Geophysics
Movement of soil moisture associated with tree root-water uptake is ecologically important, but technically challenging to measure. Here, the self-potential (SP) method, a passive electrical geophysical method, is used to characterize water…
In order to estimate the seismic vulnerability of a densely populated urban area, it would in principle be necessary to evaluate the dynamic behaviour of individual and aggregate buildings. These detailed seismic analyses, however, are…
Evidence for the triggering of earthquakes by tides has been largely lacking for the continents but detectable in the oceans where the tides are larger. By far the strongest tidal triggering signals are in volcanic areas of mid-ocean…
The mechanical behaviour of porous sandstones is generally modelled using concepts from granular mechanics, often overlooking the effect of cementation. To probe the key differences between sand and sandstone mechanics, we performed…
Gravimetric methods are expected to play a decisive role in geophysical modeling of the regional crustal structure applied to geoneutrino studies. GIGJ (GOCE Inversion for Geoneutrinos at JUNO) is a 3D numerical model constituted by ~46 x…
We develop a probabilistic framework based on the conjunction of states of information between data and model, to jointly retrieve earthquake source parameters and anelastic attenuation factor from inversion of displacement amplitude…
We introduce a shear experiment that quantitatively reproduces the main laws of seismicity. By continuously and slowly shearing a compressed monolayer of disks in a ring-like geometry, our system delivers events of frictional failures with…
Reflection moveout of pure modes recorded on conventional-length spreads is described by a normal-moveout (NMO) velocity that depends on the orientation of the common-midpoint (CMP) line. Here, we introduce the concept of NMO-velocity…
It is well known that evaporative cooling of Earth's surface water reduces the amount of radiation that goes into sensible heat, namely the portion of radiation that produces higher temperatures. However, a rigorous use of long-term…
Using models of the Earth's core evolution and the length of the day observations the change of the dimensionless geodynamo parameters is considered. The evolutionary model includes cooling of the liquid adiabatic core, growing solid core,…
In this work, we illustrate an example of estimating the macro-model of velocities in the subsurface through the use of global optimization methods (GOMs). The optimization problem is solved using DEAP (Distributed Evolutionary Algorithms…
We present a procedure for assessing the urban exposure and seismic vulnerability that integrates LiDAR data with aerial and satellite images. It comprises three phases: first, we segment the satellite image to divide the study area into…
Shale, a fine-grained sedimentary rock, is the key source rock for many of the world's most important oil and natural gas deposits. A deep understanding of the mechanical properties of shale is of vital importance in various geotechnical…
Mechanical characterization of shale-like rocks requires understanding the scaling of the measured properties to enable the extrapolation from small scale laboratory tests to field study. In this paper, the size effect of Marcellus shale…
We drew attention to the analogy between the round-the-world seismic echo on the Earth and on the Sun. The phenomenon of echo on the Earth is observed during earthquakes. It was found that the main shock of earthquake excites a circular…
A new and fast Matlab algorithm for predicting absolute permeability is presented. The developed tool relies on measuring the connectivity of pores in a given three-dimensional (3D) micro-CT rock image. An index of pore connectivity is…
This chapter is build from three 1.5 hours lectures given in Udine in april 2018 on various aspects of Earth's core dynamics. The chapter starts with a short historical note on the discovery of Earth's magnetic field and core (section 1).…
Statistical mechanics arguments and Madelung hydrodynamical presentation are applied to the transport of magma in volcanic conduits. An effective wave equation with logarithmic nonlinearity becomes apparent in systems of this kind, which…
The driving concept behind one of the most successful statistical forecasting models, the ETAS model, has been that the seismicity is driven by spontaneously occurring background earthquakes that cascade into multitudes of triggered…
Geophysical inversion attempts to estimate the distribution of physical properties in the Earth's interior from observations collected at or above the surface. Inverse problems are commonly posed as least-squares optimization problems in…