Cause and countermeasure of long-period oscillations of moored ships and the quantification of surge and heave amplitudes

Long-period oscillations of moored ships whose periods are about 1 or 2 min cause many troubles in many ports and harbours. It is necessary to investigate these phenomena and verify their causes and countermeasures in each case because they are strongly dependent on the environment of each port and harbour. From this point of view, long-period oscillations of moored ships in the Port of Shibushi in Japan were investigated by means of wave observations, the image processing of moored ship motions using the video camera and motion-capture software and numerical simulations. From observation results, the relationship between offshore long-period waves and long-period oscillations of moored ships was recognized and surge and heave amplitudes were quantified by using wave data in order to forecast moored ship motions. Furthermore, from observation and numerical results, it was revealed that long-period waves with the peak period of 120 s from the offshore typhoon kept or exaggerated the local harbour oscillation of 60–70 s and it caused long-period oscillations of moored ships. Numerical results in case of reducing the reflection coefficient of the target berth implied that it ceased the local harbour oscillation and it would give an effective countermeasure to reduce long-period oscillations of moored ships in the Port of Shibushi.     

Statistical analysis of peaks and directivity of earthquake ground motion

Conversion factors are useful for attenuation and damage estimation relationships. These factors among different definitions of peaks (i.e. larger, average and resultant) for peak ground motion indices and acceleration response spectrum were investigated. A large number of horizontal acceleration records recorded at 76 free-field sites of the Japan Meteorological Agency were used in this study. Two orthogonal horizontal components were combined in the time domain to get the maximum resultant peak ground motion indices and acceleration response spectrum in the horizontal plane. From the analysis, the means of the larger/resultant ratio were found to be 0·934 for acceleration, 0·926 for velocity, and 0·913 for displacement. A similar decreasing trend was observed for the means of the average/resultant ratio of the ground motion indices and acceleration response spectrum. The directivity of peak ground motion indices was also examined. It was found that the peak ground motion is more likely to occur in the transverse direction than in other directions. This trend is more prominent in the long-period contents of ground motion.     

Streaming potential observations, using geothermal wells and in situ electrokinetic coupling coefficients under high temperature

In an attempt to detect streaming potentials induced by subsurface water flows, we have observed the horizontal electric field (self-potential) variations across stationary electric dipoles near geothermal wells in the Takinoue geothermal area, Japan. We observed variations of self-potential which seem to be associated with the water flows in the aquifer, induced by turning on and off the flow of the wells. Amplitudes of the variations are 3–5 mV across 60–200 m dipoles, and can be explained well with a proposed electrokinetic model: the streaming potential coefficient of − 15 mV/bar and/or the ζ-potential of −50 to −100 mV in the aquifer are appropriate to explain the observed data by the model. The obtained electrokinetic coupling coefficients are in situ ones and determined for crustal rock-water system under high temperature (˜200°C) condition. The present results, together with a laboratory study by Ishido and Mizutani (1981), give fundamental information on electrokinetic coupling coefficients in the earth's interior, and are very important when we make quantitative interpretations of self-potentials generated by geothermal activity on the basis of electrokinetic effects.     

Soil amplification based on seismometer array and microtremor observations in Chiba,Japan

Soil amplification characteristics of earthquake ground motion were investigated in terms of peak ground acceleration and transfer function based on the Chiba array observation records. The amplification of peak ground acceleration occurred mostly at the top soft layer and was similar for the three components. The effects of non-linear response of soil deposits on the transfer function were examined. Transfer functions calculated by ensemble average were close for the two horizontal components while those obtained from a smoothing operation were generally different. Both the transfer functions from the ensemble average and the smoothing operation underestimated the gain factor around the natural frequencies. A two-step smoothing procedure was proposed and a rotary spectrum was used to improve the estimation of the transfer function. Microtremors were observed at the locations of the boreholes where seismometers are buried. The power spectrum and spatial coherency of the microtremors were compared with those of the earthquake ground motion. Emphasis was placed on the wavetypes which dominated the peaks in the power spectra.     

Orientation error estimation of buried seismographs in array observation

Array observation is an efficient tool to investigate various characteristics of earthquake ground motion. However, seismographs used in arrays may involve unexpected errors in their orientations. Methods of orientation error estimation were developed in three-dimensional space by comparing recorded ground motions at a reference point with those at a checking point. A maximum cross-correlation method and a maximum coherence method were proposed and their accuracy was demonstrated. The earthquake ground motions recorded in the Chiba array and in two other arrays were used in numerical examples. Non-trivial orientation errors were detected for all these arrays. The cross-correlation coefficients and the coherence values between two points increased significantly by correcting the estimated orientation errors.     

Isotopic tracers for water masses in the coastal region of eastern Hokkaido

In this study we used two stable isotopes, δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O, for water mass classification in the coastal region off eastern Hokkaido. δ¹³C* values, which were corrected for the biological effect, and δ ¹⁸O values up to 300 m depth suggested that the isotopic character of the onshore and offshore water in the southern Okhotsk Sea, the Nemuro Strait and the western North Pacific could be explained by the mixing of three source waters: the Oyashio water (OYW), Soya Warm Current water (SWCW) and East Sakhalin Current water (ESCW). In summer, δ ¹³C*-δ ¹⁸O plots indicated mixing between SWCW from the southern Okhotsk Sea and OYW in the Pacific coast of southeastern Hokkaido, while temperature-salinity plots of the onshore water showed minimal difference from the offshore OYW. In winter, on the other hand, the mixed water of ESCW and OYW (or SWCW) appeared in the Pacific coastal region, distributed as cold, low salinity onshore water. Finally, we estimated mixing ratios of OYW, SWCW and ESCW in the coastal region of western North Pacific using their mean values of δ ¹³C* and δ ¹⁸O as endmembers. These results suggest seasonal and yearly changes of water mass combination en route from the southern Okhotsk Sea to the western North Pacific.     

Magnetostratigraphic dating of Early Miocene deep-sea fossils from the Morozaki Group in central Japan

Early Miocene sediments of the Morozaki Group in central Japan contain deep-sea fossils that have been dated using biostratigraphic and radiometric data. In this study, we utilize magnetostratigraphy to provide a more precise age for mudstones from just below the layer containing the fossils. Rock magnetic experiments suggest that both magnetic iron sulfide and Ti-poor titanomagnetite carry the remanent magnetization of the mudstones. Two different stratigraphic sites have normal polarity directions with a northeastern declination, which can be correlated with Chronozone C5Dn. Given their magnetostratigraphic position near the C5Dn/C5Dr chronozone boundary (17.466 Ma) and a high sedimentation rate, the estimated age for both the sites and the deep-sea fossils is ~17.4 Ma. The northeasterly-directed site-mean directions suggest clockwise tectonic rotation, most likely due to the Early Miocene clockwise rotation of Southwest Japan associated with the back-arc opening of the Japan Sea. The deep-sea fossils, dated at ~17.4 Ma, represent organisms deposited within a submarine structural depression formed by crustal extension during the back-arc opening stage.     

Lunar photometric properties at wavelengths 0.5-1.6 μm acquired by SELENE Spectral Profiler and their dependency on local albedo and latitudinal zones

The lunar photometric function, which describes the dependency of the observed radiance on the observation geometry, is used for photometric correction of lunar visible/near-infrared data. A precise photometric correction parameter set is crucial for many applications including mineral identification and reflectance map mosaics. We present, for the first time, spectrally continuous photometric correction parameters for both sides of the Moon for wavelengths in the range 0.5-1.6 μm and solar phase angles between 5° and 85°, derived from Kaguya (SELENE) Spectral Profiler (SP) data. Since the measured radiance also depends on the surface albedo, we developed a statistical method for selecting areas with relatively uniform albedos from a nearly 7000-orbit SP data set. Using the selected data set, we obtained empirical photometric correction parameter sets for three albedo groups (high, medium, and low). We did this because the photometric function depends on the albedo, especially at phase angles below about 20° for which the shadow hiding opposition effect is appreciable. We determined the parameters in 160 bands and discovered a small variation in the opposition effect due to the albedo variation of mafic mineral absorption. The consistency of the photometric correction was checked by comparing observations made at different times of the same area on the lunar surface. Variations in the spectra obtained were lower than 2%, except for the large phase angle data in mare. Lastly, we developed a correction method for low solar elevation data, which is required for high latitude regions. By investigating low solar elevation data, we introduced an additional correction method. We used the new photometric correction to generate a 1° mesh global lunar reflectance map cube in a wavelength range of 0.5-1.6 μm. Surprisingly, these maps reveal that high latitude (?75°) regions in both the north and south have much lower spectral continuum slopes (color ratio r_1547.7nm/r_752.8nm ? 1.8) than the low and medium latitude regions, which implies lower degrees of space weathering.     

Distribution of local Cs anomalies on the seafloor near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

An estimated 3.5 ± 0.7 × 10¹⁵ Bq of ¹³⁷Cs is thought to have been discharged into the ocean following the melt down at Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (F1NPP). While efforts have been made to monitor seafloor radiation levels, the sampling techniques used cannot capture the continuous distribution of radionuclides. In this work, we apply in situ measurement techniques using a towed gamma ray spectrometer to map the continuous distribution of ¹³⁷Cs on the seafloor within 20 km of the F1NPP. The results reveal the existence of local ¹³⁷Cs anomalies, with levels of ¹³⁷Cs an order of magnitude higher than the surrounding seafloors. The sizes of the anomalies mapped in this work range from a few meters to a few hundreds of meters in length, and it is demonstrated that the distribution of these anomalies is strongly influenced by meter scale features of the terrain.