Relationship between the grid size and the coefficient of lateral eddy viscosity in the finite difference computation of the linear vorticity equation in the ocean

The finite difference analog of the linear vorticity equation for the mass transport in the ocean does not hold good unless the grid size is smaller than a certain number.I thank Profs. YaleMintz, AkioArakawa and TaroMatsuno for their valuable suggestions.     

The Inference of Geo-Mechanical Properties of Soft Rocks and their Degradation from Needle Penetration Tests

Needle penetration tests (NPTs) are used for inferring the uniaxial compressive strength of soft rocks, particularly in tunneling through squeezing rocks and foundations on weathered rocks in Japan. The device measures the applied load and the penetration depth of its needle. The ratio of applied load to penetration depth was originally called the needle penetration index (NPI). In this study, this device has been used to infer the geo-mechanical properties of soft rocks from Japan, Turkey, Indonesia, and Egypt. Various equations are presented to infer the geo-mechanical properties in terms of the NPI and compared with the experimental results. The possibility of evaluating the anisotropy of geo-mechanical properties is shown. Furthermore, the characterization of geo-mechanical properties of fault/fracture and slip (shear) surfaces is explained. Some additional equations are given to consider the degradation of geo-mechanical properties as a function of water content, weathering state, and number of cycles of freezing–thawing. Furthermore, the possibility of evaluating the time-dependency characteristics of soft rocks by needle penetration testing is discussed through experiments. It is shown that the effects of water content, weathering state, and number of cycles of freezing–thawing and time-dependency can be evaluated using the NPT technique.     

A Low‐Sulfidation Epithermal Mineralization in the River Reef Zone,the Poboya Prospect,Central Sulawesi,Indonesia: Vein Textures,Ore Mineralogy,and Fluid Inclusions

The Poboya Prospect lies along the North Northwest ‐ South Southeast Palu‐Koro Fault Zone in the central part of the West Sulawesi Arc. The geology of the area consists of the Palu Metamorphic Complex overlain by the Paleogene‐Neogene Tinombo Formation of volcanosedimentary rocks, the Celebes Molasse sediment, and Late Cenozoic granitic rocks. Petrography, scanning electron microscope with energy‐dispersive spectrometry (SEM‐EDS), electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA), and fluid inclusion microthermometry were carried out to examine vein textures, ore mineralogy, and characteristics of the ore‐forming fluid responsible for mineralization in the River Reef Zone, the Poboya Prospect. Textures of quartz‐carbonate veins in the River Reef Zone include massive micro‐comb, moss, colloform, crustiform, mosaic, feathery, flamboyant, lattice bladed, ghost bladed, parallel bladed, and saccharoidal textures representing primary growth, recrystallization, and replacement. The homogenization temperature and fluid salinity are 240–250°C and 0.3–0.7 wt% NaCl eq., respectively. Ore minerals precipitated in the early stage consist of electrum, naumannite‐aguilarite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, marcasite, sphalerite, and pyrrhotite. Apart from pyrrhotite, these ore minerals were also precipitated in the late stage along with selenopolybasite, freibergite, argyrodite, pyrargyrite, and galena. Selenium more preferably occurs as the crystallographic replacement of sulfur in naumannite‐aguilarite, argyrodite, pyrargyrite, selenopolybasite, and freibergite instead of as independent selenide minerals. The low‐sulfidation epithermal deposit in the River Reef Zone, the Poboya Prospect, illustrates the potential of the West Sulawesi Arc, particularly along the Palu‐Koro Fault Zone, to host epithermal gold mineralization.     

Adsorption of tributyltin by tributyltin resistant marine Pseudoalteromonas sp. cells

The isolate, Pesudoalteromonas sp. TBT1, could grow to overcome the toxicity of tributyltin chloride (TBTCl) up to 30 microM in the absence of Cl(-) in the medium until the cells reached an exponential phase of growth. The viability, however, was reduced after the cells reached a stationary phase. The degradation products, such as dibutyltin (DBT) and monobutyltin (MBT), were not detected in the growth medium, indicating that the isolate has no ability to degrade TBT into less toxic DBT and MBT. Up to about 10(7.5) TBT molecules were adsorbed by a single cell. The observation of morphological changes with an electron microscope showed that the cell surface became wrinkled after exposure to the lethal concentration of 10 mM TBTCl. These results indicate that the resistance of the isolate toward the toxicity of TBTCl is not related to the unique cell surface, which seems to play an important role in preventing the diffusion of TBTCl into the cytoplasm.     

Prediction of monthly mean chlorophylla concentration in Mikawa Bay using GMDH

Data on organic and inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus, and meteorological conditions observed a few times a month at a buoy station in Mikawa Bay (Japan) are averaged on a monthly basis, and monthly transitions of chlorophylla at the station are predicted by GMDH (Group Method of Data Handling, one of the methods of nonlinear system identification) using these monthly mean data. The prediction is successful. GMDH is useful in describing the ecosystem and in predicting transitions within the bay.     

Mobility of Rare Earth Elements in Basalt‐Derived Laterite at the Bolaven Plateau,Southern Laos

Geochemical and geochronological studies were conducted on basalts and laterites from the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos in order to evaluate the mobility and mineralization of REE, Y and Sc during laterization. The basalts are classified into three categories: (i) small volumetric alkali basalt (eruption age: 15.7 Ma), large volumetric olivine tholeiite (1.2 Ma) and quartz tholeiite with olivine tholeiite (younger than 0.5 ± 0.2 Ma). Formation of REE minerals during laterization result in mobilization and fractionation of REE and Y in laterite profiles. Occurrence of florencite‐(Ce) in a laterite profile derived from alkali basalt immobilizes REE (particularly LREE) and this leads the laterites to be enriched in LREE relative to the parent basalt. Few positive Ce anomalies in this profile suggest that florencite‐(Ce) [(Ce)Al₃(PO₄)₂(OH)₂] formation was followed by CeO₂ precipitation due to the change of redox condition. In tholeiite‐derived laterite profiles, florencite is not recognized and REE and Y tend to be depleted relative to the parent basalts with positive Ce anomalies. This is interpreted as scavenging REE³⁺ except for Ce⁴⁺ from the laterite profile in oxidizing conditions. Sc behaves similarly to Fe during laterization and it is more abundant in the tholeiitic laterite than that in the alkali basaltic laterite. Results of sequential extraction indicate that REE of the alkali basaltic laterite are contained in residual phase, which is dominantly florencite‐(Ce), but they are rarely present in ion‐adsorption phase. It is concluded that basaltic laterites have a low potential of REE resource in terms of low REE contents and a difficulty in REE extraction.     

Identification of yield drift deformations and evaluation of the degree of damage through the direct sensing of drift displacements

Inter‐story drift displacement data can provide useful information for story damage assessment. The authors' research group has developed photonic‐based sensors for the direct measurement of inter‐story drift displacements. This paper proposes a scheme for evaluating the degree of damage in a building structure based on drift displacement sensing. The scheme requires only measured inter‐story drift displacements without any additional finite element analysis. A method for estimating yield drift deformation is proposed, and then, the degree of beam end damage is evaluated based on the plastic deformation ratios derived with the yield drift deformation values estimated by the proposed method. The validity and effectiveness of the presented scheme are demonstrated via experimental data from a large‐scale shaking table test of a one‐third‐scale model of an 18‐story steel building structure conducted at E‐Defense. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A modified method for estimating vertical profiles of turbulent dissipation rate using density inversions in the Kuril Straits

To address the lack of directly measured turbulence data in the Kuril Straits, an existing method was modified to indirectly estimate continuous vertical profiles of turbulent energy dissipation rate ε by using density inversions. A linear relationship was confirmed between directly measured ε and indirectly estimated ε from the existing method, where most of the detected density inversions were discarded as noise. The existing method thus yielded large gaps in the vertical profiles, and the gaps were much greater than the observed mean autocorrelation vertical length scale of about 10 m. To reduce these gaps and produce reasonable estimates for vertical ε profiles, the quality tests were carefully re-examined with directly measured ε data, and one of the quality tests (the water mass test) was excluded because the test rejects real density inversions even with large ε. With this modification, and interpolation and smoothing of the indirectly estimated ε with the mean correlation length scale, continuous vertical ε profiles were obtained. These profiles have an error factor of 3.3 corresponding to one standard deviation of the ratio between directly observed and estimated data, and 95 % of the data were within a factor of 10.5, with the overall correlation coefficient between smoothed directly measured ε and estimated ε equal to 0.80. This method could be useful for areas where 10^?9 < ε < 10^?6.5 W/kg, and where vertical distances between adjacent density inversions are mostly less than the mean autocorrelation scale.