Large-scale structure of galaxies in the Ophiuchus region

The large-scale structure around the Ophiuchus cluster of galaxies in the vicinity of the Galactic Centre ( l =05, b =95, cz =8500 km s⁻¹) is investigated on the basis of a galaxy survey and spectroscopic observations made for a 12°×17° area. The galaxy survey was performed using six ESO/SERC Sky Survey Atlas films, and 4021 galaxies were detected in total. Recession velocities were newly obtained for 179 galaxies to make the total number of galaxies in the survey area with known velocities 219.
In the distribution of bright galaxies, we identified seven new clumps of galaxies. Comparing the surface number density of bright galaxies with the Galactic extinction, which is estimated from the 100‐μm flux density in the IRAS Sky Survey Atlas, we demonstrate that the seven clumps are not spurious as a result of the inhomogeneity of the Galactic extinction. Among the seven clumps, two are found to be clusters and four to be groups on the basis of the histogram of recession velocities and the number of member galaxies. The Ophiuchus cluster, two newly identified clusters, and four groups are all concentrated at 9000 km s⁻¹. Field galaxies are also distributed centred at 8500 km s⁻¹. Hence field galaxies occupy a common three-dimensional region with galaxies in the clusters and groups, and altogether they form a large-scale structure of supercluster size. As opposed to the overdensity in the supercluster region, the mean number density of galaxies in the velocity range 0–5000 km s⁻¹ is only 25 per cent of the mean number density of the Universe, comparable with the density of the well-known Böotes void. Hence this nearby three-dimensional region in Ophiuchus is a void of galaxies also.     

Late Holocene Asian monsoon variations recorded in Lake Rara sediment,western Nepal

The Himalayas are a key location for understanding centennial‐ to millennial‐scale variations in the Asian monsoon, yet few studies of the late Holocene have been conducted in this sensitive area. Direct evidence for shifts in monsoonal wind strength is often limited to marine proxy records, while terrestrial reconstructions (e.g. lake levels and spleothems) focus on precipitation. Here, we present the first evidence of terrestrial summer monsoon wind strength changes from Lake Rara, western Nepal, based on Mn/Ti ratios, a proxy for lake stratification. These data indicate a link between the Arabian Sea and the Himalayas, suggesting that centennial‐ to millennial‐scale changes in wind strength occurred synchronously. Distinct similarity is also observed between Lake Rara and the southern part of China, which may support previous suggestions that the southern part of China is influenced by Indian summer monsoon. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Antifouling herbicides in the coastal waters of western Japan

Residue analyses of some antifouling herbicides (Diuron, Irgarol 1051 and the latter's degradation product M1, which is also known as GS26575), were conducted in waters collected along the coast of western Japan. In total, 142 water samples were collected from fishery harbours (99 sites), marinas (27 sites), and small ports (16 sites) around the Seto Inland Sea, the Kii Peninsula, and Lake Biwa, in August 1999. A urea-based herbicide, Diuron, was positively identified for the first time in Japanese aquatic environments. Diuron was detected in 121 samples (86%) up to a highest concentration of 3.05 microg/l, and was found in 86% of samples from fishery harbours, 89% from marinas, and 75% from ports. Four freshwater samples out of 11 collected at Lake Biwa contained Diuron. Neither Irgarol 1051 nor M1 was found in the lake waters, but both were found in many coastal waters. Irgarol 1051 was found in 84 samples (60%) at a highest concentration of 0.262 microg/l. The concentrations detected were of similar magnitude to those in our previous surveys, taken in 1997 and 1998. M1 was found in 40 samples (28%) up to a highest concentration of 0.080 microg/l. The concentrations detected were generally lower than those found in our previous surveys. The detection frequency among fishery harbours, marinas, and ports was 57-70% for Irgarol 1051 and 25-30% for M1. Ninety-five per cent of the coastal waters in which M1 was detected also contained Irgarol 1051, and 93% of the samples in which Irgarol 1051 was detected also contained Diuron. These results clearly suggest that commercial ship-bottom paints containing both Diuron and Irgarol 1051 are used extensively in the survey area.     

Recent uplift and hydrothermal activity at Tangkuban Parahu volcano,west Java,Indonesia

Tangkuban Parahu is an active stratovolcano located 17 km north of the city of Bandung in the province west Java, Indonesia. All historical eruptive activity at this volcano has been confined to a complex of explosive summit craters. About a dozen eruptions-mostly phreatic events- and 15 other periods of unrest, indicated by earthquakes or increased thermal activity, have been noted since 1829. The last magmatic eruption occurred in 1910. In late 1983, several small phreatic explosions originated from one of the summit craters. More recently, increased hydrothermal and earthquake activity occurred from late 1985 through 1986. Tilt measurements, using a spirit-level technique, have been made every few months since February 1981 in the summit region and along the south and east flanks of the volcano. Measurements made in the summit region indicated uplift since the start of these measurements through at least 1986. From 1981 to 1983, the average tilt rate at the edges of the summit craters was 40–50 microradians per year. After the 1983 phreatic activity, the tilt rate decreased by about a factor of five. Trilateration surveys across the summit craters and on the east flank of the volcano were conducted in 1983 and 1986. Most line length changes measured during this three-year period did not exceed the expected uncertainty of the technique (4 ppm). The lack of measurable horizontal strain across the summit craters seems to contradict the several years of tilt measurements. Using a point source of dilation in an elastic half-space to model tilt measurements, the pressure center at Tangkuban Parahu is located about 1.5 km beneath the southern part of the summit craters. This is beneath the epicentral area of an earthquake swarm that occurred in late 1983. The average rate in the volume of uplift from 1981 to 1983 was 3 million m³ per year; from 1983 to 1986 it averaged about 0.4 million m³ per year. Possible causes for this uplift are increased pressure within a very shallow magma body or heating and expansion of a confined aquifier.     

Citrate-dithionite-bicarbonate extractable phosphorus (CDB-P) pool in the suspended and surface sediments of the tidal flat area in inner Ariake Bay,Japan

CDB-P (phosphorus extractable by the citrate-dithionite-bicarbonate extraction procedure) was used as the indicator of bio-available inorganic P in the suspended and surface sediments in the inner part of Ariake Bay. The CDB-P pool of suspended and surface sediments in the tidal flat area was estimated to be 10 ton and 90 ton, respectively (total of 100 ton), which corresponds to 1.5 times the average dissolved inorganic phosphorus standing stock. During the summer periods of hypoxia, the CDB-P concentration in the surface sediments decreased with the decline of Eh, losing 43–47% of the CDB-P observed in April. These results suggest that the phosphorus dynamics have been affected by the decrease of resuspended sediment concentrations brought about by the reduction of the tidal currents and phosphate release from the surface sediments during frequently occurring summer hypoxia events.     

Geochemical variation with time in the Cenezoic volcanic rocks of southwest Hokkaido, Japan

Abundances of major and trace elements were determined for the Tertiary volcanic rocks from SW Hokkaido. The Late Miocene to Pliocene volcanic rocks of this region show geochemical features similar to those of the Quaternary rocks, that is, K/Si, Th/Si and LREE/HREE ratios increasing across the arc, east to west, from the Pacific to the Japan Sea side. In contrast, the Early Miocene volcanic rocks, which are geographically restricted to the Japan Sea coast, are distinct from all later volcanics and show “within-plate” characteristics — in particular, high concentrations of HFS elements. The Quaternary basalts have low Hf/Yb ratios and Hf contents, whereas the Early Miocene basalts are high in Hf/Yb and Hf, similar to Hawaiian alkali basalts. The compositional variation with time may result from the progressive depletion of incompatible HFS elements in the mantle source. Th/Yb ratios increase from Early Miocene to Quaternary, possibly reflecting increase in the LIL element contribution to the mantle source during that time.     

Principal stress directions from a natural occurrence of stress-induced clinoenstatite

Lamellae of clinoenstatite are common in enstatite grains in the high-grade ultramafic hornfelses around the Mount Stuart Batholith in the Central Cascades of Washington. Laboratory deformation experiments on enstatite have shown that shear stress on (100) planes parallel to [001] drastically promotes the formation of clinoenstatite. Petrofabric studies of a sample of the hornfels reveal a strong preferred orientation of clinoenstatite-bearing enstatite grains that is unrelated to the fabric of the complete set of enstatite grains. This preferred orientation is well explained by supposing that the clinoenstatite was produced by shearing due to N-S compression. Local and regional geological features are also consistent with N-S compression. These results suggest that there is considerable potential for the application of stress-induced clinoenstatite as a geopiezometer in rocks.Now with: Department of Geology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 80271, USA     

Recent uplift and hydrothermal activity at Tangkuban Parahu volcano, west Java, Indonesia

Tangkuban Parahu is an active stratovolcano located 17 km north of the city of Bandung in the province west Java, Indonesia. All historical eruptive activity at this volcano has been confined to a complex of explosive summit craters. About a dozen eruptions-mostly phreatic events- and 15 other periods of unrest, indicated by earthquakes or increased thermal activity, have been noted since 1829. The last magmatic eruption occurred in 1910. In late 1983, several small phreatic explosions originated from one of the summit craters. More recently, increased hydrothermal and earthquake activity occurred from late 1985 through 1986. Tilt measurements, using a spirit-level technique, have been made every few months since February 1981 in the summit region and along the south and east flanks of the volcano. Measurements made in the summit region indicated uplift since the start of these measurements through at least 1986. From 1981 to 1983, the average tilt rate at the edges of the summit craters was 40–50 microradians per year. After the 1983 phreatic activity, the tilt rate decreased by about a factor of five. Trilateration surveys across the summit craters and on the east flank of the volcano were conducted in 1983 and 1986. Most line length changes measured during this three-year period did not exceed the expected uncertainty of the technique (4 ppm). The lack of measurable horizontal strain across the summit craters seems to contradict the several years of tilt measurements. Using a point source of dilation in an elastic half-space to model tilt measurements, the pressure center at Tangkuban Parahu is located about 1.5 km beneath the southern part of the summit craters. This is beneath the epicentral area of an earthquake swarm that occurred in late 1983. The average rate in the volume of uplift from 1981 to 1983 was 3 million m³ per year; from 1983 to 1986 it averaged about 0.4 million m³ per year. Possible causes for this uplift are increased pressure within a very shallow magma body or heating and expansion of a confined aquifier.     

Evaluation of tsunami impacts on shallow marine sediments: An example from the tsunami caused by the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, northern Japan

A combined approach of field geology and numerical simulation was conducted for evaluating the tsunami impacts on the shelf sediments. The 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, M 8.0, that occurred on 25 September 2003 off southeastern Hokkaido, northern Japan, generated a locally destructive tsunami. Maximum run-up height of the tsunami waves reached 4 m above sea level. In order to estimate the tsunami impacts on shallow marine sediments, we compared pre- and post-tsunami marine sediments in water depths of 38–112 m in terms of grain size, sedimentary structure, and microfossil content. Decreases of fine fractions, especially finer than very fine sand, which led to coarsen the mean grain size, were detected in the inner shelf of the northern part of the study area. Foraminiferal assemblages also changed in the coarsened sediments. On the other hand, the other shelf sediments largely unchanged or slightly fined. We also simulated the tsunami wave velocity and direction, and grain size entrained by the modeled tsunami. The numerical simulation resulted in that the 2003 tsunami could transport very fine sand in water depths shallower than 45–95 m at the northern part of the study area. This is comparable with the actual grain-size changes after the tsunami had passed. However, some storms and tidal currents might also be possible to stir the surface sediments after the pre-tsunami survey, so we could not conclude that the grain-size changes had been caused only by the tsunami. Nevertheless, a combined approach of sampling and modeling was powerful for estimating the tsunami impacts under the sea.     

Distribution of Changjiang Diluted Water detected by satellite chlorophyll-a and its interannual variation during 1998–2007

Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) chlorophyll-a distribution in summer in the East China Sea during 1998–2007 was analyzed. Statistical analysis with K-means clustering technique allowed us to define the proper satellite chlorophyll-a concentration indicating the Changjiang Diluted Water (CDW). The spatial distributions of the higher satellite chlorophyll-a concentrations (>0.48 mg m⁻³) corresponded well with the distributions of lower salinity CDW (<30–32) every year. Interannual variation of the CDW area, indicated by the high satellite chlorophyll-a, correlated with the interannual variation of the Changjiang summer freshwater discharge. The correlation analysis indicated that the CDW spread eastward in the East China Sea with a time lag of 1 to 2 months after the discharge.