A preliminary analysis of arcuate structures-relationship of the island arc and deep-sea trench to the dip angle of Benioff zone

The origin of arcuate islands and deep-sea trenches has been studied for a long time and various interpretations have been proposed. In this paper, some analytical models are put forward from a geometrical viewpoint and then the theoretical dip angles of the underthrusting slabs of circum-Pacific island arcs are computed and compared with those of the Benioff zone. As a result, it is found that the dip angle of the underthrusting slab is one of the main factors determining the curvature of the arcuate structure. The authors consider that this result may contribute to the plate theory.

Model Tests on the Effect of Dip Angles on Flow Behavior of Liquefied Sand

The flow behavior of liquefied sand is reported using a self-developed testing system that enables the flow processes of liquefied sand to be studied at different slopes of the soil layers.The test device is mainly composed of a vibrating table,a transparent model box and a high-speed video monitoring camera.The tests replicated the horizontal and sloping flows of saturated sand in the model box,which can be tilted to various angles to study the flow characteristics of liquefied sand.The high-speed video monitoring camera captured and recorded the processes within the flowing sand.With increasing downslope,the strain,strain rate,duration time,and sand flow distance increased.The results of our experiment indicate that when selecting sites for engineering structures,the surface downslopes should be taken into account if liquefiable soils are present.Finally,some suggestions regarding site assessment and structural design for sites prone to liquefaction were presented.

Stability of High Slope Interbedded Strata with Low Dip Angle Constituted by Soft and Hard Rock Mass

Slopes consisting of interbedded strata of soft and hard rock mass, such as purplish red mudstone and grey brown arkosic sandstone of Jurassic age, are very common in Sichuan basin of China. The mudstone is soft while the sandstone is hard and contains many opening or closing joints with a high dip angle. Some are nearly parallel and the others are nearly decussated with the trend of the slopes. Many natural slopes are in deformation or sliding because of those reasons. The stability of cutting slopes and supporting method to be taken for their stability in civil engineering are important. In this paper, the stability and deformation of the slopes are studied. The methods of analysis and support design principle are analyzed also. Finally, the method put forward is applied to study Fengdian high cutting slope in Sichuan section of the express way from Chengdu to Shanghai. The results indicate that the method is effective.

Damage Characteristics Analysis and Fractal Study of Shale With Prefabricated Fractures under Thermal-mechanical Coupling

To study the damage and failure of shale with different fracture inclination angles under uniaxial compression loading,in this work,RFPA2D-Thermal,a two-dimensional real failure process analysis software,was used for numerical simulation.Numerical simulation results show that quartz in shale mainly affects the tensile and compressive strength of shale by increasing rock brittleness.The coupling of temperature and pressure will cause lateral and volume destruction of shale,which enables the shale body to be more easily broken.Fracture inclination is the key factor affecting shale damage patterns.The failure mode of shale with low-and high-angle fractures is mainly shear failure,and the compressive strength does not vary with crack inclination.The damage mode of obliquely intersecting fractured shale is slip damage along the fracture face,the compressive strength decreases and then increases with the fracture inclination,and a minimum value exists.The acoustic emission simulation results of the damage process effectively reflect the accumulated internal damage and macroscopic crack appearance until fracture instability when the prefabricated fractured shale is subjected to uniaxial compressive loading.The crack inclinations of 0°and 120℃ corresponds to the most complex"N"shape damage mode.The crack inclinations of 30°and 60°,and the damage mode is an inverted"λ"shape.

foF2 Diurnal Variability at African Equatorial Stations:Dip Equator Secular Displacement Effect

The paper goal is to analyze the variability of foF2 at African equatorial stations and the effect of dip angle on this variability. The gap between the dip angle of Dakar and Ouagadougou is superior to that between Djibouti and Ouagadougou. The trend of the dip angle at Ouagadougou and Dakar decreases while that of Djibouti increases. The relative position of the station with respect to the equator and the trend sign explains the difference observed in foF2 variability at Dakar station and at the two other stations. At Djibouti and Ouagadougou, foF2 exhibits noon bite out profile during all solar cycle phases while at Dakar observed profile is dome or plateau during the maximum and the predominance afternoon peak for the other solar cycle phases.

Strength and deformation characteristics of irregular columnar jointed rock mass: A combined experimental and theoretical study

The irregularity of jointed network poses a challenge to the determination of field mechanical param-eters of columnar jointed rock mass(CJRM),and a reasonable prediction of deformation and strength characteristics of CJRM is important for engineering construction.The Voronoi diagram and three-dimensional printing technology were used to make an irregular columnar jointed mold,and the irregular CJRM(ICJRM)specimens with different dip directions and dip angles were prepared.Uniaxial compression tests were performed,and the anisotropic strength and deformation characteristics of ICJRM were described.The failure modes and mechanisms were revealed in accordance with the final appearances of the ICJRM specimens.Based on the model test results,the empirical correlations for determining the field deformation and strength parameters of CJRM were derived using the dip angle and modified joint factor.The proposed empirical equations were used in the Baihetan Project,and the calculated mechanical parameters were compared with the field test results and those obtained from the tunneling quality index method.Results showed that the deformation parameters determined by the two proposed methods are all consistent with the field test results,and these two methods can also estimate the strength parameters effectively.

Regional Finite-Fault Source Model for Development of Ground Motion Attenuation Relationship in Sichuan, China

The attenuation relationship of ground motion based on seismology has always been a front subject of engineering earthquake.Among them,the regional finite-fault source model is very important.In view of this point,the general characteristics of regional seism-tectonics,including the dip and depth of the fault plane,are emphasized.According to the statistics of regional seism-tectonics and focal mechanisms in Sichuan,China,and the sensitivity of estimated peak ground acceleration(PGA)attenuation is analyzed,and the dip angle is taken as an average of 70°.Based the statistics of the upper crustal structure and the focal depth of regional earthquakes,the bottom boundary of the sedimentary cover can be used as the upper limit for estimating the depth of upper-edge.The analysis shows that this value is sensitive to PGA.Based on the analysis of geometric relations,the corresponding calculation formula is used,and a set of concepts and steps for building the regional finite-fault source model is proposed.The estimation of source parameters takes into account the uncertainty,the geometric relationship among parameters and the total energy conservation.Meanwhile,a set of reasonable models is developed,which lay a foundation for the further study of regional ground motion attenuation based on seismology.

The 20 April 2013 Lushan, Sichuan, mainshock, and its aftershock sequence: tectonic implications

Using the double-difference relocation algo- rithm, we relocated the 20 April 2013 Lushan, Sichuan, earthquake （Ms 7.0）, and its 4,567 aftershocks recorded during the period between 20 April and May 3, 2013. Our results showed that most aftershocks are relocated between 10 and 20 km depths, but some large aftershocks were relocated around 30 krn depth and small events extended upward near the surface. Vertical cross sections illustrate a shovel-shaped fault plane with a variable dip angle from the southwest to northeast along the fault. Furthermore, the dip angle of the fault plane is smaller around the mainshock than that in the surrounding areas along the fault. These results suggest that it may be easy to generate the strong earthquake in the place having a small dip angle of the fault, which is somewhat similar to the genesis of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The Lushan mainshock is underlain by the seismically anomalous layers with low-Vp, low-Vs, and high-Poisson＇s ratio anomalies, possibly suggesting that the fluid-filled fractured rock matrices might signifi- cantly reduce the effective normal stress on the fault plane to bring the brittle failure. The seismic gap between Lushan and Wenchuan aftershocks is suspected to be vulnerable to future seismic risks at greater depths, if any.

Deep-detection of formation boundary using transient multicomponent electromagnetic logging measurements

The maximum distance at which an electromagnetic(EM)logging while drilling(LWD)tool detects an approaching boundary is defined as the depth of detection(DOD).Ultra-deep detection capability of the transient multicomponent EM logging measurement is investigated here.First,we adopt sine and cosine transform to calculate the transient multicomponent responses.Compared to the cosine transform,sine transform is more accurate in solving late-time responses.Then,a time-domain geosignal is introduced to sense the boundary.Results show that DOD of this transient EM measurement can be up to tens of meters,including directionally sensitivity.Additionally,by studying the decay characteristics of different components with time,cross component is confirmed to decay much faster than the coaxial/coplanar components in the formation coordinate system.A pseudo-inversion is thereby proposed to determine the dip angle of anisotropic stratified formation.Theoretical simulation results indicate that this algebraic method can determine the true dip at some particular moments.It is still stable and valid even when considering random measurement errors.Moreover,we establish the linear relationship between the time at which the half-point of geosignal curve appears and the distance to boundary(DTB),which would assist in the quick determination of DTB.

Experimental study on attenuation of Stoneley wave under different fracture factors

To quantitatively determine the effect of different factors such as fracture width,dip angle,extension and filling material on Stoneley wave amplitude decreasing,the shock tube experiment method was changed from fixing the sample and vertically moving the sensor in the borehole to fixing the sensors along the shock tube wall and vertically moving the sample without drilling the borehole in it.The measurement accuracy and the signal-to-noise ratio of the first Stoneley wave were improved by the time corrections and amplitude corrections of Stoneley wave signals.At the same time,21 sets of core models with different fracture parameters were processed for this measurement method by using full-diameter carbonate core,and relative amplitudes were defined to characterize Stoneley wave amplitude decreasing.The experimental results show that the relative amplitude of Stoneley wave exponentially decreases with increasing fracture width.The relative amplitude of Stoneley wave linearly decreases with increasing fracture dip angle.The relative amplitude of Stoneley wave exponentially decreases with increasing fracture extension.The relative amplitude of Stoneley wave decreases with increasing the permeability of filling material in the fracture.Under the above four conditions,the fracture width has the greatest effect on the decreasing of Stoneley wave amplitude,followed by the fracture extension and the permeability of filling material,and finally the fracture dip angle.

Two Comparable Earthquakes Produced Greatly Different Coseismic Landslides:The 2015 Gorkha,Nepal and 2008 Wenchuan,China Events

The 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal and the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China occurred at the south and southeast margins of the Tibetan Plateau, respectively. Both earthquakes had similar magnitudes of Mw 7.8 and 7.9, caused catastrophic loss of life and damage to property, and generated tens of thousands of landslides. Comparisons of pre-and post-quake satellite images supported by field investigations show that the Gorkha Earthquake triggered at least 2 064 large landslides （defined as covering an area ≥10 000 m2） over a -35 600 km2 region with a volume of （444-584）×10^6 （average 509×10^6） m3 and total area of 44.78×10^6 m2. In contrast, the Wenchuan Earthquake triggered 25 580 large landslides over a region of -44 000 km2 with a volume of （7 128-9 479）×10^6 （average 8 219×10^6） m3 and a total area of about 670.65×10^6 m2. Several controlling factors including topographic relief, slope steepness, and regional peak ground acceleration （PGA） were investigated to try to explain the great differences between the number, volume and area of the coseismic landslides associated with the two similar earthquakes. We found that the differences primarily arose from an unexpected factor, the dip angle of the seismogenic fault. This discovery should aid understanding the failure mechanisms of quake-triggered landslides, and suggests that more factors should be taken into consideration in estimating coseismic landslide volumes from earthquake magnitudes. KEY WORDS： Gorkha Earthquake, Wenchuan Earthquake, landslide, dip angle, seismogenic fault.