地球物理学方法在区分多年冻土区咸水层和淡水融化层中的应用

Direct current resistivity and ground penetrating radar surveys were employed to obtain the value of the resistivity and dielectric constant in the brine near the Barrow, Alaska. The geophysical surveys were undertaken together with the permafrost drilling program for the measuring of the ground temperature regime and for the core sampling. The sampled cores were measured for their physical and chemical properties in the laboratory under different temperature conditions (-60 to 20 ℃). Laboratory results support field observations and led to the development of a technique for distinguishing freshwater taliks and brine layers in permafrost. These methods were also employed in freshwater taliks near Council,Alaska. The electrical resistivity is a powerful and sensitive parameter for brine detection. However, the resistivity is a less sensitive indicator of the soil type or water content under highly saline conditions.High frequency dielectric constant is an ideal second parameter for the indication of the soil type, liquid water content and other physical properties. The imaginary part of the dielectric constant and resistivity have a significant dependence upon salinity, i.e. upon freezing temperature. The ground temperature regime and the freezing point of the brine layer are important parameters for studying the electric properties of permafrost terrain.     

Development of a thin diatom layer observed in a stratified embayment in Japan

The temporal evolution of a thin phytoplankton layer was observed by field measurements using a research vessel and mooring instruments in the Yatsushiro Sea, a semi-enclosed narrow embayment in Japan, in early August 2013. The subsurface chlorophyll maximum developed into a thin layer within 2 days just below the pycnocline at around 10-m depth, where turbulent mixing (the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy) was weak (low). The layer persisted for 1.5 to 2 days and declined after irradiance drastically decreased at the sea surface. At the peak period, the layer thickness, which is defined as the full-width at half-maximum of the peak in chlorophyll a concentration, ranged from 0.6 to 1.4 m, and the maximum concentration reached 42.3 mg m^?3. The horizontal extent of the layer was approximately 10 km along the longitudinal axis of the bay. The phytoplankton population characterized by the layer was dominated by a chain-forming centric diatom, Chaetoceros spp. The formation mechanisms of the thin diatom layer were investigated using the observed data and a vertical one-dimensional model that includes physical and biological processes. The results suggest that the development of the thin layer was caused by in situ growth and aggregation due to nutrient-dependent sinking of the species under weak turbulence. The study highlights that continuous multidisciplinary observations and understanding species-specific physiological responses to environmental variations are necessary to elucidate drastically fluctuating phytoplankton dynamics in a coastal water.     

Ecology and restoration techniques for Sargassum beds in the Seto Inland Sea,Japan

Due to the reduction and degradation of coastal areas in Japan by land reclamation and anthropogenic perturbations, from the point of view of conservation of the coastal environment, the restoration of Sargassum beds is essential. Between 1978 and 1991, 6400 ha of seagrass and seaweed beds have been lost along the Japanese coast, of which Sargassum beds were 22%. New techniques for Sargassum bed restoration are summarized based on three coastal engineering techniques. (1) Construction of shallow and gentle sloping bottom substrata have been shown to be effective for the reestablishment of 'management-free seagrass and Sargassum beds' on developed coasts. (2) Seeding or transplanting using artificial substratum for extension of nursery and fishing grounds around natural Sargassum beds. (3) Periodic transplanting of Sargassum plants using artificially produced seedlings is effective to produce niches to allow faunal re-colonization in severely polluted and sparsely vegetated area. However, prior to implementation, the suitability and limitations of these three techniques requires to be ascertained for effective Sargassum bed restoration.     

MARCO POLO: near earth object sample return mission

MARCO POLO is a joint European–Japanese sample return mission to a Near-Earth Object. This Euro-Asian mission will go to a primitive Near-Earth Object (NEO), which we anticipate will contain primitive materials without any known meteorite analogue, scientifically characterize it at multiple scales, and bring samples back to Earth for detailed scientific investigation. Small bodies, as primitive leftover building blocks of the Solar System formation process, offer important clues to the chemical mixture from which the planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago. Current exobiological scenarios for the origin of Life invoke an exogenous delivery of organic matter to the early Earth: it has been proposed that primitive bodies could have brought these complex organic molecules capable of triggering the pre-biotic synthesis of biochemical compounds. Moreover, collisions of NEOs with the Earth pose a finite hazard to life. For all these reasons, the exploration of such objects is particularly interesting and urgent. The scientific objectives of MARCO POLO will therefore contribute to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the Solar System, the Earth, and possibly Life itself. Moreover, MARCO POLO provides important information on the volatile-rich (e.g. water) nature of primitive NEOs, which may be particularly important for future space resource utilization as well as providing critical information for the security of Earth. MARCO POLO is a proposal offering several options, leading to great flexibility in the actual implementation. The baseline mission scenario is based on a launch with a Soyuz-type launcher and consists of a Mother Spacecraft (MSC) carrying a possible Lander named SIFNOS, small hoppers, sampling devices, a re-entry capsule and scientific payloads. The MSC leaves Earth orbit, cruises toward the target with ion engines, rendezvous with the target, conducts a global characterization of the target to select a sampling site, and delivers small hoppers (MINERVA type, JAXA) and SIFNOS. The latter, if added, will perform a soft landing, anchor to the target surface, and make various in situ measurements of surface/subsurface materials near the sampling site. Two surface samples will be collected by the MSC using “touch and go” manoeuvres. Two complementary sample collection devices will be used in this phase: one developed by ESA and another provided by JAXA, mounted on a retractable extension arm. After the completion of the sampling and ascent of the MSC, the arm will be retracted to transfer the sample containers into the MSC. The MSC will then make its journey back to Earth and release the re-entry capsule into the Earth’s atmosphere.     

Wakefieldite‐(Nd), a New Neodymium Vanadate Mineral in the Arase Stratiform Ferromanganese Deposit,Kochi Prefecture,Japan

Wakefieldite‐(Nd), NdVO₄, is a new mineral found from the Arase stratiform ferromanganese deposit in Kochi Prefecture, Shikoku Island, Japan. It is the Nd‐dominant analogue of wakefieldite‐(Y) and wakefieldite‐(Ce). The ferromanganese ore specimen mainly consists of hematite and caryopilite, and wakefieldite‐(Nd) is typically enclosed in caryopilite. Wakefieldite‐(Nd) is tetragonal, I4₁/amd, a = 7.338(16) Å, c = 6.509(19) Å, V = 350.5(18) ų, Z = 4. The four strongest lines in the X‐ray diffraction pattern [d(Å), I/I₀, hkl] using a Gandolfi camera are (3.67, 100, 200); (2.74, 51, 112); (4.84, 27, 101) and (1.89, 25, 312). Chemical composition of wakefieldite‐(Nd) are V₂O₃ 35.25, As₂O₃ 0.93, SiO₂ 0.14, MnO 1.45, Fe₂O₃ 0.41, Y₂O₃ 2.87, La₂O₃ 7.61, Ce₂O₃ 7.37, Pr₂O₃ 6.04, Nd₂O₃ 26.79, Sm₂O₃ 4.41, Eu₂O₃ 1.36, Gd₂O₃ 3.41, Tb₂O₃ 0.22, Dy₂O₃ 1.41, Er₂O₃ 0.10, total 99.77 wt.%. The empirical formula is (Nd_0.403La_0.118Ce_0.114Pr_0.093Y_0.064Sm_0.064Mn_0.052Gd_0.048Eu_0.020Dy_0.019Fe_0.013Tb_0.003Er_0.001)_1.012(V_0.981As_0.020Si_0.006)_1.007O₄ on the basis of O = 4. The calculated density is 4.782 g/cm³. Microtexture and co‐existing relationship between wakefieldite‐(Nd) and caryopilite suggest that recrystallization and dehydration of Fe‐ and Mn‐oxyhydroxide led to the generation of hematite, caryopilite, rhodochrosite and wakefieldite‐(Nd) by the metamorphism during the accretion of the host unit of the Arase deposit. Chondrite‐normalized REE pattern of the host ferromanganese ore, which is regarded as oceanic metalliferous sediment in origin, shows negative Ce anomaly. Chemical composition of wakefieldite‐(Nd) reflects Ce‐depleted bulk composition of REE‐enriched ferromanganese ore.     

Orbital evolution of asteroids with the effects of mutual gravitational attraction

The effects of the mutual gravitational attraction between asteroids were analyzed by two N-body calculations, in which N=4,516 (the Sun, the nine planets, and 4,506 asteroids). In one calculation the gravity of the asteroids was taken into account, and in the other it was ignored. These calculations were carried out for a time period of about 100 years. The largest difference in the positions of the asteroids between these two calculations is about 10^?3 AU. For the orbital elements of the semimajor axis, the eccentricity, and the inclination, the largest differences were 9 × 10^?6 AU, 4 × 10^?6, and 5 × 10^?4 degrees, respectively. It was found that the distribution of the differences of the semimajor axis between the two calculations is quite similar to the Cauchy distribution.     

Mixed layer deepening due to wind-induced shear-driven turbulence and scaling of the deepening rate in the stratified ocean

Ocean Dynamics - Wind-induced mixing forms the surface mixed layer (ML) above the stratified interior oceans. The ML depth (MLD), a key quantity for several upper ocean processes such as the...