Unsaturated Flow Influences the Response of Leaky Aquifer to Earth Tides

Most studies about the tidal response of leaky aquifers have treated the layered groundwater system as a classical unconfined aquifer without unsaturated flow. However, a recent study has shown that the conventional hypothesis of free drainage of groundwater to the watertable may be defective and the unsaturated flow may strongly affect their tidal response. Hence, it is critical to examine if unsaturated flow may also affect the tidal response of a layered groundwater system. In this study, we apply two-dimensional multilayered numerical simulations to examine the tidal response of unsaturated flow in a leaky aquifer. The results show that unsaturated flow on the watertable may significantly affect the tidal response of deeply buried aquifers, and the thicker the unsaturated zone is, the greater influence on the groundwater response to earth tide would be. Besides, a dimensionless quality ω∗ is introduced to estimate the effect of the unsaturated flow. When ω∗>10−0.5, the effect of the unsaturated flow on the tidal response of the water level is evidently; otherwise, the effect can be neglected. We then apply the numerical model to interpret the tidal response of a well installed in Lijiang, Yunnan province, China. It perfectly explains that the phase shift and amplitude ratio, respectively, decrease and increase exponentially when the watertable is below the ground surface. This study emphasizes the necessity of considering unsaturated flow in the multilayered model to improve the accuracy of predicting the permeability of the leaky aquifer.

Comparison of extensometric results measured in the Vyhne Tidal Station (Slovakia) and in the Sopronbánfalva Geodynamic Observatory (Hungary)

Two extensometer stations have been set up at the margin of the Pannonian Basin to monitor tectonic movements as well as Earth tides and related phenomena. Because the Sopronbánfalva Geodynamic Observatory (SGO) in Hungary and the Vyhne Tidal Station (VTS) in Slovakia are located in different geological, topographic, and tectonic environments, the analysis and comparison of the extensometer data measured here provides a useful opportunity to interpret the observed data. The tectonic deformation at the SGO shows an average contraction of: −2.94 μstr y−1 (1 μstr is 10−6 relative deformation) which can be explained by the uplift of the Alps and the anticlockwise motion of the Adria microplate, causing compression in the Eastern Alps. At the VTS an average compression of −14.8 nstr y−1 (1 nstr is 10−9 relative deformation) was measured which can be explained by the NW compression direction in this area. The measured deformations in both observatories show a good agreement with the results of GPS measurements. The deformation at the VTS is characterized by small dilatation anomalies caused by the different topographic, tectonic environment and probably by the high heat flow in the area of the station. At this station the calculated amplitude factors for O1, P1, K1, M2 are 1.01482, 1.21691, 0.83173, 1.09392 and the ocean load corrected values are 1.10817, 1.35717, 0.92809, 1.28812, respectively. At the SGO the calculated amplitude factors for the same tidal components are 0.58776, 0.38967, 0.41548, 1.00564 and the ocean load corrected values are 0.98893, 1.89117, 1.00430, 1.04962, respectively. These results show that the effect of the ocean tide loading is greater at Sopronbánfalva, than at Vyhne. Based on the comparison, we can say that the result of the local strain measurement can be considered realistic.

Tides and Volcanoes: A Historical Perspective

In this paper, we examine the origins and the history of the hypothesis for an influence of tidal forces on volcanic activity. We believe that exploring this subject through a historical perspective may help geoscientists gain new insights in a field of research so closely connected with the contemporary scientific debate and often erroneously considered as a totally separated niche topic. The idea of an influence of the Moon and Sun on magmatic processes dates back to the Hellenistic world. However, it was only since the late 19th century, with the establishment of volcano observatories at Mt. Etna and Vesuvius allowing a systematic collection of observations with modern methods, that the “tidal controversy” opened one of the longest and most important debates in Earth Science. At the beginning of the 20th century, the controversy assumed a much more general significance, as the debate around the tidal influence on volcanism developed around the formulation of the first modern theories on the origins of volcanism, the structure of the Earth’s interior and the mechanisms for continental drift. During the same period, the first experimental evidence for the existence of the Earth tides by Hecker (Beobachtungen an Horizontalpendeln über die Deformation des Erdkörpers unter dem Einfluss von Sonne und MondVeröffentlichung des Königl, 1907, 32), and the Chamberlin–Moulton planetesimal hypothesis (proposed in 1905 by geologist Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin and astronomer Forest Ray Moulton) about the “tidal” origin of the Solar System, influenced and stimulated new researches on volcano-tides interactions, such as the first description of the “lava tide” at the Kilauea volcano by Thomas Augustus Jaggar in 1924. Surprisingly, this phase of gradual acceptance of the tidal hypothesis was followed by a period of lapse between 1930 to late 1960. A new era of stimulating and interesting speculations opened at the beginning of the seventies of the 20th century thanks to the discovery of the moonquakes revealed by the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package. A few years later, in 1979, the intense volcanism on the Jupiter’s moon Io, discovered by the Voyager 1 mission, was explained by the tidal heating produced by the Io’s orbital eccentricity. In the last part of the paper, we discuss the major advances over the last decades and the new frontiers of this research topic, which traditionally bears on interdisciplinary contributions (e.g., from geosciences, physics, astronomy). We conclude that the present-day debate around the environmental crisis, characterized by a large collection of interconnected variables, stimulated a new field of research around the complex mechanisms of mutual interactions among orbital factors, Milankovitch Cycles, climate changes and volcanism.

ASTROMETRIC RESEARCH IN UKRAINE AT THE XIX – BEGINNING OF XX CENTURIES

The paper presents the stages of development of astrometric research at the Ukrainian observatories in the ХIХ – beginning of ХХ century. They are related to the establishment of university astronomical observatories in Kyiv (1845), Odessa (1871), Kharkiv (1888). Mykolaiv Naval observatory was founded in 1821 for navigation needs with assistance of Admiral A.S. Greig. The absolute catalogs compiled at the Pulkovo and Mykolaiv Observatories made a significant contribution to the international work of compilation of a FK3 system. Special attention is paid to the scientific activity of the oldest observatory at the territory of Ukraine – the Astronomical observatory of L’viv University (1771). Researches at this observatory were mainly concerned with the field of geodesy and meteorology. Despite the short first period of scientific activity (near 10 years), it gave impetus to some famous scientists. At the last decades of ХIХ century observatory of the L’viv University renewed their activity in astrometry, solar physics, and astrophysics. Southern departments of Pulkovo observatory in Odessa (1899) and Mykolaiv (1912) played an important role in extension of Pulkovo absolute catalogues to the southern hemisphere. Systematic observations of the Sun conducted at these departments contributed to the more precise determination of the position of vernal equinox. In ХIХ century Ukrainian observatories participated in the international programs, such as AGK (Astronomischer Gesellschaft Katalog), the photographic catalog “Carte du Ciel” (France). Among the actual observational programs were surveys of zodiacal stars (M.P.Ditchenko in Kyiv), near-pole stars (V.I.Fabritius, R.P.Fogel, M.P.Ditchenko in Kyiv, L.O.Struve and K.N.Kuz'menko in Kharkiv, I.O.Djukov, L.F.Cherniev in Odessa). In the frame of observations of Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) and its southern continuation, organized by the German Astronomical Society, observations of the equatorial zone were provided by I.E. Kortazzi at Mykolaiv observatory, B.V.Novopashenny at the Astronomical Observatory of Odessa University in 1930s years. Needs of astrophotography lead to the creation of the “Сatalog of the faint stars” project. In 1932 at the First Astrometric Conference in Leningrad, the Pulkovo astronomers Gerasimovich B.P and Dniprovsky M.I. suggested the idea of using eхtragalactic nebulae as the reference objects for determination of the absolute motion of the stars. Among the tasks to be solved at the project was compilation of a general catalogue (KSZ) and a fundamental catalog of faint stars (FKSZ). It was planned to involve all the meridian instruments of the USSR as well as foreign ones, especially in the southern hemisphere. The idea of orientation of the KSZ coordinates system related to the observations of small planets was suggested by B.V.Numerov. Astronomers of Mykolaiv Astronomical Observatory participated in the international part of this project (AGK3R-catalogue). The Poltava gravimetric observatory was founded by A.Ya.Orlov in 1926 to construct a gravity map of the territory of Ukraine and to establish astrometric research, earth tides, and Latitude Service with zenith-telescopes. The main research fields of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the NAS of Ukraine, founded by A.Ya.Orlov in 1944, were related to the positional and photographic astrometry during the first decade of its work. We defined three “genealogical scientific trees” of astrometric schools. Two of them were formed under the leadership of outstanding personalities of the XX century: Prof. Alexander Ya. Orlov (the founder and first director of the Observatory, 1944–1948, 1950–1951), who moved to Kyiv from Poltava, and Prof. Avenir A.Yakovkin (director of the Observatory in 1952–1959), who moved to Kyiv from Kazan. The third genealogical tree has grown from the Pulkovo astronomical school. Formation of main directions of scientific researches and its transformation are also discussed. Keywords: astrometric research, positional astrometry, photographic astrometry, fundamental astrometry.

Towards a poroelastodynamics framework for induced earthquakes

Earthquakes can be triggered after pore pressure perturbations activate critically stressed seismogenic faults, where the perturbations can originate from natural causes like earth tides, rainfall, snowfall or anthropogenic causes like wastewater disposal, CO$_2$ injection, oil production, or groundwater extraction. As the faults slip under the action of the induced stress field, seismic waves are spawned from the hypocenter location. The waves propagate through the domain with a velocity that evolves with the evolving pressure and stress fields. The effect of these waves on the surrounding rock and the seismic velocity recorded on the seismograph can be modeled accurately only by incorporating elastodynamics in the deformation model coupled with flow-induced pressure perturbations. Hitherto, most of the literature in the realm has been limited to elastostatics coupled with flow within a prescribed/kinematic or quasi-dynamic fault slip framework. In this work, we provide a framework for coupling of wave propagation with pore pressure perturbations using one-way coupled poroelastodynamics in the presence of faults in which the pore pressure is specified apriori as a spatiotemporal function.We present results from analysis of displacement and velocity fields in the domain and tractions and slip evolution on the fault. The rendition of two-way coupled poroelastodynamics in which the flow problem is also solved is proposed as future work.

SOME FEATURES OF CURRENT TECHNOGENIC MOVEMENTS OF THE EARTH’S CRUST

We describe the history of studying the current crustal movements by various methods and discuss technogenic effects recorded at large water-reservoir zones and mineral deposits in Siberia. Initially, classical surveying techniques aimed to obtain high-accuracy ground-based measurements of height, tilt and direction. Modern geodesy techniques and methods for measuring absolute gravity are now available to investigate displacement, deformation, tilt and other phenomena taking place on the Earth’s surface. These methods are used to estimate kinematic parameters of the crust areas (e.g. rates of subsidence and horizontal movements) and to monitor fluid motions in mineral deposits. Such data are critical for ensuring a proper management of the mineral deposits. In this article, we analyse technogenic processes observed in the Ust Balyk oil-gas field, the Zapolyarny gas deposit, the water-reservoir zone at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station (SSHPS) on the Yenisei river, and large open-pit mines in the Kuzbass basin. Our analysis is based on surface displacement rates estimated from the data collected in different periods of observations at large man-made facilities. In the study of the hydro technical objects, we estimated the displacement rates at 5.0 mm per year. In the northern areas of the West Siberian petroleum basin, subsidence rates amounted to 20–25 mm per year in the early 2000s. These estimates were supported by the high-accuracy gravity measurements showing an increase up to 6–7 microGal per year in the oil-gas field development areas. We assess a possibility of triggering effects related to weak seismicity due to a high stress accumulation rate (1 KPa per hour) in the SSHPS area. A connection between earth tides and catastrophic events, such as gas emissions in high amounts on mining sites, is discussed. Having analysed the surface monitoring records taken in South Primorye in September 2017, we conclude that underground nuclear explosions in North Korea in this period did not cause any significant displacement of the surface in this most southerly region of the Russian Far East territories.

Determining Stress State of Source Media with Identified Difference between Groundwater Level during Loading and Unloading Induced by Earth Tides

The groundwater level might be adopted as a useful tool to explore pre-seismic stress change in the earth crust, because it circulates in the deep crust and should be altered by the processes associated with the preparation of earthquakes. This work makes a new attempt that applies the load/unload response ratio (LURR) technique to study the stress state of the source media before the large earthquakes by calculating the ratio between the water levels during the loading and unloading phases. The change of Coulomb failure stress induced by earth tides in the tectonically preferred slip direction on the fault surface of the mainshock is adopted for differentiating the loading and unloading periods. Using this approach, we tested the groundwater level in the wells near the epicenters of some large earthquakes that occurred in the Sichuan-Yunnan region of southwest China. Results show that the LURR time series fluctuated narrowly around 1.0 for many years and reached anomalously high peaks 2~8 months prior to the mainshocks. For the earthquakes with multiple observation wells, the magnitude of the maximum values decreases with the distance from the epicenter. The underlying physics of these changes should be caused by the pre-seismic dilatancy. The corresponding volume variations in the crust could be observed in the geodetic time series in the same neighborhoods and during the same period.

Viscoelastic Love numbers and long period geophysical effects

Summary Long term deformations strongly depend on the Earth model and its rheological parameters, and in particular its viscosity. We give the general theory and the numerical scheme to compute them for any spherically non rotating isotropic Earth model with linear rheology, either elastic or viscoelastic. Although the Laplace transform is classically used to compute viscoelastic deformation, we choose here instead, to implement the integration with the Fourier transform in order to take advantage of the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm and avoid some of the Laplace transform mathematical difficulties. We describe the methodology to calculate deformations induced by several geophysical signals regardless of whether they are periodic or not, especially by choosing an adapted time sampling for the Fourier transform. As examples, we investigate the sensitivity of the displacements due to long period solid Earth tides, Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), and present-day ice melting, to anelastic parameters of the mantle. We find that the effects of anelasticity are important for long period deformation and relatively low values of viscosities for both Maxwell and Burgers models. We show that slight modifications in the rheological models could significantly change the amplitude of deformation but also affect the spatial and temporal pattern of the signal to a lesser extent. Especially, we highlight the importance of the mantle anelasticity in the low degrees deformation due to present-day ice melting and encourage its inclusion in future models.

Estimation of the orientation of stress in the Earth’s crust without earthquake or borehole data

Mechanical stress acting in the Earth’s crust is a fundamental property that is important for a wide range of scientific and engineering applications. The orientation of maximum horizontal compressive stress can be estimated by inverting earthquake source mechanisms and measured directly from borehole-based measurements, but large regions of the continents have few or no observations. Here we present an approach to determine the orientation of maximum horizontal compressive stress by measuring stress-induced anisotropy of nonlinear susceptibility, which is the derivative of elastic modulus with respect to strain. Laboratory and Earth experiments show that nonlinear susceptibility is azimuthally dependent in an anisotropic stress field and is maximum in the orientation of maximum horizontal compressive stress. We observe this behavior in the Earth—in Oklahoma and New Mexico, U.S.A, where maximum nonlinear susceptibility coincides with the orientation of maximum horizontal compressive stress measured using traditional methods. Our measurements use empirical Green’s functions and solid-earth tides and can be applied at different temporal and spatial scales.