Free-surface implementation in a mesh-free finite-difference method for elastic wave propagation in the frequency domain

We present an original implementation of the free-surface boundary condition in a mesh-free finite-difference method for simulating elastic wave propagation in the frequency domain. For elastic wave modelling in the frequency domain, the treatment of free surfaces is a key issue which requires special consideration. In the present study, the free-surface boundary condition is directly implemented at node positions located on the free-surface. Flexible nature of the mesh-free method for nodal distribution enables us to introduce topography into numerical models in an efficient manner. We investigate the accuracy of the proposed implementation by comparing numerical results with an analytical solution. The results show that the proposed method can calculate surface wave propagation even for an inclined free surface with substantial accuracy. Next, we calculate surface wave propagation in a model with a topographic surface using our method, and compare the numerical result with that using the finite-element method. The comparison shows the excellent agreement with each other. Finally, we apply our method to the SEG foothill model to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Since the mesh-free method has high flexibility of nodal distribution, the proposed implementation would deal with models of topographic surface with sufficient accuracy and efficiency.     

Upwelling of oxygen-depleted water (Sumishio) in Omura Bay,Japan

Wind-induced circulation and the distribution of hypoxia corresponding to the upwelling of oxygen-depleted water (called “Aoshio” in Japan and “Sumishio” locally in Omura Bay) in Omura Bay, Japan, was examined field observations and by three-dimensional modeling. During the calm weather in summer, well-mixed strait water, in rich oxygen at the mouth of the bay intruded into the middle layer of the bay, southward and northward along the west and east coast, respectively, forming basin-scale cyclonic circulation. A stagnant water mass was formed below the center of this cyclonic circulation, and it became hypoxic water. As a result of the prevailing strong southeast (northeast) wind, the bottom hypoxia moved in a southeasterly (northeasterly) direction. This induces the upwelling of hypoxic water, accompanied by mass mortality of marine organisms.     

Enhanced predictions of wave impact pressure by improved incompressible SPH methods

A new criterion is proposed for a more efficient assessment of free-surface particles in a particle-based simulation. Enhanced wave impact simulations are carried out by improved Incompressible SPH (ISPH) methods. The first improvement is the same as that in the Corrected ISPH (CISPH; [Khayyer A, Gotoh, H, Shao SD. Corrected incompressible SPH method for accurate water-surface tracking in breaking waves, Coast Eng 2008; 55 (3): 236–250]) method and is proposed for the improvement of momentum conservation. The second improvement is achieved by deriving and employing a higher order source term based on a more accurate differentiation to obtain a less fluctuating and more accurate pressure field. The enhanced performance of improved ISPH methods is demonstrated through the simulation of several fluid impact simulations in comparison with the experimental data and simulation results by other numerical methods.     

Isotopic composition of gas hydrates in subsurface sediments from offshore Sakhalin Island, Sea of Okhotsk

Hydrate-bearing sediment cores were retrieved from recently discovered seepage sites located offshore Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. We obtained samples of natural gas hydrates and dissolved gas in pore water using a headspace gas method for determining their molecular and isotopic compositions. Molecular composition ratios C₁/_C2+ from all the seepage sites were in the range of 1,500–50,000, while δ¹³C and δD values of methane ranged from ?66.0 to ?63.2‰ VPDB and ?204.6 to ?196.7‰ VSMOW, respectively. These results indicate that the methane was produced by microbial reduction of CO₂. δ¹³C values of ethane and propane (i.e., ?40.8 to ?27.4‰ VPDB and ?41.3 to ?30.6‰ VPDB, respectively) showed that small amounts of thermogenic gas were mixed with microbial methane. We also analyzed the isotopic difference between hydrate-bound and dissolved gases, and discovered that the magnitude by which the δD hydrate gas was smaller than that of dissolved gas was in the range 4.3–16.6‰, while there were no differences in δ¹³C values. Based on isotopic fractionation of guest gas during the formation of gas hydrate, we conclude that the current gas in the pore water is the source of the gas hydrate at the VNIIOkeangeologia and Giselle Flare sites, but not the source of the gas hydrate at the Hieroglyph and KOPRI sites.     

Seismological monitoring on the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, derived from off Kushiro permanent cabled OBSs and land-based observations

Japan Marine Science and Technology Center installed a cabled geophysical observatory system off Kushiro, Hokkaido Island in July 1999. This observatory system comprises three ocean bottom seismographs (OBSs), two tsunami gauges, and a geophysical/geochemical monitoring system. 4 years and 2 months after the installation, a megathrust earthquake (the 2003 Tokachi-Oki earthquake, 26th September in Japan Standard Time (JST), M_JMA 8.0) occurred along a plate boundary underneath a forearc basin where the system is located. The system recorded clear unsaturated seismograms just at 28.6 km from the epicenter. This paper demonstrates advantages brought by the cabled observatory to record the megathrust earthquake showing how earthquake detectability is improved dramatically combining permanent OBS and land-based observations around the region, and importance of the in situ monitoring on the seismogenic zone. In the present study, processing OBSs and land-based network together, and comparing magnitudes of common observed earthquakes with national authorized network, event detection level improved down to M 1.5, which is much lower than the previously designed as down to M  2. Comparing detection level before and after installing OBSs, we found dramatic improvement of the earthquake detection level in the interesting region. Real-time continuous observations of microearthquakes since 1999 have brought us tremendous findings. First, a seismic quiescence started about 10 days before the 2003 Tokachi-Oki earthquake. Second, aftershock distribution is not uniform over the focal area and can be divided into several sub-regions, which might indicate an existence of several asperities. We think that the geophysical observations helped to understand the initiation process of the rupture of the 2003 Tokachi-Oki earthquake and that observations including seismological, geodynamic, hydrogeological, and the other multidisciplinary observations would provide a clue to future understanding of seismogenic processes at subduction zones.     

Origin of three-dimensional shapes of chondrules: I. Hydrodynamics simulations of rotating droplet exposed to high-velocity rarefied gas flow

The origin of three-dimensional shapes of chondrules is an important information to identify their formation mechanism in the early solar nebula. The measurement of their shapes by using X-ray computed topography suggested that they are usually close to perfect spheres, however, some of them have rugby-ball-like (prolate) shapes [Tsuchiyama, A., Shigeyoshi, R., Kawabata, T., Nakano, T., Uesugi, K., Shirono, S., 2003. Lunar Planet. Sci. 34, 1271-1272]. We considered that the prolate shapes reflect the deformations of chondrule precursor dust particles when they are heated and melted in the high velocity gas flow. In order to reveal the origin of chondrule shapes, we carried out the three-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations of a rotating molten chondrule exposed to the gas flow in the framework of the shock-wave heating model for chondrule formation. We adopted the gas ram pressure acting on the chondrule surface of in a typical shock wave. Considering that the chondrule precursor dust particle has an irregular shape before melting, the ram pressure causes a net torque to rotate the particle. The estimated angular velocity is for the precursor radius of r₀=1 mm, though it has a different value depending on the irregularity of the shape. In addition, the rotation axis is likely to be perpendicular to the direction of the gas flow. Our calculations showed that the rotating molten chondrule elongates along the rotation axis, in contrast, shrinks perpendicularly to it. It is a prolate shape. The reason why the molten chondrule is deformed to a prolate shape was clearly discussed. Our study gives a complementary constraint for chondrule formation mechanisms, comparing with conventional chemical analyses and dynamic crystallization experiments that have mainly constrained the thermal evolutions of chondrules.     

Millennial-scale oscillations of the westerly jet path during the last glacial period

It has been established that East Asian summer monsoon intensity varies with Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles, suggesting a connection between the climates of East Asia and the North Atlantic on a millennial timescale. However, the dynamics of such a connection are still unsolved. Here we demonstrate that temporal changes in the provenance of aeolian dust in Japan Sea sediments, which we interpret to reflect changes in the westerly jet path over East Asia, exhibit variations in harmony with Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles. The dominance of dust with a Mongolian Gobi provenance during stadials suggests a westerly jet axis located to the south of the Himalaya–Tibetan Plateau throughout most of the year, whereas the co-dominance of dust from both the Taklimakan Desert and the Mongolian Gobi during interstadials suggests that the westerly jet axis jumped to the north of the Tibetan Plateau at latest in summer. As the shift of the westerly jet axis to the north of the Tibetan Plateau is closely related to the onset of the East Asian summer monsoon, changes of the westerly jet path apparently critically affect the teleconnection between the climates of Asia and North Atlantic on a millennial timescale.     

Comparative studies in method for stratigraphical structure measurement of ice cores: Identification of cloudy bands

1　IntroductionCloudybandsaretypicalstratigraphicstructureindeepicecoresandtheylookwhitecolorwhenaflorescentlightwasirradiated.InWisconsinice ageiceattheGreenland ,manycloudybandsarelocatedincoldperiodsiceandcloudybandsareusedfordatingofdeepicecoresincepairofseriescloudybandandclearlayercorrespondstoannuallayer(Alleyetal.1 997;Meeseetal.1 997) .AndcloudybandcorrespondstovolcaniclayerfortheAntarcticicecore (GowandWilliamson 1 976) .Therefore,identificationofcloudybandsisimportantworkfordatin…     

Near-infrared imaging survey of faint companions around young dwarfs in the Pleiades cluster

We conducted a near-infrared imaging survey of 11 young dwarfs in the Pleiades cluster using the Subaru Telescope and the near-infrared coronagraph imager. We found ten faint point sources,with magnitudes as faint as 20 mag in the K-band,with around seven dwarfs.Comparison with the Spitzer archive images revealed that a pair of the faint sources around V 1171 Tau is very red in infrared wavelengths,which indicates very low-mass young stellar objects.However,the results of our follow-up proper motion measure...