The generation, abandonment and preservation of terraces formed in active tectonic areas are important to the analysis of the role of the tectonics and climate along the temporal variations, so it appears significant as how to use the effective quantitative methods to extract and accurately depict these terraces. The increasingly convenient acquisition of high-precision topographic data has greatly promoted the advancement of quantitative research in geoscience, making it possible to analyze mid-micro-geomorphic features on a large scale, especially by studying the temporal and spatial evolution of tectonic deformation through accurate capture of micro-geomorphic features. Over the past decade, the rapid development of LiDAR(Light Detection and Ranging)technology has provided unprecedented opportunity to access high-precision topographic data(up to centimeter in vertical and horizontal directions). However, its relatively high cost and relatively complex data processing techniques limit its widespread application in the field of earth sciences. In recent years, with the continuous innovation and advancement of topographic measurement technology, the three-dimensional structure of motion reconstruction technology(Structure from Motion, SfM)has gradually been introduced into the field of digital topographic photogrammetry due to its rapid advantage in providing quick, convenient and cost-effective methods for obtaining high-density geospatial point data. This method thus shows great potential for providing high resolution topographic data with comparable resolution and precision. Therefore, with the acquisition of more and more high-resolution terrain data in recent years, it is an important development trend to explore automated or semi-automated quantitative geomorphological analysis methods. R language, as an excellent programming language, has not been used in the geology and geomorphology, although is widely applied in medicine and meteorology based on its powerful capability of statistician and graphic visualization. In this paper, we focus on the Yellow River multi-terraces formed to the east of the Mijia Shan, which belongs to the Jingtai-Hasi Shan segment of the Haiyuan Fault. With the analysis and visualization of the high-resolution topographic data collected from the SfM in the environment of the R language, we implement the semiautomatic classification and mapping of the Yellow River multi-terraces. The method identifies 20 terraces with different elevation. Our results also imply that the younger terraces have better continuity and elongation, and the older terraces have more deformation, which can be demonstrated from their gradually notable semi-parabolic shape. Besides this, it also suggests the diverse evolution stages of the Yellow River terraces. Our study indicates that R language is expected to become an efficient tool of statistics and visualization of the high-resolution topographic data.

An M4.9 earthquake occurred at the junction of Gaoyou and Baoying on July 20, 2012. In this paper, 43 sets of strong motion records of the main shock are analyzed. With these data, we analyzed the characteristics of the peak ground motion value, attenuation relation, duration and acceleration response spectrum. We draw the peak acceleration contour map of the region near the epicenter. The contour line is smooth and the trend of long axis is northwest-southeast. Distribution of peak acceleration of the observed records is basically consistent with the real intensity distribution. Compared with the predicted result based on the seismic attenuation relation proposed by Yu Yanxiang and Wang Suyunon for eastern China and the Fifth-generation ground motion zonation map, the horizontal PGA and PGV of Gaoyou-Baoying earthquake are higher than the predicted results that are based on the model of Fifth-generation ground motion zonation map, while the PGV is similar with the predicted results which are based on Yu Yanxiang and Wang Suyun's model. We regressively analyzed the spatial-temporal change curves of the two types of relative ground motion durations. Compared with the predicted results proposed by Bommer et al. (2009) based on the NGA strong motion records, the durations of all the three components of this earthquake are higher. 10 typical recordings' acceleration response spectra with 5% damping are calculated, their peak periods are around 0.1~0.3s. The acceleration response spectrum of the station 32BYT, which has the largest amplitude, is considerably larger than the Chinese code design spectra, while it becomes notably smaller when the period is larger than 0.4s. Compared with the horizontal bedrock acceleration response spectrum predicted by the attenuation relationship for the eastern part of China, the observed response spectrum shape is similar with the predicted ones, while almost all the observed response spectrum values (except station 32YCT)are smaller than the predicted bedrock acceleration response spectrum. These phenomena suggest that this earthquake has a weak impact on the seismic fortification standards in this area. Using H/V single-station spectral ratio method, amplitude and site amplification effect of the two typical stations are calculated, and the results show the H/V values are obviously larger than that of ground microtremor. This suggests that the site of the station has obvious amplification effect on ground motion.

The bedrock scarps are believed to have recorded the continuous information on displacement accumulation and sequence of large earthquakes. The occurrence timing of large earthquakes is believed to be correlated positively with the exposure duration of bedrock fault surfaces. Accordingly, cosmogenic nuclides concentration determined for the bedrock footwall can offer their times, ages, and slip over long time. In general, multiple sites of fault scarps along one or even more faults are selected to carry out cosmogenic nuclide dating in an attempt to derive the temporal and spatial pattern of fault activity. This may contribute to explore whether earthquake occurrence exhibits any regularity and predict the timing and magnitude of strong earthquakes in the near future. Cosmogenic nuclide ³⁶ Cl dating is widely applied to fault scarp of limestone, and the height of fault scarp can reach as high as 15~20m. It is strongly suggested to make sure the bedrock scarp is exhumed by large earthquake events instead of geomorphic processes, based on field observation, and data acquired by terrestrial LiDAR and ground penetration radar (GPR). In addition, it is better for the fault surface to be straight and fresh with striations indicating recent fault movement. A series of bedrock samples are collected from the footwall in parallel to the direction of fault movement both above and below the colluvium, and each of them is~15cm long,~10cm wide, and~3cm thick. The concentrations of both cosmogenic nuclide ³⁶ Cl and REE-Y determined from these samples vary with the heights in parallel to fault scarps. Accordingly, we identify the times of past large earthquakes, model the profile of ³⁶ Cl concentration to seek the most realistic one, and determine the ages and slip of each earthquake event with the errors. In general, the errors for the numbers, ages, and slips of past earthquake events are ±1-2, no more than ±0.5-1.0ka, and ±0.25m, respectively.