Influence of bedrock groundwater on streamflow characteristics in a volcanic catchment

Groundwater movements in volcanic mountains and their effects on streamflow discharge and representative elementary area (REA) have remained largely unclear. We surveyed the discharge and chemical composition of spring and stream water in two catchments: the Hontani river (NR) catchment (6.6 km²) and the Hosotani river (SR) catchment (4.0 km²) at the southern part of Daisen volcano, Japan. Daisen volcano is a young volcano (17 × 10³ years) at an early stage of erosion. Our study indicated that deep groundwater that moved through thick lava and pyroclastic flows and that could not be explained by shallow movements controlled by surface topography contributed dominantly to streamflow at larger catchment areas. At the NR catchment, the deep groundwater contribution clearly increased at a catchment boundary defined by an area of 3.0 km² and an elevation of 800 m. At the SR catchment, the contribution deep groundwater to the stream also increased suddenly at a boundary threshold of 2.0 and 700 m. Beyond these thresholds, the contributions of deep bedrock groundwater remained constant, indicating that the REA is between 2 and 3 km² at the observed area. These results indicate that the hydrological conditions of base flow were controlled mainly by the deep bedrock groundwater that moved through thick lava and pyroclastic flows in the undissected volcanic body of the upper part of the catchment. Our study demonstrates that deep and long groundwater movements via a deep bedrock layer including thick deposits of volcanic materials at the two catchments on Daisen volcano strongly determined streamflow discharge instead of the mixing of small‐scale hydrological conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

差分主成分分析法在辽河三角洲景观变化中的应用

差分主成分分析法是应用遥感数据检测景观变化的一种新方法。为了提高检测精度,我们利用TM卫星遥感数据,改进了主成分分析法和图像差值法,提出了差分主成分分析法。并以辽河三角洲地区为例,对该方法进行了验证。研究结果表明：(1) 与传统的检测法-分类后比较法相比,差分主成分分析法具有较高的检测精度,总检测精度为0.89,Kappa指数为0.82;(2) 在1984~2000年的16年间,辽河三角洲地区有近22%的景观发生了变化,主要包括芦苇湿地的减少、水稻田的增加以及城镇用地的增加。     

Episyenite formation in the Toki granite,central Japan

Episyenite is a quartz-depleted vuggy rock resulting from hydrothermal alteration of granitic rocks. This is the first report of its existence in an island arc, which is identified in a deep drill core of the Toki Cretaceous granite distributed in central Japan. In order to understand the petrographical features of the episyenite, neutron porosity measurement, geochemical analysis, microscopic observation, and X-ray computed tomography scanning were carried out. The results show remarkably high porosity (35.4 %) due to interconnecting vugs and the removal of quartz, plagioclase, and biotite. The Rb–Sr isotopic results and the paragenetic sequence of secondary minerals in the vugs suggest that the hydrothermal alteration process can be divided into an episyenitization stage and a later hydrothermal stage. At the episyenitization stage (70.6 ± 3.1 Ma) ca. 6 million years after the emplacement of the unaltered granite (76.3 ± 1.5 Ma), dissolution of quartz, biotite, and plagioclase occurred and was followed by the precipitation of albite, vermicular chlorite, and platy calcite. The episyenitization is considered as a local alteration of the Toki granite in an isotopically closed system. At the later hydrothermal stage, illite and secondary quartz precipitated from circulating meteoric-derived water in the dissolution vugs. Superimposing alteration at the later hydrothermal stage is limited, which results in the preservation of the episyenite in an almost primitive condition.     

Statistical Analysis of Ground Motions Estimated on the Basis of a Recipe for Strong-motion Prediction: Approach to Quantitative Evaluation of Average and Standard Deviation of Ground Motion Distribution

For seismic hazard assessment, we study the variabilities of predicted ground motion on the basis of a ??recipe for predicting strong ground motion?? and propose approximations to evaluate spatial distributions of the standard deviation for PGV, R1.0, R2.0, and R5.0 in the estimated ground motions. For strong-motion prediction, we use a finite difference method for a long period range (>1.0?s). To estimate variabilities, a Monte Carlo simulation is used and we adopt the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) technique to reduce computations. In this article, we consider only aleatory variabilities in source parameters among all possible variabilities, such as those in the source parameters, the propagation characteristics and site characteristics. Model sources are assumed for dip-slip fault and strike-slip fault, and the variabilities are considered for parameters such as asperity location, rupture starting point, average asperity slip contrast, stress drop and rupture velocity. On the target site, 100 instances of PGV, R1.0, R2.0 and R5.0 data are obtained for 100 sets of parameters and an average and a standard deviation of the log normal distribution, corresponding to the variability for ground motion estimation, are statistically analyzed. For all target sites uniformly distributed in the area around the faults, the average and the standard deviation are statistically analyzed and spread to spatial maps. It is found that the spatial distributions of standard deviation values for both the dip-slip and strike-slip faults are not uniform. Approximations are attempted to develop a quantitative evaluation for spatial distributions of the standard deviation of the log normal distribution for PGV, R1.0, R2.0, and R5.0. The spatial distributions by these approximations are considered to almost reconstruct the characteristics, which are statistically analyzed by the finite difference method.     

Kinetic stability of a melted iron globule during chondrule formation. I. Non‐rotating model

Abstract— We have investigated the kinematics of the separation of iron globules from chondrules during chondrule formation. A simple model, which assumes that the system has no angular momentum, was used to calculate the energy of a system with an iron globule and a chondrule. The energies of three different states were calculated: 1) a melted iron globule fully embedded in a melted chondrule, 2) a melted iron globule on the surface of a melted chondrule, and 3) a melted iron globule being separated from a melted chondrule. We also calculated the lowest energy shape for a melted iron globule on the surface of a melted chondrule, and compared our result with the shapes of four natural samples of chondrules and iron globules in thin sections. The shapes were calculated using an assumed value for the interface energy between the four couples of melted chondrules and the iron globules, and agree well with the natural shapes of chondrules and iron globules. The results of our calculations show that the iron globules of these four samples would be strongly bound to the surface of the melted chondrule during chondrule formation, and separation would be difficult, if the iron globules had been on the surface of precursors of these chondrules. Our results also show that if these iron globules were initially inside and transported to the surface of the melted chondrule, most of them would be ejected from the inside to outside because of surface tension forces, as long as the energy losses due to viscous dissipation when the globules pass through the surface of melted chondrules were sufficiently small. Although further improvement of the model is required, our results demonstrate that this ejection process may be responsible for the depletion of siderophile elements in natural chondrules.     

Verifying optimality of rainfed agriculture using a stochastic model for drought occurrence

It may be paradoxical but subsistence rainfed agriculture is the predominant source of food in Sub-Saharan Africa where the production uncertainty is associated with the stochastic nature of rainfall. This paper attempts to comprehend the rationale of this situation by a mathematical approach. Considering the level of drought severity as the zero-reverting Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, optimality of rainfed agriculture is investigated in the context of stochastic control theory. Occurrence of drought terminating growth of crops is modelled with the concept of first exit time. A stochastic control problem allowing for virtual cost of irrigation, water stress to crops, and benefits of farming is formulated with irrigation effort as the control variable. The Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation governing the optimal control is studied to identify the set of cost functions optimizing rainfed agriculture in an inverse problem approach. Data and information were collected in the coastal savanna agro-ecological zone of Ghana, to identify model parameters, formulate the stochastic control problem, solve the inverse problem, and then verify optimality of rainfed agriculture. The results indicated that rainfed agriculture is not optimal when the crop is more tolerant to water stress.     

High-frequency polarity swings during the Gauss-Matuyama reversal from Baoji loess sediment

Paleomagnetic records of the Gauss-Matuyama reversal were obtained from two loess sections at Baoji on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Stepwise thermal demagnetization shows two obvious magnetization components. A low-temperature component isolated between 100 and 200–250°C is close to the present geomagnetic field direction, and a high-temperature component isolated above 200–250°C reveals clearly normal, reversed, and transitional polarities. Magnetostratigraphic results of both sections indicated that the Gauss-Matuyama reversal consists of a high-frequency polarity fluctuation zone, but the characteristic remanent magnetization directions during the reversal are clearly inconsistent. Rock magnetic experiments demonstrated that for all the specimens with normal, reversed, and transitional polarities magnetite and hematite are the main magnetic carriers. Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility indicates that the studied loess sediments have a primary sedimentary fabric. Based on virtual geomagnetic pole latitudes, the Gauss-Matuyama reversal records in the two sections are accompanied by 14 short-lived geomagnetic episodes (15 rapid polarity swings) and 12 short-lived geomagnetic episodes (13 rapid polarity swings), respectively. Our new records, together with previous ones from lacustrine, marine, and aeolian deposits, suggest that high-frequency polarity swings coexist with the Gauss-Matuyama reversal, and that the Gauss-Matuyama reversal may have taken more than 11 kyr to complete. However, we need more detailed analyses of sections across polarity swings during reversals as well as more high-resolution reversal records to understand geomagnetic behavior and inconsistent characteristic remanent magnetization directions during polarity reversals.     

The Impact of Orographically-Induced Gravity Wave on the Diurnal Cycle of Rainfall over Southeast Kalimantan Island

Precipitation measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite indicate that the southeastern area of Kalimantan (Borneo) Island receives much less rainfall than elsewhere on the island during the period from July to October.Results from sur-face meteorological observations show that the diurnal cycle of rainfall differs greatly between the eastern and western coasts of the island.Rainfall on the western coast of the island is frequent in the afternoon and evening,whereas almost all rainfall on the eastern coast occurs in the morning.Meanwhile,the Global Positioning System (GPS)-derived precipitable water (PW) on the eastern coast shows a substantial decrease in moisture in the af-ternoon and evening.Numerical experiments with a mesoscale model reveal that gravity waves driven by di-urnal heating of the elevated land surface of the moun-tains on Sulawesi Island,which lies approximately 300 kilometers to the east of Kalimantan Island,significantly affect the diurnal cycle of rainfall over southeast Kali-mantan Island.     

A deep section of accretionary complex: Susunai Complex in Sakhalin Island, Northwest Pacific Margin

Abstract A deep section of accretionary complex, the metamorphosed Susunai Complex, is observed on Sakhalin Is., Russia. High pressure part of pumpellyite-actinolite facies metavolcanics, metacherts and metapelites are well exposed and constitute a tectonic pile preserving primary structures related to underplating of the oceanic crust. Three stages of deformation, D₁ through D₃, suggest successive deformation during subduction, underplating and exhumation of the complex. Oceanic material in the complex is more abundant than other well documented ancient accretionary complexes (e.g. the Shimanto Belt in southwest Japan and the Ghost Rocks Formation in Alaska), which were shallowly underplated. At Susunai, deep down-stepping of a décollément has scraped off the upper part of the oceanic crust, primarily the pillowed basalt horizon. This down-stepping results from crustal weakening as overpressured water is released from the fractured oceanic crust during metamorphism.