ALBERT

Description: Analytical Strategic Environmental Assessment (ANSEA) is an insightful new approach to environmental evaluation, based on decision theory, policy analysis and environmental considerations. These concepts, though not new in their own fields of application, are combined and integrated in an innovative fashion. This book presents recent research on the implementation of the ANSEA approach which aims to ensure environmental values are properly integrated into the decision-making process.

Description: Several studies in Germany aimed at the development of a sound database on existing waste prevention measures by public bodies at the local, regional and federal levels. These results are the starting point for the creation of a national prevention program, which has to be presented by all European Member States until the end of 2013 - due to the revised European Waste Framework Directive. Based on this empirical foundation, this paper draws conclusions with regard to drivers and barriers for eco-innovations in the field of waste prevention. The analysis shows that an optimized adaptation of information on waste prevention to the needs of specific target groups is still missing but could be a relevant driver. With regard to barriers the results of the study show that waste prevention is by no means always a win–win-situation. Institutional frameworks are missing to coordinate the different interests and for the exchange of experiences that could help to realize learning effects regarding innovation approaches.

Description: The Durban conference decided to establish a new market-based mechanism that is to cover a broad segment of a country's economy. The implementation details are to be agreed at this year's conference in Qatar. The question is, however, which developing countries would actually be able to implement such a new mechanism. The introduction of the EU emission trading system highlighted the many challenges that even advanced developed countries face when establishing a carbon market. This paper by Wolfgang Sterk and Florian Mersmann therefore aims to explore the essential prerequisites for the implementation of new market mechanisms (NMM). In addition to a theoretical discussion it considers the cases of China and Mexico.

Description: The 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the consequent accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, have had consequences far beyond Japan itself. Reactions to the accident in three major economies Japan, the UK, and Germany, all of whom were committed to relatively ambitious climate change targets prior to the accident are examined. In Japan and Germany, the accident precipitated a major change of policy direction. In the UK, debate has been muted and there has been essentially no change in energy or climate change policies. The status of the energy and climate change policies in each country prior to the accident is assessed, the responses to the accident are described, and the possible impacts on their positions in the international climate negotiations are analysed. Finally, the three countries' responses are compared and some differences between them observed. Some reasons for their different policy responses are suggested and some themes, common across all countries, are identified. Policy relevance: The attraction of nuclear power has rested on the promise of low-cost electricity, low-carbon energy supply, and enhanced energy independence. The Fukushima accident, which followed the Japanese tsunami of March 2011, has prompted a critical re-appraisal of nuclear power. The responses to Fukushima are assessed for the UK, Germany, and Japan. Before the accident, all three countries considered nuclear as playing a significant part in climate mitigation strategies. Although the UK Government has continued to support nuclear new build following a prompt review of safety arrangements, Japan and Germany have decided to phase out nuclear power, albeit according to different timescales. The factors that explain the different decisions are examined, including patterns of energy demand and supply, the wider political context, institutional arrangements, and public attitudes to risk. The implications for the international climate negotiations are also assessed.

Description: Climate change and thus low-carbon transitions are global challenges, which require commitment and effort on all political levels. As international climate politics has approached its limits over the last two decades, the role of cities has simultaneously gained in importance. Many cities1 worldwide have committed to ambitious climate protection targets, which often exceed national targets. However, cities cannot act in isolation. Their opportunities for action are embedded in an (inter)national policy framework, which may either support or hinder local actions. This gives rise to the question: which opportunities for climate protection do cities really have in a political system of multi-level governance? This question can be illustrated using the city of Hamburg as an example for the German climate policy regime. The city aims to reduce its annual CO2 emissions by 2 million metric tons and attempts to quantify the impact of local and national policies and actions using a bottom-up monitoring approach. We therefore analyse more than 400 local actions with respect to the induced CO2 emission reductions. We also take a closer look at national and European policies and their impacts on local energy use and emissions. In total, 15 policies and instruments - broadly ranging from instruments to foster energy efficiencyin residential and non-residential buildings, in appliances and in the transport sector, to support renewable energy sources (including biofuels) and to uptake CHP - are considered. Our approach consists in measuring separately the impact of local and national policies and actions on urban CO2 emissions. While the city of Hamburg has implemented many policies and actions, our results show that, a significant proportion of its CO2 reduction is due to national policies, in the context of the German "Energiewende", which cannot or can only indirectly be influenced by the city. The results imply that local commitment and effort is essential in addressing the global challenge, yet ambitious targets can only be met in the presence of a supportive national policy framework. The analysis shows that many policies and measures implemented at national level require supportive structures and activities at local level in order to bridge information and implementation gaps of these measures.

Description: Many European city governments have voluntarily committed to ambitious CO2-emission reduction targets until 2020 and 2050. Supported by dedicated structures and networks (e.g. Covenant of Mayors), local governments have already developed, or are currently developing, ambitious climate action plans, all pursuing the aim of radical CO2-emission reduction in the long term. Though, the development of climate action plans is only a first step, as the actual crucial and more challenging part its implementation. Besides financial investments also additional capacities, improved institutional structures and innovative strategies are necessary to successfully implement ambitious policies within existing national and regional framework conditions. There is often more competition than co-operation between cities. However, exchanging on common challenges in order to find new solutions provides potential for innovative ideas and new views on own structures. In particular, methods and formats for self-assessment and mutual learning can support cities' stakeholders to overcome their implementation gap in local energy and climate policies. This paper will present results from the first phase of the three year project "CASCADE", which was initiated by 19 European cities in co-operation with EUROCITIES. Within the project, implementation challenges are being addressed in an intensive process of self-assessment and mutual learning. The methodological "backbone" of this process is a qualitative benchmarking framework in the thematic fields of "Renewable energy sources and distributed energy generation", "Energy efficient buildings and districts" and “Energy in urban transport”. Up to a certain degree, existing local climate policy benchmarks provide a common exchange platform, but mainly for the comparison between cities. The CASCADE benchmarking framework goes beyond competitive comparisons. As a qualitative criteria-based assessment procedure it identifies key challenges and factors for a successful implementation of established local climate policy plans. These factors have been developed from a qualitative survey including interviews and workshops with representatives of the participating cities. Six cities serve as examples. Self-assessment reports were provided based on the CASCADE benchmarking framework focussing on the implementation status of their local climate policies. These reports were reevaluated by four or five project partners from different cities in a desk-review process. During subsequent four-days peer learning visits, the CASCADE benchmarking framework was used again as a tool for an in-depth assessment of the local climate and energy action plans and the local activities towards implementation of these strategic documents. Finally, the visitors drafted a feedback report with recommendations and improvements for the hosts. The paper describes the methodology of the CASCADE benchmarking framework for integrated learning, its applicability for peer learning processes, as well as first experiences and results from the peer learning visits.

Description: The project "bigEE - Bridging the Information Gap on Energy Efficiency in Buildings" presents comprehensive information for energy efficiency in buildings and the related policy on the international internet-based knowledge platform bigee.net. To develop the evidence-based information required for bigee.net, we addressed in a different and more systematic way than usual the question of how policy can support improved building energy efficiency most effectively: We combined (1) a theoretical, actor-centred analysis of market-inherent barriers and incentives for all actors in the supply and use chain of (energy-efficient) buildings to derive a recommended package combining the types of policies and measures the actors need to overcome all these barriers, with (2) empirical evidence on model examples of good practice policy packages to check if advanced countries have indeed used the combination of policies we derived from the actor-centred analysis. In this way, we found that the recommendable policy package for new buildings is similar to the well-known one for appliances, but with the objective to mainstream nearly zero energy buildings. By contrast, the task for existing buildings is two-dimensional - increasing the depth of renovation first, to savings of 50 to 80%, and then the rate of energy-efficient renovation to 2% or more p.a. - and so the policy package needs more emphasis on individual advice, incentives, and financing. The paper presents the recommended packages as well as a comparison of existing national policy packages from California (USA), China, Denmark, Germany, and Tunisia and what we learned from it for effective packages and implementation.

Description: There is an urgent need to stabilize market prices to avoid a complete halt of the Carbon Markets. This Policy Brief summarizes the proposed options to increase demand as well as options to restrict supply.

Description: The Durban Climate Conference agreed on the creation of a new market-based mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and to consider the establishment of an overall framework for various mitigation approaches, including opportunities for using markets ("Framework"). The creation of such a Framework is therefore of high political significance, as it should ensure on the one hand that new market-based mechanisms contribute to global climate change mitigation and to achievement of targets, and on the other hand, that different market-based approaches can be integrated in a global carbon market. As yet, there is little clarity as to the roles and design of such a framework. This paper contributes to the debate by discussing and evaluating inter alia several design options, and explores how the various options could be implemented and how they interrelate. It concludes that a strong central oversight at the level of the UNFCCC is probably the only option that could reassure the vast majority of UNFCCC Parties that the environmental integrity of new market-based mechanisms is in fact ensured. This does, however, not exclude that some reasonable balance may be struck between centralization and flexibility.

Description: Industrialized countries have committed to providing "new and additional" funding to developing countries for climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, lack of a common definition of "new and additional" undermines the climate process. This article aims to contribute to the discussion on the principle of additionality by assessing possible definitions. The article first contextualizes the guiding principles that led to the endorsement of "new and additional" finance within the history of international climate negotiations. Second, we survey definitions of "new and additional" put forward by industrialized countries as well as further proposed definitions put forward by scholars. Third, we assess the respective strengths and weaknesses of these definitions. Our analysis shows that there is no singular formula that would resolve the problem of how to define additionality. Definitions that would be politically acceptable to developed countries are subject to gaming while definitions that are technically robust are politically difficult. We conclude that a combination of using innovative sources and defining specific future levels of development assistance ex ante may offer the best prospects for resolving the climate finance conundrum.

Description: Germany's current efforts to decarbonize its electricity system are analysed. As nuclear power and fossil power plants equipped with carbon capture and storage were ruled out in 2011, renewable electricity generation (RES) together with electricity savings are the primary focus for achieving decarbonization. Germany aims to have RES account for at least 80% of its electricity by 2050. Achieving renewable generation needs strong political support and regulatory provisions for its market integration. Four main technical and regulatory challenges are the maintenance of a steady and efficient expansion of RES, the provision of balancing capacities, the realization of the targeted electricity savings, and the smart adaptation of the transport and distribution grid. An overview of the existing and planned regulatory provisions for decarbonization are described, and some gaps identified, particularly with regard to the overall management of the process, the inclusion of electricity savings and the interference of Germany's decarbonization strategies with neighbouring countries. Policies that both accelerate grid expansion and direct RES expansion should immediately be put in place and can be supported by a targeted mobilization of balancing capacities. Electricity savings are a significant and cost-efficient strategy for low-carbon electricity. Policy relevance: Germany is actively converting its national electricity system towards a fully renewable one. As renewable electricity has reached about a quarter of total consumption, a number of technical and regulatory challenges arise. Current discussions and plans are described for the four main challenges: maintaining and optimizing high investment rates into RES generation technologies, providing balancing capacities, reducing demand, and adapting the grid to the changing needs. Policy recommendations for these four tasks highlight the need to intensify electricity demand reduction and also consider the potential interactions between the German electricity system and its neighbouring countries.

Description: This report lays out the major developments in Durban and assesses the main outcomes. It is structured along the Bali roadmap for a future climate agreement that was agreed at the Bali climate conference in 2007. The Bali roadmap comprises negotiations under two tracks. First, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments by Annex I Countries under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), established at the conference in Montreal in 2005, has been negotiating future emission targets for developed countries (listed in Annex I of the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and hence called Annex I countries). As the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period expires in 2012, the AWG-KP is to agree on new targets for a second commitment period post-2012 as well as associated rules for accounting emissions. Second, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) has also been negotiating commitments for Annex I countries, intending to cover those that have not ratified the Protocol - that is, the USA. In addition, the LCA negotiates "Nationally appropriate mitigation actions" of developing countries, which are to be supported by Annex I countries with technology, financing and capacity-building. Both the actions and the support are to be "measurable, reportable and verifiable". The LCA also negotiates how such support for developing countries' mitigation actions may be delivered as well as how developing countries may be supported in adapting to the impacts of climate change.

Description: Which factors are crucial to successfully design and implement a "good practice" policy to increase the energy efficiency of buildings and appliances? This is one of the main challenges for the new web platform bigee.net that provides guidance on good practice policies. In this paper we examine the question what "good practice" is by presenting a multi-criteria assessment scheme to analyse different policies worldwide. The assessment scheme contains a set of criteria addressing key factors leading to the success of a policy as well as its outcomes: a good policy addresses all market players and barriers, avoids lost opportunities and lock-in effects, has ambitious and regularly updated energy efficiency levels, and spill-over effects. Other criteria are high energy savings and the calculated cost-effectiveness. The assessment scheme provides a standardised data collection approach, which paves the way for both qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Furthermore, it can help policy-makers to transfer a successful policy. The development of the scheme is based on a literature review of worldwide implemented policies and measures that promote energy-efficiency of buildings and appliances. Criteria were operationalized, including a ranking between 0 and 10. The ranking is a decisive factor whether the policy qualifies as good practice. To demonstrate the practicability of this scheme, the paper analyses a good practice example according to the assessment scheme: Energy-Efficient Refurbishment and Energy Efficient Construction programmes of the German public bank KfW.

Description: In this report we assess how ambitious emission reduction pledges of emerging economies are compared to business as usual emissions, the countries' mitigation potential and respective efforts based on different equity principles.

Description: Refrigerators and freezers (subsumed under the term "cold appliances") are among the most widely used electrical appliances in the residential sector all around the world. Currently, about 1.4 billion domestic cold appliances worldwide use about 650 TWh electricity, which is 1.2 times Germany’s total electricity consumption, and cause CO2 emissions of 450 million tons of CO2eq. Although the specific electricity consumption per volume of cold appliances has decreased during recent years due to technical progress and policy instruments like labelling and eco-design requirements, total worldwide energy consumption of these appliances is on the increase. Scenario calculations were carried out for 10 world regions by the Wuppertal Institute. Results show that about half of the energy consumption could be saved with the most energy-efficient appliances available today, and even higher savings will be possible with next generation technologies by 2030. According to the analysis, these savings are usually very cost-effective. All these aspects are part of the new website "bigEE.net - Your guide to energy efficiency in buildings" which aims to provide information about technical options but also about policies to support the development of energy-efficient appliances. To initiate and foster market transformation of energy-efficient appliances it is highly advisable for policymakers to generate appliances-specific policy packages. Since each regional market has its specificity (e.g. energy prices, typical appliance affecting the cost effectiveness of efficient appliances), the barriers for the market transformation of single product groups are also specific and need to be addressed by appropriate policies and measures. Elements of measures to build appropriate specific policy packages for refrigerators will be presented in the paper, and the refrigerator package from California (USA) demonstrates the successful implementation of a sector-specific package.

Description: As part of the discussion on a new international climate agreement, which is supposed to be concluded by 2015, the European Commission conducted a stakeholder consultation, to which the Wuppertal Institute contributed. The Wuppertal Institute suggests that Parties should revisit the widely shared assumption that there is a trade-off between climate protection and economic well-being. The problem is not so much the macro-economic outlook. The problem is that climate policy causes substantial distributional impacts and thus naturally leads to resistance. The Wuppertal Institute recommends to reconsider the political wisdom of the quantity-based approach that climate policy has so far been based on. As long as emissions are seen as inextricably linked to economic well-being, framing commitments in terms of emission reductions directly triggers the perspective of seeing climate protection as an economic loss. Commitments should ideally be multi-dimensional. Possible types of commitments to consider may include scaling up certain climate-friendly technologies, improving energy efficiency, limiting fossil fuel use and fossil fuel extraction, or emission price commitments. The strongest mobilisation of political support might perhaps be achieved by framing commitments as a joint international undertaking to provide universal access to sustainable energy services by a specific date.

Description: The eighteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the ninth Conference of Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 8) came to a close in the evening of 8 December 2012. This report lays out the main developments in Doha and assesses the main outcomes. The first chapter outlines the overall situation coming into Doha. The subsequent chapters cover the negotiations on the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the discussions under the Durban Platform on developing a new comprehensive climate agreement by 2015 and increasing short-term ambition, and further near-term action under the UNFCCC.

Description: This report analyses the international climate negotiations at the UN climate conference in Warsaw in November 2013. The report covers the discussions under the Durban Platform on developing a new comprehensive climate agreement by 2015 and increasing short-term ambition as well as the issues relating to near-term implementation of previous decisions in the areas of emission reductions and transparency, adaptation, loss and damage, finance and technology. The report concludes that Warsaw once again starkly highlighted the sharp divisions and lack of trust among countries. Industrialised countries' collective lack of leadership strongly contributed to re-opening the traditional North-South divide. As a result, on many issues the outcomes hardly go beyond the lowest common denominator. The conference only agreed on the bare minimum to move the 2015 process forward and also made no headway in strengthening short-term ambition. Some progress was made with the establishment of the "Warsaw international mechanism for loss and damage associated with climate change impacts" and the completion of the rules for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. However, here as well further substance, in particular financial support from industrialised countries, is required to actually fill these mechanisms with meaning. If countries want to escape from groundhog day, they will have to start seeing and utilizing the UN climate process rather differently.

Description: Based on the European Waste Framework Directive and the German Recycling Management Act of 01.06.2012 the objectives for a national waste prevention programme were defined. As main objective, according to art. 1 WFD, the "prevention or reduction of the disadvantageous impacts of waste generation and management on the human health and the environment" is recommended. Indicators for a quantitative and qualitative monitoring are derived for both, the individual measures as well as for a waste prevention programme.

Description: This report provides an overview of current activities regarding climate change mitigation in six emerging economies: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea. We cover the institutional set up, measurement, reporting and verification systems for greenhouse gases and mitigation policies and measures. The analysis also addresses existing barriers to mitigation and considers where the international community could provide support to remove these.

Description: In recent years, policies to promote renewable energy have become increasingly popular among municipalities in different parts of the world. This article examines the case of Germany. It argues that municipalities, compared to other state and private actors, already have the potential to play a key role in German renewable energy governance. Although both private actors and the European Union have gained importance in the past 20 years, German municipalities still play a crucial role and can apply five distinct and important modes of governance in the field of renewable energy policy. In this regard, the notion of a general development towards a "cooperating and ensuring state", which increasingly delegates its tasks and thus becomes less important, cannot be confirmed in the field of municipal renewable energy governance in Germany.

Description: On 2012 May 20 and 29, two damaging earthquakes with magnitudes Mw 6.1 and 5.9, respectively, struck the Emilia-Romagna region in the sedimentary Po Plain, Northern Italy, causing 26 fatalities, significant damage to historical buildings and substantial impact to the economy of the region. The earthquake sequence included four more aftershocks with Mw ≥ 5.0, all at shallow depths (about 7–9 km), with similar WNW–ESE striking reverse mechanism. The timeline of the sequence suggests significant static stress interaction between the largest events. We perform here a detailed source inversion, first adopting a point source approximation and considering pure double couple and full moment tensor source models. We compare different extended source inversion approaches for the two largest events, and find that the rupture occurred in both cases along a subhorizontal plane, dipping towards SSW. Directivity is well detected for the May 20 main shock, indicating that the rupture propagated unilaterally towards SE. Based on the focal mechanism solution, we further estimate the co-seismic static stress change induced by the May 20 event. By using the rate-and-state model and a Poissonian earthquake occurrence, we infer that the second largest event of May 29 was induced with a probability in the range 0.2–0.4. This suggests that the segment of fault was already prone to rupture. Finally, we estimate peak ground accelerations for the two main events as occurred separately or simultaneously. For the scenario involving hypothetical rupture areas of both main events, we estimate Mw = 6.3 and an increase of ground acceleration by 50 per cent. The approach we propose may help to quantify rapidly which regions are invested by a significant increase of the hazard, bearing the potential for large aftershocks or even a second main shock.

Description: The Van (Eastern Anatolia, Turkey) earthquake occurred on Sunday, October 23, 2011 with a moment magnitude of 7.2. The tectonics of this region is characterized by strike–slip faulting on the Bitlis Suture Zone, and thrusting in the Zagros fold and thrust belt. Using high-rate (1 second) GPS data from permanent GNSS stations from the CORS-TR network, co-seismic displacements of eleven stations were determined using precise point positioning during this earthquake. We used the time series of coordinate changes for fourteen CORS-TR stations, and calculated the crust movements before and after the earthquake. According to the PPP solutions computed using high frequency GPS data to determine the co-seismic motions of stations, we conclude for the Van earthquake an occurrence time of 10:41:22 (UTC). No pre-seismic horizontal movement of stations at the level more than 5 mm before the earthquake could be observed. That means that no kinematic warning or prediction before the earthquake exists. Along an east–west horizontal line north of the Van Sea with a length of about 100 km, the northern part of this line experienced extension of 0.2–1 ppm in a NW–SE direction. The southern part experienced N–S shortening of 0.5–1.5 ppm. The N–S shortening we estimated geodetically matches well with the N–S shortening and thrust focal mechanism derived independently using seismic data by the USGS. Co-seismic surface displacements derived from the GPS data are consistent with the teleseismic source model given by the USGS. The geodetic source model derived from the GPS data reproduces the same moment magnitude and centroid as the teleseismic model, but shows a higher spatial resolution of the slip distribution. We also analyzed the post-seismic surface displacements derived from the GPS data within the first two weeks after the mainshock. No reasonable slip distribution on the co-seismic fault plane could be found, indicating that the sources for the early post-seismic deformation might come from the widely scattered aftershocks.

Description: We use local earthquake data observed by the amphibious, temporary seismic MERAMEX array to derive spatial variations of seismic attenuation (Qp) in the crust and upper mantle beneath Central Java. The path-averaged attenuation values (t∗) of a high quality subset of 84 local earthquakes were calculated by a spectral inversion technique. These 1929 t∗-values inverted by a least-squares tomographic inversion yield the 3D distribution of the specific attenuation (Qp). Analysis of the model resolution matrix and synthetic recovery tests were used to investigate the confidence of the Qp-model. We notice a prominent zone of increased attenuation beneath and north of the modern volcanic arc at depths down to 15 km. Most of this anomaly seems to be related to the Eocene–Miocene Kendeng Basin (mainly in the eastern part of the study area). Enhanced attenuation is also found in the upper crust in the direct vicinity of recent volcanoes pointing towards zones of partial melts, presence of fluids and increased temperatures in the middle to upper crust. The middle and lower crust seems not to be associated with strong heating and the presence of melts throughout the arc. Enhanced attenuation above the subducting slab beneath the marine forearc seems to be due to the presence of fluids.

Description: For a long time the root mean square (RMS) error has been used in the EM community: - to characterize data fit for a particular model; - as a criterion to compare several models obtained from inversion. The RMS error appears to be a natural choice since we usually tackle inverse problems in a least-squares sense. Over the years, RMS became a customary criterion and gained ultimate significance. However, on the hunt for low RMS values, one often needs to introduce subjectivity by arbitrarily adjusting error floors or masking “bad” data without referring to the assumptions behind RMS. In this contribution, we revisit basic assumptions behind RMS, demonstrate its deficiency and propose alternative ways, which may provide more insight into our data and allow a more comprehensive assessment of the quality of the modelling result/resistivity model.

Description: Amplitude ratio of 30 short-period conspicuous P5KP and PKPab phases from five intermediate depth or deep events in Fiji-Tonga recorded at European stations around 150° distance shows a mean value two to three times the ratio of the synthetic amplitudes obtained by the normal-mode theory (and ak135 model) or by full-wave theory (and PREM). There is a large variance in the results, also observed in five amplitude ratios from one event in Argentina observed at temporary stations in China around 156°. Global recordings of three major deep earthquakes in Fiji, Bonin, and Western Brazil observed at ASAR, WRA, and ZRNK arrays, at 59 North America stations and at six South Pole stations displayed conspicuous P4KP and PcP (or ScP) phases. The amplitude ratio values of P4KP vs P(S)cP are sometimes almost one order of magnitude larger than the corresponding values of the synthetics. In both cases, arrival times and slowness values (corrected for ellipticity and station elevation) at the distances up to 23° beyond the A cutoff point predicted by ray theory match both the synthetics, suggesting the observations are the AB branch of PmKP (m = 4, 5) around 1 Hz. In disagreement to ray theory, no reliable BC branch is observed neither on the recordings nor on the normal-mode synthetics. The high amplitude ratio values cannot be explained by realistic perturbations of the velocity or attenuation values of the global models in the proximity of the core-to-mantle boundary (CMB). We speculate that the focusing effects and/or strong scattering most likely associated to some anomalous velocity areas of the lowermost mantle are responsible for that. The results suggest limitations of the previous evaluations of the short-period attenuation in the outer core from PmKP amplitudes (m ≥ 3), irrespective of the fact that they are obtained by using ray theory, normal-mode or full-wave synthetics. Attempts to use PmKP arrival times in order to refine velocity structure in the proximity of CMB should be also regarded with care if the propagation times have been computed with ray theory.

Description: The territory of Lithuania and adjacent areas of the East European Craton have always been considered a region of low seismicity. Two recent earthquakes with magnitudes of more than 5 in the Kaliningrad District (Russian Federation) on 21 September 2004 motivated re-evaluation of the seismic hazard in Lithuania and adjacent territories. A new opportunity to study seismicity in the region is provided by the PASSEQ (Pasive Seismic Experiment) project that aimed to study the lithosphere–asthenosphere structure around the Trans-European Suture Zone. Twenty-six seismic stations of the PASSEQ temporary seismic array were installed in the territory of Lithuania. The stations recorded a number of local and regional seismic events originating from Lithuania and adjacent areas. This data can be used to answer the question of whether there exist seismically active tectonic zones in Lithuania that could be potentially hazardous for critical industrial facilities. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to find any natural tectonic seismic events in Lithuania and to obtain more general view of seismicity in the region. In order to do this, we make a manual review of the continuous data recorded by the PASSEQ seismic stations in Lithuania. From the good quality data, we select and relocate 45 local seismic events using the well-known LocSAT and VELEST location algortithms. In order to discriminate between possible natural events, underwater explosions and on-shore blasts, we analyse spatial distribution of epicenters and temporal distribution of origin times and perform both visual analysis of waveforms and spectral analysis of recordings. We show that the relocated seismic events can be grouped into five clusters (groups) according to their epicenter coordinates and origin and that several seismic events might be of tectonic origin. We also show that several events from the off-shore region in the Baltic Sea (at the coasts of the Kaliningrad District of the Russian Federation) are non-volcanic tremors, although the origin of these tremor-type events is not clear.

Description: We performed a teleseismic P wave tomography study using seismic events at both teleseismic and regional distances, recorded by a temporary seismic array in the Argentine Puna Plateau and adjacent regions. The tomographic images show the presence of a number of positive and negative anomalies in a depth range of 20–300 km beneath the array. The most prominent of these anomalies corresponds to a low-velocity body, located in the crust, most clearly seen in the center of the array (27°S, 67°W) between the Cerro Peinado volcano, the Cerro Blanco caldera and the Farallon Negro in the east. This anomaly (southern Puna Magmatic Body) extends from the northern most part of the array and follows the line with the highest density of stations towards the south where it becomes smaller. It is flanked by high velocities on the west and the east respectively. On the west, the high velocities might be related to the subducted Nazca plate. On the northeast the high velocity block coincides with the position of the Hombre Muerto basin in the crust and could be indicating an area of lithospheric delamination where we detected a high velocity block at 100 km depth on the eastern border of the Puna plateau, north of Galan. This block might be related to a delamination event in an area with a thick crust of Paleozoic metamorphic rocks at the border between Puna and Eastern Cordillera. In the center of the array the Southern Puna magmatic body is also flanked by high velocities but the most prominent region is located on the east and is interpreted as part of the Sierras Pampeanas lithosphere with high velocities. The position of the Sierras Pampeanas geological province is key in this area as it appears to limit the extension of the plateau towards the south.

Description: Clear S-to-P converted waves from the crust–mantle boundary (Moho) and lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) have been observed on the eastern part of the Dead Sea Basin (DSB), and are used for the determination of the depth of the Moho and the LAB. A temporary network consisting of 18 seismic broad-band stations was operated in the DSB region as part of the DEad Sea Integrated REsearch project for 1.5 years beginning in September 2006. The obtained Moho depth (∼35 km) from S-to-P receiver functions agrees well with the results from P-to-S receiver functions and other geophysical data. The thickness of the lithosphere on the eastern part of the DSB is about 75 km. The results obtained here support and confirm previous studies, based on xenolith data, geodynamic modeling, heat flow observations, and S-to-P receiver functions. Therefore, the lithosphere on the eastern part of the DSB and along Wadi Araba has been thinned in the Late Cenozoic, following rifting and spreading of the Red Sea. The thinning of the lithosphere occurred without a concomitant change in the crustal thickness and thus an upwelling of the asthenosphere in the study area is invoked as the cause of the lithosphere thinning.

Description: Human activities, including operations related to mining and reservoir exploitation, may induce seismicity and pose a risk for population and infrastructures. While different observations are commonly used to assess the origin of earthquakes, there is a lack of rules and methods for the discrimination between natural and induced seismicity. The inversion and decomposition of the full moment tensor and the observation of relevant deviation from a pure double couple (DC) model may be an indicator for induced seismicity. We establish here a common procedure to analyse a set of natural and induced events of similar magnitude, which occurred in Germany and neighbouring regions. The procedure is based on an inversion method and on a consistent velocity model and recording network. Induced seismicity is recorded during different mining and/or reservoir exploitations. Moment tensors are inverted using a multi-step inversion approach. This method, which was successfully applied in previous studies at regional and teleseismic distances, is further developed here to account for full moment tensor analysis. We first find a best DC solution and then perform a full moment tensor inversion, fitting full waveforms amplitude spectra at regional distances. The moment tensor solution is decomposed into DC, compensated linear vector dipole and isotropic terms. The discrimination problem is then investigated through the evaluation of distributions of non-DC source components for natural and induced data sets. Results illustrate the potential of the inversion and discrimination approach. Additional detailed analyses are carried out for the two most significant induced earthquakes, and rupture models are compared with the full moment tensor solutions.

Description: Near‐field ground‐motion data are available in semi‐real time either from modern strong‐motion or continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) networks, allowing robust solutions for earthquake source parameters, which are useful for rapid disaster assessment and early warning. These wide applications require the ground‐motion data to cover a very broad frequency band that, however, is usually not available. This paper presents a case study on the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake, showing how the ground‐motion information from geodetic and seismic instrumentations is complementary, and suggesting the joint use of both types of data, particularly when the network coverage is sparse. First the strong‐motion records from the two Japanese networks, K‐NET and KiK‐Net, are analyzed using an automatic empirical baseline correction tool. The static coseismic displacement data are obtained by double integration and then used to derive the permanent slip distribution on the earthquake fault. Comparisons with the corresponding GPS‐based solutions yield a quantitative estimation of uncertainties of the empirical baseline correction. Furthermore, a dozen nearby GPS and strong‐motion station pairs are selected to demonstrate that the information in their time series agrees with each other. Finally, methods for combining both types of ground‐motion observation systems are discussed, and the wide applicability of this approach is highlighted.

Description: Based on passive seismic interferometry applied to ambient seismic noise recordings between station pairs belonging to a small-scale array, we have obtained shear wave velocity images of the uppermost materials that make up the Dead Sea Basin. We extracted empirical Green’s functions from cross-correlations of long-term recordings of continuous data, and measured inter-station Rayleigh wave group velocities from the daily correlation functions for positive and negative correlation time lags in the 0.1–0.5 Hz bandwidth. A tomographic inversion of the travel times estimated for each frequency is performed, allowing the laterally varying 3-D surface wave velocity structure below the array to be retrieved. Subsequently, the velocity-frequency curves are inverted to obtain S-wave velocity images of the study area as horizontal depth sections and longitude- and latitude-depth sections. The results, which are consistent with other previous ones, provide clear images of the local seismic velocity structure of the basin. Low shear velocities are dominant at shallow depths above 3.5 km, but even so a spit of land with a depth that does not exceed 4 km is identified as a salt diapir separating the low velocities associated with sedimentary infill on both sides of the Lisan Peninsula. The lack of low speeds at the sampling depth of 11.5 km implies that there are no sediments and therefore that the basement is near 10–11 km depth, but gradually decreasing from south to north. The results also highlight the bowl-shaped basin with poorly consolidated sedimentary materials accumulated in the central part of the basin. The structure of the western margin of the basin evidences a certain asymmetry both whether it is compared to the eastern margin and it is observed in north–south direction. Infill materials down to ∼8 km depth are observed in the hollow of the basin, unlike what happens in the north and south where they are spread beyond the western Dead Sea shore.

Description: Adapting the magnetotelluric (MT) method for monitoring the dynamic behaviour of the Andean subduction system in Northern Chile is focus of this thesis. Electromagnetic fields, sampled at nine permanent MT stations which cover an area of approximately 250 x 100 km² in the Andean fore-arc, are evaluated to monitor the electrical resistivity structure associated with the deep hydraulic system of the subduction zone. The long term monitoring of geo-electromagnetic fields reveals different types of temporal variations of vertical magnetic transfer functions (VTF) in different period ranges which are evaluated and interpreted. Computation of time series of daily VTFs of an overall length of 4 years exhibit seasonal variations with amplitudes of more than 100% of their absolute values for different components at all sites of the array. The observed seasonal variation affects almost exclusively the east-west magnetic field component for periods between 100 and 3000 seconds. These ground-based measurements of magnetic and electric fields exhibit statistically significant coherences with the interplanetary electric field (IEF) derived from solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field data of the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. The IEF penetrates the polar ionosphere from where it propagates towards equatorial latitudes by wave guide transmission, with ionosphere and solid Earth acting as conducting boundaries. Signal coherence between IEF and ground data peaks at periods of approximately 90 min and up to the four harmonics. Coherence values reach 0.4 at these periods and depend on the electromagnetic field component. They vary with season and local time. Transfer functions computed between IEF and ground-based electric and magnetic fields show local maxima at similar periods (90 min and harmonics). The coupling between the east-west magnetic field component and the IEF shows significant seasonal variability, much larger than for the other electromagnetic field components. We conclude that the IEF drives primarily a global circuit of Pedersen currents in the ionosphere. Resulting time-varying magnetic fields induce electric currents in the ground. Related ground-based magnetic (primarily north-south) and electric (primarily east-west) signals vary coherently at all local times and seasons. Conversely, magnetic signals caused by the IEF-driven Hall currents depend much on local time and season. We show for the first time that these ionospheric Hall currents cause no induction in the ground, but they generate magnetic signatures that are confined to the waveguide between ionosphere and Earth's surface. Geo-electromagnetic depth sounding applications as MT assume both spatial and temporal uniform external electromagnetic source fields. The seasonal variation of VTFs exhibits a systematic violation of this basic assumption in Northern Chile. The consequence is a systematic seasonal rotation and length variation of the induction arrows of the period band between 100 and 3000 seconds. If not taken into account, the structure of an electrical resistivity model of the subsurface, obtained by MT inversion, would be distorted. Removing this source field effect with a low-pass filter allows evaluation of residual variations of the VTF time-series which last longer than one year. During 2008 and 2009, I observe a significant variation of the VTFs in the southern part of the network for periods between 1500 and 4000 seconds. To simulate this variation, a 3D reference resistivity model is obtained by inversion of MT and VTF data using eight stations of the network. A region of high conductivity matches spatially with the hydrated mantle wedge. By trial and error, the 3D reference image of the deep electrical resistivity structure is modified and 3D forward modelling is applied to explain temporal variations in the VTFs similar to our observations. That requires modification of the electrical resistivity structure in a region which coincides roughly with the plate interface directly down-dip of the Mw7.7 2007 Tocopilla earthquake. We speculate that the anomalous temporal variations of the VTFs may be caused by large scale fluid relocation in the aftermath of the seismic event.

Description: The Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau are uplifted by the ongoing northward underthrusting of the Indian continental lithosphere below Tibet resulting in lithospheric stacking. The layered structure of the Tibetan upper mantle is imaged by seismic methods, most detailed with the receiver function method. Tibet is considered as a place where the development of a future craton is currently under way. Here we study the upper mantle from Germany to northern Sweden with seismic S receiver functions and compare the structure below Scandinavia with that below Tibet. Below Proterozoic Scandinavia, we found two low-velocity zones on top of each other, separated by a high-velocity zone. The top of the upper low-velocity zone at about 100 km depth extends from Germany to Archaean northern Sweden. It agrees with the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) below Germany and Denmark. Below Sweden it is known as the 8°discontinuity, or as a mid-lithospheric discontinuity (MLD), similar to observations in North America. Seismic tomography places the LAB near 200 km in Scandinavia, which is close to the top of our deeper low-velocity zone. We also observed the bottom of the asthenosphere (the Lehmann discontinuity) deepening from 180 km in Germany to 260 km below Sweden. Remnants of old subduction in the upper about 100 km below Scandinavia and Finland are known from controlled source seismic experiments and local earthquake studies. Recent tomographic studies indicate delamination of the lithosphere below southern Scandinavia and northern Germany. We are suggesting that the large-scale layered structure in the Scandinavian upper mantle may be caused by processes similar to the ongoing lithospheric stacking in Tibet.