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Drift issues of tall buildings during the March 11, 2011 M9.0 Tohoku earthquake, Japan - Implications

One of the most significant effects of the M9.0 Tohoku, Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011 is the now well-known long duration (>10 minutes) shaking of buildings in Japan – particularly those in Tokyo (~350-375 km from the epicenter) and in places as far as Osaka (~770 km from the epicenter). Although none collapsed, the strong shaking caused many tall buildings not to be functional for days and
Authors
Mehmet Çelebi, Izuru Okawa

Comparison of NGA-West2 directivity models

Five directivity models have been developed based on data from the NGA-West2 database and based on numerical simulations of large strike-slip and reverse-slip earthquakes. All models avoid the use of normalized rupture dimension, enabling them to scale up to the largest earthquakes in a physically reasonable way. Four of the five models are explicitly “narrow-band” (in which the effect of directiv
Authors
Paul A. Spudich, Badie Rowshandel, Shrey Shahi, Jack W. Baker, Brian S-J Chiou

Adding fling effects to processed ground‐motion time histories

Fling is the engineering term for the effects of the permanent tectonic offset, caused by a rupturing fault in the recorded ground motions near the fault. It is expressed by a one‐sided pulse in ground velocity and a nonzero final displacement at the end of shaking. Standard processing of earthquake time histories removes some of the fling effects that may be required for engineering applications.
Authors
Ronnie Kamai, Norman A. Abrahamson, Robert Graves

NGA-West2 Research Project

The NGA-West2 project is a large multidisciplinary, multi-year research program on the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) models for shallow crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions. The research project has been coordinated by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), with extensive technical interactions among many individuals and organizations. NGA-West2 addresses several
Authors
Yousef Bozorgnia, Norman A. Abrahamson, Linda Al Atik, Timothy D. Ancheta, Gail M. Atkinson, Jack W. Baker, Annemarie S. Baltay, David M. Boore, Kenneth W. Campbell, Brian S.J. Chiou, Robert B. Darragh, Steve Day, Jennifer Donahue, Robert W. Graves, Nick Gregor, Thomas C. Hanks, I. M. Idriss, Ronnie Kamai, Tadahiro Kishida, Albert Kottke, Stephen A. Mahin, Sanaz Rezaeian, Badie Rowshandel, Emel Seyhan, Shrey Shahi, Tom Shantz, Walter Silva, Paul A. Spudich, Jonathan P. Stewart, Jennie Watson-Lamprey, Kathryn Wooddell, Robert Youngs

High manganese concentrations in rocks at Gale crater, Mars

The surface of Mars has long been considered a relatively oxidizing environment, an idea supported by the abundance of ferric iron phases observed there. However, compared to iron, manganese is sensitive only to high redox potential oxidants, and when concentrated in rocks, it provides a more specific redox indicator of aqueous environments. Observations from the ChemCam instrument on the Curiosit
Authors
Nina L. Lanza, Woodward W. Fischer, Roger C. Wiens, John P. Grotzinger, Ann M. Ollila, Ryan B. Anderson, Benton C. Clark, Ralf Gellert, Nicolas Mangold, Sylvestre Maurice, Stéphane Le Mouélic, Marion Nachon, Mariek E. Schmidt, Jeffrey Berger, Samuel M. Clegg, Olivier Forni, Craig Hardgrove, Noureddine Melikechi, Horton E. Newsom, Violaine Sautter

A depth-averaged debris-flow model that includes the effects of evolving dilatancy. I. Physical basis

To simulate debris-flow behaviour from initiation to deposition, we derive a depth-averaged, two-phase model that combines concepts of critical-state soil mechanics, grain-flow mechanics and fluid mechanics. The model's balance equations describe coupled evolution of the solid volume fraction, m, basal pore-fluid pressure, flow thickness and two components of flow velocity. Basal friction is evalu
Authors
Richard M. Iverson, David L. George

Contrasting volcanism in Hawaiʻi and the Galápagos

The archipelagos of Hawai‘i and the Galápagos originated at mantle hotspots, yet the volcanoes that make up the island chains differ in most respects. Some of the most important differences include the dynamics of magma supply, characteristics of magma storage and transport, morphology, and compositional and structural evolution. Of particular significance in the Galápagos is the lack of well-deve
Authors
Michael P. Poland, Karen S. Harpp, Eric Mittelstaedt, Noémi d'Ozouville, David W. Graham

Sulfur isotope fractionation between fluid and andesitic melt: An experimental study

Glasses produced from decompression experiments conducted by Fiege et al. (2014a) were used to investigate the fractionation of sulfur isotopes between fluid and andesitic melt upon magma degassing. Starting materials were synthetic glasses with a composition close to a Krakatau dacitic andesite. The glasses contained 4.55–7.95 wt% H2O, ∼140 to 2700 ppm sulfur (S), and 0–1000 ppm chlorine (Cl). Th
Authors
Adrian Fiege, François Holtz, Nobumichi Shimizu, Charlie Mandeville, Harald Behrens, Jaayke L. Knipping

SAFRR tsunami scenario: Impacts on California ecosystems, species, marine natural resources, and fisheries

We evaluate the effects of the SAFRR Tsunami Scenario on California’s ecosystems, species, natural resources, and fisheries. We discuss mitigation and preparedness approaches that can be useful in Tsunami planning. The chapter provides an introduction to the role of ecosystems and natural resources in tsunami events (Section 1). A separate section focuses on specific impacts of the SAFRR Tsunami S
Authors
Deborah Brosnan, Anne Wein, Rick Wilson

Imaging P and S attenuation in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region, northern California

We obtain 3-D Qp and Qs models for the Delta region of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, a large fluvial-agricultural portion of the Great Valley located between the Sierra Nevada batholith and the San Francisco Bay - Coast Ranges region of active faulting. Path attenuation t* values have been obtained for P and S data from 124 distributed earthquakes, with a longer variable window for S base
Authors
Donna Eberhart-Phillips, Clifford Thurber, Jon Peter B. Fletcher

Geologic logs of geotechnical cores from the subsurface Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California

This report presents and summarizes descriptive geologic logs of geotechnical cores collected from 2009–12 in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, California, by the California Department of Water Resources. Graphic logs are presented for 1,785.7 ft of retained cores from 56 borehole sites throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Most core sections are from a depth of ~100–200 feet. Cores primari
Authors
Katherine L. Maier, Daniel J. Ponti, John C. Tinsley, Emma Gatti, Mark Pagenkopp

COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight interometry over rural areas: the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado, USA

In the last 7 years, spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with resolution of better than a meter acquired by satellites in spotlight mode offered an unprecedented improvement in SAR interferometry (InSAR). Most attention has been focused on monitoring urban areas and man-made infrastructure exploiting geometric accuracy, stability, and phase fidelity of the spotlight mode. In this paper,
Authors
Pietro Milillo, Eric J. Fielding, William H. Schulz, Brent Delbridge, Roland Burgmann
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