Satellite detection of red tide in Ariake Sound, 1998–2001

High resolution SeaWiFS data was used to detect red tide events that occurred in the Ariake Sound, Japan, a small embayment known as one of the most productive areas in Japan. SeaWiFS chlorophyll data clearly showed that a large red tide event, which damaged seaweed (Nori) cultures, started early in December 2000 in Isahaya Bay, expanded to the whole sound and persisted to the end of February 2001. The monthly average of SeaWiFS data from May 1998 to December 2001 indicated that the chlorophyll peaks appeared twice a year, in early summer and in fall, after the peaks of rain and river discharge. The SeaWiFS data showed that the red tide event during 2000–2001 winter was part of the fall bloom; however, it started later and continued significantly longer than other years. Satellite ocean color data is useful to detect the red tide; however the algorithms require improvement to accurately estimate chlorophyll in highly turbid water and in red tide areas.     

Changing grading of soil: effect on critical states

Examples of situations are presented where the grading of a soil changes during its lifetime either by crushing of particles leading to an increase of fine material or by slow transport of fine particles with seepage leading to a decrease of fine material. Such grading changes influence the basic constitutive properties of the soil, in particular properties such as critical states which are dependent on the available range of densities of packing. Discrete element modelling is used to show the dependence of critical state conditions on grading and the way in which the particle assembly seeks out new critical state conditions as the grading changes.     

Quaternary bedrock erosion and landscape evolution in the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica: Reevaluating rates and processes

Rates and processes of rock weathering, soil formation, and mountain erosion during the Quaternary were evaluated in an inland Antarctic cold desert. The fieldwork involved investigations of weathering features and soil profiles for different stages after deglaciation. Laboratory analyses addressed chemistry of rock coatings and soils, as well as ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al exposure ages of the bedrock. Less resistant gneiss bedrock exposed over 1 Ma shows stone pavements underlain by in situ produced silty soils thinner than 40 cm and rich in sulfates, which reflect the active layer thickness, the absence of cryoturbation, and the predominance of salt weathering. During the same exposure period, more resistant granite bedrock has undergone long-lasting cavernous weathering that produces rootless mushroom-like boulders with a strongly Fe-oxidized coating. The red coating protects the upper surface from weathering while very slow microcracking progresses by the growth of sulfates. Geomorphological evidence and cosmogenic exposure ages combine to provide contrasting average erosion rates. No erosion during the Quaternary is suggested by a striated roche moutonnée exposed more than 2 Ma ago. Differential erosion between granite and gneiss suggests a significant lowering rate of desert pavements in excess of 10 m Ma^− 1. The landscape has been (on the whole) stable, but the erosion rate varies spatially according to microclimate, geology, and surface composition.     

Application of AVO Analysis to Seismic Data for Detection of Gas below Methane Hydrate Stability Zone in Nankai Trough Area

Abstract. For the purpose of development of methane hydrate, occurring in the deep marine subsurface, as a resource, the most important issue is to understand the methane hydrate system (generation, migration and accumulation) as well as to delineate the methane hydrate reservoir properties. We have applied the Amplitude Versus Offset (AVO) analysis to the seismic data acquired in the Nankai Trough, offshore Japan, in order to confirm the occurrence of gas just below the methane hydrate-bearing zone, assuming that gas will show a so-called Class-3 AVO response. Knowledge of the amount and occurrence of gas in the sediment below methane hydrate-bearing zone is one of the keys to understand the methane hydrate system.
We have utilized the qualitative analysis of AVO methodology to delineate how gas is located below the BSR, which is thought to be the reflection event from the interface between the methane hydrate-bearing zone and the underlying gas-bearing zone. In the region of MITI Nankai Trough Well PSW-3, we observe two BSRs separated by 25 ms. After AVO modeling using well data, we applied AVO attribute analysis and attribute crossplot analysis to the seismic data. Finally we applied an offset-amplitude analysis to CMP gather data at specific locations to confirm the results of AVO attribute analysis. The AVO analysis shows that there is very little gas located in the underlying sediment below methane hydrate-bearing zone. This result supports the fact that we could not obtain any clear evidence of gas occurrence just below the methane hydrate-bearing zone in the Nankai Trough well drilling.     

Latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous radiolarian fauna from the Xialu chert in the Yarlung Zangbo suture zone, southern Tibet: Comparison with coeval western Pacific radiolarian faunas and paleoceanographic implications

Abstract The Xialu chert radiolarian fauna is latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous in age (Pseudodictyomitra carpatica zone) and contains many taxa in common with coeval northern hemisphere middle‐latitude (temperate) radiolarian faunas represented by the Torinosu fauna in southwest Japan. Common elements include Eucyrtidiellum pyramis (Aita), Protunuma japonicus Matsuoka & Yao, Sethocapsa pseudouterculus Aita, Sethocapsa (?) subcrassitestata Aita, Archaeodictyomitra minoensis (Mizutani), Stichocapsa praepulchella Hori and Xitus gifuensis (Mizutani). The Xialu fauna is less similar to low‐latitude (tropical) assemblages represented by the Mariana fauna. For this reason, the Xialu fauna is regarded as representative of a southern hemisphere middle‐latitude (temperate) fauna. A mirror‐image bi‐temperate provincialism to the equator in radiolarian faunas is reconstructed for the Ceno‐Tethys and Pacific Ocean in latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous time.     

K-Ar Ages of Granitic Magmatism and Related Pegmatite Formation at the Umanotani-Shiroyama Mine, Shimane Prefecture, SW Japan and Their Bearings on Cooling History

Abstract. The Umanotani-Shiroyama pegmatite deposits, the largest producer of K-feldspar and quartz in Japan, are of typical granitic pegmatite. Ilmenite-series biotite granite and granite porphyry, hosting the ore deposits, and biotites separated from these rocks yielded K-Ar ages ranging from 89.0 to 81.4 Ma and 95.2 to 93.7 Ma, respectively. Muscovite and K-feldspar separated from the ore zone yielded K-Ar ages with the range of 96.2 to 93.1 Ma and 87.3 to 80.7 Ma, respectively. Muscovites from quartz-muscovite veins in the ore zone and in the granite porphyry yielded K-Ar ages of 90.4 and 76.3 Ma, respectively. K-feldspar is much younger in age than coexisting muscovite. It is noted that the K-Ar ages of biotite separates and the whole-rock ages are identical to those of muscovite and K-feldspar in the ore zone, respectively. These time relations, as well as field occurrence, indicate that the formation of the pegmatite deposits at the Umanotani-Shiroyama mine is closely related in space and time to a series of granitic magmatism of ilmenite-series nature. Using closure temperatures of the K-Ar system for biotite and K-feldspar (microcline), cooling rate of the pegmatite deposits is estimated to be about 82C/m.y. at the beginning, but slowed down to about 15C/m.y. in the later period.     

Seasonal variations of the surface currents in the Tsushima Strait

Seasonal variations of the surface currents in the Tsushima Strait were investigated by analyzing the monthly mean surface currents measured with HF radar. Several new features of the surface currents have been found. One notable feature is the large, complicated seasonal variation in the current structure in the eastern channel of the strait. For example, in the southeastern and northwestern regions of the channel, southwestward countercurrents are found in summer while southeastward acrossshore currents are found in autumn and winter. The wind-driven flow (Ekman flow) as well as surface geostrophic currents are responsible for these complicated variations of the surface currents. To quantify each variation of the flow and current, the wind-driven flow was calculated from the monthly wind (more precisely, the friction velocity) using the monthly speed factor and deflection angle estimated in our previous study, and the surface geostrophic currents were then estimated by subtracting the wind-driven flow from the measured surface currents. It was found that the acrossshore currents are the wind-driven flow, and that the surface geostrophic currents flow almost in the along-shore direction, indicating the validity of the decomposition of the surface velocity into the wind-driven flow and the geostrophic currents using the speed factor and deflection angle. A real-vector empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of the surface geostrophic currents shows a pair of eddies in the lee of Tsushima and Iki Islands as the first mode, which indicates that the southwestward countercurrents in the eastern channel are formed primarily by the incoming Tsushima Warm Current.     

Process length variation of the cyst of the dinoflagellate Protoceratium reticulatum in the North Pacific and Baltic‐Skagerrak region: calibration as an annual density proxy and first evidence of pseudo‐cryptic speciation

Process length variation of cysts of the dinoflagellate Protoceratium reticulatum (Claparède et Lachmann) Bütschli in surface sediments from the North Pacific was investigated. The average process length showed a significant inverse relation to annual seawater density: σ_{t annual} = ?0.8674 × average process length + 1029.3 (R² = 0.84), with a standard error of 0.78 kg m^?3. A sediment trap study from Effingham Inlet in British Columbia revealed the same relationship between average process length and local seawater density variations. In the Baltic–Skagerrak region, the average process length variation was related significantly to annual seawater density: σ_{t annual} = 3.5457 × average process length ? 993.28 (R² = 0.86), with a standard error of 3.09 kg m^?3. These calibrations cannot be reconciled, which accentuates the regional character of the calibrations. This can be related to variations in molecular data (small subunit, long subunit and internal transcribed spacer sequences), which show the presence of several genotypes and the occurrence of pseudo‐cryptic speciation within this species. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diurnal freeze–thaw depth in rockwalls: Field measurements and theoretical considerations

Rock temperatures were monitored for a year at two alpine rockwalls in the Akaishi Range, Japan, where permafrost is absent. Diurnal frost and thaw penetration depths were evaluated from subsurface isotherms drawn on the basis of the temperature records at 0, 10 and 40 cm depths. The surface of the rockwalls experienced more than 100 diurnal freeze-thaw cycles, most of which accompanied a frost or thaw penetration shallower than 50 cm, and several long duration cycles with deeper frost or thaw penetration. Theoretical frost and thaw depths were also calculated by incorporating the surface freezing indices into the modified Berggren equation, the results from which were then compared with the actual values. The modified Berggren equation provided values that showed a strong correlation with observed depths, despite somewhat underestimating the actual values. Using the modified Berggren equation, the seasonal frost depth in the observed winter was estimated to be about 4·5 m. The frost and thaw depths are considered to give the maximum estimation of the depth to which frost-induced cracking can propagate in the bedrock.