The role of rifting in the development of the continental margins of the southwest subbasin, South China Sea : insights from an OBS experiment

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Geophysical Research 38 (2017): 105-123, doi:10.1007/s11001-016-9295-y.The continental margins of the southwest subbasin in the South China Sea mark a unique transition from multi-stages magma-poor continental rifting to seafloor spreading. We used reflection and refraction profiles across the margins to investigate the rifting process of the crust. Combining with the other seismic profiles acquired earlier, we focused on the comparative geological interpretation from the result of multichannel seismic analysis and wide-angle seismic tomography. Our result provides the evidence of upper crustal layer with abundant fractures below the acoustic basement with a P-wave velocity from 4.0 to 5.5 km s−1. It indicates extensive deformation of the brittle crust during the continental rifting and can make a good explanation for the observed extension discrepancy in the rift margins of the South China Sea. The seismic chronostratigraphic result shows the possibility of the intra-continental extension center stayed focused for quite a long time in Eocene. Additionally, our evidence suggested that continental margin of the southwest subbasin had experienced at least three rifting stages and the existence of the rigid blocks is an appropriate explanation to the asymmetric rifting of the South China Sea.This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 41404050, 41476033, 41576068, 41276049, U1505232, 91428204) and the National Program on Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction (grant GASI-GEOGE-01). The author was also supported by a fellowship of China Scholarship Council and Dr. Jian Lin while studying as a visiting graduate at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA

Comfort-Centered Design of a Lightweight and Backdrivable Knee Exoskeleton

This paper presents design principles for comfort-centered wearable robots and their application in a lightweight and backdrivable knee exoskeleton. The mitigation of discomfort is treated as mechanical design and control issues and three solutions are proposed in this paper: 1) a new wearable structure optimizes the strap attachment configuration and suit layout to ameliorate excessive shear forces of conventional wearable structure design; 2) rolling knee joint and double-hinge mechanisms reduce the misalignment in the sagittal and frontal plane, without increasing the mechanical complexity and inertia, respectively; 3) a low impedance mechanical transmission reduces the reflected inertia and damping of the actuator to human, thus the exoskeleton is highly-backdrivable. Kinematic simulations demonstrate that misalignment between the robot joint and knee joint can be reduced by 74% at maximum knee flexion. In experiments, the exoskeleton in the unpowered mode exhibits 1.03 Nm root mean square (RMS) low resistive torque. The torque control experiments demonstrate 0.31 Nm RMS torque tracking error in three human subjects.Comment: 8 pages, 16figures, Journa

Antibody Duration after infection From Sars-Cov-2 in the Texas Coronavirus antibody Response Survey

Understanding the duration of antibodies to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus that causes COVID-19 is important to controlling the current pandemic. Participants from the Texas Coronavirus Antibody Response Survey (Texas CARES) with at least 1 nucleocapsid protein antibody test were selected for a longitudinal analysis of antibody duration. A linear mixed model was fit to data from participants (n = 4553) with 1 to 3 antibody tests over 11 months (1 October 2020 to 16 September 2021), and models fit showed that expected antibody response after COVID-19 infection robustly increases for 100 days postinfection, and predicts individuals may remain antibody positive from natural infection beyond 500 days depending on age, body mass index, smoking or vaping use, and disease severity (hospitalized or not; symptomatic or not)

Performance of preconditioned iterative and multigrid solvers in solving the three-dimensional magnetotelluric modeling problem using the staggered finite-difference method: a comparative study

An effective solver for the large complex system of linear equations is critical for improving the accuracy of numerical solutions in three-dimensional (3D) magnetotelluric (MT) modeling using the staggered finite-difference (SFD) method. In electromagnetic modeling, the formed system of linear equations is commonly solved using preconditioned iterative relaxation methods. We present 3D MT modeling using the SFD method, based on former work. The multigrid solver and three solvers preconditioned by incomplete Cholesky decomposition—the minimum residual method, the generalized product bi-conjugate gradient method and the bi-conjugate gradient stabilized method—are used to solve the formed system of linear equations. Divergence correction for the magnetic field is applied. We also present a comparison of the stability and convergence of these iterative solvers if divergence correction is used. Model tests show that divergence correction improves the convergence of iterative solvers and the accuracy of numerical results. Divergence correction can also decrease the number of iterations for fast convergence without changing the stability of linear solvers. For consideration of the computation time and memory requirements, the multigrid solver combined with divergence correction is preferred for 3D MT field simulation

Model analysis combining gravity and seismic data with the response of inhomogeneous mantle

This paper proposes a new strategy for conducting model analysis with gravity anomaly and seismic data, in which the gravity response of inhomogeneous mantle should be taken into account. Model calculations and a case study in the Sichuan basin demonstrate this strategy a good potential to make the gravity data processing and inversion more consistent with the actual geological conditions. By collecting the comprehensive geophysical research results in many regions around the world, as well as the corresponding deep mantle structure, we find the lateral inhomogeneity of the mantle is widely distributed in the petroliferous basins, continental margins, ocean-continent transitions and other geological sites of general interest. However, in many joint studies based on gravity and seismic data, model analysis is usually performed within the crust. Although it simplifies the difficulty of the model analysis, the gravity anomaly caused by deep earth inhomogeneity should have been considered, otherwise the inverted density structure and interpretations may deviate the actual geological conditions. Therefore, based on the 2D forward modeling, this paper evaluates the quantitative effect of inhomogeneous mantle on Bouguer anomaly. Moreover, in a case study of the Sichuan basin, the results of the 2. 5D joint simulation taking into account the inhomogeneous mantle are obviously better than those of following the homogeneous mantle hypothesis

3D Vs model beneath the Tangshan Fault zone

The detailed shallow shear wave velocity model in the Tangshan fault Zone. The dataset has a format of "longitude (deg), latitude (deg), depth (km), Vs (km/s)"

Seismic structure of the northwestern margin of the South China Sea: implication for asymmetric continental extension

Evolution of the continental margins of the South China Sea (SCS) is one of the open questions when discussing continental breakup and seafloor spreading. We processed data from a wide-angle seismic profile (OBS2011–1), which passes through the northwestern margin of the SCS, and performed travel time modeling to obtain the seismic velocity structures. The modeling results show a stepwise variation of the crustal thicknesses from continental margin to oceanic basin. Stretching factor of the upper crust is nearly double the estimate of the lower crust along the Zhongsha Trough. The lower crust shows asymmetrical upwelling towards the trough center, accompanied by ∼0.3 km/s of the velocity increase due to magmatic addition. The upper and lower crusts have almost the same stretching factor beneath continental blocks, indicating a uniform extension. Crustal structures of the conjugate margins of the Southwest Sub-basin show similar velocity range and different thickness distribution, supporting the common origin and asymmetric extension of these two margins. The Ocean-Continent Transition zones (OCT) are much wider in the southern part (∼50 km) than the northern part (∼25 km) crossing the margins. We propose a tectonic model for the asymmetry of both the conjugate margins and the OCTs, favoring the highly stretched upper crust and accompanied by rising of the ductile middle-lower crust controlled by major low-angle faults. The rigid blocks may also act as a kind of hindrance for further evolution of the failed rifts and affect the shape of the OCT