Tectonics of an Early Carboniferous forearc inferred from a high-P/T schist-bearing conglomerate in the Nedamo Terrane, Northeast Japan

The Nedamo Terrane, an Early Carboniferous accretionary complex, is the oldest biostratigraphically dated accretionary complex in Japan. The purpose of this study is to describe and interpret a conglomerate from the Nedamo Terrane that contains clasts of high-pressure/low-temperature (high- P/T ) schist (mainly garnet-bearing phengite schist) and ultramafic rock, and to infer the tectonics of an Early Carboniferous arc–trench system at the eastern margin of the paleo-Asian continent. Clasts of high- P/T schist and ultramafic rock within the conglomerate make up 8.4 and 6.7% of the total clasts, respectively, based on modal counts. These clasts are subangular to subrounded, whereas volcanic clasts are well rounded. The source of the schist clasts, which yield a radiometric age of 347–317 Ma, is considered to be the Renge Metamorphic Rocks of Southwest Japan or equivalent rocks. Based on the chemical composition of chromian spinel, the source of ultramafic clasts is inferred to be the island-arc-type Ordovician Miyamori and Hayachine ultramafic complexes in the Kitakami Massif. The conglomerate records multiple provenance regions, including an island arc (South Kitakami Terrane) and a forearc ridge; the high P/T schist and ultramafic rocks were exhumed in the forearc region. The duration of the interval from the early stages of exhumation of the schist to its deposition in the trench as clasts is estimated to have been less than 30 my.     

Improving GPS positioning estimates during extreme weather situations by the help of fine-mesh numerical weather models

Space geodetic applications require to model troposphere delays as good as possible in order to achieve highly accurate positioning estimates. However, these models are not capable to consider complex refractivity fields which are likely to occur during extreme weather situations like typhoons, storms, heavy rain-fall, etc. Thus it has been investigated how positioning results can be improved if information from numerical weather models is taken into account. It will be demonstrated that positioning errors can be significantly reduced by the usage of ray-traced slant delays. Therefore, meso-scale and fine-mesh numerical weather models are utilized and their impact on the positioning results will be measured. The approach has been evaluated during a typhoon passage using global positioning service (GPS) observations of 72 receivers located around Tokyo, proving the usefulness of ray-traced slant delays for positioning applications. Thereby, it is possible reduce virtual station movements as well as improve station height repeatabilities by up to 30% w.r.t. standard processing techniques. Additionally the advantages and caveats of numerical weather models will be discussed and it will be shown how fine-mesh numerical weather models, which are restricted in their spatial extent, have to be handled in order to provide useful corrections.     

Internal deformation of a muddy gravity flow and its interaction with the seafloor (site C0018 of IODP Expedition 333, Nankai Trough,SE Japan)

The processes of flow deformation of marine mass-transport sediments, including their ability to affect the underlying substrate and add mass during sediment flow events, are addressed based on sedimentological analyses of strata from the distal part of a ～61-m-thick mass-transport deposit (MTD 6) drilled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 333. Our analyses, supported by 3D seismic data, show a cohesive density flow deformed by folding, faulting and shear, except for its lowermost part (～7 m), where no deformation and sediment entrainment was identified. While the lowermost part moved as rigid sediment, the underlying sand layer acted as the basal shear zone for this part of the distal MTD 6. This shear zone was restricted to the sand, not involving the overlying sediments. From this, the studied part of MTD 6 was found to represent a case where the flow behaviour at least partly depended on the location and properties of the underlying sand layer, a situation that so far has received little attention in studies of marine flows. Our results also show that shear-induced mixing, located by the initial layering, is an important process in the flow transformation from cohesive slumps to mud flows and that this may occur over short distances (<4 km) without involving disintegration into blocks, probably due to only moderate prefailure consolidation of the sediments involved. In conclusion, we find that the bulk part of the flow was self-contained from a mass balance point of view and that that the overall amount of entrainment was limited.     

Petrology of Aoso volcano,northeast Japan arc: temporal variation of the magma feeding system and nature of low-K amphibole andesite in the Aoso-Osore volcanic zone

The Aoso volcano is a member of the newly defined volcanic front of Northeast Japan, characterized by the occurrence of low-K and hornblende andesites. Its activity can be divided into three stages: the early, caldera-forming, and late stages. While petrographic and geochemical data show all products underwent magma mixing or co-mingling, Sr and Nd isotopic ratios indicate that all are consanguineous. The end-member magmas are basaltic and andesitic in the early stage, but basaltic and dacitic in the late stage. In the caldera-forming stage, hornblende-free and hornblende-rich andesites co-mingled, which triggered an explosive eruption leading to caldera formation. Hornblende occurs also in the dacite from the early part of the late stage. These hornblende andesites and dacites are lower in magmatic temperature compared to hornblende-free andesites. The estimated basaltic end-member is low-K and high in magmatic temperature, and can be derived by a high degree of partial melting of mantle under the volcanic front. The estimated andesitic and dacitic end-members cannot be derived from the basaltic end-member magma through fractional crystallization, but can be derived from partial re-melting of the solidified low-K basalt, leaving amphibolitic and gabbroic residues, respectively.     

Using GIS to develop a mobile communications network for disaster-damaged areas

Communications network damage resulting from a large disaster causes difficulties in the ability to rapidly understand the current situation and thus make appropriate decisions towards mitigating problems, such as where to send and dispense emergency supplies. The research outlined in this paper focuses on the rapid construction of a network after a disaster occurs. This study suggests ZigBee and geographic information systems (GIS) technologies to resolve these problems and provide an effective communication system. The experimental results of the ZigBee network system are presented, examples are provided of the mapping and analysis undertaken using GIS for the disaster-stricken area of Tsukuba City, Japan, and the communications node arrangements are determined for this region. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of establishing such a communications system for supporting efforts to relieve disaster-damaged areas.     

Partitioning Eddy-Covariance Methane Fluxes from a Shallow Lake into Diffusive and Ebullitive Fluxes

Methane (\(\mathrm {CH}_{4}\)) is known to be emitted from lakes to the atmosphere via processes such as diffusion and ebullition (i.e., bubble emission). We developed a practical method for partitioning eddy-covariance \(\mathrm {CH}_{4}\) fluxes from a shallow lake into diffusive and ebullitive fluxes using a wavelet analysis based on local scalar similarity between the \(\mathrm {CH}_{4}\) concentration and other reference scalars, such as the air temperature or water vapour concentration, in the wavelet time-scale domain, with the hypothesis that similar and dissimilar fluctuation components are related to diffusive and ebullitive \(\mathrm {CH}_{4}\) fluxes, respectively. Our method is applied to approximately two weeks of data obtained at a shallow mid-latitude lake. The partitioned diffusive flux has a physically sound relationship with wind speed, supporting the validity of the method. The ratio of the diffusive flux to the total flux is typically 0.11 with flow from an area of steady bubble emission, but otherwise 0.36. Further validation is required using a larger dataset and data from other lakes. The proposed method can be easily applied to historical data because it requires only 10-Hz data of \(\mathrm {CH}_{4}\) concentration and other reference scalars, along with an empirical parameter.     

Geochemical constraints on the origin of bimodal magmatism at the Okinawa Trough, an incipient back-arc basin

The magmatism at the axial zone of the middle Okinawa Trough, a young continental back-arc basin, comprises a bimodal basaltic–rhyolitic suite, accompanied by minor intermediate rocks. We report major and trace element and Sr–Nd isotopic data for the intermediate to silicic suites, to provide constraints on their petrogenesis. The rhyolites, recovered as lava and pumice, fall into three geochemical groups (type 1, 2, and 3 rhyolites). Type 1 rhyolites have ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr (0.7040–0.7042) and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd (0.5128–0.5129) identical to those of associated basalts, and are characterized by highly fractionated REE patterns. Petrogenesis of type 1 rhyolites is explicable in terms of fractional crystallization of the associated basalt. In contrast, type 2 rhyolites and andesite have slightly higher ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr (0.7044–0.7047) but similar ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd (0.5128) compared to those of the basalts. The compositions of type 2 rhyolite and andesite can be explained by assimilation and fractional crystallization (AFC) processes of the basalt magma; quantitative analysis suggests assimilation/fractional crystallization (M_a/M_c) ratios of ≤0.05. Hybrid andesite generated by mixing of evolved basalt and type 1 rhyolite is also present. We emphasize that mechanical extension in this part of the Okinawa Trough involves gabbroic lower crust that resulted from fractionation of mantle-derived basaltic magmas. Type 3 rhyolite occurs only as pumice, which makes its derivation questionable. This rhyolite has major and trace element compositions and Sr–Nd isotopic ratios, which suggests that it may be derived from volcanic activity on the southern Ryukyu volcanic front, and arrived in the Okinawa Trough by drifting on the Kuroshio Current.