Geomagnetic field from the Earth's core: Its westward drift rate and some probable global-tectonics implications

Summary Sets of virtual poles corresponding to sets of geomagnetic field values at equidistant points, lying along circles of latitude, were defined on the basis of the 1980 IGRF extending to degree and order 8. Certain places on the Earth's surface yield virtual poles lying very close together. The segments of the virtual pole paths, corresponding to these places, have a large curvature. The mentioned places of the Earth's surface are supposed to be areas with a low rate of the westward drift. They form continuous zones that show a certain relation to global-tectonics features.

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uum ¶rt; 8- n¶rt;a ¶rt;a¶rt; aaumu n 1980 u u nmu uma n, mmmu nm uu n ma, a u¶rt;umam ¶rt; naa m ma nmu nua¶rt;am uma n, m uu ¶rt; ¶rt;. amu u, mmmu mu ma, um uu. ¶rt;naam, m nm ma nmu m amu, m m ana¶rt; ¶rt;a ua. u am n na, m naam a m uua mmuu.

     

Some possibilities of predicting radio wave absorption in the lower ionosphere

Summary An attempt is made to show possible ways of predicting radio wave absorption in the midlatitude lower ionosphere using relations between absorption and the intensity of solar ionizing radiation and/or common solar activity indices, and between absorption and f₀F2.

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aa mu nuau nu a¶rt;u ¶rt;um u u a mu ¶rt; nu u umum uuu uu (uu uu u¶rt;au amumu) u ¶rt; nu u f₀F2.

     

The relation between the heat flow field and the distribution ofP n -wave velocities for the European continent

Summary The dependence of P_n-wave velocities on the heat flow, temperature at the crustmantle boundary and the thickness of the Earth's crust in Europe was investigated in relation to the problem of lateral inhomogeneities in the upper mantle. A map was constructed of the distribution of P_n-wave velocities on the territory of Europe. The relations these investigations yielded, were compared with the results of laboratory experiments and all the results are discussed from the physical point of view. The conclusion drawn is that that temperature and pressure effect provide a sufficient explanation of the observed regional changes of P_n-wave velocities for the European continent.

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auum ¶rt;auu mu n¶rt; ¶rt; nmu uua (P_n) u mn nm, mnam a nmu amuu u m a mumuu n a u¶rt;aa u numa ¶rt;¶rt;m amuu. mumuu n a maa a uu m P_n- a nmu uua. u¶rt;u umam ¶rt;a mama aam u¶rt;au uuu m n¶rt; amuu u u ¶rt;au u mnam mmmm mama n¶rt;aa am. ¶rt;a ¶rt;, m ua uu m P_n- a n mum ¶rt;mam um uuu mnam u ¶rt;au a nmu uua.

     

Relationship between microseisms,geomagnetic activity and ionospheric absorption of radio waves

Summary Relatively good correlation between such remote phenomena as microseisms, geomagnetic activity and ionospheric absorption of radio waves has been observed. These phenomena are probably connected by a considerably increased penetration of energetic particles into the atmosphere under conditions of geomagnetic activity.     

On the problem of generalizing Gerstner's trochoidal waves in a three-dimensional case

Summary It is shown that functions, which determine the position of a particle and which represent the solution of Euler's equations of motion in Lagrange's form, can be determined quite accurately from the differential equations established in the paper.     

Hydrological trends and the evolution of catchment research in the Alptal valley,central Switzerland

When the observation of small headwater catchments in the pre-Alpine Alptal valley (central Switzerland) started in the late 1960s, the researchers were mainly interested in questions related to floods and forest management. Investigations of geomorphological processes in the steep torrent channels followed in the 1980s, along with detailed observations of biogeochemical and ecohydrological processes in individual forest stands. More recently, research in the Alptal has addressed the impacts of climate change on water supply and runoff generation. In this article, we describe, for the first time, the evolution of catchment research at Alptal, and present new analyses of long-term trends and short-term hydrologic behaviour. Hydrometeorological time series from the past 50 years show substantial interannual variability, but only minimal long-term trends, except for the ~2°C increase in mean annual air temperature over the 50-year period, and a corresponding shift towards earlier snowmelt. Similar to previous studies in larger Alpine catchments, the decadal variations in mean annual runoff in Alptal's small research catchments reflect the long-term variability in annual precipitation. In the Alptal valley, the most evident hydrological trends were observed in late spring and are related to the substantial change in the duration of the snow cover. Streamflow and water quality are highly variable within and between hydrological events, suggesting rapid shifts in flow pathways and mixing, as well as changing connectivity of runoff-generating areas. This overview illustrates how catchment research in the Alptal has evolved in response to changing societal concerns and emerging scientific questions.     

Seismic Moment Tensor Resolution on a Local Scale: Simulated Rockburst and Mine-induced Seismic Events in the Kopanang Gold Mine, South Africa

Seismic records contain information about the effect of the source as well as the effect of wave propagation through the rock mass. The effect of wave propagation is usually not well known as only simplified models of geological structures are available. Therefore, the information about the source retrieved by inverting seismograms may include errors due to incomplete knowledge of the rock mass along the propagation path, which in turn cause a distortion in the calculated moment tensor (MT). The distortion of the MT on a local scale was observed by inverting records of a simulated rockburst conducted at the Kopanang gold mine in South Africa. A dominant isotropic component of the explosive characteristics was found from the inversion. The deviatoric components retrieved from the blast are spurious. A test of their stability indicated that they are not significant, assuming an uncertainty above 5% for velocities and 10% for attenuation within the homogeneous model available for the mine. Thus, the retrieval of the MT from records of local networks in mines using a homogeneous model of the rock mass seems to be feasible. However, the homogeneous model of the rock mass can only be applied to close stations, within a few kilometers of the source. The seismic records from distant stations were too complex to be modelled by a homogeneous rock mass. Records of six mine-induced seismic events recorded at the Kopanang gold mine were also inverted. A vertical linear dipole along the pressure (P) axis was found for three of the events, suggesting a pillar burst. The mechanism of two events contains an isotropic implosion together with a nearly vertical dip-slip, and seems to indicate a combination of a cavity collapse with a down dip-slip along a nearly vertical fault. One event corresponds to a dipole along the tensional (T) axis. However, it is vertical, thus its association with tensile faulting of the hangingwall is uncertain.     

Time-lapse seismic analysis of pressure depletion in the Southern Gas Basin

In the Southern Gas Basin (SGB) of the North Sea there are many mature gas fields where time‐lapse monitoring could be very beneficial in extending production life. However, the conditions are not immediately attractive for time‐lapse seismic assessment. This is primarily because the main production effect to be assessed is a pore pressure reduction and frame stiffening because of gas production in tight sandstone reservoirs that also have no real seismic direct hydrocarbon indicators. Modelling, based on laboratory measurements, has shown that such an effect would be small and difficult to detect in seismic data. This paper makes two main contributions. Firstly, this is, to our knowledge, the first time‐lapse study in the SGB and involves a real‐data assessment of the viability for detecting production in such an environment. Secondly, the feasibility of using markedly different legacies of data in such a study is addressed, including an assessment of the factors influencing the crossmatching. From the latter, it is found that significant, spatially varying time shifts need to be, and are successfully, resolved through 3‐D warping. After the warping, the primary factors limiting the crossmatching appear to be residual local phase variations, possibly induced by the differing migration strategies, structure, reverberations and different coherencies of the volumes, caused by differences in acquisition‐structure azimuth and acquisition fold. Despite these differences, a time‐lapse amplitude signature is observed that is attributable to production. The character of the 4‐D amplitude anomalies may also indicate variations in stress sensitivity, e.g. because of zones of fracturing. Additionally, warping‐derived time attributes have been highlighted as a potential additional avenue for detection of pressure depletion in such reservoirs. Although the effects are subtle, they may indicate changes in stress/pressure in and around the reservoir because of production. However, to fully resolve the subtle time‐lapse effects in such a reservoir, the data differences need to be better addressed, which may be possible by full re‐processing and pre‐stack analysis, but more likely dedicated 4‐D acquisition would be required.     

Flood-type trend analysis for alpine catchments

ABSTRACT

In many places, magnitudes and frequencies of floods are expected to increase due to climate change. To understand these changes better, trend analyses of historical data are helpful. However, traditional trend analyses do not address issues related to shifts in the relative contributions of rainfall versus snowmelt floods, or in the frequency of a particular flood type. We present a novel approach for quantifying such trends in time series of floods using a fuzzy decision tree for event classification and applied it to maximal annual and seasonal floods in 27 alpine catchments for the period 1980–2014. Trends in flood types were studied with Sen’s slope and double mass curves. Our results reveal a decreasing number of rain-on-snow and an increasing number of short rainfall events in all catchments, with flash floods increasing in smaller catchments. Overall, the results demonstrate the value of incorporating a fuzzy flood-type classification into flood trend analyses.     

Arguments for ionic nature of the Carpathian electric conductivity anomaly

This publication is a contribution to discussion on the geometry and petrography of the rock complex responsible for the Carpathian conductivity anomaly. We analysed arguments showing that this anomaly is caused by induction in the sedimentary basin, and make a critical review of various data to find out whether the good conductivity is connected with a rock complex containing graphite or mineralized water. We conclude that a more likely mechanism is the ionic one, i.e., the existence of fluids, although a final decision can only be made on the basis of deep drillings.