Regional wave propagation using the discontinuous Galerkin method

We present an application of the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method to regional wave propagation. The method makes use of unstructured tetrahedral meshes, combined with a time integration scheme solving the arbitrary high-order derivative (ADER) Riemann problem. This ADER-DG method is high-order accurate in space and time, beneficial for reliable simulations of high-frequency wavefields over long propagation distances. Due to the ease with which tetrahedral grids can be adapted to complex geometries, undulating topography of the Earth's surface and interior interfaces can be readily implemented in the computational domain. The ADER-DG method is benchmarked for the accurate radiation of elastic waves excited by an explosive and a shear dislocation source. We compare real data measurements with synthetics of the 2009 L'Aquila event (central Italy). We take advantage of the geometrical flexibility of the approach to generate a European model composed of the 3-D <i>EPcrust</i> model, combined with the depth-dependent <i>ak135</i> velocity model in the upper mantle. The results confirm the applicability of the ADER-DG method for regional scale earthquake simulations, which provides an alternative to existing methodologies

Horizontal rotation signals detected by "G-Pisa" ring laser for the Mw=9.0, March 2011, Japan earthquake

We report the observation of the ground rotation induced by the Mw=9.0, 11th of March 2011, Japan earthquake. The rotation measurements have been conducted with a ring laser gyroscope operating in a vertical plane, thus detecting rotations around the horizontal axis. Comparison of ground rotations with vertical accelerations from a co-located force-balance accelerometer shows excellent ring laser coupling at periods longer than 100s. Under the plane wave assumption, we derive a theoretical relationship between horizontal rotation and vertical acceleration for Rayleigh waves. Due to the oblique mounting of the gyroscope with respect to the wave direction-of-arrival, apparent velocities derived from the acceleration / rotation rate ratio are expected to be always larger than, or equal to the true wave propagation velocity. This hypothesis is confirmed through comparison with fundamental-mode, Rayleigh wave phase velocities predicted for a standard Earth model.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Seismolog

Six‐Axis Ground Motion Measurements of Caldera Collapse at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i—More Data, More Puzzles?

Near‐field recordings of large earthquakes and volcano‐induced events using traditional seismological instrumentation often suffer from unaccounted effects of local tilt and saturation of signals. Recent hardware advances have led to the development of the blueSeis‐3A, a very broadband, highly sensitive rotational motion sensor. We installed this sensor in close proximity to permanently deployed classical instrumentation (i.e., translational seismometer, accelerometer, and tiltmeter) at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (USGS). There, we were able to record three ~Mw 5 earthquakes associated with large collapse events during the later phase of the 2018 Kīlauea summit eruption. Located less than 2 km from the origins of these sources, the combined six‐axis translational and rotational measurements revealed clear static rotations around all three coordinate axes. With these six component recordings, we have been able to reconstruct the complete time history of ground motion of a fixed point during an earthquake for the first time

Numerical modelling of climate change impacts on freshwater lenses on the North Sea Island of Borkum using hydrological and geophysical methods

A numerical, density dependent groundwater model is set up for the North Sea Island of Borkum to estimate climate change impacts on coastal aquifers and especially the situation of barrier islands in the Wadden Sea. The database includes information from boreholes, a seismic survey, a helicopter-borne electromagnetic (HEM) survey, monitoring of the freshwater-saltwater boundary by vertical electrode chains in two boreholes, measurements of groundwater table, pumping and slug tests, as well as water samples. Based on a statistical analysis of borehole columns, seismic sections and HEM, a hydrogeological model is set up. The groundwater model is developed using the finite-element programme FEFLOW. The density dependent groundwater model is calibrated on the basis of hydraulic, hydrological and geophysical data, in particular spatial HEM and local monitoring data. Verification runs with the calibrated model show good agreement between measured and computed hydraulic heads. A good agreement is also obtained between measured and computed density or total dissolved solids data for both the entire freshwater lens on a large scale and in the area of the well fields on a small scale. For simulating future changes in this coastal groundwater system until the end of the current century, we use the climate scenario A2, specified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and, in particular, the data for the German North Sea coast. Simulation runs show proceeding salinisation with time beneath the well fields of the two waterworks Waterdelle and Ostland. The modelling study shows that the spreading of well fields is an appropriate protection measure against excessive salinisation of the water supply until the end of the current century

Bringing Order to Special Cases of Klee's Measure Problem

Klee's Measure Problem (KMP) asks for the volume of the union of n axis-aligned boxes in d-space. Omitting logarithmic factors, the best algorithm has runtime O*(n^{d/2}) [Overmars,Yap'91]. There are faster algorithms known for several special cases: Cube-KMP (where all boxes are cubes), Unitcube-KMP (where all boxes are cubes of equal side length), Hypervolume (where all boxes share a vertex), and k-Grounded (where the projection onto the first k dimensions is a Hypervolume instance). In this paper we bring some order to these special cases by providing reductions among them. In addition to the trivial inclusions, we establish Hypervolume as the easiest of these special cases, and show that the runtimes of Unitcube-KMP and Cube-KMP are polynomially related. More importantly, we show that any algorithm for one of the special cases with runtime T(n,d) implies an algorithm for the general case with runtime T(n,2d), yielding the first non-trivial relation between KMP and its special cases. This allows to transfer W[1]-hardness of KMP to all special cases, proving that no n^{o(d)} algorithm exists for any of the special cases under reasonable complexity theoretic assumptions. Furthermore, assuming that there is no improved algorithm for the general case of KMP (no algorithm with runtime O(n^{d/2 - eps})) this reduction shows that there is no algorithm with runtime O(n^{floor(d/2)/2 - eps}) for any of the special cases. Under the same assumption we show a tight lower bound for a recent algorithm for 2-Grounded [Yildiz,Suri'12].Comment: 17 page

Banse, K. and S.A. Piontkovsky (eds.). The mesoscale structure of the epipelagic ecosystem of the open Northern Arabian Sea

Book review: BANSE, K. and S.A. PIONTKOVSKY (eds.). – 2006. The mesoscale structure of the epipelagic ecosystem of the open Northern Arabian Sea. Universities Press, Hyderabad, India. 237 pp. ISBN 81 7371 496 7This book presents an extensive body of information obtained mainly from the thirtieth cruise of the R/V Professor Bodyanitsky to the Arabian Sea, carried out in 1990. It is part of a series published by the Universities Press, India, with the support of the Indian Academy of Sciences in Bangalore, whose aim is to narrow the English-Russian language gap concerning scientific literature on low-latitude oceansPeer reviewe

Influence of electron correlations on ground-state properties of III-V semiconductors

Lattice constants and bulk moduli of eleven cubic III-V semiconductors are calculated using an ab initio scheme. Correlation contributions of the valence electrons, in particular, are determined using increments for localized bonds and for pairs and triples of such bonds; individual increments, in turn, are evaluated using the coupled cluster approach with single and double excitations. Core-valence correlation is taken into account by means of a core polarization potential. Combining the results at the correlated level with corresponding Hartree-Fock data, we obtain lattice constants which agree with experiment within an average error of -0.2%; bulk moduli are accurate to +4%. We discuss in detail the influence of the various correlation contributions on lattice constants and bulk moduli.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, no figures, Phys. Rev. B, accepte

Not all parents are equal for MO-CMA-ES

International audienceThe Steady State variants of the Multi-Objective Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (SS-MO-CMA-ES) generate one offspring from a uniformly selected parent. Some other parental selection operators for SS-MO-CMA-ES are investigated in this paper. These operators involve the definition of multi-objective rewards, estimating the expectation of the offspring survival and its Hypervolume contribution. Two selection modes, respectively using tournament, and inspired from the Multi-Armed Bandit framework, are used on top of these rewards. Extensive experimental validation comparatively demonstrates the merits of these new selection operators on unimodal MO problems