sedimentary pyrite formation an update sedimentary pyrite formation during early diagenesis is a major process for controlling the oxygen level of the atmosphere and the sulfate concentration in seawater over geologic time the amount of pyrite that may form in a sediment is limited by the rates of supply of decomposable organic matter dissolved sulfate and reactive detrital iron minerals organic matter appears to be the major control on pyrite formation in normal non euxinic terrigenous marine sediments where dissolved sulfate and iron minerals are abundant by contrast pyrite formation in non marine freshwater sediments is severely limited by low concentrations of sulfate and this characteristic can be used to distinguish ancient organic rich fresh water shales from marine shales under marine euxinic conditions sufficient h2s is produced that the dominant control on pyrite formation is the availability of reactive iron minerals calculations based on a sulfur isotope model indicate that over phanerozoic time the worldwide average organic carbon to pyrite sulfur ratio of sedimentary rocks has varied considerably high cs ratios during permo carboniferous time can be explained by a shift of major organic deposition from the oceans to the land which resulted in the formation of vast coal swamps at that time low cs ratios compared to today during the early paleozoic can be explained in terms of a greater abundance of euxinic basins combined with deposition of a more reactive type of organic matter in the remaining oxygenated portions of the ocean the latter could have been due to lower oceanic oxygen levels and or a lack of transportation of refractory terrestrial organic matter to the marine environment due to the absence of vascular land plants at that time

earthquake ground motion estimation using strong motion records a review of equations for the estimation of peak ground acceleration and response spectral ordinates abstract engineering seismology is the link between earth sciences and engineering the main input of engineering seismology in engineering design are loading conditions which must satisfy certain conditions regarding their level and frequency of occurrence during the lifetime of a structure one method for estimating these loading conditions is through equations based on strong ground motion recorded during previous earthquakes these equations have a handful of independent parameters such as magnitude and source to site distance and a dependent parameter such as peak ground acceleration pga or spectral acceleration and the coefficients in the equation are usually found by regression analysis this review examines such equations in terms of data selection accelerogram processing techniques of the strong motion records used to construct the equations the characterisation of earthquake source travel path and local site used and regression techniques employed to find the final equations it is found that little agreement has been reached in the past 30 years of ground motion estimation relation studies workers have chosen their techniques based on the available data which varies greatly with geographical region also it is noted that there is a need to include more independent parameters into ground motion estimation equations if the large uncertainties associated with such equations are to be significantly reduced the data required to do this is unfortunately scarce

early diagenesis in differing depositional environments the response of transition metals in pore water the cycling of fe mn ni co cu cr v and mo during early diagenesis was investigated in sediments from five different depositional environments in the california borderland dissolved o2 no3 no2 and so4 were also measured at each site to establish the position of redox boundaries pertinent to this study sites were chosen to allow the comparison of several parameters of potential importance to the cycling of these metals bottom water o2 concentration sediment redox conditions cycling of metal oxide carrier phases and the relative contribution of biogenic and terrigenous material to the detrital metal flux at 10 m oxygen and above the sequence of terminal electron acceptor utilization was typical of pelagic sediments differing only in scale under these conditions the recycling of mn oxides resulted in an enriched layer near the interface at bottom water 02 concentrations 5 m mn oxides are not recycled under these conditions fe oxides and so42 are important oxidants the depth of the zone of manganese oxidation with respect to the interface affects the efficiency of metal scavenging by manganese oxides trapping and recycling of ni and co with mn oxides results in remobilization from reducing sediments and enrichment in oxic sediments scavenging of these metals is favored by a deep oxic zone in the sediments in contrast cr v and mo appear to be transported to the sediments as reduced species and are released from the sediments by oxidation the source of the reduced species is assumed to be biogenic material the accumulation of these metals is favored by reducing conditions in the sediments cu is enriched in the sediments by transport with detrital biogenic material followed by adsorption onto sediment solids cu is released at the interface and rapidly removed onto the solids at all sites except the one pelagic site at the base of the slope the magnitude of cu released in the slowly accumulating pelagic sediment exceeds the cu binding capacity of the solids resulting in pore water cu concentrations in excess of 100 nm in general metal cycling associated with the early diagenesis of sediments was observed to decouple transport processes from burial processes for the transition metals measured in this study

ambient vibration analysis of an unstable mountain slope summary a field experiment with small aperture seismic arrays was performed on the unstable rock slope above the village of randa in the southern swiss alps the aim of this experiment was to constrain the seismic response of a potential future rockslide using ambient vibration recordings weak seismic events were identified on the recordings and site to reference spectral ratios were calculated using a reference site located on the stable part of the slope spectral ratios of up to 30 were observed at sites located within the unstable portion of the slope a strong variation of spectral ratios with azimuth indicates a directional site effect neither amplification nor directionality were observed at sites located in the stable part of the slope furthermore time frequency polarization analysis of the ambient noise was performed to provide robust estimates of frequency dependent directions of the maximum polarization it was found that the unstable part of the slope vibrates within a narrow range of directions 130 10 for the frequency range centred around 5 hz the polarization directions estimated from ambient seismic vibrations are in good agreement with the deformation directions obtained by geodetic and in situ measurements no directionality of ambient vibrations was observed at sites within the stable part of the slope

region specific assessment adjustment and weighting of ground motion prediction models application to the 2015 swiss seismic hazard maps we present a strategy for the region specific assessment adjustment and weighting of ground motion prediction models with application to the 2015 swiss national seismic hazard maps the models are provided within a logic tree framework adopted for the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis psha through this framework we consider both aleatory and epistemic uncertainties in ground motion prediction in switzerland a region of low to moderate seismicity and consequently data poor in terms of strong motion records we use both empirical models developed using global strong motion data and stochastic simulation models calibrated to local seismicity characteristic wave propagation effects and site conditions the empirical models were adjusted to account for a the selected hazard reference rock velocity model using v s adjustments and b the median instrumental ground motion data at low magnitudes the use of a carefully calibrated simulation model and v s adjusted empirical ground motion prediction equations allowed us to precisely define the reference rock profile upon which subsequent analyses such as microzonation and site specific hazard can be applied without uncertainty related to the reference condition we implemented partially nonergodic aleatory uncertainties in ground motion prediction through the single station sigma approach this strategy complemented with the known reference rock condition leads to significant reductions in the contribution of uncertainty in ground motion characterization to psha in switzerland however the application of the methodological framework outlined herein extends to any region particularly those of low to moderate seismicity online material tables of adjustment factors to convert selected ground motion prediction equations gmpes to the swiss rock reference and figures showing trellis plots of all adjusted gmpes with uncertainty estimates

effects of geometry on the seismic wavefield of alpine glaciers passive seismology allows measurement of the structure of glaciers and ice sheets however most techniques used so far in this context are based on horizontally homogeneous media where parameters vary only with depth 1 d approximations which are appropriate only for a subset of glaciers here we analyze seismic noise records from three different types of glaciers plateau valley and avalanching glacier to characterize the influence of the glacier geometry on the seismic wavefield using horizontal to vertical spectral ratios polarization analysis and modal analysis we show that the plateau glacier and the valley glacier can be seen as 1 d whereas the relatively small avalanching glacier shows 3 d effects due to its bed topography and the deep crevasses in principle the techniques proposed here might allow monitoring such crevasses and their depth and thus to constrain a key parameter of avalanching and calving glacier fronts

burial of organic carbon and pyrite sulfur in sediments over phanerozoic time a new theory in present day marine sediments almost all of which are deposited in normal oxygenated seawater rates of burial of organic carbon c and pyrite sulfur s correlate positively and bear a constant ratio to one another c s 3 on a weight basis by contrast calculations based on the isotopic model of garrels and lerman 1981 indicate that at various times during the phanerozoic the worldwide burial ratio must have been considerably different than the present day value this ratio change is caused by the requirement that increases in the worldwide mass of organic carbon must be accompanied by equivalent decreases in the mass of sedimentary pyrite sulfur in order to maintain a roughly constant level of o2 in the atmosphere such apparently contradictory behavior can be explained if the locus of major organic carbon burial has shifted over time from normal marine environments as at present to non marine freshwater or to euxinic environments in the geologic past a shift to predominantly freshwater burial can help explain predicted high c s ratios in permo carboniferous sediments and a shift to euxinic environments can help explain predicted low c s ratios during the early paleozoic it is demonstrated that the three environments today exhibit distinguishably different average c s ratios

a combined inversion of rayleigh wave dispersion and 2 d resonance frequencies summary shear wave velocities of the sediment fill of a deep alpine valley are estimated from ambient noise recorded on linear and circular arrays we propose a combined inversion of 2 d reso nance frequencies identified from site to reference spectral ratios and rayleigh wave dispersion curves obtained from frequency wavenumber analysis the method is tested on synthetic noise data and on noise recorded at three sites in the rhone valley in southern switzerland previous studies have shown that 2 d resonance dominates the ambient vibration wavefield at low fre quencies at the investigated sites inversion techniques which assume that the noise wavefield consists mainly of horizontally propagating surface waves will therefore fail to resolve shear wave velocities at depths below around 500 m we show that standard techniques lead to an overestimation of shear wave velocities at depth when applied to synthetic and observed am bient noise the combined inversion is able to resolve the shear wave velocities in the initial velocity model when applied to synthetic noise records application of the method to observed ambient noise improves resolution at depth and yields realistic shear wave velocities for the lower part of the sediment fill

site amplifications for generic rock sites seismic shear wave velocity as a function of depth for generic rock sites has been estimated from borehole data and studies of crustal velocities and these velocities have been used to compute frequency dependent amplifications for zero attenuation for use in simulations of strong ground motion we define a genetic rock site as one whose velocity at shallow depths equals the average of those from the rock sites sampled by the borehole data most of the boreholes are in populated areas for that reason the rock sites sampled are of particular engineering significance we consider two genetic rock sites rock corresponding to the bulk of the borehole data and very hard rock such as is found in glaciated regions in large areas of eastern north america or in portions of western north america the amplifications on rock sites can be in excess of 3 5 at high frequencies in contrast to the amplifications of less than 1 2 on very hard rock sites the consideration of unattenuated amplification alone is computationally convenient but what matters for ground motion estimation is the combined effect of amplification and attenuation for reasonable values of the attenuation parameter k 0 the combined effect of attenuation and amplification for rock sites peaks between about 2 and 5 hz with a maximum level of less than 1 8 the combined effect is about a factor of 1 5 at 1 hz and is less than unity for frequencies in the range of 10 to 20 hz depending on t using these amplifications we find provisional values of about ao 70 bars and k 0 0 035 sec for rock sites in western north america by fitting our empirically determined response spectra for an m 6 5 event to simulated values the borehole data yield shear velocities 033o of 618 and 306 rrdsec for rock and soil sites respectively when averaged over the upper 30 m from this we recommend that v30 equals 620 and 310 m sec for applications requiring the average velocity for rock and soil sites in western north america by combining the amplifications for rock sites and the site factors obtained from our analysis of strong motion data we derive amplifications for sites with 17 3o 520 m sec nehrp class c corresponding to a mix of rock and soil sites and v3o 310 and 255 m sec average soil and nehrp class d sites respectively for the average soil site the combined effect of amplification and attenuation exceeds a factor of 2 0 for frequencies between 0 4 and about 4 hz with a peak site effect of 2 4 the peak of the nehrp class d site effect is 2 7

the inorganic geochemistry of cretaceous black shales dsdp leg 41 in comparison to modern upwelling sediments from the gulf of california

nonlinear ground motion amplification by sediments during the 1994 northridge earthquake it has been known since at least 1898 ref 1 that sediments can amplify earthquake ground motion relative to bedrock for the weak ground motion accompanying small earthquakes the amplification due to sediments is well understood in terms of linear elasticity hooke s law 2 but there has been a long standing debate regarding the amplification associated with the strong ground motion produced by large earthquakes the view of geotechnical engineers based largely on laboratory studies is that hooke s law breaks down at larger strains causing a reduced nonlinear amplification seismologists on the other hand have tended to remain sceptical of this nonlinear effect mainly because the relatively few strong motion observations seemed to be consistent with linear elasticity although some recent earthquake studies have demonstrated nonlinear behaviour under certain circumstances3 4 the significance of nonlinearity for the type of stiff soil sites found in the greater los angeles region remains unresolved5 here we report that ground motion amplification due to sediments for the main shock of the 1994 northridge earthquake was up to a factor of two less than the amplification observed for its aftershocks these observations imply significant nonlinearity in such amplification and bring into question the use of measurements of weak ground motion to predict the strong ground motion at sedimentary sites

remobilization of barium in continental margin sediments abstract the rate of ba release from california continental margin sediments has been measured using an in situ benthic flux chamber and the range of values 25 50 nmol cm 2 y 1 is larger than any previously published benthic flux estimate for this element the magnitude of the ba flux suggests that a significant fraction of the ba raining from the euphotic zone is recycled at the seafloor ba si regeneration ratios from these margin sediments increase with depth demonstrating that ba is decoupled from si during the earliest stages of diagenesis on the other hand ba regeneration rates and caco3 dissolution rates covary the coupling between these two constituents is supported by the observation that the ba caco3 dissolution flux ratio 1 7 0 4 10 3 is independent of bottomwater depth even in sediments underlying the oxygen minimum zone along the continental margin furthermore this flux ratio is consistent with both the water column ba alkalinity ratio for the world s ocean as well as the ba caco3 ratio in sediment trap solid phases from the equatorial pacific 1 1 2 2 10 3 however the constancy of the ba alkalinity ratio over geologic time remains in question because the mechanism that controls this relationship remains a mystery our flux measurements suggest that diagenesis does not significantly influence the ba ca ratio in the upper 0 5 mm of pacific sediments thereby supporting the idea of using the ba concentration in surface dwelling benthic forams as a proxy for deep water chemical conditions lea and boyle 1989 1990 on the other hand we predict that if a foraminifer lives 0 5 mm or more below this interface then diagenetic effects could influence the ba ca ratio that foram species would record the carrier phase of the particulate ba reactive during early diagenesis does not appear to be organic matter oxyhydroxides or calcium carbonate but rather a mineral phase related to marine barite or perhaps celestite

ambient vibration classification of unstable rock slopes a systematic approach abstract in this paper we are comparing the seismic response of 25 different rock slope instabilities with diverse geological properties activity level failure mechanism fracturing and volumes we classify them according to their dynamic behaviour in the dataset we found two main classes of unstable rock slopes depth controlled sites and volume controlled sites for depth controlled instabilities the seismic wavefield is controlled by horizontally propagating surface waves in the highly fractured and weathered material at such sites surface wave dispersion curves can be retrieved and inverted into velocity profiles of the underground the lateral borders of depth controlled instabilities are not obvious and the seismic properties mainly change with depth the seismic response of volume controlled sites is dominated by the eigenvibrations of the rock mass itself such instabilities have clear lateral and vertical borders and show highly amplified ground motion in limited frequency bands the observed polarisation of the ground motion is perpendicular to deep open fractures that do not allow surface waves to propagate a special case of the volume controlled sites is represented by tower like rock masses showing strong amplification and directionality their dynamic behaviour might not only be related to the internal structure but also to their geometry that is similar to high rise buildings another type of rock instabilities is represented by block structures which are difficult to identify by the proposed ambient vibration methods a clear relation between geological properties and seismic response was not found

array estimators and the use of microseisms for reconnaissance of sedimentary basins a natural field seismic technique is possible to attain by observing microseisms with a suitably designed array and by digitally processing the data to obtain estimates of the phase velocities of rayleigh waves wavelengths of interest in detecting depth to the basement of sedimentary basins are in the range 2 to 20 km and correspond to wave periods from 1 to 7 s an array of five or seven seismometers deployed as an expanding cross configuration simplifies field procedures and is adequate for phase velocity measurements of rayleigh waves in the required wavelength range provided high resolution frequency wavenumber spectral analysis is used this analysis can be implemented on a minicomputer in the field results obtained from observation in a sedimentary basin of known structure show predominantly fundamental mode rayleigh wave propagation the scatter of velocity estimates is small enough to allow inversion by curve matching and depth to the basement can be computed to an accuracy of 30 percent w

retrieving 2d structures from surface wave data by means of space varying spatial windowing abstractsurface wave techniques are mainly used to retrieve 1d subsurface models however in 2d environments the 1d approach usually neglects the presence of lateral variations and because the surface wave path crosses different materials the resulting model is a simplified or misleading description of the site we tested a processing technique to retrieve 2d structures from surface wave data acquired with a limited number of receivers our technique was based on a two step process first we extracted several local dispersion curves along the survey line using a spatial windowing based on a set of gaussian windows with different shapes the window maxima span the survey line so that we were able to extract a dispersion curve from the seismic record for every window this provided a set of local dispersion curves each of them referring to a different subsurface portion this space varying spatial windowing provided a good compromise between wavenumber resolution and the lateral resolution of the obtain

modification and complete removal of eastern mediterranean sapropels by postdepositional oxidation sapropels unusually dark organic rich sediment layers whose origin is controversial are widespread in the eastern mediterranean the upper surfaces of these layers appear sharp and show little evidence of bioturbation it has been suggested that postdepositional oxidation may have removed the dark coloration from the upper part of the original layer so that the top of the visible layer now lies somewhat below the original position of the sapropel top such a diagenetic alteration has considerable implications for the interpretation of the sedimentary record where the tops of dark layers are usually correlated with the cessation of sapropel formation geochemical data demonstrate that all visual evidence of a thin example of the most recent eastern mediterranean sapropel has been removed from the sedimentary record by oxidation processes such a process may have thinned all sapropel units by several centimetres the most recent period of sapropel formation probably ended as recently as 5 ka cf cited values between 6 0 and 7 6 ka

high resolution geochemical and micropalaeontological profiling of the most recent eastern mediterranean sapropel abstract a combined geochemical and micropalaeontological study of the most recently deposited sapropel s1 from the eastern mediterranean sea is reported from two cores in which the s1 sapropel units were rapidly deposited 15 and 20 cm ky 1 such rapid accumulation rates have largely protected the two s1 units from post depositional oxidation effects and allow a high resolution investigation of conditions before during and after s1 formation the cores are from the adriatic and aegean seas and both record a simultaneous diminution in intensity of sapropel development at 7500 conventional radiocarbon years that divides both visual s1 units into two approximately equal lobes detailed foraminiferal analysis of the aegean core reveals fluctuations in benthic foraminifera species that indicate anoxic or near anoxic bottom water conditions during formation of the upper and lower lobes the central s1 section shows a temporary repopulation by an opportunistic benthic species g orbicularis indicative of improved bottom water oxygen levels the appearance and disappearance of this species in the central section and its reappearance just before the end of s1 times also coincides with increases in abundance of pelagic foraminifera characteristic of cooler surface water conditions and with local mn peaks in the sapropel these features are interpreted as indications of increased deep water ventilation and bottom water o 2 levels centred during s1 time although the s1 c org contents are low at 1 2 wt because of dilution by high detrital fluxes a set of elements ba cr cu mo ni s se u v and zn generally present in other s1 units older sapropels and black shales is clearly present at enhanced levels sulfur enrichment is well correlated with the c org content throughout s1 and fes 2 formation accounts for the bulk of the observed s enrichment

review of recent advances in the interpretation of eastern mediterranean sapropel s1 from geochemical evidence abstract the sediments of the eastern mediterranean basin contain c org enriched layers sapropels interbedded with the c org poor sediments which form by far the greater part of the record while it is generally appreciated that different surface ocean productivity and bottom water conditions are necessary for the formation and preservation of these two sediment types less attention has been paid to diagenetic effects which are an expected consequence of transitions between dramatically different bottom water oxygenation levels a geochemical interpretation has emerged of post depositional oxidation of the most recent sapropel s1 initially based on the relationship of the mn fe c org and s concentration depth profiles observed around s1 and the characteristic shapes of these elemental profiles known from other situations this indicates that post depositional oxidation has removed approximately half of the visual evidence of the sapropel 6 cm from a total of 12 cm in the deep basin the oxidation interpretation from redox sensitive element redistribution profiles has subsequently been consolidated with evidence from pore water o 2 no 3 mn 2 and fe 2 studies from characteristic solid phase ba profiles which yield palaeoproductivity records and from oxidation sensitive indicator trace elements i and se so far these geochemical observations have been concentrated in the deeper central parts of the basin where sediment accumulation rates are lower than on the basin margins and radiocarbon dating indicates that s1 formation occurred between 5 3 and 9 0 ky uncorrected conventional radiocarbon time it remains to be demonstrated whether or not these times are applicable to the entire e mediterranean basin the implications of these findings to guide sampling in future work on the s1 productivity episode and on older sapropels for palaeoenvironmental investigations are discussed

the effect of lateral heterogeneity on horizontal to vertical spectral ratio of microtremors inferred from observation and synthetics abstract horizontal to vertical h v spectral ratios of microtremors hvrm have been traditionally interpreted as representing either the s wave amplification directly or the rayleigh wave ellipticity for a horizontally layered structure however based on the diffuse field theory we have derived an alternative theoretical basis that hvrm corresponds to the square root of the ratio between the imaginary part of the horizontal green s function and that of the vertical one under that condition the 1d horizontal layering assumption is not needed to interpret hvrm as observational evidence of such non 1d hvrm we discovered significant directional dependency at a site on the uji campus kyoto university japan the observed microtremor north south vertical spectral ratios are quite stable and have only one peak around 0 5 hz on the other hand the east west vertical spectral ratios are smaller in amplitude and have higher peak frequencies and sometimes two separated peaks the directional dependency of observed hvrm is aligned to the axis of the 2d basin structure we performed numerical analyses by spectral element method using a unit load on the surface to examine the effect of the 2d basin structure on the imaginary parts of the green s functions we found that the 2d basin structure clearly changes the characteristics of the h v spectral ratios in both perpendicular and parallel directions relative to the basin axis thus we succeeded in theoretically simulating the qualitative difference between the h v spectral ratios for two orthogonal horizontal components of the hvrm observed on the uji campus online material snapshots and animations of wave propagation

the information content of high frequency seismograms and the near surface geologic structure of hard rock recording sites due to hardware developments in the last decade the high frequency end of the frequency band of seismic waves analyzed for source mechanisms has been extended into the audio frequency range 20 hz in principle the short wavelengths corresponding to these frequencies can provide information about the details of seismic sources but in fact much of the signal is the site response of the nearsurface several examples of waveform data recorded at hard rock sites which are generally assumed to have a flat transfer function are presented to demonstrate the severe signal distortions includingfmax produced by near surface structures analysis of the geology of a number of sites indicates that the overall attenuation of high frequency 1 hz seismic waves is controlled by the whole path q between source and receiver but the presence of distinctfmax site resonance peaks is controlled by the nature of the surface layer and the underlying near surface structure models of vertical decoupling of the surface and nearsurface and horizontal decoupling of adjacent sites on hard rock outcrops are proposed and their behaviour is compared to the observations of hard rock site response the upper bound to the frequency band of the seismic waves that contain significant source information which can be deconvolved from a site response or an array response is discussed in terms offmax and the correlation of waveform distortion with the outcrop scale geologic structure of hard rock sites it is concluded that although the velocity structures of hard rock sites unlike those of alluvium sites allow some audio frequency seismic energy to propagate to the surface the resulting signals are a highly distorted limited subset of the source spectra

assessment of site effects in alpine regions through systematic site characterization of seismic stations abstract in the framework of the renewal project of the swiss strong motion network ssmnet a procedure for site characterization has been established the aim of the procedure was to systematically derive realistic 1d velocity profiles at each station it is mainly based on the analysis of surface waves particularly from passive experiments and includes cross checks of the derived amplification functions with those obtained through spectral modeling of recorded earthquakes the systematic use of three component surface wave analysis allowing the derivation of both rayleigh and love dispersion curves also contributes to the improvement of the quality of the retrieved profiles the procedure is applied to the 30 ssmnet stations installed on various site types within the project covering different aspects of seismic risk the characterization of these 30 sites gives an overview of the variety of possible effects of surface geology on ground motion in the alpine area such effects ranged from deamplification at hard rock sites to amplification up to a factor of 15 in lacustrine sediments with respect to the swiss reference rock velocity model the derived velocity profiles are shown to reproduce observed amplification functions from empirical spectral modeling although many sites are found to exhibit 1d behavior the procedure allows the detection and qualification of 2d and 3d effects the sites are therefore classified with respect to the occurrence of 2d 3d resonance and edge generated surface waves in addition to the large and deeply incised alpine valleys of the rhone the rhine and the aar smaller structures such as local alpine valleys and alluvial fans are shown to exhibit 2d 3d behavior

observations of hard rock site effects abstract differences were measured in seismograms recorded at eight proximate hardrock sites five in tunnels and three on outcrops on hills tunnel sites affected the amplitude of incident signals by as much as a factor of three at frequencies inversely proportional to the depth of the site into the tunnel for example the maximum effect of a site 12 m deep was at 25 hz while that of a site 85 m deep was at 11 hz most of the observed tunnel effects could be explained in terms of interference between the incident and surface reflected waves rock outcrop sites on hills affected the amplitude of incident signals by as much as a factor of eight at frequencies inversely proportional to the dimension of the hill and more for horizontally than for vertically polarized signals hard rock site effects typically varied by no more than a factor of three for input signals from different earthquakes having widely different azimuth and incident angles

a study of near source effects in array based spac microtremor surveys summary array based methods for exploiting ambient seismic noise are receiving increasing attention in the literature particularly for use in providing shear wave velocity profiles to assist with simulation of site specific earthquake responses many of these microtremor methods such as the spatial autocorrelation technique spac operate under the fundamental assumption of plane wave propagation of surface waves however when there are significant microtremor sources in close proximity to an array wave front curvature becomes significant and the plane wave assumption becomes a tenuous one this paper explains the use of a simplified geometry based approach to examine the effect of source distance on spac spectra for hexagonal six station and triangular three station arrays the results suggest that near source effects are generally minimal provided that most of the sources are located a distance equal to at least two array radii from the centre of the array although this distance increases when attenuation is considered results of a field trial involving the deliberate use of near sources in proximity to a hexagonal six station array support the findings of the theoretical model near source effects generally result in the measured spac curve being offset to lower frequencies for wavenumbers less than the first secondary maximum of the spac curve kr 0 86r resulting in underestimates of shear velocity values in the inverted layered earth model for the field example shear velocity was underestimated by up to approximately 17 per cent studies of near source effects in a number of theoretical source distributions for hexagonal arrays revealed that cyclic variation in the imaginary spac coefficients are indicative of near source effects although field examples indicate this effect is less significant than the geometric modelling suggests modelling of linear microtremor source distributions intended to represent traffic travelling along a road resulted in less severe near source effects than full 360 azimuthal source coverage a result confirmed by field data model and field studies also indicated that in situations of a dominant close microtremor source of limited azimuthal extent use of a hexagonal six station array significantly mitigates near source effects compared with a similarly aligned triangular three station array

using the spac microtremor method to identify 2d effects and evaluate 1d shear wave velocity profile in valleys the requirement of a layered earth geology is a restrictive assumption when using the spatially averaged coherency spectra spac method numerical simulations of microtremors and spac observations recorded in the tamar paleoval ley launceston tasmania australia are used to assess the potential of the spac method to identify two dimensional 2d effects and evaluate one dimensional 1d shear wave velocity swv profile in a valley environment the tamar valley is approximately 250 m deep by 700 1000 m wide it is filled with soft sediments from the tertiary and quaternary periods above hard dolerite bedrock of jurassic age observed coherency spectra of the vertical component are analyzed at two sites in the tamar valley using two 50 m radius centered triangular arrays above the deepest point of the valley at site dbl and above the east flank of the valley at site rgb simulated and observed coherency spectra suggest the propagation of rayleigh waves of first higher mode at the sv frequency of resonance of the tamar valley affects the coherency spectra recorded with pairs of sensors perpendicular to the valley transverse coh simulated and observed coherency spectra recorded above the deepest point of the valley site dbl with pairs of sensors parallel to the valley axis axial coh are not affected by these edge generated rayleigh waves and agree well with the theoretical coherency spectrum computed from the preferred 1d swv profile the simulated and observed results from this paper suggest that differences between the observed axial coh and transverse coh give an indication of the exis tence of the 2d buried valley results also suggest that the observed coherency spectra recorded on pairs of sensors oriented parallel to the valley axis can provide a reliable evaluation of a 1d swv profile above the deepest point of a deep and narrow valley such as the tamar valley

carbon sulfur iron systematics of the uppermost deep water sediments of the black sea box cores recovered during leg 4 of the 1988 r v knorr black sea oceanographic expedition from deep water regions of the basin were dominated by coccolith rich microlaminated unit 1 sediment and muddy gray turbidite layers both organic carbon oc and pyrite sulfur values for unit 1 display narrow ranges with mean concentrations of 5 3 1 1 1 wt and 1 3 0 3 wt respectively unit 1 is not enriched in pyrite s relative to sediments deposited under oxygenated bottom waters normal marine sediments with comparable oc concentrations carbon sulfur relationships evaluated on a calcium carbonate free basis to avoid spurious correlations resulting from dilution effects demonstrate that oc and pyrite s are essentially decoupled these observations combined with the persistence of elevated pore water sulfide to depth and a strong correlation between pyrite s and the detrital fe component argue strongly for limitation of pyrite formation in unit 1 by the availability of reactive fe unit 1 fe limitation is further indicated by degree of pyritization dop studies a measure of the extent to which the original potentially reactive fe has been transformed to pyrite these studies show sulfidation of reactive fe ranging from 57 to 78 with dop values independent of oc concentration unit 1 dop profiles suggest that the majority of the pyrite is formed in the sulfidic water column and or very close to the sediment water interface pyrite s concentrations of unit 1 when compared with the particulate reduced sulfur fluxes measured in time series sediment traps are compatible with predominantly water column pyrite formation because of the limitations in the supply of reactive fe associated with the comparatively high supply of oc the microlaminated sediment is characterized by c s ratios greater than those typical of holocene oxically deposited sediments the turbidite muds of the deep basin display high reduced s values relative to holocene normal marine sediments in samples with low oc concentrations low c s ratios this reflects pyrite formation under anoxic sulfidic bottom water conditions in a probable upper slope source region as well as during transport and final deposition intermediate dop values for the turbidites in part a product of their rapid rate of deposition reveal that fe limitation is ultimately not a factor and that further pyrite should form during burial however the very rapid rate at which unit 1 pyrite forms suggests fundamental differences between the overall reactivities of the fe phases associated with the microlaminated and turbiditic sediments the signature of water column anoxia with regard to sedimentary pyrite formation is clearly indicated by the high dop values of unit 1 and the comparatively high levels of s associated with the low concentrations of oc of the turbidite muds this agrees with similar conclusions based on studies of ancient sedimentary rocks

spatially averaged coherencies krspac and rayleigh effective mode modeling of microtremor data from asymmetric arrays abstractthe spatial autocorrelation and spatially averaged coherency spac methods of processing rayleigh wave microtremor noise observations for estimation of s wave velocity profiles traditional

calcareous nannofossils and the origin of eastern mediterranean sapropels a quantitative analysis of calcareous nannofossil assemblages was carried out with an optical microscope on four deep sea cores raised from the eastern mediterranean and selected to form a nw se transect a total of 748 samples were studied including a very detailed analysis of sapropels s5 and s6 in two out of the four cores this paper is restricted to the discussion of the results obtained on florisphaera profunda which provided important insights on the mechanisms of sapropel formation an intricated and unravelled puzzle for the scientists of the last decades on the basis of abundance variations of f profunda the only species of calcareous nannoplankton which inhabits the lower part of the photic zone i suggest that sapropel formation was triggered by increased primary production either confined to a deep chlorophyll maximum dcm a concept previously introduced by rohling and gieskes 1989 or extended to a thicker layer of the photic zone when increased primary production was confined to the dcm sapropel s3 s4 s5 s7 and s1 this latter only in the eastern part of the basin the abundance of f profunda was enhanced greatly with respect to all other species living in the higher part of the photic zone on the contrary when the increased primary production was extended to a thicker layer of the photic zone glacial sapropels s6 and s8 the production of most nannoplankton species was favored decreasing the relative proportion of f profunda

african monsoons an immediate climate response to orbital insolation the croll milankovitch astronomical theory of climate1 3 has received strong support from the evidence of a linear climatic forcing by obliquity and precession although nonlinearity had to be assumed for eccentricity4 5 moreover interglacials have appeared to be controlled by the orbital insolation6 although a phase shift of 6 000 5 000 yr is seen between an astronomical climate index and terrestrial climate indicators dominated by the northern ice sheet dynamics climate proxy data of low latitudes are less directly dependent on the ice sheets here it is shown that during the past 464 000 yr african monsoons signalled by the east mediterranean sapropels were heaviest always and only when a northern summer monsoon index computed from the orbital variation of insolation reached maximum values this occurred during all the interglacials but also twice during glacial periods thus tropical aridity is not the single climatic pattern of glacial periods an immediate terrestrial climate response to orbital variations of insolation is established

analysis of three component ambient vibration array measurements summary both synthetic and observed ambient vibration array data are analysed using high resolution beam forming in addition to a classical analysis of the vertical component this paper presents results derived from processing horizontal components we analyse phase velocities of fundamental and higher mode rayleigh and love waves and particle motions ellipticity retrieved from h v spectral ratios a combined inversion with a genetic algorithm and a strategy for selecting possible model parameters allow us to define structural models explaining the data the results from synthetic data for simple models with one or two layers of sediments suggest that in most cases the number of layers has to be reduced to a few sediment strata to find the original structure generally reducing the number of soft sediment layers in the inversion process with genetic algorithms leads to a class of models that are less smooth they have a stronger impedance contrast between sediments and bedrock combining love and rayleigh wave dispersion curves with the ellipticity of the fundamental mode rayleigh waves has some advantages scatter is reduced when compared to using structural models obtained only from rayleigh wave phase velocity curves by adding information from love waves some structures can be excluded another possibility for constraining inversion results is to include supplementary geological or borehole information analysing radial components also can provide segments of rayleigh wave dispersion curves for modes not seen on the vertical component finally using ellipticity information allows us to confine the total depth of the soft sediments for real sites considerable variability in the measured phase velocity curves is observed this comes from lateral changes in the structure or seismic sources within the array constraining the inversion by combining love and rayleigh wave information can help reduce such problems frequency bands in which the rayleigh wave dispersion curves show considerable scatter are often better resolved by love waves information from the horizontal component can be used to correctly assign the mode number to the different phase velocity curve segments especially when two modes seem to merge at osculation points such merging of modes is usually observed for rayleigh waves and thus can be partly solved if additional information from the love waves and the horizontal component of rayleigh waves is considered whenever a site presents a velocity inversion below the top layer love wave data clearly helps to better constrain the solution

late pleistocene variability of the carbon isotopic composition of organic matter in the eastern mediterranean monitor of changes in carbon sources and atmospheric co2 concentrations the organic carbon isotopic record of the sapropels s1 and s3 s10 and intercalated marl oozes has been determined in a 12 m piston core from the eastern mediterranean the 13corganic values are systematically lighter mean 21 0 0 82 in all sapropels and heavier mean 18 8 1 07 in the marl oozes these differences are not due to variable marine and terrestrial organic matter mixtures because all values are heavier than modern plankton in the mediterranean there is no relationship between the corganic n ratios and the isotopic values and published information on the abundance and distribution of organic biomarkers shows that terrestrial material constitutes a minor fraction of the total organic matter temperature effects on isotope fractionation are also discounted because the change in 13corganic values between glacial and interglacial horizons is in the opposite sense diagenesis which can produce relatively small changes in the carbon isotopic composition of sedimentary organic matter under certain circumstances is unlikely to have caused the observed differences because this mechanism would cause an enrichment in 12c implying that all values were even heavier originally and there is no secular trend in the 13corganic record the observed differences in 13corganic between the two lithologies are probably produced by changes in the isotopic composition and the concentration of dissolved co2 first freshwater flooding during the formation of the sapropels caused the isotopic composition of the dissolved inorganic carbon in the surface waters of the mediterranean to become lighter because of the 13c deficiency in fresh waters hence photosynthesis would have produced isotopically lighter organic material second changes in atmospheric pco2 between glacial and interglacial periods as shown by the vostok ice core caused marked changes in the concentration of free dissolved co2 in the mixed layer lower values during glacial maxima caused a smaller fractionation of the carbon isotopes by phytoplankton whereas levels were less limiting during the interglacials concentrations of dissolved co2 could also have been much higher during the deposition of the sapropels because of the supply of regenerated co2 to the mixed layer by upwelling and this could have further lightened the 13corganic values in the sapropels themselves carbon isotope records may provide an alternative method for estimating atmospheric pco2 levels over longer time periods than can be obtained from ice cores

a predictive equation for the vertical to horizontal ratio of ground motion at rock sites based on shear wave velocity profiles from japan and switzerland abstract ratios of vertical to horizontal v h ground motion are important for the computation of scenario compatible vertical design spectra they are therefore a crucial aspect of seismic hazard analysis we characterize the v h ratio at rock sites in terms of the recording site s average quarter wavelength velocity a predictive equation is presented which can be used for reconstructing the expected v h ratio of the 5 damped response and fourier spectra for rock sites given a known shear wave velocity profile the equation is based on the regression analysis of two datasets one from switzerland and one from japan the two datasets allow us to analyze well characterized hard rock sites in switzerland using small earthquakes m w 2 while the magnitude range is increased up to events of m w 7 3 using strong motion recordings from japan s kik net seismic network it is shown that a correlation exists between the quarter wavelength velocity at a given frequency and the v h ground motion ratio small differences possibly due to velocity measurement bias or topographical and basin effects existed when analyzing the individual regional datasets apart from near source distances r v h no clear magnitude or distance dependence of the v h ratios is present in either of the datasets of earthquake recordings we show that the same correlation exists for response spectra and fourier spectra of recorded ground motion a similar correlation was derived for ambient vibrations recorded at swiss station sites resulting in larger values of v h at a given frequency and thereby indicating that v h is sensitive to the composition of the wave field finally uncertainties in the v h models are presented we separate the sources of uncertainty into source and site specific components and present the single site sigma uncertainty measure for site specific hazard analyses

pyrite and organic matter in phanerozoic normal marine shales data have been obtained from our own chemical analyses and from the literature for the concentrations of organic carbon c and pyrite sulfur s in over 600 samples of cambrian to recent normal marine shales normal marine refers to deposition in oxygenated bottom water as evidenced by the presence of benthic fossils and or indicators of bioturbation all samples were selected to minimize 1 1 loss of c and or s due to weathering at the outcrop by emphasizing the use of drill core material 2 2 analytical errors and non diagenetic effects by avoiding sediments low in c or s content such as sandstones 3 3 fe limitation of pyrite formation by avoiding limestones cherts and euxinic shales 4 4 metamorphic loss of c relative to s by avoiding rocks obviously subjected to even low grade metamorphism our results indicate that 1 there is generally a good positive linear correlation between organic c and pyrite s for normal marine shales of all ages and 2 the mean cs ratio for normal marine shales has varied over time devonian to tertiary shales exhibit mean cs weight ratios 1 8 0 5 somewhat lower than quaternary sediments meancs 2 8 this we believe is due to preferential c loss relative to s during biogenic methanogenesis plus diagenetic heating distinctly lower mean c s values for the cambrian and ordovician 0 5 0 1 cannot be explained solely in terms of diagenetic c loss and instead must represent low original ratios the low original ratios we suggest were due mainly to the absence of bacterially refractory organic matter added to the marine environment by rivers at that time because the major source of such material vascular land plants had not yet evolved this along with a possibly lower degree of bioturbation contributed to enhanced pyrite formation and preservation and thus lower early paleozoic cs ratios

derivation of a reference shear wave velocity model from empirical site amplification abstract the definition of a reference bedrock condition representative of a region of interest is of great significance in seismic hazard assessment it is highly beneficial when ground motion prediction equations are referenced to a specific site condition particularly in the case of site specific seismic hazard analyses when known the effect of any given site with respect to the reference can then be applied to the predicted ground motion however the choice of a reference velocity profile is not straightforward mainly due to the high variability of the velocity structure in the shallower layers a new method to define the regional reference rock profile is proposed the method relates quarter wavelength average velocity at a site to frequency dependent amplification a reference bedrock velocity profile can then be directly defined in relation to expected amplification characteristics over a number of sites we compare 27 quarter wavelength velocity profiles from seismic station locations in switzerland with empirical amplification functions derived from spectral modeling from this comparison a set of frequency dependent calibration relationships is established assuming that the reference profile is defined by a lack of any relative amplification the quarter wavelength velocity profile that corresponds to unitary spectral amplification can be extracted the reference velocity profile can then be obtained through an inversion procedure and defines the reference for the ground motion prediction equation gmpe the proposed reference velocity profile is compared with previous reference velocity profiles a good agreement is found between the different methods additionally an estimation of the transfer function for the swiss reference rock condition is provided this can be used to correct recorded or estimated spectral amplitudes for the local response of the reference site finally it is shown that the coefficients from the aforementioned correlations can be used to estimate a generic amplification function at any site with a known quarter wavelength velocity profile

mayotte coral reveals hydrological changes in the western indian ocean between 1881 and 1994 we reconstruct the hydrologic history of the tropical western indian ocean by calculating the 18oseawater from coupled coral sr ca and 18o measurements in a massive porites coral from mayotte comoros between 1881 and 1994 we found that the precipitation evaporation balance varies naturally on time scales of 5 6 years and 18 25 years high low ssts are associated with positive negative 18oseawater implying that atmospheric variability is linked with remote climate modes in the indian ocean and the tropical extratropical pacific ocean warm el nino southern oscillation events are associated with a negative freshwater balance at mayotte this case study demonstrates that a much denser network of 18oseawater reconstructions is crucial for understanding the spatial patterns of hydrological conditions

assessing influences on speleothem dead carbon variability over the holocene implications for speleothem based radiocarbon calibration abstract recently it has been shown that u th dated speleothems may provide a valuable archive of atmospheric radiocarbon 14c but the reliability of these records is dependent upon the stability of the dead carbon proportion dcp derived from the soil and bedrock in order to assess climatic influences on speleothem dcp we have investigated dcp variability over the holocene interval where atmospheric 14c is well known based on dendrochronologically dated tree rings by conducting 14c measurements on a u th dated stalagmite hs4 from heshang cave hubei province china 30 27 n 110 25 e 294 m spanning 0 5 9 6 ka we investigated climatic controls on dcp and found that dcp in hs4 has an average value over the holocene of 10 3 1 5 with an average age offset from atmospheric radiocarbon of 875 130 years and displays a response to both precipitation increases and decreases hs4 dcp increases during the wetter mid holocene interval 5 5 7 1 ka likely reflecting a shift to more closed system dissolution in response to increased soil moisture dcp decreases during the 8 2 ka event a time period of dry conditions at heshang cave though the lower amplitude of this shift indicates that dcp may be less sensitive to dry events speleothems are potentially valuable archives of atmospheric radiocarbon especially in older portions of the 14c calibration curve where knowledge of atmospheric 14c is limited however minor climatic influences on dcp could introduce uncertainties of several hundred years to calibrated ages

mediterranean functioning and sapropel formation respective influences of climate and hydrological changes in the atlantic and the mediterranean abstract during ocean drilling program odp legs 160 and 161 sapropels were recovered both in the western and eastern mediterranean this obliges to a reassessment of the previous studies focused on sapropels from only the eastern mediterranean and to consider the changes which occurred in the mediterranean climate but also in the water characteristics both in the atlantic and in the western mediterranean in the north atlantic the position of the polar front which migrated southwards during glacial times and the melting of northern ice caps during interglacial periods together with the convection in the labrador and norwegian seas appear essential to control the salinities of the waters facing the strait of gibraltar the salinities of the surface and intermediate layers constitute the first driving force of the mediterranean dynamics the second driving force being the mediterranean climate the stagnation of deep waters leading to sapropel deposition in the western mediterranean may be explained by a drastic weakening of the density difference between mediterranean outflow and atlantic intermediate waters facing the strait of gibraltar this weakening was induced primarily by the salinity decrease of atlantic surface water and secondly by a rather high salinity in the atlantic intermediate layer rather than by a drastic deterioration of the mediterranean climate this scenario probably concerns most of the sapropel events and it may be used for the knowledge of atlantic and mediterranean functioning over climatic changes

influence of parameterization on inversion of surface wave dispersion curves and definition of an inversion strategy for sites with a strong vs contrast inversion of the fundamental mode of the rayleigh wave dispersion curve does not provide a unique solution and the choice of the parameterization number of layers range of velocity and thickness values for the layers is of prime importance for obtaining reliable results we analyzed shear wave velocity profiles derived from borehole tests at 10 sites where soil layers overlay bedrock in various geologic contexts one to three seismic layers with linear velocity laws could model all of them three synthetic models defined from this preliminary study were used to understand the influence of parameterization on the dispersion curve inversion this analysis resulted in the definition of a two step inversion procedure for sites exhibiting a strong impedance con trast in the first step the dispersion curve is inverted with an increasing number of layers over half space the evolution of the minimum misfit and bedrock depth with number of layers allows the estimation of the true bedrock depth range in the

combining genetic and linearized algorithms for a two step joint inversion of rayleigh wave dispersion and h v spectral ratio curves summary the joint inversion of rayleigh wave dispersion and h v curves from environmental noise measurements allows the retrieval of s wave velocity profiles for the shallow subsoil for this purpose genetic and linearized algorithm have been combined in a two step inversion procedure that allows the principal drawbacks typical of the application of each algorithm separately to be overcome in the first step a genetic algorithm procedure is used to constrain the subvolume of the parameter space where the absolute minimum of the misfit function is located in the second step a linearized inversion algorithm having as an initial guess the minimum misfit model deduced from the first step is applied to force the inversion towards the optimal solution to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach seismic noise recordings at a test site in the po river valley north italy have been analysed here detailed geophysical and geological information is available along with earthquake recordings which allow a well constrained definition of both the local shear wave profile and transfer function comparisons between theoretical and experimental s wave velocity profiles and above all between the theoretical and experimental site response functions shows that this combination of inversion procedures can very efficiently to manage the extreme non linearity of the problem

organic matter and trace element rich sapropels and black shales a geochemical comparison a distinct pliocene eastern mediterranean sapropel i 282 recovered from three ocean drilling program odp leg 160 sites has been investigated for its organic and inorganic composition this sapropel is characterized by high organic carbon corg and trace element contents and the presence of isorenieratene derivatives the latter suggests that the base of the photic zone was sulphidic during formation of the sapropel combined with evidence of bottom water anoxia preservation of laminae high redox sensitive trace element contents and the abundance and isotopic composition of pyrite this leads to the tentative conclusion that almost the entire water column may have been anoxic this anoxia resulted from high productivity and not from stagnation because an approximation of the trace element budget during sapropel formation shows that water exchange with the western mediterranean is needed entire water column anoxia has been suggested earlier for several black shales with regard to the depositional environment and the corg content however only the cenomanian turonian boundary event ctbe black shales appear to be comparable to this sapropel the proposed trace element removal mechanism of scavenging and co precipitation in an anoxic water column is thought to be similar for both types of deposits the ultimate trace element source for the sapropel however is seawater whereas it is hydrothermal and fluvial input for ctbe black shales because they have a larger temporal and spatial distribution nonetheless the corg rich eastern mediterranean pliocene sapropel discussed here may be considered to be a younger analogue of ctbe black shales

s wave velocity profiling by joint inversion of microtremor dispersion curve and horizontal to vertical h v spectrum a joint inverse analysis using both microtremor dispersion curve and horizontal to vertical h v spectrum is proposed for estimating the s wave velocity vs profiles of subsurface soils in the inversion both microtremor dispersion and h v data are assumed to be the rayleigh wave dispersion curve and the surface both rayleigh and love wave h v spectrum that have been theoretically derived by taking into account the effects of their fundamental and higher modes the proposed joint inversion as well as the conventional one using dispersion data alone is per formed at four sites where shallow vs profiles down to engineering bedrock are available the vs profiles estimated by the proposed joint inversion are more con sistent with available down hole velocity logs than those by the conventional method in particular the proposed inversion shows significant improvement in estimating bedrock vs structures compared to the conventional inversion sensitivity analyses indicate that the surface wave h v ratio is sensitive to the bedrock vs structure more than the rayleigh wave phase velocity confirming that the proposed joint inversion including h v spectrum is promising

the use of rayleigh wave ellipticity for site specific hazard assessment and microzonation application to the city of lucerne switzerland summary the sediments underlying the city of lucerne switzerland consisting of fluvio lacustrine deposits of quaternary age have the potential to produce strong amplification of the seismic wavefield to obtain a reliable estimation of the deep soil structure we combine different methodologies based on ambient noise recordings such as single station horizontal to vertical ratios and three component array analysis two novel techniques to estimate rayleigh wave ellipticity from ambient noise recordings are tested these are based on a single and a multistation approach respectively the first utilizes the continuous wavelet transform to perform a decomposition of the noise wavefield and to isolate and extract the rayleigh wave contribution the second conversely relies on a high resolution f k method to achieve the same result we compare the results from the two techniques to provide an evaluation of their capabilities and limitations a two step inversion scheme is then presented to improve resolution on the bedrock depth in particular the surface wave dispersion information is initially used to constrain the soft sediment part while the rayleigh wave ellipticity peak is subsequently used for constraining the bedrock depth it is shown that such an approach is beneficial to map the bedrock geometry over dense urban areas the output velocity model is then used to compute the local seismic amplification by means of gridded 1 d approximation

reference s wave velocity profile and attenuation models for ground motion prediction equations application to japan defining the reference rock or soil condition related to ground motion prediction is an important aspect of seismic hazard analysis in a previous study by the authors a method was proposed to establish a reference rock profile for switzerland through the comparison of empirical amplification functions with shear wave velocity profiles at 27 selected sites of the swiss national seismic network the retrieved velocity profile served as reference for a regional ground motion prediction equation however a lacking piece of information remained the anelastic attenuation for such a reference profile reference attenuation is essential to correctly model and interpret amplification at high frequencies in the present study we extended our approach to simultaneously model both the reference shear wave velocity profile and the corresponding attenuation for japan we compared site specific attenuation measurements with quarter wavelength average velocities at 36 soil and rock sites from the japanese kik net strong motion network the selected sites are characterized by a lack of observed resonance phenomena in order to avoid trade off between amplification and attenuation effects we establish a parametric model through regression analysis the resulting model gives us the possibility to estimate anelastic attenuation of a rock site with a given velocity profile and provides the base for host to target adjustments of real or modeled ground motion

the effect of quaternary alluvium on strong ground motion in the coyote lake california earthquake of 1979 abstract the effect of alluvium on strong ground motion can be seen by comparing two strong motion records of the coyote lake california earthquake of 6 august 1979 m l 5 9 one record at a site on franciscan bedrock had a peak horizontal acceleration of 0 13 g and a peak horizontal velocity of 10 cm sec the other at a site 2 km distant on 180 meters of quaternary alluvium overlying franciscan had values of 0 26 g and 32 cm sec amplifications by factors of 2 and 3 horizontal motions computed at the alluvial site for a linear plane layered model based on measured p and s velocities show reasonably good agreement in shape with the observed motions but the observed peak amplitudes are greater by a factor of about 1 25 in acceleration and 1 8 in velocity about 15 per cent of the discrepancy in acceleration and 20 per cent in velocity can be attributed to the difference in source distance the remainder may represent focusing by refraction at a bedrock surface concave upward there is no clear evidence of nonlinear soil response fourier spectral ratios between motions observed on bedrock and alluvium show good agreement with ratios predicted from the linear model in particular the observed frequency of the fundamental peak in the amplification spectrum agrees with the computed value indicating that no significant nonlinearity occurs in the secant shear modulus computations show that nonlinear models are compatible with the data if values of the coefficient of dynamic shear strength in terms of vertical effective stress are in the range of 0 5 to 1 0 or greater the data illustrate that site amplification may be less a matter of resonance involving reinforcing multiple reflections and more the simple effect of the low near surface velocity application of traditional seismological theory leads to the conclusion that the site amplification for peak horizontal velocity is approximately proportional to the reciprocal of the square root of the product of density and shear wave velocity

observed variations of earthquake motion across a sediment filled valley the response to earthquake motion of a site in one sediment filled valley was observed to depend strongly on frequency and the position of the site within the valley and weakly on the input signal s azimuth and incidence angles the observed input motion was weak varying between 10 5 and 10 3 g measurements of ground velocity were made on profiles across and along the valley and simultaneously on two nearby rock sites the valley was 400 m wide and 700 m long with a maximum sediment thickness of 60 m the average seismic impedance contrast between the sediments and underlying basement rock was about 6 1 ratios of fourier spectra from soil sites to spectra from nearby rock sites showed apparent site amplifications of as much as a factor of ten depending strongly on frequency and the distance of the site from the valley edge the scatter in spectral ratios for earthquakes with different azimuths and angles of incidence was about a factor of two thus local site effects that changed the amplitude of incident motion by a factor of two or more could be identified in the records of most earthquakes ground motion at valley edge and mid valley sites separated by less than 100 m differed by as much as a factor of five this difference could cause large differential motion in structures spanning these sites a theoretical flat layer model of sediment response predicts the average behavior of the middle of the valley but not that of the valley edge the lowest frequency responance apparently involves the sediments across the width of the valley not just the vertical column of soil beneath each site

characterizing the vertical to horizontal ratio of ground motion at soft sediment sites a predictive equation to obtain the vertical to horizontal ratio v h of ground motion for rock sites has been established in a previous article the method was based on the comparison between v h of fourier and response spectra of earthquakes with the quarter wavelength average velocity at discrete frequencies we extend this approach to account for resonance phenomena at soft sediment sites in order to do so a new parameter is defined and included in the comparison with the v h spectra the new parameter is directly derived from the quarter wavelength velocity and represents the frequency dependent seismic impedance contrast at the site we show that extending the correlation in this three dimensional space is beneficial to reconstruct v h of the 5 damped response spectra at soft sediment sites v s 30 800 m s for which a shear wave velocity profile is available in this study we analyze 220 sites of the japanese kik net strong motion network these sites were selected from the entire network through comparison of the fundamental frequencies estimated from the recordings and by indirect modeling methods from the analysis two types of predictive equations are then established the first based on frequency dependent and the second on frequency independent correlations these can subsequently be used to reconstruct the v h spectrum at any site with a known shear wave velocity profile for both equations uncertainties of the v h models are provided and a sensitivity study to magnitude distance dependence is presented finally we show an example of the application of the model at four selected soft sediment sites of the swiss seismic network

a stochastic ground motion model for switzerland abstract we present a stochastic ground motion model for switzerland a model for the far field fourier amplitude spectra of earthquakes is first proposed constrained by ground motions observed from small local and regional earthquakes in addition to macroseismic intensities observed from large damaging events in switzerland we then use this model in a stochastic simulation technique to generate predictions of peak ground acceleration and velocity and 5 damped response pseudo spectral acceleration we facilitate the prediction of ground motions from finite fault sources through the use of the r eff distance metric and show that magnitude and distance scaling behavior of events up to m w 7 5 is broadly consistent with next generation attenuation and japanese models ground motion prediction uncertainty is described in terms of between and within event uncertainties through residual analysis of response spectra finally single station sigma is derived accounting for the prediction uncertainty at a given site without the ergodic assumption consistency of the model is emphasized through its compatibility with other seismic hazard products the model is referenced to a generic rock profile that was developed by utilizing velocity profiles of the sites of seismic stations and is calibrated at higher magnitudes to the swiss regional macroseismic intensity prediction model furthermore the model is based on moment magnitudes from the recently developed earthquake catalogue of switzerland 2009 ecos09 the well defined reference for the model means that it can easily be adapted for a site specific application for instance through the use of proxies such as quarter wavelength velocity and travel time average shear wave velocity in the upper 30 m v s 30

benthic foraminiferal successions across late quaternary mediterranean sapropels abstract benthic foraminiferal records across late quaternary mediterranean sapropels s6 s5 and s1 are reviewed and re considered in the light of recent advances in foraminiferal ecology it is suggested that the main factor controlling the foraminiferal successions that occur immediately before and after sapropel deposition is the amount of time involved in the onset of anoxic conditions and in the re oxygenation of the benthic environment faunas dominated by deep infaunal taxa such as globobulimina and chilostomella reflect a very gradual decrease or increase of bottom water oxygenation post sapropel faunas dominated by small biconvex trochospiral taxa which are inferred to have a much more opportunistic life strategy are typical of a very rapid re oxygenation of the benthic environment after sapropel deposition the time involved in re oxygenation depends upon the mechanism causing sapropel formation the faunal succession found above sapropel s5 suggests a basin with a strong density gradient in the upper part of the water column during sapropel deposition followed by a rapid turnover of the following column and quick re oxygenation of the benthic environment in contrast the faunal succession above sapropel s6 suggests a water column with a more gradual density gradient deeper in the basin a progressive deepening of the halocline and a very slow increase of bottom water oxygenation

review and new aspects concerning the formation of eastern mediterranean sapropels abstract in this paper it is proposed that the formation of eastern mediterranean sapropels occurred in an anti estuarine type of circulation which was to some degree weakened relative to the present in response to reduction of the eastern mediterranean excess of evaporation over freshwater input this reduction of excess evaporation would have been imposed by intensifications of 1 the indian ocean summer sw monsoon influencing the eastern mediterranean via increased nile discharge and 2 the system of mediterranean depressions an element of the westerly atlantic system causing increased precipitation and decreased evaporation both the indian ocean summer monsoon and the westerly atlantic system would be intensified in response to the occurrence of distinct minima in the cycle of precession it is demonstrated that reduced excess evaporation whether or not coinciding with global phases of deglaciation would lead to reduction of surface water salinities in the eastern mediterranean causing isolation of previously formed high salinity cooler deep water thus mixing was severely reduced possibly even restricted to eddy diffusion with only occasional convective events that because of the existing density gradient hardly ever would reach the deepest parts of the basin the consequently diminished oxygen advection down from a few hundred meters in the water column favoured preservation of the sinking organic matter this would however suffice only to enable the formation of sapropels with low organic carbon contents the high organic carbon contents observed in various sapropels are argued to reflect superimposed increases of export production the described scenario accounts for previously reported 1 increases of organic carbon content with increasing depth of deposition within individual sapropels and 2 asymmetrical sequences of sapropel deposition characterized by gradual build up and rather abrupt ending it is furthermore in agreement with 3 isotopic and faunal reconstructions of the history of exchange transports through both the strait of sicily and the strait of gibraltar and 4 faunal and floral reflections of the presence or absence of a distinct deep chlorophyll maximum with its associated increases in export production indicating the presence or absence of a shallow pycnocline within the euphotic layer moreover the described scenario 5 is in no way conflicting with the reports of sapropels in the western mediterranean and 6 seems to be endorsed by occasionally intercalated intervals suggestive of somewhat improved oxygenation amidst anoxic benthic desert levels a situation that has been observed in a few quaternary and pliocene sapropels