaska Seismic Network, consisting of over 350 seismograph stations. Nearly 40 of these sites are equipped with the broad-band sensors, some of which also have strong motion sensors. The rest of the stations are either 1 or 3-component short-period instruments. The data from these stations are collected, processed and archived at the AEIC. The AEIC staff installed a temporary seismic network of 6 instruments following the 6.7 earthquake and an additional 20 stations following the 7.9 earthquake. Prior to the 7.9 Denali Fault event, the AEIC was locating 35 to 50 events per day. After the event, the processing load increased to over 300 events per day during the first week following the event. In this presentation, we will present and interpret the aftershock location patterns, first motion focal mechanism solutions, and regional seismic

The September 2017 M=8.1 Chiapas and M=7.1 Puebla, Mexico, earthquakes: Chain reaction or coincidence?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toda, S.; Stein, R. S.

2017-12-01

The M=8.1 and M=7.1 events struck 12 days and 600 km apart, both with an independent probability of occurrence of 0.5% per year, based on the GEAR model [Bird et al., 2015]. Are they related? First, we calculated the static stress imparted by the M=8.1 shock to the fault that ruptured in the M=7.1, and find a tiny push that would favor rupture. But the stress increase (0.2 kPa) is less than the fault would experience from the tidal stresses, and so it should be inconsequential. We next used the México Servicio Sismológico Nacional (UNAM) online catalog to look at the quakes in the month before the M=8.1 and in the 13 days since. We calculate the completeness to be M≥4.0. There are virtually no remote aftershocks from the Chiapas rupture that extend within 250 km of the M=7.1 shock during the first week after the M=8.1. So, if anything, the M=8.1 turned off for a week or more the region that ruptured in the M=7.1. Events started turning on about 2-3 days before the M=7.1, but none of those struck within 40 km of the future M=7.1 mainshock. The seismic surface waves unleashed by great earthquakes envelop the globe in just 160 minutes, and yet triggering of remote large aftershocks during these 2-3 hours is either very rare [Pollitz et al., Nature 2012] or in dispute [Fan & Shearer, 2016 vs. Yue et al., 2017]. So, the waves must trigger tiny shocks that cascade into larger shocks after some delay. Or, perhaps the stresses conveyed by the waves pump pockets of fluids that slowly diffuse into nearby fault zones, lubricating them to the point of failure [Parsons at al., 2017]. In the cases where great earthquakes are indisputably seen to trigger aftershocks at great distances or even globally, they to do so within several days, or a week at most. Since Puebla struck 12 days later, this seems to us too long a period to be explained by dynamic triggering. Even though neither quake on their own is rare, what's the chance of independent M=8.1 and M=7.1 events just 12

Cross-correlation analysis of 2012-2014 seismic events in Central-Northern Italy: insights from the geochemical monitoring network of Tuscany

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierotti, Lisa; Facca, Gianluca; Gherardi, Fabrizio

2015-04-01

events (magnitude >3 up to 5.4) experienced in the Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria regions during the period 2012-2014, and these geochemical anomalies. Changes in pH (decreasing) and PCO2 (increasing) are generally observed from a few months to a few weeks before the main shock. This trend has been recognized for the Parma quake of 27 January 2012 (M = 5.4), for the Pieve Fosciana quake of 13 January 2013 (M = 4.8), for the Garfagnana-Lunigiana seismic sequence started June 21, 2013 (Mmax = 5.2), for the Montefeltro seismic sequence started July 11, 2013 (Mmax = 3.9), for the Gubbio seismic sequences of July and December 2013 (Mmax = 3.9), for the Città di Castello seismic sequences of April 2013 and December 2013 (Mmax = 3.9), for the Casentino seismic sequence started October 17, 2014 (Mmax = 3.5), and for the Chianti seismic sequence started December 19, 2014 (Mmax = 4.1). These features suggest that the selected mineral springs can be considered as appropriate sites for the search of geochemical earthquake precursors. Further investigations focused on in-depth analysis of signals are currently in progress.

Earthquake scenarios based on lessons from the past

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Solakov, Dimcho; Simeonova, Stella; Aleksandrova, Irena; Popova, Iliana

2010-05-01

Earthquakes are the most deadly of the natural disasters affecting the human environment; indeed catastrophic earthquakes have marked the whole human history. Global seismic hazard and vulnerability to earthquakes are increasing steadily as urbanization and development occupy more areas that are 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 implementation of the earthquake scenarios into the policies for seismic risk reduction will allow focusing on the prevention of earthquake effects rather than on intervention following the disasters. The territory of Bulgaria (situated in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula) represents a typical example of high seismic risk area. Over the centuries, Bulgaria has experienced strong earthquakes. At the beginning of the 20-the century (from 1901 to 1928) five earthquakes with magnitude larger than or equal to MS=7.0 occurred in Bulgaria. However, no such large earthquakes occurred in Bulgaria since 1928, which may induce non-professionals to underestimate the earthquake risk. The 1986 earthquake of magnitude MS=5.7 occurred in the central northern Bulgaria (near the town of Strazhitsa) is the strongest quake after 1928. Moreover, the seismicity of the neighboring countries, like Greece, Turkey, former Yugoslavia and Romania (especially Vrancea-Romania intermediate earthquakes), influences the seismic hazard in Bulgaria. In the present study deterministic scenarios (expressed in seismic intensity) for two Bulgarian cities (Rouse and Plovdiv) are presented. The work on

UAV-Based Photogrammetry and Integrated Technologies for Architectural Applications—Methodological Strategies for the After-Quake Survey of Vertical Structures in Mantua (Italy)

PubMed Central

Achille, Cristiana; Adami, Andrea; Chiarini, Silvia; Cremonesi, Stefano; Fassi, Francesco; Fregonese, Luigi; Taffurelli, Laura

2015-01-01

This paper examines the survey of tall buildings in an emergency context like in the case of post-seismic events. The after-earthquake survey has to guarantee time-savings, high precision and security during the operational stages. The main goal is to optimize the application of methodologies based on acquisition and automatic elaborations of photogrammetric data even with the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems in order to provide fast and low cost operations. The suggested methods integrate new technologies with commonly used technologies like TLS and topographic acquisition. The value of the photogrammetric application is demonstrated by a test case, based on the comparison of acquisition, calibration and 3D modeling results in case of use of a laser scanner, metric camera and amateur reflex camera. The test would help us to demonstrate the efficiency of image based methods in the acquisition of complex architecture. The case study is Santa Barbara Bell tower in Mantua. The applied survey solution allows a complete 3D database of the complex architectural structure to be obtained for the extraction of all the information needed for significant intervention. This demonstrates the applicability of the photogrammetry using UAV for the survey of vertical structures, complex buildings and difficult accessible architectural parts, providing high precision results. PMID:26134108

Impact of epidermal leaf mining by the aspen leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella) on the growth, physiology, and leaf longevity of quaking aspen

Treesearch

Diane Wagner; Linda DeFoliart; Patricia Doak; Jenny Schneiderheinze

2008-01-01

We studied the effect of epidermal mining on aspen growth and physiology during an outbreak of Phyllocnistis populiella in the boreal forest of interior Alaska. Experimental reduction of leaf miner density across two sites and 3 years significantly increased annual apsen growth rates relative to naturally mined controls. Leaf mining damage was...

UAV-Based Photogrammetry and Integrated Technologies for Architectural Applications--Methodological Strategies for the After-Quake Survey of Vertical Structures in Mantua (Italy).

PubMed

Achille, Cristiana; Adami, Andrea; Chiarini, Silvia; Cremonesi, Stefano; Fassi, Francesco; Fregonese, Luigi; Taffurelli, Laura

2015-06-30

This paper examines the survey of tall buildings in an emergency context like in the case of post-seismic events. The after-earthquake survey has to guarantee time-savings, high precision and security during the operational stages. The main goal is to optimize the application of methodologies based on acquisition and automatic elaborations of photogrammetric data even with the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems in order to provide fast and low cost operations. The suggested methods integrate new technologies with commonly used technologies like TLS and topographic acquisition. The value of the photogrammetric application is demonstrated by a test case, based on the comparison of acquisition, calibration and 3D modeling results in case of use of a laser scanner, metric camera and amateur reflex camera. The test would help us to demonstrate the efficiency of image based methods in the acquisition of complex architecture. The case study is Santa Barbara Bell tower in Mantua. The applied survey solution allows a complete 3D database of the complex architectural structure to be obtained for the extraction of all the information needed for significant intervention. This demonstrates the applicability of the photogrammetry using UAV for the survey of vertical structures, complex buildings and difficult accessible architectural parts, providing high precision results.

First report of the Armillaria root disease pathogen, Armillaria sinapina, on subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Colorado

Treesearch

K. S. Burns; J. W. Hanna; Ned Klopfenstein; M.-S. Kim

2016-01-01

In July 2014, mycelial fans (isolates CO104F, CO106F, and CO108F) of Armillaria sp. were collected from forest trees in Colorado. These isolates were all identified as A. sinapina based on a somatic pairing test against 18 tester isolates representing six North American Armillaria spp. and nucleotide sequences of the translation elongation factor 1alpha (tef-...

Monitoring of organ transplants through genomic analyses of circulating cell-free DNA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Vlaminck, Iwijn

Solid-organ transplantation is the preferred treatment for patients with end-stage organ diseases, but complications due to infection and acute rejection undermine its long-term benefits. While clinicians strive to carefully monitor transplant patients, diagnostic options are currently limited. My colleagues and I in the lab of Stephen Quake have found that a combination of next-generation sequencing with a phenomenon called circulating cell-free DNA enables non-invasive diagnosis of both infection and rejection in transplantation. A substantial amount of small fragments of cell-free DNA circulate in blood that are the debris of dead cells. We discovered that donor specific DNA is released in circulation during injury to the transplant organ and we show that the proportion of donor DNA in plasma is predictive of acute rejection in heart and lung transplantation. We profiled viral and bacterial DNA sequences in plasma of transplant patients and discovered that the relative representation of different viruses and bacteria is informative of immunosuppression. This discovery suggested a novel biological measure of a person's immune strength, a finding that we have more recently confirmed via B-cell repertoire sequencing. Lastly, our studies highlight applications of shotgun sequencing of cell-free DNA in the broad, hypothesis free diagnosis of infection.

The health care reform in Mexico: before and after the 1985 earthquakes.

PubMed Central

Soberón, G; Frenk, J; Sepúlveda, J

1986-01-01

The earthquakes that hit Mexico City in September 1985 caused considerable damage both to the population and to important medical facilities. The disaster took place while the country was undertaking a profound reform of its health care system. This reform had introduced a new principle for allocating and distributing the benefits of health care, namely, the principle of citizenship. Operationally, the reform includes an effort to decentralize the decision-making authority, to modernize the administration, to achieve greater coordination within the health sector and among sectors, and to extend coverage to the entire population through an ambitious primary care program. This paper examines the health context in which the reform was taking place when the September earthquakes hit. After presenting the damages caused by the quakes, the paper analyzes the characteristics of the immediate response by the health system. Since many facilities within the system were severely damaged, a series of options for reconstruction are posited. The main lesson to be learned from the Mexican case is that cuts in health care programs are not the inevitable response to economic or natural crises. On the contrary, it is precisely when the majority of the population is undergoing difficulties that a universal and equitable health system becomes most necessary. PMID:3706595

The health care reform in Mexico: before and after the 1985 earthquakes.

PubMed

Soberón, G; Frenk, J; Sepúlveda, J

1986-06-01

The earthquakes that hit Mexico City in September 1985 caused considerable damage both to the population and to important medical facilities. The disaster took place while the country was undertaking a profound reform of its health care system. This reform had introduced a new principle for allocating and distributing the benefits of health care, namely, the principle of citizenship. Operationally, the reform includes an effort to decentralize the decision-making authority, to modernize the administration, to achieve greater coordination within the health sector and among sectors, and to extend coverage to the entire population through an ambitious primary care program. This paper examines the health context in which the reform was taking place when the September earthquakes hit. After presenting the damages caused by the quakes, the paper analyzes the characteristics of the immediate response by the health system. Since many facilities within the system were severely damaged, a series of options for reconstruction are posited. The main lesson to be learned from the Mexican case is that cuts in health care programs are not the inevitable response to economic or natural crises. On the contrary, it is precisely when the majority of the population is undergoing difficulties that a universal and equitable health system becomes most necessary.

The Road to Total Earthquake Safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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.

Forest stand structure, productivity, and age mediate climatic effects on aspen decline

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bell, David M.; Bradford, John B.; Lauenroth, William K.

2014-01-01

Because forest stand structure, age, and productivity can mediate the impacts of climate on quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) mortality, ignoring stand-scale factors limits inference on the drivers of recent sudden aspen decline. Using the proportion of aspen trees that were dead as an index of recent mortality at 841 forest inventory plots, we examined the relationship of this mortality index to forest structure and climate in the Rocky Mountains and Intermountain Western United States. We found that forest structure explained most of the patterns in mortality indices, but that variation in growing-season vapor pressure deficit and winter precipitation over the last 20 years was important. Mortality index sensitivity to precipitation was highest in forests where aspen exhibited high densities, relative basal areas, quadratic mean diameters, and productivities, whereas sensitivity to vapor pressure deficit was highest in young forest stands. These results indicate that the effects of drought on mortality may be mediated by forest stand development, competition with encroaching conifers, and physiological vulnerabilities of large trees to drought. By examining mortality index responses to both forest structure and climate, we show that forest succession cannot be ignored in studies attempting to understand the causes and consequences of sudden aspen decline.

Infrasound associated with the deep M 7.3 northeastern China earthquake of June 28, 2002

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Che, Il-Young; Kim, Geunyoung; Le Pichon, Alexis

2013-02-01

On 28 June, 2002, a deep-focus (566 km) earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.3 occurred in the China-Russia-North Korea border region. Despite its deep focus, the earthquake produced an infrasound signal that was observed by the remote infrasound array (CHNAR), 682 km from the epicenter, in South Korea. Coherent infrasound signals were detected sequentially at the receiver, with different arrival times and azimuths indicating that the signals were generated both near the epicenter and elsewhere. On the basis of the azimuth, arrival time measurements, and atmospheric ray simulation results, the source area of the infrasonic signals that arrived earlier were located along the eastern coastal areas of North Korea and Russia, whereas later signals were sourced throughout Japan. The geographically-constrained, and discrete, distribution of the sources identified is explained by infrasound propagation effects caused by a westward zonal wind that was active when the event occurred. The amplitude of the deep quake's signal was equivalent to that of a shallow earthquake with a magnitude of approximately 5. This study expands the breadth of seismically-associated infrasound to include deep earthquakes, and also supports the possibility that infrasound measurements could help determine the depth of earthquakes.

Challenges in assessing seismic hazard in intraplate Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brooks, Edward; Stein, Seth; Liu, Mian; Camelbeeck, Thierry; Merino, Miguel; Landgraf, Angela; Hintersberger, Esther; Kübler, Simon

2016-04-01

Intraplate seismicity is often characterized by episodic, clustered and migrating earth- quakes and extended after-shock sequences. Can these observations - primarily from North America, China and Australia - usefully be applied to seismic hazard assessment for intraplate Europe? Existing assessments are based on instrumental and historical seismicity of the past c. 1000 years, as well as some data for active faults. This time span probably fails to capture typical large-event recurrence intervals of the order of tens of thousands of years. Palaeoseismology helps to lengthen the observation window, but preferentially produces data in regions suspected to be seismically active. Thus the expected maximum magnitudes of future earthquakes are fairly uncertain, possibly underestimated, and earthquakes are likely to occur in unexpected locations. These issues particularly arise in considering the hazards posed by low-probability events to both heavily populated areas and critical facilities. For example, are the variations in seismicity (and thus assumed seismic hazard) along the Rhine Graben a result of short sampling or are they real? In addition to a better assessment of hazards with new data and models, it is important to recognize and communicate uncertainties in hazard estimates. The more users know about how much confidence to place in hazard maps, the more effectively the maps can be used.

Specific Signature of Seismic Shaking in Landslide Inventories: Case of the Chichi Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meunier, P.; Rault, C.; Marc, O.; Hovius, N.

2017-12-01

The 1999 Chichi earthquake triggered 10 000 landslides in its epicentral area. In addition to coseismic landsliding, directly induced by the shaking, the hillslopes response extended to several years after the main shock, during which landslide susceptibility remained higher than during the pre-seismic period. We attribute this elevated rate to weakening effects caused by the shaking. The characteristics of the coseismic landslide catalogues (clustering,slope and azimuth distribution) bears the signature of the seismic triggering. Extended landslide mapping (1994-2004) allows to track changes in these signatures in order to better interpret them. We present a summary of the change of these signatures through time and space. At the scale of the epicentral area, we show that coseismic landslide clustering did clearly occur along the fault where the shaking is strong. In 3 sub-catchments of the Choshui river, a finer analysis of the landslide time series reveals a mixed signature of both geology and shaking. Pre-quake rain-induced landslides preferentially occurred down slope and along the bedding planes while coseismic landslides locate higher in the landscape, on slopes strongly affected by site effects. However, during the post seismic period, the signature of the shaking is not present while landslide rate remains high, suggesting that weakening effects seemed homogeneously distributed in the landscape.

Comments on potential geologic and seismic hazards affecting coastal Ventura County, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ross, Stephanie L.; Boore, David M.; Fisher, Michael A.; Frankel, Arthur D.; Geist, Eric L.; Hudnut, Kenneth W.; Kayen, Robert E.; Lee, Homa J.; Normark, William R.; Wong, Florence L.

2004-01-01

This report examines the regional seismic and geologic hazards that could affect proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in coastal Ventura County, California. Faults throughout this area are thought to be capable of producing earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 to 7.5, which could produce surface fault offsets of as much as 15 feet. Many of these faults are sufficiently well understood to be included in the current generation of the National Seismic Hazard Maps; others may become candidates for inclusion in future revisions as research proceeds. Strong shaking is the primary hazard that causes damage from earthquakes and this area is zoned with a high level of shaking hazard. The estimated probability of a magnitude 6.5 or larger earthquake (comparable in size to the 2003 San Simeon quake) occurring in the next 30 years within 30 miles of Platform Grace is 50-60%; for Cabrillo Port, the estimate is a 35% likelihood. Combining these probabilities of earthquake occurrence with relationships that give expected ground motions yields the estimated seismic-shaking hazard. In parts of the project area, the estimated shaking hazard is as high as along the San Andreas Fault. The combination of long-period basin waves and LNG installations with large long-period resonances potentially increases this hazard.

Specific signature of seismic shaking in landslide catalogues: Case of the Chichi earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meunier, Patrick; Rault, Claire; Marc, Odin; Hovius, Niels

2017-04-01

The 1999 Chichi earthquake triggered 10 000 landslides in its epicentral area. In addition to coseismic landsliding, directly induced by the shaking, the hillslopes response extended to several years after the main shock, during which landslide susceptibility remained higher than during the pre-seismic period. We attribute this elevated rate to weakening effects caused by the shaking. The characteristics of the coseismic landslide catalogues (clustering, slope and azimuth distribution) bears the signature of the seismic triggering. Extended landslide mapping (1994-2004) allows to track changes in these signatures in order to better interpret them. We present a summary of the change of these signatures through time and space. At the scale of the epicentral area, we show that coseismic landslide clustering did clearly occur along the fault where the shaking is strong. In 3 sub-catchments of the Choshui river, a finer analysis of the landslide time series reveals a mixed signature of both geology and shaking. Pre-quake rain-induced landslides preferentially occurred down slope and along the bedding planes while coseismic landslides locate higher in the landscape, on slopes strongly affected by site effects. However, during the post seismic period, the signature of the shaking is not present while landslide rate remains high, suggesting that weakening effects seemed homogeneously distributed in the landscape.

A stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests of the southern Rocky Mountains

USGS Publications Warehouse

Margolis, E.Q.; Swetnam, T.W.; Allen, Craig D.

2007-01-01

Dendroecological techniques were applied to reconstruct stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Fourteen stand-replacing fires were dated to 8 unique fire years (1842–1901) using four lines of evidence at each of 12 sites within the upper Rio Grande Basin. The four lines of evidence were (i) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) inner-ring dates, (ii) fire-killed conifer bark-ring dates, (iii) tree-ring width changes or other morphological indicators of injury, and (iv) fire scars. The annual precision of dating allowed the identification of synchronous stand-replacing fire years among the sites, and co-occurrence with regional surface fire events previously reconstructed from a network of fire scar collections in lower elevation pine forests across the southwestern United States. Nearly all of the synchronous stand-replacing and surface fire years coincided with severe droughts, because climate variability created regional conditions where stand-replacing fires and surface fires burned across ecosystems. Reconstructed stand-replacing fires that predate substantial Anglo-American settlement in this region provide direct evidence that stand-replacing fires were a feature of high-elevation forests before extensive and intensive land-use practices (e.g., logging, railroad, and mining) began in the late 19th century.

SOHO spacecraft observations interrupted

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1998-06-01

Efforts to re-establish nominal operations did not succeed and telemetry was lost. Subsequent attempts using the full NASA Deep Space Network capabilities have so far not been successful. ESA and NASA engineers are continuing with the task of re-establishing contact with the spacecraft. The SOHO mission is a joint undertaking of ESA and NASA. The spacecraft was launched aboard an Atlas II rocket from Florida on 2 December 1995 from the Cape Canaveral Air Station. Mission operations are directed from the control center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA. In April 1998 SOHO successfully completed its nominal two-year mission to study the Sun's atmosphere, surface and interior. Major science highlights include the detection of rivers of plasma beneath the surface of the sun; the discovery of a magnetic "carpet" on the solar surface that seems to account for a substantial part of the energy that is needed to cause the very high temperatures of the corona, the Sun's outermost layer; the first detection of flare-induced solar quakes; the discovery of more than 50 sungrazing comets; the most detailed view to date of the solar atmosphere; and spectacular images and movies of Coronal Mass Ejections, which are being used to improve the ability to forecast space weather.

An X-ray Pulsar with a Superstrong Magnetic Field in the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater SGR1806-20

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kouveliotou, C.; Dieters, S.; Strohmayer, T.; vanParadijs, J.; Fishman, G. J.; Meegan, C. A.; Hurley, K.; Kommers, J.; Smith, I.; Frail, D.;

Investigation of the M6.6 Niigata-Chuetsu Oki, Japan, earthquake of July 16, 2007

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kayen, Robert; Collins, Brian D.; Abrahamson, Norm; Ashford, Scott; Brandenberg, Scott J.; Cluff, Lloyd; Dickenson, Stephen; Johnson, Laurie; Tanaka, Yasuo; Tokimatsu, Kohji; Kabeyasawa, Toshimi; Kawamata, Yohsuke; Koumoto, Hidetaka; Marubashi, Nanako; Pujol, Santiago; Steele, Clint; Sun, Joseph I.; Tsai, Ben; Yanev, Peter; Yashinsky, Mark; Yousok, Kim

2007-01-01

The M6.6 mainshock of the Niigata Chuetsu Oki (offshore) earthquake occurred at 10:13 a.m. local time on July 16, 2007, and was followed by a sequence of aftershocks that were felt during the entire time of the reconnaissance effort. The mainshock had an estimated focal depth of 10 km and struck in the Japan Sea offshore Kariwa. Analysis of waveforms from source inversion studies indicates that the event occurred along a thrust fault with a NE trend. The fault plane is either a strike of 34 degrees with a dip of 51 degrees or a strike of 238 degrees with a dip of 41 degrees. Which of these two planes is associated with the mainshock rupture is unresolved, although attenuation relationship analysis indicates that the northwest-dipping fault is favored. The quake affected an approximately 100-km-wide area along the coastal areas of southwestern Niigata prefecture. The event triggered ground failures as far as the Unouma Hills, located in central Niigata approximately 50 km from the shore and the source area of the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake. The primary event produced tsunami run-ups that reached maximum runup heights of about 20 centimeters along the shoreline of southern Niigata Prrefecture.

Rapid assessment of butterfly diversity in a montane landscape

USGS Publications Warehouse

Simonson, S.E.; Opler, P.A.; Stohlgren, T.J.; Chong, G.W.

2001-01-01

We present the results of a rapid assessment of butterfly diversity in the 754 ha Beaver Meadows study area in Rocky Mountain National Park, Larimer County, Colorado. We measured butterfly species richness and relative abundance as part of a landscape-scale investigation of diversity patterns involving several groups of organisms. A stratified random sampling design was used to include replication in both rare and common vegetation types. We recorded 49 butterfly species from the twenty-four 0.1 ha plots that were sampled four times during June, July, and August 1996. Butterfly species richness, diversity, and uniqueness were highest in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux) groves and wet meadows, which occupy only a small proportion of the studied landscape. This result supports the suggestion that aspen areas represent ‘hotspots’ of biological diversity in this montane landscape. Patterns of butterfly species richness were positively correlated with total vascular plant species richness (r = 0.69; P < 0.001), and native plant species richness (r = 0.64; P < 0.001). However, exotic plant species richness (r = 0.70; P < 0.001) and the cover of exotic plant species (r = 0.70; P < 0.001) were the best predictors of butterfly species richness.

Maximum Magnitude and Probabilities of Induced Earthquakes in California Geothermal Fields: Applications for a Science-Based Decision Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weiser, Deborah Anne

Induced seismicity is occurring at increasing rates around the country. Brodsky and Lajoie (2013) and others have recognized anthropogenic quakes at a few geothermal fields in California. I use three techniques to assess if there are induced earthquakes in California geothermal fields; there are three sites with clear induced seismicity: Brawley, The Geysers, and Salton Sea. Moderate to strong evidence is found at Casa Diablo, Coso, East Mesa, and Susanville. Little to no evidence is found for Heber and Wendel. I develop a set of tools to reduce or cope with the risk imposed by these earthquakes, and also to address uncertainties through simulations. I test if an earthquake catalog may be bounded by an upper magnitude limit. I address whether the earthquake record during pumping time is consistent with the past earthquake record, or if injection can explain all or some of the earthquakes. I also present ways to assess the probability of future earthquake occurrence based on past records. I summarize current legislation for eight states where induced earthquakes are of concern. Unlike tectonic earthquakes, the hazard from induced earthquakes has the potential to be modified. I discuss direct and indirect mitigation practices. I present a framework with scientific and communication techniques for assessing uncertainty, ultimately allowing more informed decisions to be made.

Earthquake Loss Assessment for the Evaluation of the Sovereign Risk and Financial Sustainability of Countries and Cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardona, O. D.

2013-05-01

Recently earthquakes have struck cities both from developing as well as developed countries, revealing significant knowledge gaps and the need to improve the quality of input data and of the assumptions of the risk models. The quake and tsunami in Japan (2011) and the disasters due to earthquakes in Haiti (2010), Chile (2010), New Zealand (2011) and Spain (2011), only to mention some unexpected impacts in different regions, have left several concerns regarding hazard assessment as well as regarding the associated uncertainties to the estimation of the future losses. Understanding probable losses and reconstruction costs due to earthquakes creates powerful incentives for countries to develop planning options and tools to cope with sovereign risk, including allocating the sustained budgetary resources necessary to reduce those potential damages and safeguard development. Therefore the use of robust risk models is a need to assess the future economic impacts, the country's fiscal responsibilities and the contingent liabilities for governments and to formulate, justify and implement risk reduction measures and optimal financial strategies of risk retention and transfer. Special attention should be paid to the understanding of risk metrics such as the Loss Exceedance Curve (empiric and analytical) and the Expected Annual Loss in the context of conjoint and cascading hazards.

Identification of buried victims in natural disaster with GPR method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dewi, Rianty Kusuma; Kurniawan, Adityo; Taqwantara, Reyhan Fariz; Iskandar, Farras M.; Naufal, Taufiq Ziyan; Widodo

2017-07-01

Indonesian is one of the most seismically active regions in the world and has very complicated plate convergence because there is meeting point of several tectonic plates. The complexity of tectonic features causes a lot of natural disasters such as landslides, tsunamis, earth quakes, volcanoes eruption, etc. Sometimes, the disasters occurs in high populated area and causing thousands to millions of victim been buried under the rumble. Unfortunately, the evacuation still uses the conventional method such using rescue dogs whereas the sensitivity of smell is decrease when the victims buried under the level of the ground. The purpose of this study is to detect buried bodies using GPR method, so it can enhance the effectiveness and the efficiency in looking for the disaster victims. GPR method is used because it can investigate things under the ground. A detailed GPR research has been done in Cikutra Graveyard, Bandung, with corpse buried two week until two years before the research. The radar profiles from this research showed amplitude contras anomaly between the new corpse and the old ones. We obtained the amplitude contras at 1.2-1.4 meters under the surface. This method proved to be effective but still need more attention on undulated surface and non-soil areas.

The HSP, the QCN, and the Dragon: Developing inquiry-based QCN instructional modules in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, K. H.; Liang, W.; Chang, C.; Yen, E.; Lin, C.; Lin, G.

2012-12-01

High Scope Program (HSP) is a long-term project funded by NSC in Taiwan since 2006. It is designed to elevate the quality of science education by means of incorporating emerging science and technology into the traditional curricula in senior high schools. Quake-Catcher Network (QCN), a distributed computing project initiated by Stanford University and UC Riverside, encourages the volunteers to install the low-cost, novel sensors at home and school to build a seismic network. To meet both needs, we have developed a model curriculum that introduces QCN, earthquake science, and cloud computing into high school classrooms. Through professional development workshops, Taiwan cloud-based earthquake science learning platform, and QCN club on Facebook, we have worked closely with Lan-Yang Girl's Senior High School teachers' team to design workable teaching plans through a practical operation of seismic monitoring at home or school. However, some obstacles to learning appear including QCN installation/maintain problems, high self-noise of the sensor, difficulty of introducing earthquake sciences for high school teachers. The challenges of QCN outreach in Taiwan bring out our future plans: (1) development of easy, frequently updated, physics-based QCN-experiments for high school teachers, and (2) design of an interactive learning platform with social networking function for students.

Modeling of atmospheric-coupled Rayleigh waves on planets with atmosphere: From Earth observation to Mars and Venus perspectives.

PubMed

Lognonné, Philippe; Karakostas, Foivos; Rolland, Lucie; Nishikawa, Yasuhiro

2016-08-01

Acoustic coupling between solid Earth and atmosphere has been observed since the 1960s, first from ground-based seismic, pressure, and ionospheric sensors and since 20 years with various satellite measurements, including with global positioning system (GPS) satellites. This coupling leads to the excitation of the Rayleigh surface waves by local atmospheric sources such as large natural explosions from volcanoes, meteor atmospheric air-bursts, or artificial explosions. It contributes also in the continuous excitation of Rayleigh waves and associated normal modes by atmospheric winds and pressure fluctuations. The same coupling allows the observation of Rayleigh waves in the thermosphere most of the time through ionospheric monitoring with Doppler sounders or GPS. The authors review briefly in this paper observations made on Earth and describe the general frame of the theory enabling the computation of Rayleigh waves for models of telluric planets with atmosphere. The authors then focus on Mars and Venus and give in both cases the atmospheric properties of the Rayleigh normal modes and associated surface waves compared to Earth. The authors then conclude on the observation perspectives especially for Rayleigh waves excited by atmospheric sources on Mars and for remote ionospheric observations of Rayleigh waves excited by quakes on Venus.

The Loma Prieta, California, earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Public response: Chapter B in The Loma Prieta, California, earthquake of October 17, 1989: Societal Response (Professional Paper 1553)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bolton, Patricia A.

1993-01-01

Major earthquakes provide seismologists and engineers an opportunity to examine the performance of the Earth and the man-made structures in response to the forces of the quake. So, too, do they provide social scientists an opportunity to delve into human responses evoked by the ground shaking and its physical consequences. The findings from such research can serve to guide the development and application of programs and practices designed to reduce death, injury, property losses, and social disruption in subsequent earthquakes. This chapter contains findings from studies focused mainly on public response to the Loma Prieta earthquake; that is, on the behavior and perceptions of the general population rather than on the activities of specific organizations or on the impact on procedures or policies. A major feature of several of these studies is that the information was collected from the population throughout the Bay area, not just from persons in the most badly damaged communities or who had suffered the greatest losses. This wide range serves to provide comparisons of behavior for those most directly affected by the earthquake with others who were less directly affected by it but still had to consider it very “close to home.”

Tsunami damage in Aceh Province, Sumatra

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

The island of Sumatra suffered from both the rumblings of the submarine earthquake and the tsunamis that were generated on December 26, 2004. Within minutes of the quake, the sea surged ashore, bringing destruction to the coasts of northern Sumatra. This pair of natural-color images from Landsat 7's Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instrument shows a small area along the Sumatran coast in Aceh province where the tsunami smashed its way ashore. In this region, the wave cut a swath of near-total destruction 1.5 kilometers (roughly one mile) in most places, but penetrating farther in many others. Some of these deeper paths of destruction can be seen especially dramatically in the larger-area ETM+ images linked to above. (North is up in these larger images.) ETM+ collects data at roughly 30 meter resolution, complimenting sensors like NASA's MODIS (onboard both Terra and Aqua satellites) which observed this area at 250-meter resolution to give a wide view and ultra-high-resolution sensors like Space Imaging's IKONOS, which observed the same region at 4-meter resolution to give a detailed, smaller-area view. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the Landsat 7 Science Project Office

Dynamic Assessment of Seismic Risk (DASR) by Multi-parametric Observations: Preliminary Results of PRIME experiment within the PRE-EARTHQUAKES EU-FP7 Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tramutoli, V.; Inan, S.; Jakowski, N.; Pulinets, S. A.; Romanov, A.; Filizzola, C.; Shagimuratov, I.; Pergola, N.; Ouzounov, D. P.; Papadopoulos, G. A.; Parrot, M.; Genzano, N.; Lisi, M.; Alparlsan, E.; Wilken, V.; Tsybukia, K.; Romanov, A.; Paciello, R.; Zakharenkova, I.; Romano, G.

2012-12-01

The integration of different observations together with the refinement of data analysis methods, is generally expected to improve our present knowledge of preparatory phases of earthquakes and of their possible precursors. This is also the main goal of PRE-EARTHQUAKES (Processing Russian and European EARTH observations for earthQUAKE precursors Studies) the FP7 Project which, to this aim, committed together, different international expertise and observational capabilities, in the last 2 years. In the learning phase of the project, different parameters (e.g. thermal anomalies, total electron content, radon concentration, etc.), measured from ground and satellite systems and analyzed by using different data analysis approaches, have been studied for selected geographic areas and specific seismic events in the past. Since July 2012 the PRIME (PRE-EARTHQUAKES Real-time Integration and Monitoring Experiment) started attempting to perform, on the base of independent observations collected and integrated in real-time through the PEG (PRE-EARTHQUAKES Geo-portal), a Dynamic Assessment of Seismic Risk (DASR) on selected geographic areas of Europe (Italy-Greece-Turkey) and Asia (Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Japan). In this paper, results so far achieved as well as the potential and opportunities they open for a worldwide Earthquake Observation System (EQuOS) - as a dedicated component of GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) - will be presented.

Chemical ecology of the luna moth : Effects of host plant on detoxification enzyme activity.

PubMed

Lindroth, R L

1989-07-01

The effects of food plant on larval performance and midgut detoxification enzymes were investigated in larvae of the luna moth,Actias luna. Neonate larvae were fed leaves of black cherry, cottonwood, quaking aspen, white willow, red oak, white oak, tulip tree, paper birch, black walnut, butternut, or shagbark hickory. First instar survival, larval duration, and pupal weights were monitored as indices of food quality. Midgut enzyme preparations from fifth instars were assayed for β-glucosidase, quinone reductase, polysubstrate monooxygenase, esterase, and glutathione transferase activities. Larval survival on seven of the 11 plant species, including several recorded host plants, was extremely poor. Larvae performed well, and quite similarly, on birch, walnut, butternut, and hickory. Activities of all enzyme systems except β-glucosidase were significantly influenced by larval host plant. Of the systems assayed, quinone reductase and glutathione transferase activities were especially high. Comparisons of these values with published values for other Lepidoptera support the hypothesis that these enzyme systems are involved in conferring tolerance to juglone and related quinones occurring in members of the plant family Juglandaceae. Results suggest that host plant utilization by luna is more specialized at the individual or population level than at the species level and that biochemical detoxification systems may play a role in such specialization.

Progress in Computational Simulation of Earthquakes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donnellan, Andrea; Parker, Jay; Lyzenga, Gregory; Judd, Michele; Li, P. Peggy; Norton, Charles; Tisdale, Edwin; Granat, Robert

2006-01-01

GeoFEST(P) is a computer program written for use in the QuakeSim project, which is devoted to development and improvement of means of computational simulation of earthquakes. GeoFEST(P) models interacting earthquake fault systems from the fault-nucleation to the tectonic scale. The development of GeoFEST( P) has involved coupling of two programs: GeoFEST and the Pyramid Adaptive Mesh Refinement Library. GeoFEST is a message-passing-interface-parallel code that utilizes a finite-element technique to simulate evolution of stress, fault slip, and plastic/elastic deformation in realistic materials like those of faulted regions of the crust of the Earth. The products of such simulations are synthetic observable time-dependent surface deformations on time scales from days to decades. Pyramid Adaptive Mesh Refinement Library is a software library that facilitates the generation of computational meshes for solving physical problems. In an application of GeoFEST(P), a computational grid can be dynamically adapted as stress grows on a fault. Simulations on workstations using a few tens of thousands of stress and displacement finite elements can now be expanded to multiple millions of elements with greater than 98-percent scaled efficiency on over many hundreds of parallel processors (see figure).

Current affairs in earthquake prediction in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uyeda, Seiya

2015-12-01

As of mid-2014, the main organizations of the earthquake (EQ hereafter) prediction program, including the Seismological Society of Japan (SSJ), the MEXT Headquarters for EQ Research Promotion, hold the official position that they neither can nor want to make any short-term prediction. It is an extraordinary stance of responsible authorities when the nation, after the devastating 2011 M9 Tohoku EQ, most urgently needs whatever information that may exist on forthcoming EQs. Japan's national project for EQ prediction started in 1965, but it has made no success. The main reason for no success is the failure to capture precursors. After the 1995 Kobe disaster, the project decided to give up short-term prediction and this stance has been further fortified by the 2011 M9 Tohoku Mega-quake. This paper tries to explain how this situation came about and suggest that it may in fact be a legitimate one which should have come a long time ago. Actually, substantial positive changes are taking place now. Some promising signs are arising even from cooperation of researchers with private sectors and there is a move to establish an "EQ Prediction Society of Japan". From now on, maintaining the high scientific standards in EQ prediction will be of crucial importance.

Characteristics of Landslides Triggered by Mw 7.8 2015 Gorkha Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhital, Smriti

The Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake struck central Nepal on April 25, 2015 and brought about a huge loss of life and property. The quake was also responsible for the generation of a large number of landslides. They blocked highways, devastated villages, and temporarily dammed some rivers. About 14,670 landslips were triggered off by the main shock and its numerous large aftershocks. Among the detected failures, about 23% had an area greater than 100 m2. Since such failures can directly affect people's life and property, they are considered for further investigation in this study. A comparison of these coseismic landslides with the 29 historical failures reveals that these landslides slightly exceed in number from those expected for the peak ground acceleration observed due to these earthquakes. The landslides seem to be concentrated within the area of the fault rupture surface. About 90% of the detected landslips could be classified as earth falls. The areas having relatively soft rocks, such as slates, shales, schists and phyllites of the Lesser Himalaya, suffered from a greater number of failures. The landslides had a strong correlation with the peak ground acceleration and they also showed a positive correlation with some landslide-susceptible geological formations composing the study area.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediments and Bivalves on the Pacific Coast of Japan: Influence of Tsunami and Fire

PubMed Central

Onozato, Mayu; Nishigaki, Atsuko; Okoshi, Kenji

2016-01-01

Surface sediments and at least one edible bivalve species (Ruditapes philippinarum, Mytilus galloprovincialis, and Crassostrea gigas) were collected from each of seven intertidal sites in Japan in 2013. The sites had experienced varying levels of tsunami and fire disturbance following the major earthquake of 2011. Eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were identified and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Total sediment PAH concentration (CT), the sum of the average concentrations of the eight PAHs, was 21–1447 μg kg-1-dry. Relative to the average level of one type of PAH in sediments collected around Japan in 2002 (benzo[a]pyrene = 21 μg kg-1-dry), five of the seven sites showed concentrations significantly lower than this average in 2013. The CTs for the three bivalves (134–450 μg kg-1-dry) were within the range of the previous reports (2.2–5335 μg kg-1-dry). The data suggest that the natural disaster did not increase PAH concentrations or affect the distribution within sediment or bivalves in Tohoku district. Although PAH concentrations at the sites pose no risk to human health, the findings highlight that the observed PAH levels derive from pre- rather than post-quake processes. PMID:27232189

A Strength-Based Arts and Play Support Program for Young Survivors in Post-Quake China: Effects on Self-Efficacy, Peer Support, and Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ho, Rainbow T. H.; Lai, Angel H. Y.; Lo, Phyllis H. Y.; Nan, Joshua K. M.; Pon, Alicia K. L.

2017-01-01

A year after the earthquake in Sichuan, China, a strength-based arts and play support program was launched to promote the well-being of young survivors, and this study was designed to examine its effectiveness. It was hypothesized that participation in the program would have direct positive effects on general self-efficacy and peer support, and…

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

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

Products and Services Available from the Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEDC) and the Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, E.; Bhaskaran, A.; Chen, S.; Chowdhury, F. R.; Meisenhelter, S.; Hutton, K.; Given, D.; Hauksson, E.; Clayton, R. W.

2010-12-01

Currently the SCEDC archives continuous and triggered data from nearly 5000 data channels from 425 SCSN recorded stations, processing and archiving an average of 12,000 earthquakes each year. The SCEDC provides public access to these earthquake parametric and waveform data through its website www.data.scec.org and through client applications such as STP and DHI. This poster will describe the most significant developments at the SCEDC in the past year. Updated hardware: ● The SCEDC has more than doubled its waveform file storage capacity by migrating to 2 TB disks. New data holdings: ● Waveform data: Beginning Jan 1, 2010 the SCEDC began continuously archiving all high-sample-rate strong-motion channels. All seismic channels recorded by SCSN are now continuously archived and available at SCEDC. ● Portable data from El Mayor Cucapah 7.2 sequence: Seismic waveforms from portable stations installed by researchers (contributed by Elizabeth Cochran, Jamie Steidl, and Octavio Lazaro-Mancilla) have been added to the archive and are accessible through STP either as continuous data or associated with events in the SCEDC earthquake catalog. This additional data will help SCSN analysts and researchers improve event locations from the sequence. ● Real time GPS solutions from El Mayor Cucapah 7.2 event: Three component 1Hz seismograms of California Real Time Network (CRTN) GPS stations, from the April 4, 2010, magnitude 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake are available in SAC format at the SCEDC. These time series were created by Brendan Crowell, Yehuda Bock, the project PI, and Mindy Squibb at SOPAC using data from the CRTN. The El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake demonstrated definitively the power of real-time high-rate GPS data: they measure dynamic displacements directly, they do not clip and they are also able to detect the permanent (coseismic) surface deformation. ● Triggered data from the Quake Catcher Network (QCN) and Community Seismic Network (CSN): The SCEDC in

Antemortem detection of chronic wasting disease prions in nasal brush collections and rectal biopsies from white-tailed deer by real time quaking-induced conversion

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of cervids, was first documented nearly fifty years ago in Colorado and Wyoming and has since spread to cervids in 23 states, 2 Canadian provinces, and the Republic of Korea. The increasing expansion of this disease makes the d...

PRISM Software: Processing and Review Interface for Strong‐Motion Data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jones, Jeanne M.; Kalkan, Erol; Stephens, Christopher D.; Ng, Peter

2017-01-01

A continually increasing number of high‐quality digital strong‐motion records from stations of the National Strong Motion Project (NSMP) of the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as data from regional seismic networks within the United States, calls for automated processing of strong‐motion records with human review limited to selected significant or flagged records. The NSMP has developed the Processing and Review Interface for Strong Motion data (PRISM) software to meet this need. In combination with the Advanced National Seismic System Quake Monitoring System (AQMS), PRISM automates the processing of strong‐motion records. When used without AQMS, PRISM provides batch‐processing capabilities. The PRISM software is platform independent (coded in Java), open source, and does not depend on any closed‐source or proprietary software. The software consists of two major components: a record processing engine composed of modules for each processing step, and a review tool, which is a graphical user interface for manual review, edit, and processing. To facilitate use by non‐NSMP earthquake engineers and scientists, PRISM (both its processing engine and review tool) is easy to install and run as a stand‐alone system on common operating systems such as Linux, OS X, and Windows. PRISM was designed to be flexible and extensible to accommodate implementation of new processing techniques. All the computing features have been thoroughly tested.

Fukushima two year processing update

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Denton, Mark S.; Mertz, Joshua

On March 11, 2011, now two years ago, the magnitude 9.0 Great East Japan earth quake, Tohoku, hit off the Fukushima coast of Japan. This was one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history and the most powerful one known to have hit Japan. The ensuing tsunami devastated a huge area resulting in some 25,000 persons confirmed dead or missing. The perfect storm was complete when the tsunami then found the four-reactor, Fukushima- Daiichi Nuclear Station directly in its destructive path. Some 2 million people were evacuated from a fifty mile radius of the area and evaluation and cleanupmore » began. A tremendous effort has been made, by many nationalities, since this time to restore this damaged plant and surrounding area and to return a great deal of the residents to their homes and farm lands. While most of the outcome of this unprecedented natural and manmade disaster was negative, both in Japan and worldwide, there have been some extremely valuable lessons learned and new emergency recovery technologies and systems developed to cope with the aftermath of this disaster. This paper describes new technology developed to selectively remove radioactive materials dangerous to workers, local citizens, and the natural environment from seawater used to cool the damaged reactors at Fukushima. As always, the mother of invention is necessity. (authors)« less

Using JavaScript and the FDSN web service to create an interactive earthquake information system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, Kasper D.

2015-04-01

The FDSN web service provides a web interface to access earthquake meta-data (e. g. event or station information) and waveform date over the internet. Requests are send to a server as URLs and the output is either XML or miniSEED. This makes it hard to read by humans but easy to process with different software. Different data centers are already supporting the FDSN web service, e. g. USGS, IRIS, ORFEUS. The FDSN web service is also part of the Seiscomp3 (http://www.seiscomp3.org) software. The Seismological Observatory of the Ruhr-University switched to Seiscomp3 as the standard software for the analysis of mining induced earthquakes at the beginning of 2014. This made it necessary to create a new web-based earthquake information service for the publication of results to the general public. This has be done by processing the output of a FDSN web service query by javascript running in a standard browser. The result is an interactive map presenting the observed events and further information of events and stations on a single web page as a table and on a map. In addition the user can download event information, waveform data and station data in different formats like miniSEED, quakeML or FDSNxml. The developed code and all used libraries are open source and freely available.

Multi-instrument observation on co-seismic ionospheric effects after great Tohoku earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Y. Q.; Xiao, Z.; Zhang, D. H.

2012-02-01

In this paper, evidence of quake-excited infrasonic waves is provided first by a multi-instrument observation of Japan's Tohoku earthquake. The observations of co-seismic infrasonic waves are as follows: 1, effects of surface oscillations are observed by local infrasonic detector, and it seems these effects are due to surface oscillation-excited infrasonic waves instead of direct influence of seismic vibration on the detector; 2, these local excited infrasonic waves propagate upwards and correspond to ionospheric disturbances observed by Doppler shift measurements and GPS/TEC; 3, interactions between electron density variation and currents in the ionosphere caused by infrasonic waves manifest as disturbances in the geomagnetic field observed via surface magnetogram; 4, within 4 hours after this strong earthquake, disturbances in the ionosphere related to arrivals of Rayleigh waves were observed by Doppler shift sounding three times over. Two of the arrivals were from epicenter along the minor arc of the great circle (with the second arrival due to a Rayleigh wave propagating completely around the planet) and the other one from the opposite direction. All of these seismo-ionospheric effects observed by HF Doppler shift appear after local arrivals of surface Rayleigh waves, with a time delay of 8-10 min. This is the time required for infrasonic wave to propagate upwards to the ionosphere.