scholarly journals Statistical Relationship Between the Decrease of Major Seismicity and Drought in Southern California Since 1900

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pier Luigi Bragato

The seismicity in Southern California significantly decreased over the last decades. The decrease went in parallel with the reduction of meteoric groundwater recharge, which is a well-known factor capable of affecting seismicity. In this work the existence of a systematic statistical relationship was investigated by comparing the time density of Mw ≥ 5.7 earthquakes since 1900 with the time series of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), an indicator of soil moisture roughly correlated with groundwater recharge. Given the non-stationarity of the two signals, the formal comparison was performed using both binomial logistic regression and cointegration testing. The analysis showed a significant statistical relationship, with peaks of seismicity 8 years behind those of PDSI. This finding suggests the hypothesis that groundwater recharge might affect earthquakes at a multi-year time scale. Proving this theory requires accurate measures and hydrogeological modeling, which is behind the scope of this work. Nonetheless, according to previous studies, the observed time lag might be explained by the slow propagation of pore pressure from the surface to the seismogenic volume. The ongoing trend towards an arid climate, made more evident by the recent severe droughts, might have contributed to the earthquake reduction of the last decades. The connection is particularly evident in the Salton Trough, with possible implications for the interpretation of its paleoseismicity.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinta Berliana S. ◽  
Indah Susanti ◽  
Bambang Siswanto ◽  
Amalia Nurlatifah ◽  
Hidayatul Latifah ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Grala ◽  
William H. Cooke

Forests constitute a large percentage of the total land area in Mississippi and are a vital element of the state economy. Although wildfire occurrences have been considerably reduced since the 1920s, there are still ~4000 wildfires each year in Mississippi burning over 24 000 ha (60 000 acres). This study focusses on recent history and various characteristics of Mississippi wildfires to provide better understanding of spatial and temporal characteristics of wildfires in the state. Geographic information systems and Mississippi Forestry Commission wildfire occurrence data were used to examine relationships between climatic and anthropogenic factors, the incidence, burned area, wildfire cause, and socioeconomic factors. The analysis indicated that wildfires are more frequent in southern Mississippi, in counties covered mostly by pine forest, and are most prominent in the winter–spring season. Proximity to roads and cities were two anthropogenic factors that had the most statistically significant correlation with wildfire occurrence and size. In addition, the validity of the Palmer Drought Severity Index as a measure of fire activity was tested for climatic districts in Mississippi. Analysis indicated that drought influences fire numbers and size during summer and fall (autumn). The strongest relationship between the Palmer Drought Severity Index and burned area was found for the southern climatic districts for the summer–fall season.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-29
Author(s):  
Ika Purnamasari ◽  
◽  
Tri Wahyu Saputra ◽  
Suci Ristiyana ◽  
◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (13) ◽  
pp. 4833-4847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Liu ◽  
Xiaoli Yang ◽  
Liliang Ren ◽  
Fei Yuan ◽  
Shanhu Jiang ◽  
...  

2000 ◽  
Vol 78 (7) ◽  
pp. 851-861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc D Abrams ◽  
Saskia van de Gevel ◽  
Ryan C Dodson ◽  
Carolyn A Copenheaver

Dendrochronological techniques were used to investigate the dynamics of an old-growth forest on the extreme slope (65%) at Ice Glen Natural Area in southwestern Massachusetts. The site represented a rare opportunity to study the disturbance history, successional development, and responses to climatic variation of an old-growth hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr) - white pine (Pinus strobus L.) - northern hardwood forest in the northeastern United States. Hemlock is the oldest species in the forest, with maximum tree ages of 305-321 years. The maximum ages for white pine and several hardwood species are 170-200 years. There was continuous recruitment of hemlock trees from 1677 to 1948. All of the existing white pine was recruited in the period between 1800 and 1880, forming an unevenly aged population within an unevenly aged, old-growth hemlock canopy. This was associated with large increases in the Master tree-ring chronologies, indicative of major stand-wide disturbances, for both hemlock and white pine. Nearly all of the hardwood species were also recruited between 1800 and 1880. After 1900, there was a dramatic decline in recruitment for all species, including hemlock, probably as a result of intensive deer browsing. White pine and hemlock tree-ring growth during the 20th century was positively correlated with the annual Palmer drought severity index (r = 0.61 and 0.39, respectively). This included reduced growth during periods of low Palmer drought severity index values, the drought years of 1895-1922, and dramatic increases during periods of high Palmer drought severity index values in the 1970s and 1990s. Significant positive and negative correlations of certain monthly Palmer drought severity index values with 20th century tree-ring chronologies also exist for white pine and hemlock using response function analysis. The results of this study suggest that old-growth forests on extreme sites in the eastern United States may be particularly sensitive to direct and indirect allogenic factors and climatic variations and represent an important resource for studying long-term ecological and climatic history.Key words: age structure, radial growth analysis, disturbance, climate, fire, tree rings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 559 ◽  
pp. 461-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ufuk Beyaztas ◽  
Bugrayhan Bickici Arikan ◽  
Beste Hamiye Beyaztas ◽  
Ercan Kahya

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 783-798
Author(s):  
Sarir Ahmad ◽  
Liangjun Zhu ◽  
Sumaira Yasmeen ◽  
Yuandong Zhang ◽  
Zongshan Li ◽  
...  

Abstract. The rate of global warming has led to persistent drought. It is considered to be the preliminary factor affecting socioeconomic development under the background of the dynamic forecasting of the water supply and forest ecosystems in West Asia. However, long-term climate records in the semiarid Hindu Kush range are seriously lacking. Therefore, we developed a new tree-ring width chronology of Cedrus deodara spanning the period of 1537–2017. We reconstructed the March–August Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for the past 424 years, going back to 1593 CE. Our reconstruction featured nine dry periods (1593–1598, 1602–1608, 1631–1645, 1647–1660, 1756–1765, 1785–1800, 1870–1878, 1917–1923, and 1981–1995) and eight wet periods (1663–1675, 1687–1708, 1771–1773, 1806–1814, 1844–1852, 1932–1935, 1965–1969, and 1990–1999). This reconstruction is consistent with other dendroclimatic reconstructions in West Asia, thereby confirming its reliability. The multi-taper method and wavelet analysis revealed drought variability at periodicities of 2.1–2.4, 3.3, 6.0, 16.8, and 34.0–38.0 years. The drought patterns could be linked to the large-scale atmospheric–oceanic variability, such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and solar activity. In terms of current climate conditions, our findings have important implications for developing drought-resistant policies in communities on the fringes of the Hindu Kush mountain range in northern Pakistan.


Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye Zhu ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Xieyao Ma ◽  
Liliang Ren ◽  
Vijay Singh

Focusing on the shortages of moisture estimation and time scale in the self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index (scPDSI), this study proposed a new Palmer variant by introducing the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model in hydrologic accounting module, and modifying the standardization process to make the index capable for monitoring droughts at short time scales. The performance of the newly generated index was evaluated over the Yellow River Basin (YRB) during 1961–2012. For time scale verification, the standardized precipitation index (SPI), and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) at a 3-month time scale were employed. Results show that the new Palmer variant is highly correlated with SPI and SPEI, combined with a more stable behavior in drought frequency than original scPDSI. For drought trend detection, this new index is more inclined to reflect comprehensive moisture conditions and reveals a different spatial pattern from SPI and SPEI in winter. Besides, two remote sensing products of soil moisture and vegetation were also employed for comparison. Given their general consistent behaviors in monitoring the spatiotemporal evolution of the 2000 drought, it is suggested that the new Palmer variant is a good indicator for monitoring soil moisture variation and the dynamics of vegetation growth.


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