Bio-Optical Properties of Seawater in the Western Subarctic Gyre and Alaskan Gyre in the Subarctic North Pacific and the Southern Bering Sea during the Summer of 1997

Chlorophyll a concentrations (chla) and the absorption coefficients of total particulate matter [a _p()], phytoplankton [a _ph()], detritus [a _d()], and colored dissolved organic matter: CDOM [a _CDOM()] were measured in seawater samples collected in the subarctic North Pacific and the southern Bering Sea during the summer of 1997. We examined the specific spectral properties of absorption for each material, and compared the light fields in the Western subarctic Gyre (area WSG) with those in the Alaskan Gyre (area AG), and the southern Bering Sea (area SB). In the area WSG, the irradiance in the surface layer decreased markedly, indicating high absorption. In the area AG, the radiant energy penetrated deeply, and the chl a and absorption values were low throughout the water column. In the area SB, light absorption was high in the surface layer on the shelf edge and decreased with increasing depth; on the other hand, light absorption was low in the surface layer in the shelf area and increased with increasing depth.     

Iron regeneration and organic iron(III)-binding ligand production during in situ zooplankton grazing experiment

To elucidate iron regeneration and organic iron(III)-binding ligand formation during microzooplankton and copepod grazing on phytoplankton, incubation experiments were conducted in the western subarctic Pacific. During 8 days of dark incubation of ambient water and that amended with plankton concentrate, dissolved iron and organic iron(III)-binding ligands accumulated, approximately proportionally to the decrease in chlorophyll a. The observed increases in dissolved iron concentration were much greater than those expected from the consumption of phytoplankton biomass and previously reported Fe:C value of cultured algal cells, suggesting resolution from colloidal or particulate iron adsorbed onto the algal cell surface. When copepods were added to the ambient water, organic iron(III)-binding ligands accumulated more rapidly than in the control receiving no copepod addition, although consumed phytoplankton biomass was comparable between the two treatments. Bioassay experiment using filtrates collected from the incubation experiment showed that organic ligands formed during microzooplankton grazing reduced the iron bioavailability to phytoplankton and suppressed their growth. Moreover, picoplankton Synechococcus sp. and Micromonas pusilla were more suppressed by the organic ligands than the diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii. In conclusion, through microzooplankton and copepod grazing on phytoplankton, organic iron(III)-binding ligands as well as regenerated iron are released into the ambient seawater. Because the ligands lower iron bioavailability to phytoplankton through complexation and the degree of availability reduction varies among phytoplankton species, grazing by zooplankton can shift phytoplankton community structure in iron-limited waters.     

Mechanism of two rapid and long-runout landslides in the 16 April 2016 Kumamoto earthquake using a ring-shear apparatus and computer simulation (LS-RAPID)

Around hundred landslides were triggered by the Kumamoto earthquakes in April 2016, causing fatalities and serious damage to properties in Minamiaso village, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The landslides included many rapid and long-runout landslides which were responsible for much of the damage. To understand the mechanism of these earthquake-triggered landslides, we carried out field investigations with an unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain DSM and took samples from two major landslides (Takanodai landslide and Aso-ohashi landslide) to measure parameters of the initiation and the motion of landslides. A series of ring-shear tests and computer simulations were conducted using a measured Kumamoto earthquake acceleration record from KNet station KMM005, 10 km west of Aso-ohashi landslide. The research results supported our assumed mechanism of sliding-surface liquefaction for the rapid and long-runout motion of these landslides.     

Field survey report on tsunami disasters caused by the 1993 Southwest Hokkaido earthquake

Detailed field work at Okushiri Island and along the southwest coast of Hokkaido has revealed quantitatively (1) the advancing direction of tsunami on land, (2) the true tsunami height (i.e., height of tsunami, excluding its splashes, as measured from the ground) and (3) the flow velocity of tsunami on land, in heavily damaged areas. When a Japanese wooden house is swept away by tsunami, bolts that tie the house to its concrete foundation resist until the last moment and become bent towards the direction of the house being carried away. The orientations of more than 850 of those bent bolts and iron pipes (all that can be measured, mostly at Okushiri Island) and fell-down direction of about 400 trees clearly display how tsunami behaved on land and caused serious damage at various places. The true tsunami height was estimated by using several indicators, such as broken tree twigs and a window pane. The flow velocity of tsunami on land was determined by estimating the hydrodynamic force exerted on a bent handrail and a bent-down guardrail by the tsunami throughin situ strength tests.Contrary to the wide-spread recognition after the tsunami hazard, our results clearly indicate that only a few residential areas (i.e., Monai, eastern Hamatsumae, and a small portion at northern Aonae, all on Okushiri Island) were hit by a huge tsunami, with true heights reaching 10 m. Southern Aonae was completely swept away by tsunami that came directly from the focal region immediately to the west. The true tsunami height over the western sea wall of southern Aonae was estimated as 3 to 4 m. Northern Aonae also suffered severe damage due to tsunami that invaded from the corner zone of the sand dune (8 m high) and tide embankment at the northern end of the Aonae Harbor. This corner apparently acted as a tsunami amplifier, and tide embankment or breakwater can be quite dangerous when tsunami advances towards the corner it makes with the coast. The nearly complete devastation of Inaho at the northern end of Okushiri Island underscored the danger of tsunami whose propagation direction is parallel to the coast, since such tsunami waves tend to be amplified and tide embankment or breakwater is constructed low towards the coast at many harbors or fishing ports. Tsunami waves mostly of 2 to 4 m in true height swept away Hamatsumae on the southeast site of Okushiri Island where there were no coastal structures. Coastal structures were effective in reducing tsunami hazard at many sites. The maximum flow velocity at northern Aonae was estimated as 10 to 18 m/s (Tsutsumi et al., 1994), and such a high on-land velocity of tsunami near shore is probably due to the rapid shallowing of the deep sea near the epicentral region towards Okushiri Island. If the advancing direction, true height, and flow velocity of tsunami can be predicted by future analyses of tsunami generation and progagation, the analyses will be a powerful tool for future assessment of tsunami disasters, including the identification of blind spots in the tsunami hazard reduction.     

Intrinsic oxygen fugacity measurements on seven chondrites,a pallasite,and a tektite and the redox state of meteorite parent bodies

Intrinsic oxygen-fugacity (fO₂) measurements were made on five ordinary chondrites, a carbonaceous chondrite, an enstatite chondrite, a pallasite, and a tektite. Results are of the form of linear log $\text{f}\text{O}{}_2\text{?}\text{1}\text{T}$ plots. Except for the enstatite chondrite, measured results agree well with calculated estimates by others.The tektite produced fO₂ values well below the range measured for terrestrial and lunar rocks. The lowpressure atmospheric regime that is reported to follow large terrestrial explosions, coupled with a very high temperature, could produce glass with fO₂ in the range measured.The meteorite Salta (pallasite) has low fO₂ and lies close to Hvittis (E6). Unlike the other samples, results for Salta do not parallel the iron-wüstite buffer, but are close to the fayalite-quartz-iron buffer in slope.Minor reduction by graphite appears to have taken place during metamorphism of ordinary chondrites. fO₂ values of unequilibrated chondrites show large scatter during early heating suggesting that the constituent phases were exposed to a range of fO₂ conditions. The samples equilibrated with respect to fO₂ in relatively short time on heating. Equilibration with respect to fO₂ in ordinary chondrites takes place between grades 3 and 4 of metamorphism. Application of P ? T ? fO₂ relations in the system C-CO-CO₂ indicates that the ordinary chondrites were metamorphosed at pressures of 3–20 bars, as it appears that they lay on the graphite surface.A steep positive thermal gradient in a meteorite parent body lying at the graphite surface will produce thin reduced exterior, an oxidized near-surface layer, and an interior that is increasingly reduced with depth; a shallow thermal gradient will produce the reverse. A body heated by accretion on the outside will have a reduced exterior and oxidized interior. Meteorites from the same parent body clearly are not required to have similar redox states.     

Short geomagnetic episodes in the Matuyama epoch

Two short geomagnetic episodes in the middle Matuyama epoch have been identified within thin (4.3-mm) sections of two deep-sea calcareous sediment cores taken in the western equatorial Pacific. Both cores are correlated by magnetostratigraphic and micropaleontological methods. Magnetic stability and paleomagnetic reliability are tested by alternating field demagnetization of natural remanent magnetization as well as by the ratios of intensities of anhysteretic remanent magnetization to those of saturation isothermal remanent magnetization. One episode is dated to be 1.06 m.y. BP. The other is identified to be about 1.94 m.y. BP, which is presumably in agreement with the Reunion event. Both episodes seem to be accompanied by conspicuous drops in field intensity. Possible correlation of field intensity with biological productivity in the ocean is also postulated from the present paleomagnetic results.     

A simple model of drainage flow on a slope

The concept of a cold air ‘Parcel’ is introduced for describing the bulk properties of drainage flow. By means of a model based on the momentum and sensible heat transports under calm conditions, the thickness h and velocity u of the Parcel are derived in simple forms. It is shown that h and u correspond to the inversion height and maximum velocity of actual drainage flow. The governing parameters for h and u are the length and vertical drop of the slope, potential temperature difference between the ambient atmosphere and the Parcel, aerodynamic condition of the slope surface expressed by the mean bulk coefficients, and ambient stability. The mean bulk coefficients depend on the roughness lengths for the velocity and potential temperature profiles and are decreasing functions of the slope length. The Parcel Model agrees qualitatively with Manins and Sawford's (1979) model under neutral ambient stratification. But agreement is not so good under stable conditions. The thickness and velocity of drainage flow predicted by the Parcel Model agree with observations on slopes several tens of meters to several hundred kilometers long.     

Phylogenetic relationship between symbionts of tubeworm <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lamellibrachia satsuma</Emphasis> and the sediment microbial community in Kagoshima Bay

Vestimentiferan tubeworms acquire their symbionts through horizontal transmission from the surrounding environment. In the present study, we constructed a 16S rRNA gene clone library to investigate the phylogenetic relationship between diverse microbes in the sediment and symbiotic bacteria in the trophosome of the tubeworm, Lamellibrachia satsuma, from Kagoshima Bay, Japan. Two symbiotic bacterial phylotypes belonging to the classes γ- and ε-Proteobacteria were found from this tubeworm trophosome. They were very closely related to the symbionts of several other marine invertebrates. The most predominant bacteria in the sediment were ε-Proteobacteria. A broad diversity of bacteria belonged to non-proteobacterial phyla such as Planctomycetes, Acidobacteria, and Chloroflexi was observed. The presence of sulfur oxidizers (i.e., ε-Proteobacteria and γ-Proteobacteria) and sulfur reducers (i.e., δ-Proteobacteria) may play a significant role in the sulfur cycle in these habitats and provide multiple sources of nutrition to the cold-seep communities. Closely related clones of ε-Proteobacteria symbiont in the species level and of γ-Proteobacteria symbiont in the genus level were found in the surrounding sediment. The similarity of symbiont clones of L. satsuma with other symbionts and free-living bacteria suggests the possibility of opportunistic symbiosis in ε-Proteobacteria and the co-evolution of γ-Proteobacteria having occurred after symbiosis with the tubeworms.