A prototype global volcano surveillance system monitoring seismic activity and tilt

The Earth Resources Technology Satellite makes it feasible for the first time to monitor the level of activity at widely separated volcanoes and to relay these data almost instantancously to one central office. This capability opens a new era in volcanology where the hundreds of normally quiescent but potentially dangerous volcanoes near populated regions around the world can be economically and reliably monitored. A prototype global volcano surveillance system has been established beginning in the fall of 1972 with the help of local scientists on 15 volcanoes in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, California, Iceland. Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Data on earthquake activity and ground tilt are received 6 to 10 times daily in Menlo Park, California, within 90 minutes of transmission from the sites. Seismic event counters were installed at 19 locations with biaxial borehole tiltineters with 1 microradian sensitivity installed at seven sites. Direct comparison of seismic events that are counted with records from nearby seismic stations show the event counters work quite reliably. An order of magnitude increase in seismic events was observed prior to the eruption of Volcán Fuego in Guatemala in February, 1973. Significant changes in tilt were observed on volcanoes Kilauea. Fuego, and Pacava. This study demonstrates the technological and economic feasibility of utilizing such a volcano surveillance system throughout the world.     

Resource Evaluation and Some Genetic Aspects of Indium in the Japanese Ore Deposits

Abstract. There have been two primary sources for industrial indium; one from massive sulfides, while the other is dissemination-veins and skarns, related to felsic igneous rocks. The latter group of the In-bearing deposits is abundant in the Japanese Islands. Indium occurs as In-minerals such as sakuraiite, roquesite, laforetite and many unidentified minerals, but the majority is contained as an impurity in sphalerite, and tin and copper sulfides. Average grades of the ores from which indium has been extracted vary from a few ppm (e.g., Kosaka mine) to more than 300 ppm (Toyoha mine). The amount of indium in all the major basemetal deposits is estimated by analyzing representative samples. The main indium deposits are subvolcanic and tin-poly-metallic vein types. The largest one is Toyoha mine (4,700 tons hi) and the Ashio mine (ca. 1,200 tons In) was found to be the second largest. Many small occurrences, were recognized in the Miocene magnetite-series belt, besides the classic occurrences in the ilmenite-series granitic terrains of SW Japan, including the Ikuno and Akenobe tin(-tungsten) polymetallic veins, located in the northern margin of the late Cretaceous Sanyo ilmenite-series province. Magnetite-series magmas with deep source are necessary to concentrate sulfur in the magma chamber but sedimentary source rocks and their reducing agents are needed to collect and to precipitate indium. The Japanese islands are essentially accretionary terrains intruded by various deep oxidized magmas; thus forming magnetite/ilmenite-series paired belts, which are sometimes mixed. This unique geologic setting may be the most fundamental reason why indium is rich in vein-type deposits of the Japanese Island arcs.     

Inverse Problem and Solution of the Kolmogorov Model for Bed Thickness Distribution

Bed thickness is an important factor when interpreting geologic records to determine the past environment; it is related to the sediment transport and debris production rates. Because of the inherent uncertainty of these phenomena, a probabilistic model is useful for dealing with the problem. Many probabilistic models are variations of the Kolmogorov model, which is a type of random-walk model. The Kolmogorov model is a simple mathematical model that has a wide range of applications. However, when estimating paleo-environments from geologic records, the inverse problem is more practical than the forward problem, but the former has not been well discussed. Previous applications have estimated the probability density function (PDF) for stochastic steady states (including virtual cumulative erosion that is not physically observable) but not for independent events, and the difference between the results for these two kinds of PDFs has not been analyzed. This study considers the inverse problem of the Kolmogorov model and the properties of its solution. This study found that (1) the inverse problem can be solved analytically in a general form; (2) the difference between the above two PDFs can exceed 10% in some cases; and (3) different PDFs for the deposition and erosion magnitudes of independent events can reproduce the same bed thickness distribution of preserved layers.     

Barchan ripples under unidirectional water flows in the laboratory: formation and planar morphology

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the formation and planar shape of barchan ripples generated by laboratory unidirectional water currents and to compare the morphology with that of barchans formed by laboratory waves and flows in natural environments. A thin veneer of sand as a sediment source was placed initially at the upstream part of a recirculating flume and the change in bed configurations by the flow was recorded by a video camera. Two types of formative process were observed: one was that barchan ripples grew from barchanoid bedforms and the other was that they developed from a small aggregate of sand particles. The barchan ripples in the present test had the same characteristics in the height–width relation and in the migration speed as previously reported from the desert environment and wave‐flume studies. An examination of the planar shape of the barchans led to the result that the barchan ripples had larger values of body‐length/width, compared with those of barchans formed by water waves in the laboratory and by airflow in natural deserts. The horn‐length/width of the barchan ripples was smaller than that of barchan dunes in deserts but larger than that of barchans in oscillatory laboratory flows. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High temperature X-ray study of single crystal stishovite synthesized with Li2WO4 as flux

Single crystal stishovite with a square prismatic habit and maximum length 0.8 mm was grown from α-quartz at 120 kbar and ～1,300° C. Li₂WO₄, chosen as a result of a previous experiment in growing coesite, was also successful as flux for stishovite. Single crystal X-ray structure analysis of the crystals thus obtained has been carried out at high temperatures under ambient pressure. Lattice constant measurements give a larger thermal expansion coefficient along the a-axis than along the c-axis. The bond distances and bond angles show a decreasing distortion of the SiO₆ octahedron with increasing temperature. The increasing amplitude of thermal vibrations of oxygen atoms with increasing temperature results in increasing O-O repulsion in the basal plane, which explains the observed crystallographic changes.     

Potential of superelastic Cu–Al–Mn alloy bars for seismic applications

We present the results of the quasi‐static cyclic tensile tests of Cu–Al–Mn shape memory alloy (SMA) bars of 4 and 8 mm diameters to examine their superelasticity and other mechanical properties closely related to seismic applications. The present Cu–Al–Mn SMA bars have achieved the recovery strains of over 8% and the fracture strains of over 17%. Low‐cycle fatigue was observed in neither of the bars. The mechanical properties obtained from the test, along with the lower material cost and higher machinability than Ni–Ti SMAs, demonstrate the high potential of the present Cu–Al–Mn SMA bars to be used in seismic applications. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contamination level of mercury in red meat products from cetaceans available from South Korea markets

Levels of total mercury (T-Hg) were surveyed in red meat (n=73) and liver (n=3) from toothed whales, dolphins and porpoises (odontocetes) sold for human consumption in the coastal cities of South Korea. High concentrations of T-Hg were found in the liver products of finless porpoises (18.7 and 156 microg/wet g) and common dolphins (13.2 microg/wet g). The T-Hg concentrations in red meat products were highest in the false killer whale (9.66+/-12.3 microg/wet g, n=9), bottlenose dolphin (10.6+/-12.6 microg/wet g, n=3) and killer whale (13.3 microg/wet g, n=1), and lowest in Cuvier's beaked whale and the harbour porpoise (0.4-0.5 microg/wet g). Thus, most of the products that originated from odontocetes exceeded the safety limit of 0.5 microg/wet g for T-Hg set by the South Korean health authorities for the fishery industry. Pregnant women and other vulnerable sectors of the population living in South Korea should therefore limit their consumption of odontocete products.     

Cathodoluminescence microscopy and spectroscopy of forsterite from Kaba meteorite: An application to the study of hydrothermal alteration of parent body

Highly forsteritic olivine (Fo: 99.2–99.7) in the Kaba meteorite emits bright cathodoluminescence (CL). CL spectra of red luminescent forsterite grains have two broad emission bands at approximately 630 nm (impurity center of divalent Mn ions) in the red region and above 700 nm (trivalent Cr ions) in the red–IR region. The cores of the grains show CL blue luminescence giving a characteristic broad band emission at 400 nm, also associated with minor red emissions related to Mn and Cr ions. CL color variation of Kaba forsterite is attributed to structural defects. Electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) analysis shows concentrations of Ca, Al, and Ti in the center of the forsterite grain. The migration of diffusible ions of Mn, Cr, and Fe to the rim of the Kaba meteoritic forsterite was controlled by the hydrothermal alteration at relatively low temperature (estimated at about 250 °C), while Ca and Al ions might still lie in the core. A very unusual phase of FeO (wüstite) was also observed, which may be a terrestrial alteration product of FeNi‐metal.     

Water content variations and respective ecosystems of sandy land in China

Soil water conservation is essential to the sustainability of sandy farming. In this paper, long-term observation of soil water, dry soil thickness and soil chemical changes are evaluated at eight locations in sandy soil. This paper subdivides the sandy lands and deserts of China into three climate zones: arid (hyperarid and extremely arid), semiarid, and humid (subhumid and subtropical humid), with respect to the bioclimatic zone, aridity, soil water content, and soil chemical characteristics. The water movement conditions, and chemical variations in each zone are analyzed. The paper also estimates the spatial and temporal correlation function of arid soil thickness and soil moisture. Sandy soils organic matter content, CaCO₃ content, soluble salts content are investigated. Afforestation and selection of tree species in different sandy areas are suggested to regulate sandy land soil moisture. Sandy land in China can be divided into the four sand stabilization regions according to the shifting sand conditions and the techniques advanced: regions I, II, III, and IV. These results have important implications for remote sensing of soil moisture and soil organic carbon, and soil moisture parameterization in climate models.     

Diffuse pollution by persistent organic pollutants as measured in plastic pellets sampled from various beaches in Greece

Plastic pellets found stranded on beaches are hydrophobic organic materials and thus, they are a favourable medium for persistent organic pollutants to absorb to. In the present study, plastic pellets are used to determine the diffuse pollution of selected Greek beaches. Samples of pellets were taken from these beaches and were analyzed for PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, and PAHs. The observed differences among pellets from various sampling sites are related to the pollution occurring at each site. Plastic pellets collected in Saronikos Gulf beaches demonstrate much higher pollutant loading than the ones collected in a remote island or close to an agricultural area. Based on data collected in this study and the International Pellet Watch program, pollution in Saronikos Gulf, Greece, is comparable to other heavily industrialized places of the world. The present study demonstrates the potential of pellet watch to be utilized as a detailed-scale monitoring tool within a single country.