Fault system of the 2004 Mid Niigata Prefecture Earthquake and its aftershocks

Data recorded by a seismic network deployed the day after the 2004 Mid Niigata Prefecture Earthquake (M6.8) in central Japan are used to determine the major source faults responsible for the mainshock and major aftershocks. Using this high-resolution seismic data, three major source faults are identified: two parallel faults dipping steeply to the west located 5 km apart, and the other dipping eastward and oriented perpendicular to the west-dipping faults. The analysis also reveals that the lateral variation in seismic velocity observed at the surface extends to a depth of 15 km, encompassing the source area of the mainshock. This strong heterogeneity of the crust, related to the complex geological and tectonic evolution of the area, is considered to be responsible for the prominent aftershock activity following the 2004 Niigata event.     

Behavior of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at impact shock: Its implication for survival of organic materials delivered to the early Earth

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with a hydrous or an unhydrous mineral matrix were impacted and analyzed, to study the behavior of PAHs against shock. Results of the shock experiments suggested that volatiles discharged from the hydrous mineral did not influence the behavior of PAHs against shock. The shocked samples contained unreacted starting PAHs, soot-like materials insoluble in dichloromethane, and secondarily formed PAHs with molecular weights ranging from 128 to 404. Approximately 95% of starting PAHs decomposed at ∼30 GPa and the dominant product was the soot-like materials. Formation mechanisms of the shock products were explained by reaction processes under static high pressure-temperature conditions (e.g., carbonization, radical addition reaction, ring cross linking, and methylation).We applied these results to estimate the survival degree of organic matter delivered by carbonaceous asteroids against their impact pressures at the accretion stage of early Earth. If we use a simplified homogeneous accretion model without atmosphere to represent the stage, the radius of Earth causing 30 GPa, the pressure at which PAHs almost decompose, was calculated as 2270 km (4.0 km s⁻¹ of impact velocity) for the impact of carbonaceous asteroids. In the case of impactors striking not land but oceans on the early Earth, the impact velocity for the decomposition of PAHs was estimated to be 6.0 km s⁻¹. These impact velocities should have been commonly realized on the early Earth, due to the airburst and the aerobreak of impactors in the dense atmosphere. The early Earth should have been a favorable environment for obtaining and maintaining a large quantity of prebiotic organic materials leading to life.     

Lake Suwa — Eutrophication and its partial recent recovery

Lake Suwa, located in the center of the largest Japanese island of Honshu was a typical hypertrophic lake with a dense scum Microcystis species in summer during the 1970's. However, due to the introduction of a sewage treatment plant and the awareness of environmental pollution by local residents, a decrease in the concentration of nutrients in lake water since 1981 has been observed (from 1600 g l^–1 and 160 g l^–1 in 1977 to 990 g l^–1 and 110 g l^–1 in 1984 for total nitrogen and phosphorus respectively).     

Geochemistry of Late Permian to Early Triassic pelagic cherts from southwest Japan: implications for an oceanic redox change

Major, trace, and rare earth element abundances were determined for the southwestern Japanese pelagic chert sequence from the early Late Permian to early Early Triassic to investigate a redox change in deep-sea pelagic environments before and at the Permo-Triassic boundary (PTB) (251 Ma). The sequence was primarily deposited in the deep-sea of the superocean Panthalassa, and then was accreted to Japan in the Middle Jurassic. A remarkable lithostratigraphic change from red chert to siliceous∼carbonaceous claystone through gray chert is observed in this sequence. Constituent elements for these sedimentary rocks are essentially derived from two sources: (1) an ancient seawater via biogenic (mainly radiolarian), hydrothermal, and authigenic materials and (2) an average shale-like terrigenous material. The present measurement demonstrates significant stratigraphic changes of the Ce/Ce_non-ter* value (estimated Ce anomaly value of non-terrigenous component, recalculated by subtraction of terrigenous REEs from bulk REEs) and the (Mn/TE)_sample/(Mn/TE)_PAAS value (excess Mn component other than terrigenous one; TE=terrigenous elements including Ti, Al, Nb, Hf, Th; PAAS=Post-Archean Average Australian Shale) in the Permian chert. The Ce/Ce_non-ter* values increase from <0.2 to 1 and the (Mn/TE)_sample/(Mn/TE)_PAAS values decrease up-section, suggesting that the redox condition of deep-sea open-ocean changed from oxic to suboxic in an interval of approximately 10 Myr. The (∑Fe/TE)_sample/(∑Fe/TE)_PAAS and (Mn/TE)_sample/(Mn/TE)_PAAS values of carbonaceous claystone near or at the PTB are less than unity, suggesting that reductive dissolution of iron and manganese occurred under an anoxic condition. This supports the idea of the PTB oceanic anoxia in the superocean Panthalassa. The present data suggest that the anoxic condition prevailed in the deep-sea pelagic regions for an extremely long period, much more than 10 Myr, from the middle Late Permian to early Early Triassic. This long-term development of widespread oceanic anoxia may have been linked to the greatest mass extinction of the Phanerozoic.     

Sea-floor fissures, biological communities and sediment fatty acids of the Northern Okushiri Ridge, Japan Sea: Implications for possible methane seepage

A biological community was discovered in the Northern Okushiri Ridge, northeastern Japan Sea. The community was closely associated with sea-floor fissures, and presumed to be supported by methanotrophic and/or thiotrophic bacterial production. Sediments inside of and in the vicinity of the fissures were collected, and the short-chain (C_9–20) sediment fatty acids were analyzed for amounts and compositions. The fatty acid compositions were compared with those from a known methane seep and a submarine volcano in the Sagami Bay, central Japan, and from a whale skeleton at the Torishima Seamount, northwestern Pacific Ocean. As a result, a close relationship between the sediments from the Northern Okushiri Ridge, the known methane-seep, and the whale skeleton was found. This finding represents the first discovery of methane seepage and associated biological communities in the Japan Sea. This also supports the hypothesis that the eastern margin of the northern Japan Sea is at the early stage of new subduction.     

Effect of canopy openness and meteorological factors on spatial variability of throughfall isotopic composition in a Japanese cypress plantation

Spatial variability of throughfall (TF) isotopic composition, used as tracer input, influences isotope hydrological applications in forested watersheds. Notwithstanding, identification of the dominant canopy factors and processes that affect the patterns of TF isotopic variability remains ambiguous. Here, we examined the spatio‐temporal variability of TF isotopic composition in a Japanese cypress plantation, in which intensive strip thinning was performed and investigated whether canopy structure at a fine resolution of canopy effect analysis is related to TF isotopic composition and how this is affected by meteorological factors. Canopy openness, as an index of canopy structure, was calculated from hemispherical photographs at different zenith angles. TF samples were collected in a 10 × 10 m experimental plot in both pre‐thinning (from July to November 2010) and post‐thinning (from May 2012 to March 2013) periods. Our results show that thinning resulted in a smaller alteration of input δ¹⁸O of gross precipitation, whereas the changes in deuterium excess varied in both directions. Despite the temporal stability of spatial patterns in TF amount, the spatial variability of TF isotopic composition was not temporally stable in both pre‐ and post‐thinning periods. Additionally, after thinning, the isotopic composition of TF was best related to canopy openness calculated at the zenith angle of 7°, exhibiting three different relationships, that is, significantly negative, significantly positive, and nonsignificant. Changes in meteorological factors (wind speed, rainfall intensity, and temperature) were found to affect the relationships between TF δ¹⁸O and canopy openness. The observed shifts in the relationships reveal different dominant factors (partial evaporation and the selection), and canopy water flowpaths control such differences. This study provides useful insights into the spatial variability of TF isotopic composition and improves our understanding of the physical processes of interception through canopy passage.     

Infall of gas from intergalactic space and soft x-ray background

As the origin of the soft X-ray background, emission of soft X-rays from shocks occurred in the accretion of intergalactic gas onto the Galaxy is studied. Infall of discrete gas clouds cannot explain the diffuse component of soft X-rays. If intergalactic gas rich in heavy elements as the cosmic abundance continously flows into the Galaxy and forms a standing shock surrounding the Galaxy, the line emissions by heavy elements from the shocked gas explain the soft X-ray background. Formation of the high velocity cloud by thermal instability in the shocked gas is also discussed briefly.