Variation of Vp/Vs ratios for granitic layers and weekly average number of earthquakes in NE India

Vp/Vs ratios for the granitic layers in Shillong Plateau and the partially overlapping Tezpur seismic area, have been calculated from Wadati diagrams drawn on the basis of seismic phase data. From Shillong plateau the average of 23 readings for some months of 1979 for Vp/Vs is found to be 1.71. For Tezpur area the average of 29 readings of Vp/Vs for 1991-92 is found to be 1.73, but for 1995-96, the average Vp/Vs from 49 readings is found to be 1.68. The overall average from 78 readings for this area is 1.70. The low Vp/Vs for 1995-97 seems to be precursory. For the granitic layer, taking Vp = 5.92 kms/s and Vp/Vs = 1.70. We get Vs=3.48 km/s for NE India. Values of Vp/Vs ratios and number of shocks per day are plotted against time and are shown to undergo sudden lowering before many M³4.2 earthquakes. Vp/Vs is generally lowered below 1.60 in such cases. In Shillong plateau the number of shocks per day for 1979 is found to be three times the number in the adjoining Tezpur area, for 1991-97.

Base Isolation Compared To Capacity Design For Large Corner Periods And Pulse-Type Seismic Records

Southern Romania experiences special soil conditions, leading to rather long corner periods and to an enlarged plateau of the response spectrum, with associated large displacement demands. Pulse-type ground acceleration records complete this unique seismic area. Research on the seismic behavior of structures built under these special conditions is limited and engineers are not comfortable with alternative solutions such as base isolation. This study investigates the seismic performance of a hospital building with the following two anti-seismic solutions: 1) stiffening, in line with the capacity design method and 2) base isolation. Base shear, structural drift and structural acceleration are compared for both approaches.

Associations Between Strong Earthquakes and Local Rainfall in China

Strong earthquakes are a major cause of natural disasters and may also be related to heavy rainfall events. Both phenomena have received considerable attention in seismology and meteorology, two relatively independent disciplines, but we do not yet know whether there is a connection between them. We investigated the characteristics of daily rainfall over seismic areas in China. Our statistical analyses showed that there is a strong correlation between strong earthquakes (Ms ≥ 6.0) and rainfall over the seismic area, with 74.9% of earthquakes in China accompanied by seismic epicenter rainfall and 86.6% by seismic area rainfall. The statistics also showed that the daily precipitation over the seismic area, including the epicenter, was mainly light rain, with only a few instances of torrential or storm rain, with 80% of the rainfall events lasting two or more days. The maximum cumulative precipitation corresponded well with the strong earthquakes occurring over steep terrain, such as the Taiwan central mountains and the eastern Tibetan Plateau. The earthquake area rainfall had a higher frequency than the 30-years climatological average and was dominated by earthquake events in the wet season. The WRF-ARW numerical simulation of seismic local rainfall during the devastating Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake in May 2008 showed that the geothermal heat from the earthquake strengthened the local convergence of moisture and vertical motion near the epicenter and the upward transport of the sensible heat flux, which favored seismic rainfall. The results of this study show that rainfall in the seismic area is closely related to strong earthquakes and can be triggered and enhanced by geothermal heat.

Implementation of a Radon Monitoring Network in a Seismic Area

Large-scale radon monitoring is carried out due to the fact that it is directly responsible for public health. European Directive 2013/59/EURATOM has been transposed into the legislation of several countries and provides for the need for long-term monitoring of radon in homes and workplaces by setting the average annual reference level at 300 Bq/m3. At the same time, radon is a precursor factor, its emission being correlated with seismic and volcanic activity. In this case, the protection of the population is ensured by a forecast similar to a meteorological one. The NIEP (National Institute for Earth Physics) is developing a multidisciplinary real-time monitoring network in the most dangerous seismic area in Romania, Vrancea. This is located at the bend of the Carpathian Mountains and is characterized by deep earthquakes (over 80 km), with destructive effects over large distances. Implementing a multidisciplinary monitoring network that includes radon, involves finding the locations and equipment that will give the best results. There is no generic solution for achieving this, because the geological structure depends on the monitoring area, and in most cases the equipment does not offer the ability to transmit data in real time. The positioning of the monitoring stations was based on fault maps of the Vrancea area. Depending on the results, some of the locations were changed in pursuit of a correlation with zonal seismicity. Through repeated tests, we established the optimal sampling rate for minimizing errors, maintaining measurement accuracy, and ensuring the detection of anomalies in real time. The radon 222Rn was determined by the number of counts and ROI1 (region of interest) values, depending on the particularities of the equipment. Finally, we managed to establish a real-time radon monitoring network which transmits data to geophysical platforms and makes correlations with the seismicity in the Vrancea area. The equipment, designed to store data for long periods of time then manually download it with manufacturers’ applications, now works in real time, after we implemented software designed specifically for this purpose.

Analysis of Soil Liquefaction Potential through Three Field Tests-Based Methods: A Case Study of Babol City

During earthquakes, ground failure is commonly caused by liquefaction. Thus, assessment of soil liquefaction potential in earthquake-prone regions is a crucial step towards reducing earthquake hazard. Since Babol city in Iran country is located in a high seismic area, estimation of soil liquefaction potential is of great importance in this city. For this purpose, in the present research, using field-based methods and geotechnical data (such as unit weight of soil, relative density, SPT number, shear wave velocity and cone tip resistance) of 60 available boreholes in Babol, three liquefaction maps were provided. Finally, one comprehensive liquefaction map was presented for soil of Babol city. The obtained results in this paper are well in line with the previous investigations. Based on the results, the factor of safety in 45% of the study area is less than one (liquefaction occurrence). In addition, the results indicate that since each field-based method requires particular data, applying various field tests is necessary for a more accurate liquefaction assessment.

FE vs. DE Modeling for the Nonlinear Dynamics of a Historic Church in Central Italy

The present research paper properly focuses on the dynamics and failure mechanisms of the masonry “Apennine Church” of Santissimo Crocifisso in Pretare, municipality of Arquata del Tronto in the province of Ascoli Piceno (Marche region, Central Italy). Such a peculiar structural type traditionally characterizes the intense seismic area of Central Italy, unfortunately almost totally damaged by the recent shock sequence of 2016. Advanced numerical modeling through discontinuous and continuous approaches were here utilized to have an insight into the dynamic properties and behavior of the structure under strong nonlinear dynamic excitations. In the discrete element approach, the non-smooth contact dynamics method, implemented in LMGC90©, was applied, adopting a full 3D detailed discretization. The church was schematized as an arrangement of rigid blocks, subjected to sliding by friction and perfect plastic collisions, with a null restitution coefficient. In the finite element approach, the concrete damaged plasticity model available in Midas FEA NX© was involved. This model allows reproducing the tensile cracking, the compressive crushing, and the degradation of the material under cyclic loads. Finally, the numerical analyses provided a valuable picture of the actual behavior of the church, thus giving useful hints for future strengthening interventions.

The geomagnetic field behavior inside Vrancea zone (Romania) in correlation with tectonic, atmospheric and solar activity

<p>The present study assesses two signal processing methods on geomagnetic data to detect precursory signals appearing before M>5.0 Vrancea, Romania earthquakes occurred between 2016 and 2021. Geomagnetic data are obtained from Muntele Rosu Seismological Observatory situated in one corner of Vrancea seismogenic zone – as primary station, and from Intermagnet Surlari National Geomagnetic Observatory of IGR, located about 150Km South-East to Vrancea zone as remote station respectively. The first method, the diurnal variation ratio method computes difference between daily maximum with minimum value before finding ratio of primary to remote station for each individual component. The second method, the polarization ratio analysis is performed on both stations data to compute the ratio of vertical to total horizontal component in ultra-low frequency range. Geomagnetic indices taken from NOAA/Space Weather Prediction Center are compared to separate the global variation from seismo-electromagnetic anomalies possibly presented in a seismic area like Vrancea zone and to ensure that any geomagnetic fluctuations are not caused by solar-terrestrial effect.</p><p>In the end, the paper aims to compare the results from both methods in term of reliability and effectiveness.</p><p>Acknowledgements. This work was funded by: PN19 08 01 01/2019 Multirisc Nucleu Project, by MCI , Phenomenal Project PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2019-1693, 480PED/2020 and AFROS Project PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-1361, PCE/2021 supported by UEFISCDI</p>