Crystallization of authigenic carbonates in mud volcanoes at Lake Baikal

This paper presents data on authigenic siderite first found in surface sediments from mud volcanoes in the Central (K-2) and Southern (Malen’kii) basins of Lake Baikal. Ca is the predominant cation, which substitutes Fe in the crystalline lattice of siderite. The enrichment of the carbonates in the ¹³C isotope (from +3.3 to +6.8‰ for the Malen’kii volcano and from +17.7 to +21.9‰ for K-2) results from the crystallization of the carbonates during methane generation via the bacterial destruction of organic matter (acetate). The overall depletion of the carbonates in ¹⁸O is mainly inherited from the isotopic composition of Baikal water.     

Impact of mercury emissions from incineration of automobile shredder residue in Japan

Mercury emissions from the incineration of automobile shredder residues (ASRs) were investigated. Continuous monitoring of elemental and reactive gaseous Hg in flue gas was performed in lab-scale and plant-scale ASR incineration. Results of continuous monitoring agreed with those obtained using the JIS K0222 method and Ontario-Hydro method. Before cleaning by air pollutant control devices (APCDs), reactive Hg was the dominant form of that element in both lab-scale and plant-scale results. Emission factors of reactive Hg before APCDs estimated from monitoring results showed large differences between plant-scale and lab-scale emissions. The emission factor in the plant scale was more than 10 times larger than that in the lab-scale, which is explainable by the different Hg contents of ASR. Based on plant-scale monitoring at the stack, emission factors after APCDs were estimated as 0.79 mg-Hg/Mg-ASR for elemental Hg and 6.8 mg-Hg/Mg-ASR for reactive Hg. Using these emission factors, total Hg emissions from ASR incineration were estimated as 2.2 kg/a. An ASR incineration plant investigated in this study used highly effective APCDs. Consequently, these emission factors might result in underestimation of national Hg emissions from ASR incineration. Emission factors estimated from lab-scale monitoring at a fabric filter outlet side might be more appropriate. However, even if emission factors calculated from plant-scale or the lab-scale monitoring are used, estimated emissions are still less than 1.0% of total Hg emissions in Japan. Therefore, Hg emissions from ASR incineration can be evaluated as insignificant. Unless Hg contents of ASR increase extremely, ASR incineration would be a minor source of Hg atmospheric emission in Japan, even if all ASRs were incinerated.     

Lithology and palynology of Neogene sediments on the narrow edge of the Kitakami Massif (basement rocks), northeast Japan: Significant change for depositional environments as a result of plate tectonics

Abstract A controversial stratigraphic section, the Taneichi Formation, is exposed along the Pacific Coast of northeastern Honshu, the main island of the Japanese Archipelago. Although most sediments of the formation have long been dated as late Cretaceous, the northern section of it has been assigned to (i) the Upper Cretaceous; (ii) the Paleogene; or (iii) the Neogene. In the present report, we present the data of palynological and sedimentological studies, showing that the northern section should be assigned to the Neogene. A more important point in the present study is that we invoke some basic principles of fluvial sedimentology to resolve this stratigraphic subject. The lignite layers full of Paleogene–Miocene dinoflagellate cysts and pollen assemblages drape over the boulder‐sized (>40 cm in diameter) clasts in the northern section. However, the layers totally consist of aggregates of small lignite chips, indicating that the lignites are allochthonous materials. The mega‐clasts with derived microfossils in the lignites are thought to have been deposited as Neogene fluvial (flood) sediments in the newly formed Japanese Archipelago. Prior to the Miocene, the northern Honshu was part of the Eurasian Plate, thus the boulder‐sized clasts cannot be envisaged as long river flood deposits along the continental Paleogene Pacific Coast. Instead, the mega‐clasts with the draping lignites were probably derived from nearby Miocene highlands in the newly born island arc.     

Seafloor spreading, obduction and triple junction tectonics of the Mineoka Ophiolite, Central Japan

The Tertiary Mineoka ophiolite occurs in a fault zone at the intersection of the Honshu and Izu forearcs in central Japan and displays structural evidence for three major phases of deformation: normal and oblique-slip faults and hydrothermal veins formed during the seafloor spreading evolution of the ophiolite at a ridge-transform fault intersection. These structures may represent repeated changes in differential stress and pore-fluid pressures during their formation. The second series of deformation is characterized by oblique thrust faults with Riedel shears and no significant mineral veining, and is interpreted to have resulted from transpressional dextral faulting during the obduction of the ophiolite through oblique convergence and tectonic accretion. This deformation occurred at the NW corner of a TTT-type (trench–trench–trench) triple junction in the NW Pacific rim before the middle Miocene. The third series of deformation of the ophiolite is marked by contractional and oblique shear zones, Riedel shears, and thrust faults that crosscut and offset earlier structures, and that give the Mineoka fault zone its lenticular (phacoidal) fabric at all scales. This deformation phase was associated with the establishment and the southward migration of the TTT Boso triple junction and with the kinematics of oblique subduction and forearc sliver fault development. The composite Mineoka ophiolite hence displays rocks and structures that evolved during its complex geodynamic history involving seafloor spreading, tectonic accretion, and triple junction evolution in the NW Pacific Rim.     

Efficient analysis of pile-group effect on seismic stiffness and strength design of buildings

A new efficient method is developed for the analysis of pile-group effects on the seismic stiffness and strength design of buildings with pile foundations. An efficient continuum model consisting of a dynamic Winkler-type soil element and a pile is used to express the dynamic behavior of the structure-pile-soil system with only a small numerical error. The pile-group effect is taken into account through the influence coefficients among piles which are defined for interstory drifts and pile-head bending moments. It is shown that, while the pile-group effect reduces the interstory drift of buildings in general, it may increase the bending moment of piles at the head. This means that the treatment without the pile-group effect results in the conservative design for super-structures and requires a revised member design for piles.     

Fine structure beneath the Tohoku district, northeastern Japan arc, as derived by an inversion of P-wave arrival times from local earthquakes

Three dimensional P-wave velocity structure beneath the Tohoku district, northeastern Japan arc, is investigated by an inversion of arrival times from local earthquakes using the method originally due to Aki and Lee (1976).In the crust (0–32 km depth) a low-velocity region is found along the volcanic front and its vicinity. Velocities at depths of 32–65 km are low beneath the regions where many Quaternary volcanoes and geothermal areas are distributed. In the region deeper than 65 km, the subduction of the Pacific plate is clearly revealed, and the mantle structure above the descending plate is rather uniform. These features suggest that volcanic activities have relation to the upper mantle structure. The results obtained in this study will be helpful in investigating the mechanism of magma generation in a subduction zone.     

Molecular and isotopic characteristics of gas hydrate-bound hydrocarbons in southern and central Lake Baikal

We investigated the molecular composition (methane, ethane, and propane) and stable isotope composition (methane and ethane) of hydrate-bound gas in sediments of Lake Baikal. Hydrate-bearing sediment cores were retrieved from eight gas seep sites, located in the southern and central Baikal basins. Empirical classification of the methane stable isotopes (δ¹³C and δD) for all the seep sites indicated the dominant microbial origin of methane via methyl-type fermentation; however, a mixture of thermogenic and microbial gases resulted in relatively high methane δ¹³C signatures at two sites where ethane δ¹³C indicated a typical thermogenic origin. At one of the sites in the southern Baikal basin, we found gas hydrates of enclathrated microbial ethane in which ¹³C and deuterium were both highly depleted (mean δ¹³C and δD of –61.6‰ V-PDB and –285.4‰ V-SMOW, respectively). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of C₂ δ¹³C–δD classification for hydrate-bound gas in either freshwater or marine environments.     

Velocity of finer fragments from impact

We describe the method and the result of a new experiment to obtain velocity distribution of fine ejecta fragments, from a few to a hundred microns in size, produced from basalt targets by impacts of nylon projectiles at a velocity of 3.7 km s⁻¹. The size distribution of holes perforated by the ejecta fragments on thin films and foils placed around the targets was investigated, and the size-velocity relation was determined with the aid of an empirical formula for threshold penetration (McDonnell and Sullivan, Hypervelocity Impacts in Space, Unit for Space Sciences, University of Kent, 1992). The velocity of the fastest fragments, at a given size, is from the extrapolation of the size-velocity relation for 1–100 mm fragments (Nakamura and Fujiwara, Icarus92, 132–146, 1991; Nakamura et al, Icarus100, 127–135, 1992). The laboratory results are also compared with those obtained from the study of secondary craters around large lunar craters (Vickery, Icarus67, 224–236, 1986, Geophys. Res. Lett. 14, 726–729, 1987). All these data provide a smooth size-velocity relationship in the normalized fragment size range of four orders of magnitude.     

Relationship of topography to surface water chemistry with particular focus on nitrogen and organic carbon solutes within a forested watershed in Hokkaido,Japan

We studied the relationships between streamwater chemistry and the topography of subcatchments in the Dorokawa watershed in Hokkaido Island, northern Japan, to examine the use of topography as a predictor of streamwater chemistry in a watershed with relatively moderate terrain compared with other regions of Japan. Topographic characteristics of the Dorokawa watershed and its subcatchments were expressed as topographic index (TI) values, which ranged from 4·5 to 20·4 for individual grid cells (50 × 50 m²), but averaged from 6·4 to 7·4 for the 20 subcatchments. Streamwater samples for chemical analyses were collected four times between June and October 2002 from 20 locations in the watershed. The pH of water that passed through the watershed increased from ～5·0 to 7·0, with major increases in Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ and marked decreases in NO₃^? and SO . Distinctive spatial patterns were observed for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and NO₃^? concentrations of streamwater across the watershed. Statistical analyses indicated significant linear relationships between the average TI values of subcatchments and DOC, DON, and NO₃^? concentrations. Furthermore, the proportion of DOC in streamwaters in the wet season increased with TI values relative to other nitrogen species, whereas NO₃^? concentrations decreased with TI. The gradients of soil wetness and the presence of wetlands explained many of the observed spatial and temporal patterns of DOC, DON, and NO₃^? concentrations in the surface waters of the Dorokawa watershed. Our results suggest that the TI is especially useful for predicting the spatial distribution of DOC, DON and NO₃^? in the surface waters of Hokkaido, where topographical relief is moderate and wetlands more common than in other regions of Japan. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scale mismatches and their ecological and economic effects on landscapes: A spatially explicit model

Mismatches between the spatial scales of human decision-making and natural processes contribute to environmental problems such as global warming and biodiversity losses. People damage the environment through local activities like clearing land or burning fossil fuels, but the damages only become manifest at larger regional or global scales where no one pays for them. Payments for ecological services like carbon sequestration can correct for these damages caused by scale mismatches. This paper presents a spatially explicit land-use model to investigate the consequences of scale mismatches for pollination and carbon storage services and examine the effect of payment for only carbon storage services. The model integrates processes in multiple spatial scales ranging from the parcel level used by landowners’ decision about deforestation, to the larger scale used by animals to pollinate plants, and finally to the global scale where carbon storage services are supplied. We show that payment for carbon storage services can become an effective mechanism to protect forests at the same time that it creates inequities among landowners in income level.These findings suggest that market-based approaches that focus on conservation of a single ecosystem service may reproduce unequal power relations among landowners.