March 11, 2011 Earthquake in Japan and 2005 Hurricane Katrina both caused significant destruction and were both viewed as examples of government failures in natural disaster management. One year after the disasters, both countries enacted several policy reforms in response to their failures. However, while in the U.S, the central government's emergency power was strengthened, the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan)'s government carried out reforms to strengthen the local governments. On the other hand, the other prominent political party in Japan, the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), argued for more centralized power. How did these parties take different lessons from the natural disasters? This paper will first analyze the factors that led to government failures in the disaster relief period, and then evaluate the most influential factors that led to the policy reforms. Eventually, we would be able to figure out the exact factors that led the U.S, the DPJ and the LDP to their conclusions.

Accident is a metaphor for life. From an arbitrary point in time, we potentially preview the entirety of existence. There is a Chinese idiom called “ blessing or bane,” which implies that a misfortune may perhaps soon turn into a blessing. Focusing on accident as a design method implies making the best out of a bad situation. An accident reveals invisible circumstances and potentialities in the world, both familiar and unfamiliar. Looking into the unpredictable world, I can begin to release my control, take a breath, and see what might happen if I do not fight the situation. I am able to get out of my own way, and see what the work’s destiny will be. This sets up a context in which there are no faults, no mistakes, and no accidents — everything may contribute to a solution.

Lors d'un tremblement de terre, les transformations physiques et chimiques qui surviennent le long d'une zone de glissement vont conduire à l'altération et à la formation de minéraux. La gouge contient des minéraux magnétiques, qui peuvent être formés sous l'action combinée de la chaleur frictionnelle et par l'action chimique en relation avec les fluides. Ainsi, la gouge a la capacité de se comporter comme un enregistreur magnétique pendant un tremblement de terre. Il s'agit là d'une nouvelle méthode pour identifier les zones de tremblements de terre de glissement. En outre,les minéraux magnétiques initiaux, altérés, et néoformés peuvent être utilisés comme traceurs de certains processus physico chimique.Dans cette étude, nous étudions le magnétisme des roches et l'enregistrement paléomagnétique de la gouge de faille active de Chelungpu qui héberge, entre autres,la zone de glissement principale du tremblement de terre de Chi-Chi (Mw 7.6, 1999,Taiwan). Nous avons bénéficié pour cette étude d'échantillons non altérés provenant des carottes du forage B Taiwan Chelungpu-fault Drilling Project (TCDP). Nous avons également échantillonné la faille de Chelungpu à l'affleurement pour une caractérisation des nanoparticules. Cette caractérisation vise à estimer l'énergie de fracture dans la gouge de faille. / During an earthquake, the physical and the chemical transformations along a slip zone lead to alteration and formation of minerals within the gouge layer of a mature fault zone. The gouge contains magnetic minerals, which could be formed under the combined action of friction heat and fluid. Thus, gouge has the capacity to behave as a magnetic recorder during an earthquake. This constitutes a conceivable way to identify earthquakes slip zones. Besides, altered and neoformed magnetic minerals can be used as tracers of some earthquake processes. In this study, we investigate the rock magnetism and paleomagnetism of the Chelungpu fault gouge that hosts the principal slip zone of the Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw 7.6, 1999, Taiwan) using Taiwan Chelungpu-fault Drilling Project (TCDP) hole-B core samples. We also took a Chelungpu fault outcrop sample for identification of nanoparticle, which associated with fracture energy estimation in fault gouge.

Beginning in September 2010, seismic events shook the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, resulting in significant losses for the tourism sector, most notably the devastated Central Business District. Tourism had to adjust especially following two major earthquakes, with visitors able to partake in disaster-themed tourist attractions or viewing the destruction as part of a self-guided tour of the city. Such activities fall into the realm of ‘dark tourism’, or travel to sites of death, disaster or destruction. Following a major disaster with significant media coverage, tourism organizations often scramble to alter the outsider’s perception of the disaster-struck destination. Using a qualitative case study, this thesis explores two dominant themes associated with post-disaster tourism. First, it gathers perspectives of disaster tourism experiences and tourism industry recovery from multiple stakeholders to explore how tourism following a major disaster is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Second, it investigates how tourism advertising campaigns represented Christchurch, New Zealand and its inhabitants following the earthquakes. / Graduate / 0366

<div><div><div><p>The possibility of earthquakes in Indiana due to the presence of the New Madrid Seismic Zone is well known. However, the identification of the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone has increased our understanding of the seismic hazard in the state of Indiana. Due to this awareness of the increased potential for earthquakes, specifically in the Vincennes District, the seismicvulnerability of Indiana’s bridge network must be assessed. As such, the objective of this thesis is to develop a simplified assessment procedure that can be used to conduct a state-wide seismic vulnerability assessment of reinforced concrete bridges in Indiana.</p><p>Across the state, variability in substructure type, seismic hazard level, and soil site class influences the vulnerability of bridges. To fully understand the impact of this variation, a detailed assessment is completed on a representative sample. Twenty-five reinforced concrete bridges are selected across the state, and analyzed using information from the bridge drawings and a finite element analysis procedure. These bridges are analyzed using synthetic ground motions representative of the hazard level in Indiana. The results of the detailed analysis are used to develop a simplified assessment procedure that uses information that is available in BIAS or can be added to BIAS. At this time, BIAS does not contain all the necessary information required for accurate estimates of dynamic properties, thus, certain assumptions are made. Several candidate models are developed by incrementally increasing the level of information proposed to be added into BIAS, which resulted in an increase in the level of accuracy of the results. The simplified assessment is then validated through a comparison with the detailed analysis.</p><p>Through the development of the simplified assessment procedure, the minimum data item which must be added to BIAS to complete the assessment is the substructure type, and bridges with reinforced concrete columns in the substructure require a detailed assessment. Lastly, by increasing the level of information available in BIAS, the agreement between the results of the simplified assessment and the detailed assessment is improved.</p></div></div></div>

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2015. / In this thesis the crustal structure beneath two areas of Africa is investigated. In Sudan, the new constraints on the crustal structure beneath the northern part of the Khartoum basin have been obtained. In East Africa, the size of the Tanzania Craton, and the differences between the Eastern and Western branches of the East African Rift System (EARS) have been determined. In southern Tanzania, the debate on the secular variation between Proterozoic and Archean crust has been investigated. The approach used in this thesis involves different data sets and methods. In first part of the thesis, the crustal structure of the northern part of the Mesozoic Khartoum basin is investigated by using two modelling methods: H-k stacking of receiver functions, and a joint inversion of receiver functions and Rayleigh wave group velocities. H-k stacking indicated that the crust is 33-37 km thick with an average of 35 km, and the crustal Vp/Vs ratio is 1.74-1.81 with an average of 1.78. Similar results were obtained from the joint inversion for Moho depth, as well as an average shear wave velocity of 3.7 km/s for the crust. These results provide the first seismic estimates of Moho depth for a basin in Sudan. When compared to average crustal thickness for unrifted Proterozoic crust in eastern Africa, our results indicate that only a few kilometers of crustal thinning may have occurred beneath the Khartoum basin. This finding is consistent with estimates of effective elastic plate thickness, which indicate little modification of the Proterozoic lithosphere beneath the basin, and suggests that there may be insufficient topography on the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath the Sudanese basins to channel plume material westward from Ethiopia. In the second part of the thesis, the uppermost mantle structure beneath East Africa is investigated by using a standard singular value decomposition algorithm model. Results reveal fast Pn velocities beneath the Mozambique Belt to the east of the craton, the Kibaran Belt west of the craton, and beneath the northern half of the Ubendian Belt to the southwest of the craton. These results indicate that the cold, thick lithosphere of the Tanzania Craton extends beneath the Proterozoic mobile belts and the areal extent of the cratonic lithosphere is much larger than is indicated iv by the mapped boundaries of the craton. The results also show that the Pn velocities beneath the volcanic provinces along the Western Branch are not anomalously slow, which indicates little, if any, perturbation of the uppermost mantle beneath them. This is in contrast to the upper mantle structure at depths ≥ 70 km beneath the volcanic regions, which is clearly perturbed. The fast Pn velocities beneath the Western Branch contrast with the slow Pn velocities (7.5-7.8 km/s) beneath the Eastern Branch in Kenya, indicating that the upper mantle beneath the Eastern Branch has been altered more than beneath the Western Branch. In the third part, the crustal structure beneath two Proterozoic mobile belts, the Usagaran and the Ubendian belts, is investigated by using the Non-Dominated Genetic Algorithm method. In the Usagaran belt, results show an average Moho depth of 35 km for station MAFI and 41 and 42 km for stations MOGR and MIKU, respectively. In the Ubendian Belt, results showed an average Moho depth of 43 km beneath the Ufipa sub-terrane compared to 39 km for Wakole sub-terrane. These results indicate localized thickening in the Ufipa sub-terrane, but not beneath the entire Ubendian Belt. These results indicate that is no clear evidence that Paleoproterozoic crust in East Africa is substantially thicker than Archaean crust.

No Chile, país de terremotos, a surpresa foi total quando multitudinários saques a estabelecimentos comerciais começaram logo depois do megassismo que atingiu, na madrugada de sábado 27 de fevereiro de 2010, Concepción, a terceira maior área metropolitana do país. Organizaram-se nos bairros estratégias de autodefesa por temor aos rumores sobre a chegada de saqueadores. Para se restabelecer a ordem social, foi decretado Estado de Exceção. Este estudo exploratório e qualitativo busca enxergar a relação entre terremoto, violência coletiva e insegurança urbana com base nos depoimentos de homens e mulheres que entrevistamos em Concepción dois anos depois do cataclismo. Inspirados no debate teórico sobre a memória coletiva, analisaremos os silêncios e olvidos que fazem parte dos testemunhos; assim, iremos interrogar o caráter inédito que os entrevistados, mas também acadêmicos e autoridades, outorgaram aos saques pós-terremoto, que, como iremos ver, foram interpretados como sintoma do deterioramento moral da sociedade chilena sob o regime neoliberal. Por intermédio de diferentes registros do passado, buscaremos rastros sobre conflitos sociais e políticos em outros momentos da história telúrica nacional. Sobre os episódios de 2010 em específico, e seguindo os trabalhos de Charles Tilly e Javier Auyero, apresentamos numa escala microespacial alvos, dinâmicas e repertórios dos saques conforme as rememorações dos consultados, entre eles, donos de lojas vitimizados pela multidão. Por fim, para indagar o deslocamento do medo do terremoto ao medo dos outros, chamaremos a atenção sobre os modos pelos quais são representados diferentes bairros da cidade e o papel dos rumores. / Chileans, a population used to earthquakes, woke up with surprise in the morning of February 27th, 2010 since right after the earthquake that hit Concepción, the third largest metropolitan area in the country, massive looting to stores came about. Fed by rumors about roving mobs, Concepcion residents formed their own neighborhood defense squads to guard their homes, whereas the Chilean government declared State of Exception to restore the social order. Drawing on testimonies of men and women I interviewed in Concepción two years after the disaster, this exploratory and qualitative research examines the relationship between earthquake, collective violence, and urban insecurity. Following a theoretical discussion about collective memories, I explore how silence and forgetting are active elements in the process of collective remembering. In addition, this project analyzes the sense of exceptionality that my interviewees, other scholars, and state authorities have assigned to looting in the aftermath of the earthquake; events that, as I shall demonstrate, were interpreted as a symptom of moral decadence of Chilean society under the neoliberal regime. By scrutinizing historical data about past earthquakes, I look at traces of social and political conflicts associated with the occurrence of natural disaster like the one I describe here. Concerning the 2010 facts, I make use of the framework offered by Charles Tilly and Javier Auyero to present, at a micro-scale level, looting targets, dynamics and repertoires based on narratives collected empirically (among them, testimonies of storeowners who were victimized by the crowd). Finally, to explore the displacement of fearin particular, from the fear to earthquake to the fear of the othersI point out the need to pay attention to the ways in which different neighborhoods are conceived of as well as the role of rumors.

Thesis advisor: Alan L. Kafka / This study finds that, in most cases analyzed to date, past seismicity tends to delineate zones where future earthquakes are likely to occur. Network seismicity catalogs for the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), Australia (AUS), California (CA), and Alaska (AK) are analyzed using modified versions of the Cellular Seismology (CS) method of Kafka (2002, 2007). The percentage of later occurring earthquakes located near earlier occurring earthquakes typically exceeds the expected percentage for randomly distributed later occurring earthquakes, and the specific percentage is influenced by several variables, including magnitude, depth, time, and tectonic setting. At 33% map area coverage, hit percents are typically 85-95% in the NMSZ, 50-60% in AUS, 75-85% in CA, and 75-85% in AK. Statistical significance testing is performed on trials analyzing the same variables so that the overall regions can be compared, although some tests are inconclusive due to the small number of earthquake sample sizes. These results offer useful insights into understanding the capabilities and limits of CS studies, which can provide guidance for improving the seismicity-based components of seismic hazard assessments. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.

This study is directed to the application of bamboo as alternative material in civil construction. The study also extends to discuss the new applications of bamboo Angustifolia Kunth in construction, such as shear walls and bamboo boards. The investigation involved the following tasks: (a) Evaluation of physical and mechanical properties of bamboo Angustifolia Kunth; (b) Proposing a new type of joint (connection) using culms and natural coupling assembly which can be used in bamboo frame structures. Bamboo dowels are used to create a monolithic joint to support gravitational and lateral forces efficiently; (c) Evaluating the behavior of bamboo Angustifolia Kunth through extensive laboratory work in order to determine the stresses that structural elements such as columns and beams can support under the action of gravitational and lateral external load, and then comparing with the permissible stresses given by the design and construction codes in each region; and (d) Conducting theoretical dynamic analysis of bamboo frame structures using Newmark Beta method and experimental validation to determine maximum values of acceleration, velocity and displacement. The information needed for this analysis are taken from the earthquake El Centro in California on 1940. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that the use of Angustifolia Kunth bamboo for civil structures composed only of bamboo elements offer safety, are economical and offers rapid construction method. This is very suitable for tropical and semitropical places preferably at an average of 2500 meter above the sea level, and advisable if they are located around the fire belt susceptible to seismic forces and earthquakes. It may be an ideal solution for low income populations in need of an immediate housing solution. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Nesta dissertação emprega-se um método simplificado de análise elástica baseado na técnica do meio contínuo para edifícios altos submetidos a terremoto formados por painéis paredes, pórticos e núcleos de seção aberta de parede delgada. Na ligação dos diferentes painéis, supõe-se que existe uma considerável quantidade de diafragmas horizontais rígidos em seu próprio plano, distribuídos continuamente ao longo da vertical 0z. Levando-se em conta a equação constitutiva dos painéis individuais pode-se obter a solução de analise estrutural para o edifício mediante equações diferenciais acopladas para deslocamento e rotações ao longo do eixo vertical do edifício. Com base nesses resultados, todos os esforços internos podem, então, ser obtidos. O método de análise proposto oferece um simples e rápido meio de obtenção da deformada e das forças internas dos diferentes painéis do edifício alto em fases iniciais do projeto. A utilidade e a aproximação do método são examinadas mediante exemplos numéricos, sendo a solução aproximada comparada com aquela obtida com o emprego do método de elementos finitos elaborado pelo programa SAP2000. / This work presents a simplified method of elastic analysis based on the continuous medium technique for tall building structures formed by shear wall panels, frames and core thin walled sections. In order to connect the various panels, it is assumed that there exist a considerable amount of rigid diaphragms continuously distributed along the vertical 0z. The building is subject to lateral earthquake load. Taking into account the constitutive equation of the individual panel, one can achieve a solution through coupled differential equations for displacement and rotation of the building. Based on that, all of the internal forces can be obtained. The analysis is extended to structures formed by singular panel configuration. The proposed method offers a relatively simple and rapid way to obtain the displacements and internal forces of different structural systems of tall buildings, especially indicated for preliminary stages of calculation. The usefulness of the approach and method are illustrated by numerical examples, where the approximated solution is compared with that obtained by finite element calculations.