Distribution of fault rocks in the fracture zone of the Nojima Fault at a depth of 1140 m: Observations from the Hirabayashi NIED drill core

Abstract Characteristics of deformation and alteration of the 1140 m deep fracture zone of the Nojima Fault are described based on mesoscopic (to the naked eye) and microscopic (by both optical and scanning electron microscopes) observations of the Hirabayashi National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) drill core. Three types of fault rocks; that is, fault breccia, fault gouge and cataclasite, appear in the central part of the fault zone and two types of weakly deformed and/or altered rocks; that is, weakly deformed and altered granodiorite and altered granodiorite, are located in the outside of the central part of the fault zone (damaged zone). Cataclasite appears occasionally in the damaged zone. Six distinct, thin foliated fault gouge zones, which dip to the south-east, appear clearly in the very central part of the fracture zone. Slickenlines plunging to the north-east are observed on the surface of the newest gouge. Based on the observations of XZ thin sections, these slickenlines and the newest gouge have the same kinematics as the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake (Kobe earthquake), which was dextral-reverse slip. Scanning electron microscopy observations of the freeze-dried fault gouge show that a large amount of void space is maintained locally, which might play an important role as a path for fluid migration and the existence of either heterogeneity of pore fluid pressure or strain localization.     

Synthesis and crystal structure of a triple chain silicate,Na2Mg4Si6O16(OH)2

In the system Na₂CO₃-MgO-SiO₂-H₂O a new sodium magnesium silicate was synthesized under hydrothermal conditions; 450–600 ° C and 300–1000 Kg/cm₂. The structure of the specimen was determined by X-ray powder methods, and its properties were studied by chemical, infrared and TG analyses. The specimen has a triple chain structure (space group, C2/c) with the ideal chemical composition, 4 (Na₂Mg₄Si₆O₁₆(OH)₂) and lattice parameters, a= 10.152(2), b=27.137(4), c=5.276(1) Å, and = 106.97(3) °.The essential feature of the structure is shown by the presence of SiO₄ tetrahedra linked to form chains which have three times the width of those in pyroxene. These triple chains have a periodicity, 5.27 Å, along their lengths, and are bonded to each other laterally by the brucite layer made up by eight Mg cations and sandwiched between two inward pointing bands of tetrahedra. These units are linked back to back by cations (Mg or Na) in the Na(2) site and by a large cation (Na) at the Na(1) site.     

A new simple method to substantially increase the seismic stability of reinforced soil structures

A preloading and prestressing (PLPS) method has been proposed to substantially decrease the transient and residual vertical compression of geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) structures subjected to long-term traffic load. It is shown that by using a newly developed device (called the ratchet system) in addition to the PLPS procedure, the seismic stability of PLPS GRS structures becomes very high. The ratchet system can not only maintain high prestress when the backfill tends to contract but also prevent the expansion of the backfill, both effectively restraining the shear and bending deformation of the structure subjected to seismic load.     

A quadratic element method for evaluating groundwater flow by the inversion of surface tilt with application to the Tono Area, Japan

By modifying a previous method with constant elements, we developed a quadratic element method for more accurately estimating groundwater flow by the inversion of tilt data. In this method: (1) a region of groundwater flow is divided into quadratic elements in which the change in groundwater volume per unit volume of rock (Δv) and the Skempton coefficient (B) vary in a quadratic manner with the coordinates, (2) the values of Δv are set to zero at the boundaries of the region of groundwater flow and (3) the sum of the squared second derivatives of Δv is adopted as a constraining condition that is weighted and added to the sum of the squared errors in tilt. First, analyses were performed for a flow model to determine the accuracy of this method for estimating groundwater flow and also to clarify the effect of the assumed size of a region of groundwater flow. These analyses showed that the quadratic element method proposed in this study gives a much better estimation of Δv than the constant element method and that a large region of groundwater flow should be assumed, rather than a small region, since the values of Δv at points outside of the actual region of groundwater flow are estimated to be nearly zero when a large region is assumed while these values are greatly overestimated when an excessively small region is assumed. Finally, the quadratic element method was applied to the site of the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory in the Tono area, Japan. Inverse analyses were performed for tilt data measured by four tiltmeters with a resolution of 10⁻⁹ radians during the excavation of two shafts under the assumption that the rock mass is an isotropic and homogeneous half- space. The results showed that the method proposed in this study reproduced the tilt data very accurately. Thus, the distribution of Δv was estimated without sacrificing the reproducibility of the tilt data. The contour maps of B(1 + ν)Δv (ν: Poisson’s ratio) showed that the heterogeneous flow of groundwater occurred at the site and that groundwater volume decreased mainly in the area surrounded by two faults. The latter result is consistent with the finding obtained by previous investigations that these faults have low permeability in the direction perpendicular to the strike and may act as a flow barrier.     

Nonlinear relationship between preservation of microstructure and geochemical composition of Pleistocene brachiopod shells from the Ryukyu Islands,southwestern Japan

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope composition of fossilized brachiopod shells serves as an important source to delineate Earth's paleoenvironmental evolution in the Phanerozoic. However, the original isotopic composition is potentially modified by various kinds of diagenesis. To evaluate the extent to which the original isotopic composition of fossilized brachiopod shells is modified by meteoric diagenesis, microstructure, cathodoluminescence (CL) images, and carbon and oxygen isotope composition of fossilized Kikaithyris hanzawai (rhynchonellate brachiopod) shells were examined. The shells were collected from Pleistocene shallow marine carbonates exposed on the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan. The extent of diagenetic alteration is quantitatively evaluated here as both the preservation state of the original shell microstructure and the luminescence/non‐luminescence of shells. Although altered fibers were commonly observed in the brachiopod shells, the original isotopic composition was almost retained. There are no significant differences in the isotopic composition between the luminescent and non‐luminescent shells. There is no direct relationship between the preservation state of the original shell microstructure and the luminescence/non‐luminescence of shells at three of four horizons, indicating that CL images are not necessarily useful for the detection of diagenetic alteration of shells or shell portions. Applying multiple criteria to assessing diagenetic alteration and cross‐checking them are required to distinguish between diagenetically altered and unaltered brachiopod shells.     

Recent Dasycladales (Chlorophyta) in Okinawa Jima in the Central Ryukyus,southwestern Japan: Paleontological implications

Recent dasycladalean algae (Dasycladales, Chlorophyta) are classified into two families, 11 genera, and 44 species, and inhabit the tropical to warm‐temperate waters of the world. Twelve species of dasycladalean algae occur in Okinawa Jima, Ryukyu Islands. In this paper, the present‐day dasycladalean species and their distributions in Okinawa Jima are reported and their paleontological implications are discussed. Dasycladalean algae grow mainly on coral rubble and rocks, often forming large meadows in calm shallow lagoons. However, Dasycladus vermicularis occurs in deeper waters, at depths of 15–89 m, around Okinawa Jima. Neomeris annulata is found at water depths of 0–30 m. These data throw doubt on the interpretation that the occurrence of dasycladalean algae is linked to warm shallow habitats.     

A multilayer model for thermal infrared emission of Saturn’s rings II: Albedo, spins, and vertical mixing of ring particles inferred from Cassini CIRS

Since the Saturn orbit insertion of the Cassini spacecraft in mid-2004, the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) measured temperatures of Saturn’s main rings at various observational geometries. In the present study, we apply our new thermal model (Morishima, R., Salo, H., Ohtsuki, K. [2009]. Icarus 201, 634-654) for fitting to the early phase Cassini data (Spilker, L.J., and 11 colleagues [2006]. Planet. Space Sci. 54, 1167-1176). Our model is based on classical radiative transfer and takes into account the heat transport due to particle motion in the azimuthal and vertical directions. The model assumes a bimodal size distribution consisting of small fast rotators and large slow rotators. We estimated the bolometric Bond albedo, A_V, the fraction of fast rotators in cross section, f_fast, and the thermal inertia, Γ, by the data fitting at every radius from the inner C ring to the outer A ring. The albedo A_V is 0.1-0.4, 0.5-0.7, 0.4, 0.5 for the C ring, the B ring, the Cassini division, and the A ring, respectively. The fraction f_fast depends on the ratio of scale height of fast rotators to that of slow rotators, h_r. When h_r = 1, f_fast is roughly half for the entire rings, except for the A ring, where f_fast increases from 0.5 to 0.9 with increasing saturnocentric radius. When h_r increases from 1 to 3, f_fast decreases by 0.2-0.4 for the B and A rings while no change in f_fast is seen for the optically thin C ring and Cassini division. The large f_fast seen in the outer A ring probably indicates that a large number of small particles detach from large particles in high velocity collisions due to satellite perturbations or self-gravity wakes. The thermal inertia, Γ, is constrained from the efficiency of the vertical heat transport due to particle motion between the lit and unlit faces, and is coupled with the type of vertical motion. We found that in most regions, except for the mid B ring, sinusoidal vertical motion without bouncing is more reasonable than cycloidal motion assuming bouncing at the midplane, because the latter motion gives too large Γ as compared with previous estimations. For the mid B ring, where the optical depth is highest in Saturn’s rings, cycloidal vertical motion is more reasonable than sinusoidal vertical motion which gives too small Γ.     

Seawater temperature proxies based on DSr, DMg, and DU from culture experiments using the branching coral Porites cylindrica

In order to investigate the incorporation of Sr, Mg, and U into coral skeletons and its temperature dependency, we performed a culture experiment in which specimens of the branching coral (Porites cylindrica) were grown for 1 month at three seawater temperatures (22, 26, and 30 °C). The results of this study showed that the linear extension rate of P. cylindrica has little effect on the skeletal Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca, and U/Ca ratios. The following temperature equations were derived: Sr/Ca (mmol/mol) = 10.214(±0.229) − 0.0642(±0.00897) × T (°C) (r² = 0.59, p < 0.05); Mg/Ca (mmol/mol) = 1.973(±0.302) + 0.1002(±0.0118) × T (°C) (r² = 0.67, p < 0.05); and U/Ca (μmol/mol) = 1.488(±0.0484) − 0.0212(±0.00189) × T (°C) (r² = 0.78, p < 0.05). We calculated the distribution coefficient (D) of Sr, Mg, and U relative to seawater temperature and compared the results with previous data from massive Porites corals. The seawater temperature proxies based on D calibrations of P. cylindrica established in this study are generally similar to those for massive Porites corals, despite a difference in the slope of D_U calibration. The calibration sensitivity of D_Sr, D_Mg, and D_U to seawater temperature change during the experiment was 0.64%/°C, 1.93%/°C, and 1.97%/°C, respectively. These results suggest that the skeletal Sr/Ca ratio (and possibly the Mg/Ca and/or U/Ca ratio) of the branching coral P. cylindrica can be used as a potential paleothermometer.