Landslides by the 2018 Hokkaido Iburi-Tobu Earthquake on September 6

In the early morning of September 6th, 2018, an intense earthquake struck Hokkaido Iburi-Tobu area. By this earthquake, many landslides occurred and claimed 36 lives. The landslide numbers reached 6,000 and mostly they are shallow landslides moving down of the air-fall pumice layer from Tarumai volcano which erupted ca. 9,000 years ago. However, southeast of the area, deep-seated landslides of dip-slipping type are also found.     

Seasonal changes in runoff characteristics on a permafrost watershed in the southern mountainous region of eastern Siberia

We attempted to clarify the runoff characteristics of a permafrost watershed in the southern mountainous region of eastern Siberia using hydrological and meteorological data obtained by the State Hydrological Institute in Russia from 1976 to 1985. We analysed seasonal changes in the direct runoff ratio and recession gradient during the permafrost thawing period. Thawing depth began to increase from the beginning of May and continued to increase until the end of September, exceeding 150 cm. Annual precipitation and discharge were in the range 525–649 mm and 205–391 mm respectively. The sum of the annual evapotranspiration and changes in water storage ranged from 235 to 365 mm. The mean daily evapotranspiration in June, July, August and September was 1·5 mm day^?1, 1·7 mm day^?1, 1·5 mm day^?1, and 0·5 mm day^?1 respectively. The direct runoff ratio was highest in June, decreasing from 0·8 in June to 0·2 in September. The recession gradient also decreased from June to September. Since the frozen soil functioned as an impermeable layer, the soil water storage capacity in the thawing part of the soil, the depth of which changed over time, controlled the runoff characteristics. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationship between geomorphological land classification and site amplification ratio based on JMA strong motion records

The relationship between the amplification ratio of earthquake ground motion and geologic conditions at Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) stations nationwide was examined to propose an estimation method of the amplification ratio that is applicable to entire Japan. The amplification ratios for the instrumental JMA intensity, as well as for the peak ground acceleration and velocity, were obtained from the station coefficients of the attenuation relationships using strong motion records measured at 77 JMA stations over a period of more than 8 years. A combined use of geomorphological land classification and subsurface geology was found to yield the best estimate of the site amplification ratio. This result suggests that these data, and hence the Digital National Land Information, which is a nationwide GIS database, may be conveniently used for the estimation of strong motion distribution over large areas in Japan.     

Culture-dependent and independent analyses of subsurface microbial communities in oil-bearing strata of the Sagara oil reservoir

Abstract   Culture-dependent and independent methods were used to evaluate the microbial communities in cores collected at depths up to 200 m in oil-bearing and oil-free strata near the Sagara oil reservoir near Shizuoka, Japan. Direct microbial counts revealed much higher numbers (2.2 × 10⁴−7.9 × 10⁶/g) of microbes in the oil-bearing strata than in the oil-free zones, where counts were uniform at approximately 1.0 × 10⁴/g. Molecular taxonomic analyses via 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed that the oil-free strata were dominated by members of the γ-Proteobacteria including Pseudomonas , Stenotrophomonas and Sphingomonas , whereas the oil-bearing strata were dominated by a single species closely related to Pseudomonas stutzeri . All archaeal clones were phylogenetically affiliated with the uncultured soil group in Crenarchaeota with the exception of a single phylotype that belonged to the genus Thermococcus . Culture-dependent analysis was carried out by most-probable-number culturing as well as direct plating to determine viable cell counts, using both complex organic substrates or native oil and autotrophic media. Both culture-dependent and independent methods revealed the abundant cultivable member was the aerobic oil-degrading bacterium Pseudomonas stutzeri and neither autotrophs nor anaerobic heterotrophs could be detected in the oil-bearing strata.     

Correlation of JMA instrumental seismic intensity with strong motion parameters

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) seismic intensity (I_JMA) has been used as a measure of strong shaking for many years in Japan, and it necessitates to know the correlation between the JMA seismic intensity and other strong motion indices, e.g. Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), Peak Ground Velocity (PGV), and Spectrum Intensity (SI). In this study, two strong motion data sets were selected; in which, the first set consists of 879 three‐components non‐liquefied records selected from 13 major earthquake events that occurred in Japan, the United States, and Taiwan, and the second set consists of 17 liquefied records selected from 7 major earthquake events that occurred in Japan and the United States. The JMA seismic intensity and other ground motion indices were calculated using the selected data sets. The relationships between the JMA seismic intensity and PGA, PGV, and SI were then derived performing a two‐stage linear regression analysis. Results from the analysis show that the JMA instrumental seismic intensity shows higher correlation with SI than PGA or PGV, and it shows the highest correlation with the parameters such as the combination of PGA and SI or the product of PGA and SI. The obtained relationships are also compared with the ones obtained by other studies, which may be useful for the disaster management agencies in Japan and deployment of new SI‐sensors that monitor both PGA and SI. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spectroscopic properties of Cr-doped melilite crystals

 Four kinds of Cr-droped melilite crystals, Ca₂MgSi₂O₇ (akermanite), CaAl₂SiO₇ (gehlenite), CaGa₂SiO₇ (Ga-gehlenite) and CaGa₂GeO₇ (GaGe-gehlenite), with different sizes of the sites for Cr ions to substitute, were grown in series, using both the CZ and FZ techniques. Although Cr⁴⁺ is regarded as a major species in melilites, the existence of Cr⁶⁺ in gehlenite is also suggested from the change in absorption spectra by annealing, and the dependence of distribution coefficient of Cr ions on growth atmosphere. Spectral peak shifts are not obvious if the host crystal field is altered in melilites, because the local environment of the sites for Cr ion is possibly changed by reforming the packing features of the host lattice. Received February 7, 1996 / Revised, accepted September 20, 1996     

Calcium in the Antarctic Ocean

Calcium in sea water was determined of the samples taken from the Antarctic and Indian Oceans. Surface water commonly contains less calcium relative to chlorinity than does deep water. The tendency, however, is very faint in the Antarctic Ocean. In the surface waters, the Ca/Cl ratio is lower in the tropical and subtropical waters and the ratio well correlates with phosphate. The Ca/P ratio is calculated as 37 in atomic ratio. These may indicate that calcium is uptaken by organisms to make skeletal parts from surface water which is supersaturated with respect to calcite or aragonite. On the other hand, no definite correlationship between calcium and phosphate is found in subsurface water. This fact suggests that the regeneration process of calcium from organic debris is different from that of phosphate. The increase-rate of calcium in the abyssal water is estimated to be 0.18g at./(1 yr), which is due to the dissolution of calcium carbonate. The rate is about a half of total carbonate increase in the water.