A stochastic model of earthquake occurrence and the accompanying horizontal land deformation

A large-scale earthquake is believed to be associated with a release of strain energy accumulated in the crust, probably by the motion of upper-mantle lithosphere. Such an earthquake mechanism is well simulated by a belt-conveyer model proposed by Utsu (1972). The probability of earthquake occurrence can be estimated on the assumption that the motion of a slider on the belt-conveyer is mathematically formulated as a Markov process.In the probabilistic expressions, the results of Mogi's (1962) rock-fracture experiments are applied to the hazard-rate function of earthquake occurrence. The hazard-rate function has two coefficients, A and B, to be determined by the experiments. It is concluded that, when B is small, a number of small-scale earthquakes occur in the early time after the accumulation of crustal strain energy starts, but that the accumulated strain energy changes catastrophically into a single large-scale earthquake, when B is large.     

Geodesy in Japan

T. Inoh was the first who completed a nation-wide map of Japan, in the beginning of the 19th century. He determined geodetic positions by distance and angle measurements and by astronomical observations. When Japan entered into its modern era, about 100 years ago, the Military Land Survey was established and has conducted geodetic work in Japan ever since until the end of World War II. A German surveying system belonging to Helmert's school was adopted. The Ministry of Education organized later the Geodetic Commission which promoted the geodetic activities in cooperation with the Military Land Survey. Comparison between the first and second nation-wide triangulation results obtained by the Geographical Survey Institute (GSI), the successor of the Military Land Survey, brought out marked horizontal land-deformations associated with a large earthquake. Repetitions of levelling survey also make it clear that vertical land-movements, well consistent with tide-gauge observation data, take place in association with earthquakes. The extensive subsidence in the Northeast Japan may be explained by assuming a sinking lithosphere, as is argued by the theory of plate tectonics. On the other hand, most local movements are closely correlated to pre-, co- and post-seismic land-deformations. The nation-wide gravity survey carried out by the GSI disclosed a complicated gravity distribution in Japan. Ship-borne gravimeters have now been extensively working at sea. One of the recent highlights of gravimetric work is the detection of secular gravity changes which are in accordance with the secular changes of levelling data. A portable absolute-gravity measuring instrument was constructed by the Earthquake Research Institute although it is still in a testing stage. Much advance has been made in the astrogeodetic observation devices since 1950's.     

A catalytic oxidation method for the determination of total nitrogen dissolved in seawater

A detailed examination of a high-temperature catalytic oxidation method for liquid samples in the analysis of total nitrogen dissolved in seawater is reported. The nitrogenous compounds in liquid samples are oxidized on a platinum catalyzer at 680°C under oxygen atmosphere and the generated NO₂ is absorbed into a chromogenic reagent, followed by a spectrophotometric determination. The results of this method are much higher than those of wet oxidation methods. Molecular size dependency of the results clearly indicates that the above discrepancy is caused by the low oxidation capacity of the wet oxidation method against high-polymer organic matter dissolved in seawater. The results revealed that the concentration of total nitrogen in seawater is nearly constant from surface to bottom, ranging from 30 to 40 μM 1^?1, which organic nitrogen concentration higher in the surface layer, and a rapid decrease with depth. An examination of molecular size distribution indicates that the concentration of high-polymer organic nitrogen decreases rapidly from surface to deeper layers, with molecular sizes ranging from 5 × 10³ to 3 × 10⁴. Because of the well-defined principle of the oxidation process, its reliability, ease of sample handling and of analytical procedure on board or in the land laboratory, the present method is much more suitable for the marine analytical chemistry of total and organic nitrogen than the other previous methods.     

Jurassic accretion tectonics of Japan

Abstract The Jurassic accretionary complex and coeval granites in Japan represent remnants of the Jurassic arc-trench system developed between the Asian continent and Pacific Ocean. The Jurassic accretionary complex occurs as a large-scale nappe that is tectonically sandwiched between the overlying pre-Jurassic nappes and underlying post-Jurassic nappes. By virtue of new research styles (microfossil mapping and chronometric mapping) the following new views of the Jurassic accretionary complex in Japan, that suggest those for on-land exposed ancient accretionary complexes in general, have been obtained: (i) the accretion age of the Jurassic accretionary complex ranges over ～ 80 million years from the latest Triassic to earliest Cretaceous according to a reconstructed stratigraphy of component rocks (oceanic plate stratigraphy); (ii) the accretionary complex is subdivided into several nappe units, each characterized by unique oceanic plate stratigraphy; (iii) a tectonically downward-younging polarity is observed in the piled nappes; (iv) the Jurassic accretionary complex is composed of coherent-type and chaotic-type units, the former retaining the primary accretionary structures while the latter are characterized by collapsed and secondarily mixed materialslfabrics derived from the former; (v) the chaotic-type units predominate in volume over the coherent-type units; (vi) the accretionary complex suffered from a regional low-grade metamorphism (up to the lower greenschist facies) within ～10–20 million years after the accretion timing; and (vii) the lateral extent of the Jurassic accretionary complex in East Asia is intermittently traced from the Koryak mountains in Russia to North Palawan in the west Philippines for ～6000 km. Discussion focuses on (i) the low preservation ratio of the coherent-type units to the chaotic-type units with respect to frequent subduction erosion by seamount subduction; (ii) absence of the Franciscan-type melange, suggesting sedimentary mixing origin for the chaotic-type unit; (iii) a growth rate of the Jurassic accretionary complex compatible to modern analogues; and (iv) the total volume of the Jurassic accretionary complex in Japan with respect to the most likely terrigeiious elastics source along the 250 Ma continent-continent collision suture in central China (between the Sino-Korean and Yangtze blocks).     

Damage to buildings and structures due to recent devastating wind hazards in East Asia

Extreme wind events such as typhoons and tornadoes can cause devastating damage to structures and huge losses to human societies. This paper introduces recent devastating wind-related disasters in East Asia, including disasters in Japan, the Philippines and China, from 2013 to 2016. In particular, it describes several post-disaster investigations including those on Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 in the Philippines; typhoon Mujigae and two typhoon-associated tornadoes in October, 2015, in Guangdong, China; and a tornado in June, 2016 in Yancheng, China. Meteorological features, damage details and failure mechanisms of structures, factors related to damage generation and spread, scales to evaluate storms, estimations of tornado wind speeds and so on are discussed, with the aim of mitigating future wind-related disasters and to create safer and sustainable societies. Lessons derived from aerodynamic effects, cladding and component performances, debris impacts, building arrangements, fatigue effects, construction methods, etc. together with suggestions for wind-resistant design of buildings are given.     

Sulfur and carbon isotopic systematics of Guadalupian‐Lopingian (Permian) mid‐Panthalassa: δ34S and δ13C profiles in accreted paleo‐atoll carbonates in Japan

Immediately before the extinction of the end‐Guadalupian (Middle Permian; ca 260 Ma), a significant change to the global carbon cycle occurred in the superocean Panthalassa, as indicated by a prominent positive δ¹³C excursion called the Kamura event. However, the causes of this event and its connection to the major extinction of marine invertebrates remain unclear. To understand the mutual relationships between these changes, we analyzed the sulfur isotope ratio of the carbonate‐associated sulfate (CAS) and HCl‐insoluble residue, as well as the carbon isotope ratio of bulk organic matter, for the Middle‐Upper Permian carbonates of an accreted mid‐oceanic paleo‐atoll complex from Japan, where the Kamura event was first documented. We detected the following unique aspects of the stable carbon and sulfur isotope records. First, the extremely high δ¹³C values of carbonate (δ¹³C_carb) over +5 ‰ during the Capitanian (late Guadalupian) were associated with large isotopic differences between carbonate and organic matter (Δ¹³C = δ¹³C_carb ? δ¹³C_org). We infer that the Capitanian Kamura event reflected an unusually large amount of dissolved organic matter in the expanded oxygen minimum zone at mid‐depth. Second, the δ³⁴S values of CAS (δ³⁴S_CAS) were inversely correlated with the δ¹³C_carb values during the Capitanian to early Wuchiapingian (early Late Permian) interval. The Capitanian trend may have appeared under increased oceanic sulfate conditions, which were accelerated by intense volcanic outgassing. Bacterial sulfate reduction with increased sulfate concentrations in seawater may have stimulated the production of pyrite that may have incorporated iron in pre‐existing iron hydroxide/oxide. This stimulated phosphorus release, which enhanced organic matter production and resulted in high δ¹³C_carb. Low δ³⁴S_CAS values under high sulfate concentrations were maintained and the continuous supply of sulfate cannot by explained only by the volcanic eruption of the Emeishan Trap, which has been proposed as a cause of the extinction. The Wuchiapingian δ³⁴S_CAS–δ¹³C_carb correlation, likely related to low sulfate concentration, may have been caused by the removal of oceanic sulfate through the massive evaporite deposition.     

Analysis of the appearance and disappearance of point objects over time

The appearance and disappearance of immovable points are important spatiotemporal events in geographical information science. They represent phenomena such as the birth and death of trees in forests, construction and destruction of buildings in cities and openings and closures of shops and restaurants. This paper proposes a new method for analyzing the appearance and disappearance of points. The method helps analysts capture the overall picture and regional variation of event pattern and detecting significant local patterns. Four measures are defined that indicate the intensity of spatial and temporal patterns of events. The measures are visualized as grid maps. A statistical test is used to evaluate the significance of the measures to extract the regions of significant patterns. The proposed method is applied in an analysis of shops and restaurants in Shibuya, Tokyo. Technical soundness of the method is discussed along with empirical findings.     

Statistical methods for analyzing the distribution of spatial objects in relation to a surface

This paper develops statistical methods for analyzing the distribution of spatial objects—points, convex polygons, and line segments—in relation to a surface. We propose statistics for measuring the relationship between the distribution of these objects and a surface and derive their expectations and variances under the null hypothesis that the objects are independently and randomly distributed. The statistics are approximately distributed according to the normal distribution under the null hypothesis, which enables us to test the significance of the spatial relationships statistically. Using the proposed methods, we empirically analyze the distribution of convenience stores in relation to the distribution of population in a suburb of Osaka, Japan. Some empirical findings are shown.     

High-Reflectivity Coatings for a Vacuum Ultraviolet Spectropolarimeter

Precise polarization measurements in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region are expected to be a new tool for inferring the magnetic fields in the upper atmosphere of the Sun. High-reflectivity coatings are key elements to achieving high-throughput optics for precise polarization measurements. We fabricated three types of high-reflectivity coatings for a solar spectropolarimeter in the hydrogen Lyman-\(\upalpha \) (Ly\(\upalpha \); 121.567 nm) region and evaluated their performance. The first high-reflectivity mirror coating offers a reflectivity of more than 80 % in Ly\(\upalpha \) optics. The second is a reflective narrow-band filter coating that has a peak reflectivity of 57 % in Ly\(\upalpha \), whereas its reflectivity in the visible light range is lower than 1/10 of the peak reflectivity (\(\sim 5~\%\) on average). This coating can be used to easily realize a visible light rejection system, which is indispensable for a solar telescope, while maintaining high throughput in the Ly\(\upalpha \) line. The third is a high-efficiency reflective polarizing coating that almost exclusively reflects an s-polarized beam at its Brewster angle of 68° with a reflectivity of 55 %. This coating achieves both high polarizing power and high throughput. These coatings contributed to the high-throughput solar VUV spectropolarimeter called the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP), which was launched on 3 September, 2015.     

A major change in magma sources in late Mesozoic active margin of the circum-Sea of Japan domain: Geochemical constraints from late Paleozoic to Paleogene mafic dykes in the Sergeevka belt,southern Primorye,Russia

More than 30 mafic dykes crop out in the Sergeevka belt in the coastal South Primorye, Far East Russia, of which geologic settings have been unclear for years. This study conducted major- and trace elements characterization, Sr–Nd isotope analyses, and Ar–Ar amphibole and U–Pb zircon datings for these rocks in order to identify their origin. The results demonstrated that all dykes are characterized by high Ba/Yb and low Nb/Y, Zr/Y, and Th/Yb ratios, which suggest their origin from arc melts derived from thin wedge mantle and shallow-dipping slab. These dykes are clearly separated into two distinct age/geochemistry suites; that is, the Paleogene and Early Cretaceous one with dolerites/basalts and adakitic rocks, and the Permian–Triassic one with high-Mg and high-Al gabbro-dolerite varieties. Their geochemistry suggests that the older suite was sourced from a primitive depleted MORB mantle (DMM)-type mantle, whereas the younger suite from an enriched mantle II (EM2)-type mantle domain. The transition in source type from DMM to EM2 occurred during the Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous time, probably by a strong influence of a mantle plume onto the long-continuing subduction-related magmatism. The plume influence reached the maximum when the unique meimechite-picrite complex formed in the region.