Changes in Runout Distances of Debris Flows over Time in the Wenchuan Earthquake Zone

A large number of debris flows occurred in the Wenchuan earthquake zone after the 12 May 2008 earthquake.The risks posed by these debris flows were rather high.An appropriate model is required to predict the possible runout distance and impacted area.This paper describes a study on the runout characteristics of the debris flows that occurred in the Wenchuan earthquake zone over the past four years.A total of 120 debris flows are analyzed.Separate multivariate regression models are established for the runout distances of hill-slope debris flows and channelized debris flows.The control variables include type of debris flow,debris flow volume,and elevation difference.Comparison of the debris flows occurring before and after the earthquake shows that the runout distance increased after the earthquake due to sufficient material supply and increased mobility of the source materials.In addition,the runout distances of annual debris flow events in 2008,2010 and 2011 are analyzed and compared.There is a tendency that the runout distance decreases over time due to the decreasing source material volume and possible changes of debris flow type.Comparison between the debris flows in the earthquake zone and the debris flows in Swiss Alps,Canada,Austria,and Japan shows that the former have a smaller mobility.

Chemical Characteristics and Environmental Significance of Fresh Snow Deposition on Urumqi Glacier No.1 of Tianshan Mountains, China

Ice and snow chemistry of alpine glaciers is crucial for the research of regional atmospheric environment change. Fresh snow samples were weekly collected from Urumqi Glacier No.1 in the Tianshan Mountains, Xin- jiang, China, and the chemical characteristics and seasonal variations of major ions, mineral dust, δ18O and trace metals were measured. Results show that the concentrations of major ions in the snow are Ca2+ > SO42-> NH4+ > NO3-> Cl-> Na+ > Mg2+ > K+, in which Ca2+ is the dominant cation, and SO42-is the dominant anion. All major ions have close positive correlations with each other except NO3-. δ18O shows positive correlation with air temperature change during the study period. Mineral dust particle and major ionic concentrations in fresh snow have obvious seasonal change, with high concentration in spring but low concentration in summer and autumn, which indicates that the chemical mass input from Asian dust activity to snow is very significant. Temporal changes of trace metals in fresh snow, e.g., Cd, Pb, Zn, Al, Fe, have shown that human-induced pollution of central Asian region also has large contribution to the snow chemistry on alpine glaciers of the Tianshan Mountains.

Properties of Structure and Dynamics of a Two-Dimensional Dissipative Yukawa Dusty Plasma

In this paper, the structural and single-particle motive properties of a two-dimensional dusty plasmas are investigated numerically by molecular dynamics simulation within the framework of a dissipative Yukawa model. The pair correlation function, the mean square displacement, the static structure factor, and the bond angle correlation function characterizing the structural properties, and the velocity autocorrelation function with Fourier spectrum function characterizing the single-particle motion have been calculated for different values of coupling constant r and viscous damping constant vf. The results show that the system will coagulate quickly with increasing viscous damping constant and coupling constant, and the critical value of friction parameter decreases with increasing the coupling constant in the system.

红绿相间的土地

初识蒙顶山,百丈血阳残。蜀地多景胜,独叹名山源。隋皇千五载,茶留古人远。月牙伴碧绿,延镇河边欢。中泠虽故事,却依陈君谚。来去客此处,不入京城关。我虽为川中射洪人,家乡离名山不是很远,却因离川三十余载,少有机会,未曾去过名山。早年曾读书闻史,知当年红军曾挥师指蓉,在百丈关遇阻,鏖战旬日,血漫山关,损人数万,终未插旗城垣,只好折戈西向,败退荒原。

Numerical simulation of the separation between concrete face slabs and cushion layer of Zipingpu dam during the Wenchuan earthquake

The Zipingpu concrete-faced rockfill dam(CFRD)experienced strong ground motion from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.Separation between concrete face slabs and the cushion layer was observed after the earthquake.The separation voids under the stage III slabs make up 55%of the total area of the stage III slabs.The observed maximum height of the separation voids was nearly 23 cm at the top of the stage III slabs.Separation voids were also observed locally below the top of stage II slabs near the left abutment,with a maximum height of 7 cm.In this study,a static and dynamic elasto-plastic finite element analysis on Zipingpu CFRD was conducted to capture the separation during the Wenchuan earthquake.The rockfill materials were described using a state-dependent elasto-plastic model that considered particle breakage.The model parameters of rockfill materials were obtained from feedback analysis.The numerical results were largely consistent with the field measurements during construction and after the Wenchuan earthquake.A three-dimensional state-dependent elasto-plastic model that can trace the separation and re-contact of a soil-structure interface was employed to investigate the interaction between concrete face slabs and a cushion layer.The analysis showed the distribution of separation voids observed in the Zipingpu CFRD has a close relationship to the water level and slab dislocations at the time of the earthquake.The phenomenon of the separation from the Wenchuan earthquake was successfully captured by the proposed numerical procedure.