Microboudin structures of piemontite along the Sambagawa metamorphic belt, Japan: implications for lateral variation of differential stress during regional metamorphism

Evidence is presented of a lateral variation in differential stress during metamorphism along a regional metamorphic belt on the basis of the proportion of microboudinaged piemontite grains (p) in a quartz matrix in metacherts. It is proposed that p is a practical indicator of relative differential stress. Analysis of 123 metacherts from the 800 km long Sambagawa metamorphic belt, Japan, reveals that p‐values range from < 0.01 to 0.7 in this region. Most samples from Wakayama in the mid‐belt area have p‐values of 0.4–0.6, whereas those from western Shikoku have p‐values of < 0.1. This difference cannot be explained by variations in metamorphic temperature, and is instead attributed to a regional, lateral variation in differential stress during metamorphism.     

Photo-inhibition of phytoplankton photosynthesis as a function of exposure time

The photo-inhibition of phytoplankton photosynthesis at higher intensities was examined with a cultured marine diatom,Phaeodactylum tricornutum, and natural samples. The question was to determine whether photo-inhibition results from excretion of photosynthetic products from cell or from an actual decrease in photosynthetic rate. P. tricornutum cultured at 15 klux showed very little photo-inhibition up to 70 klux, and, in the sample cultured at 1 klux, most marked photo-inhibition was observed in 3 hours experiment. Extracellular release was less than 30% of particulate fixation, and did not show any extreme increase to supplement photosynthesis depression at higher light intensities. When the photosynthesis was measured during 10 minutes, both samples showed no photo-inhibition. The photosynthesis by low light sample lost the linearity of time-course with prolonged exposure at high light intensity. Observed photo-inhibition, therefore, we explained with the actual decrease in photosynthetic rate. Similar photo-inhibition could be seen in marine phytoplankton samples concentrated by filtration.     

Bacteria on petroleum globules in the Philippine sea in January, 1973

About 10⁶ of total bacteria (direct microscopic count) or heterotrophic bacteria (colony count with Medium 2216E) and about 10⁴ of petroleumlytic bacteria (oil-oxidizing bacteria) were enumerated per square centimeter of the surface of petroleum globules suspended in the topmost 10 meters of water from a station (22°00.2N, 125°51.9E) in the western North Pacific central water, where about 10⁷ of total bacteria, about 10³ of heterotrophic bacteria and about 10 of petroleumlytic bacteria were enumerated per liter of seawater.     

Changing anthropogenic influence on the Santa Monica Bay watershed

Santa Monica Bay is an open coastal embayment located directly seaward of Los Angeles, California. The Bay provides vital economic value through its water-dependent activities, such as swimming, diving, boating, and fishing. An increase from 100,000 residents in 1900 to 10 million in 2000 has imposed numerous environmental stressors on the Bay, including urbanization of the watershed. Pollutant discharges into the Bay increased throughout the early part of the century, but declined following passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. Since that time, the predominant source of pollutant inputs has changed from point sources to non-point urban runoff. To assess how present-day and historical pollution interact to affect the environmental quality of Santa Monica Bay, three organizations collaborated on a multi-disciplinary study in 1997, towards which this volume is focused. This paper details the temporal patterns of anthropogenic influence on Santa Monica Bay to provide context for the papers that follow.     

Chemistry and Sulfur Isotopes in a Chert-dominant Sequence around the Stratiform Manganese Deposit of the Noda-Tamagawa Mine, Northern Kitakami Terrane, Northeast Japan: Implication for Paleoceanographic Environmental Setting

Abstract. Chemistry and sulfur isotopes are analyzed for a series of rocks in the chert‐dominant sequence around the stratiform manganese ore deposit of the Noda‐Tamagawa mine in the northern Kitakami Terrane, northeast Japan. The sequence is litholog‐ically classified into six units in ascending order: lower bedded chert, lower black shale, massive chert, manganese ore, upper black shale, and upper bedded chert. The rocks around the manganese ore deposit exhibit anomalous enrichment in Ni (max. 337 ppm), Zn (102) and U (30) in the upper part of lower bedded chert, Mo (122), Tl (79) and Pb (33) in the lower black shale, MnO, Cu (786) and Co (62) in the manganese ore, and As (247) and Sb (17) in the upper black shale. The aluminum‐normalized profiles reveal zonal enrichment of redox‐sensitive elements around the manganese bed: Zn‐Ni‐Fe‐Mo‐U(‐Co), Tl‐Pb(‐Mo), Mn‐Fe‐Cu‐V‐Cr‐Co(‐Zn) and As‐Sb in ascending order. The uppermost part of the lower bedded chert and black shale exhibit negative Ce/Ce* values, whereas the massive chert, manganese ore and lower part of the upper bedded chert display positive values. The isotopic δ³⁴S values are 0±6 % in the lower part of the lower bedded chert, ‐19 to ‐42 % in the upper part of the lower bedded chert, ‐36 to ‐42 % in the lower black shale, ‐28 to ‐35 % in the massive chert, manganese ore and upper black shale, and ‐23±5 % in the upper bedded chert. Thus, there is a marked negative shift in δ³⁴S values in the lower bedded chert, and an upward‐increasing trend in δ³⁴S through the manganese ore horizon. The present data provide evidence for a change in the paleoceanographic environmental resulting from inflow of oxic deepwater into the stagnant anoxic ocean floor below the manganese ore horizon. This event is likely to have triggered the precipitation of manganese oxyhydroxides. The redistribution of redox‐sensitive elements through the formation of metalliferous black shale and manganese carbonate ore may have occurred in association with bacterial decomposition of organic matter during early diagenesis of initial manganese oxyhydroxides.     

U-Pb and Pb-Pb ages of zircons from basaltic eucrites: Implications for early basaltic volcanism on the eucrite parent body

We have undertaken petrologic and SHRIMP U-Th-Pb isotopic studies on zircons from basaltic eucrites (Yamato [Y]-75011, Y-792510, Asuka [A]-881388, A-881467 and Padvarninkai) with different thermal and shock histories. Eucritic zircons are associated with ilmenite in most cases and have subhedral shapes in unmetamorphosed and metamorphosed eucrites. Some zircons in highly metamorphosed eucrites with granulitic texture occur alone in pyroxene, and typically have rounded to subrounded shapes due to recrystallization. Superchondritic Zr/Hf ratios of eucritic zircons indicate that they crystallized from incompatible element-rich melts after crystallization of ilmenite. Concentrations of uranium and thorium in zircons in the unmetamorphosed eucrite Y-75011 are higher than those in metamorphosed eucrites.The U-Pb systems of eucritic zircons are almost concordant but some zircon grains show reverse discordance. Radiogenic lead-loss up to 48% from zircons is observed in the shock-melted eucrite Padvarninkai. The ²⁰⁷Pb-²⁰⁶Pb ages of zircon in Y-75011 (4550 ± 9 Ma, n = 5) are nearly identical, within analytical uncertainty, to the ages of zircons from the metamorphosed eucrite Y-792510 (4545 ± 15 Ma, n = 13), the highly metamorphosed eucrites A-881388 (4555 ± 54 Ma, n = 5) and A-881467 (4558 ± 13 Ma, n = 8), and the shock-melted eucrite Padvarninkai (4555 ± 13 Ma, n = 18). The averaged ²⁰⁷Pb-²⁰⁶Pb age of zircon from five eucrites analyzed in this study is 4554 ± 7 Ma (95% confidence limits, n = 49), indistinguishable from the averaged U-Pb age (4552 ± 9 Ma) of the same samples. Because of the high closure temperature of lead in zircon (T_closure = ∼1050°C with a cooling rate of 0.2°C/yr), the ²⁰⁷Pb-²⁰⁶Pb ages of eucritic zircon do not represent metamorphic ages but crystallization ages of extrusive lavas.This fact strongly suggests that volcanism of the eucrite parent body occurred at a very early stage of the Solar System history, 7-20 Ma after CAI formation (4567.2 ± 0.6 Ma), thus basaltic eucrites crystallized from parental magmas within a short interval following the differentiation of their parent body. The U-Pb ages of eucritic zircons are older than the U-Pb, Sm-Nd and Rb-Sr ages of some basaltic eucrites, which is consistent with differences in closure temperatures of each isotopic system, and suggests that thermal and shock metamorphism affected the isotopic systems of pyroxene, plagioclase and phosphates.     

Possible sources of forecast errors generated by the global/regional assimilation and prediction system for landfalling tropical cyclones. Part I: Initial uncertainties

This paper investigates the possible sources of errors associated with tropical cyclone (TC) tracks forecasted using the Global/Regional Assimilation and Prediction System (GRAPES). The GRAPES forecasts were made for 16 landfalling TCs in the western North Pacific basin during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, with a forecast length of 72 hours, and using the default initial conditions (“initials”, hereafter), which are from the NCEP-FNL dataset, as well as ECMWF initials. The forecasts are compared with ECMWF forecasts. The results show that in most TCs, the GRAPES forecasts are improved when using the ECMWF initials compared with the default initials. Compared with the ECMWF initials, the default initials produce lower intensity TCs and a lower intensity subtropical high, but a higher intensity South Asia high and monsoon trough, as well as a higher temperature but lower specific humidity at the TC center. Replacement of the geopotential height and wind fields with the ECMWF initials in and around the TC center at the initial time was found to be the most efficient way to improve the forecasts. In addition, TCs that showed the greatest improvement in forecast accuracy usually had the largest initial uncertainties in TC intensity and were usually in the intensifying phase. The results demonstrate the importance of the initial intensity for TC track forecasts made using GRAPES, and indicate the model is better in describing the intensifying phase than the decaying phase of TCs. Finally, the limit of the improvement indicates that the model error associated with GRAPES forecasts may be the main cause of poor forecasts of landfalling TCs. Thus, further examinations of the model errors are required.     

A four-component decomposition of POLSAR images based on the coherency matrix

A four-component decomposition scheme of the coherency matrix is presented here for the analysis of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The coherency matrix is used to deal with nonreflection symmetric scattering case, which is an extension of covariance matrix approach. The same decomposition results have been obtained. The advantage of this approach is explicit expressions of four scattering powers in terms of scattering matrix elements, which serve the interpretation of polarimetric SAR data quantitatively.     

The Stannern trend eucrites: Contamination of main group eucritic magmas by crustal partial melts

We report on the petrology of a new eucrite belonging to the Stannern trend and discuss the origin of this trend. The eucrite Northwest Africa 4523 (NWA 4523) is an equilibrated eucrite consisting of dark clasts embedded in a fine-grained crystallized matrix. Two types of clasts have been observed: medium-grained ophitic/subophitic clasts, and very fine-grained clasts. Despite textural differences, the clasts display the same mineralogy, in particular the same kind of pyroxenes with pigeonitic cores containing sparse exsolution lamellae, and augitic rims, zoned plagioclases and the occurrence of K-feldspar. The major and trace element abundances of a large medium-grained clast are very similar to Stannern or Bouvante.The Stannern trend eucrites are characterized by high incompatible trace element abundances. Their trace element patterns normalized to a representative Main Group eucrite, exhibit significant Eu, Sr and Be negative anomalies. In this paper, we show that contamination of Main Group eucritic magmas by melts derived by partial melting of the asteroid’s crust can successfully explain both the high incompatible trace elements concentrations and the distinctive Eu, Sr, Be anomalies shown by the Stannern trend eucrites. This model is in agreement with the view that Stannern and some Main Group-Nuevo Laredo trend eucrites have been contemporaneously erupted, and with the probable assumption that Stannern trend eucrites formed rather late in the history of the 4-Vesta’s crust.     

Clinoamphibole lamellae in diopside of garnet lherzolite from Alpe Arami,Bellinzona, Switzerland

Porphyroclastic diopside in garnet lherzolite from Alpe Arami, Bellinzona, Switzerland includes optically-visible clinoamphibole lamellae with a composition intermediate between pargasite and edenite. X-ray and electron microscopic observations show that the diopside crystal contains sub-microscopic thin clinoamphibole lamellae parallel to (010), which have coherent interfaces to the host. A kind of planar defect parallel to (010) in clinopyroxene structure, as suggested by Chisholm (1973), is shown here to correspond to intercalation of a 9 Å lattice fringe of double-chain structure in the electron micrograph of the diopside. The thin clinoamphibole lamellae are observed to be segregated domains consisting of two and more 9 Å fringes.From the chemical characteristics and textural relations of the development of such clinoamphiboles, the chemical change required to form them is considered to have been caused principally by decreasing solubility of atoms such as Na, Al and Cr in clinopyroxene structure during the retrogressive reequilibration. Also, a possibility of finite solid solution of clinoamphibole in clinopyroxene is discussed.