Tectonic core of a sedimentary drift: a potential ridge propagation feature beneath the Blake Outer Ridge

The Blake Outer Ridge is a 480–kilometer long linear sedimentary drift ridge striking perpendicular to the North American coastline. By modeling free-air gravity anomalies we tested for the presence of a crustal feature that may control the location and orientation of the Blake Outer Ridge. Most of our crustal density models that match observed gravity anomalies require an increase in oceanic crustal thickness of 1–3 km on the southwest side of the Blake Outer Ridge relative to the northeast side. Most of these models also require 1–4 km of crustal thinning in zone 20–30 km southwest of the crest of the Blake Outer Ridge. Although these features are consistent with the structure of oceanic fracture zones, the Blake Outer Ridge is not parallel to adjacent known fracture zones. Magnetic anomalies suggest that the ocean crust beneath this feature formed during a period of mid-ocean ridge reorganization, and that the Blake Outer Ridge may be built upon the bathymetric expression of an oblique extensional feature associated with ridge propagation. It is likely that the orientation of this trough acted as a catalyst for sediment deposition with the start of the Western Boundary Undercurrent in the mid-Oligocene.     

Jellyfish patch formation investigated by aerial photography and drifter experiment

Jellyfish patch formation is investigated by conducting a drifter experiment combined with aerial photography of a sustained patch of the moon jellyfish in Hokezu Bay, Japan. Jellyfish patches are aggregations of individuals that are caused by a combination of swimming (active influence) and advection by currents (passive influence). The drifter experiment involved the injection of 49 drifters around a distinct surface patch of jellyfish within an area of approximately 300 m × 300 m. The drifters’ motion, caused only by the passive influence, was recorded in a series of 38 aerial photographs taken over approximately 1 h. The ambient uniform current field larger than the patch scale was estimated from the movement of the centroid position of drifters, while the distribution of horizontal divergence and relative vorticity around the patch was estimated from the time-derivative in areas of triangles formed by the drifters. The centroid positions of both drifters and patches moved stably toward the bay head at different speeds. The difference vector between the patch and drifter centroids was directed to the sun, and was opposite to the ambient current. The distributions of vorticity and divergence around patches exhibited inhomogeneity within the patch scale, and the drifters in this nonuniform current field aggregated near the convergence area within 1 h. The results suggest that horizontal patch formation is predominantly influenced by passive factors at the surface of Hokezu Bay. Furthermore, the upward swimming against downwelling may make sustained patch in surface layer.     

Biodiversity of meiofauna in the intertidal khe nhan mudflat,can gio mangrove forest,vietnam with special emphasis on free living nematodes

The ecological aspect of meiofaunal communities in Can Gio mangrove forest, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam has not been investigated before. The composition, distribution, density and biodiversity of meiofaunal communities were studied along an intertidal transect at the Khe Nhan mudflat. Each time, three replicate samples were collected in four stations along a transect following the water line from low tide level up to the mangrove forest edge. In total, 18 meiofaunal taxa were found with the dominant taxa belonging to Nematoda, Copepoda, Sarcomastigophora and Polychaeta. The densities of meiofauna ranged from 1156 inds/10 cm² to 2082 inds/10 cm². The increase in densities from the mangrove forest edge towards the low water line was significant. Along the mudflat transect, the biodiversity (expressed by different indices) was relatively high at different taxonomic levels but did not vary significantly along the mudflat except for taxa richness. Eighty nematode genera belonging to 24 families with Comesomatidae having the highest abundance 33.8 % were found.Theristus andNeochromadora decreased in densities from the lower water line towards the mangrove forest edge, whileParacomesoma andHopperia are typical and more abundant at the middle of the mudflat.Halalaimus increased from high on the mudflat to the low water line.     

Influence of air-sea interaction on SSTA in different spacial scales

-In this paper, the factors for SSTA development in finite sea area of low latitudes are discussed with simpler linearized equations, According to the coupling conditions at the interface of atmosphere and ocean, we studied the horizontal scale relations of air-sea coupled system satisfying the dynamical and thermodynamical requirements, From the fluctuation viewpoint, the relation of horizontal scales and wave numbers are presented for a linear atmosphere-ocean coupled system with the same time scales. At last part of the paper, the state of fluctuations is examined for different sea scales under certain given atmospheric scale with a simpler two-layer coupled model, and some significant results obtained.     

皱纹盘鲍三倍体生长的初步研究

将用低温休克法和细胞松弛素B诱导法,获得的皱纹盘鲍(Haliotis discus hannai Ino)三倍体诱导群与二倍体的个体,在室内同样条件下饲育,对其生长情况进行了比较,结果表明:(1)三倍体与二倍体的当年稚鲍在壳长和体重的增长上无明显差异。(2)三倍体与二倍体的2龄鲍,在第二年前期生长无明显差异,但从第二年后期开始,三倍体的壳长、体重增长逐渐优于二倍体。(3)统计学分析表明,三倍体与二倍体的3龄鲍在体重、软体部和足肌的增长方面,存在着明显差异。(4)在室内饲育19个月的鲍,三倍体诱导群的壳长比二倍体大10.2％,体重比二倍体大20.1％,足肌湿重比二倍体大17.6％。     

Baroclinic Buoyancy-Inertia Joint Stability Parameter

At present, the barotropic buoyant stability parameter has been derived from a vertical virtual displacement of a water parcel. The barotropic inertial stability parameter in the eccentrically cyclogeostrophic, basic current field was derived in 2003 from a horizontal cross-stream virtual displacement of a parcel. By expressing acceleration of a parcel due to a virtual displacement, which is arbitrarily sloping within a vertical section across the basic current, in terms of natural coordinates, we derived the vertical component of baroclinic buoyant stability parameter B ₂ ², the horizontal component of baroclinic inertial stability parameter I ₂ ², the baroclinic joint stability parameter J ², its buoyant component B ² and its inertial component I ². B ² is far greater than I ₂ ², and when neglecting relative vorticity except for vertical shear, a downward convex curve of J ² plotted against the slope of a virtual displacement follows a trend of B ² curve. If a parcel displaces along a horizontal surface or an isopycnal surface, however, B ² vanishes, and J ² becomes equal to I ². Actual parcel is apt to displace not only along the bottom slope, but also along the sea surface and an isopycnal interfacial surface, which is approximately equivalent to an isentropic surface, preferred by lateral mixing and exchange of momentum. Such actual displacement makes B ² vanishing, and grants I ² an important role. The present analysis of I ² examining effects due to curvature and horizontal and vertical shear vorticities are useful in deepening our understanding of baroclinic instability in actual oceanic streams.     

Preconditioned Optimizing Utility for Large-dimensional analyses (POpULar)

I present the derivation of the Preconditioned Optimizing Utility for Large-dimensional analyses (POpULar), which is developed for adopting a non-diagonal background error covariance matrix in nonlinear variational analyses (i.e., analyses employing a non-quadratic cost function). POpULar is based on the idea of a linear preconditioned conjugate gradient method widely adopted in ocean data assimilation systems. POpULar uses the background error covariance matrix as a preconditioner without any decomposition of the matrix. This preconditioning accelerates the convergence. Moreover, the inverse of the matrix is not required. POpULar therefore allows us easily to handle the correlations among deviations of control variables (i.e., the variables which will be analyzed) from their background in nonlinear problems. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of POpULar, we illustrate two effects which are often neglected in studies of ocean data assimilation before. One is the effect of correlations among the deviations of control variables in an adjoint analysis. The other is the nonlinear effect of sea surface dynamic height calculation required when sea surface height observation is employed in a three-dimensional ocean analysis. As the results, these effects are not so small to neglect.     

Wave reflection from partially perforated-wall caisson breakwater

In 1995, Suh and Park developed a numerical model that computes the reflection of regular waves from a fully perforated-wall caisson breakwater. This paper describes how to apply this model to a partially perforated-wall caisson and irregular waves. To examine the performance of the model, existing experimental data are used for regular waves, while a laboratory experiment is conducted in this study for irregular waves. The numerical model based on a linear wave theory tends to over-predict the reflection coefficient of regular waves as the wave nonlinearity increases, but such an over-prediction is not observed in the case of irregular waves. For both regular and irregular waves, the numerical model slightly over- and under-predicts the reflection coefficients at larger and smaller values, respectively, because the model neglects the evanescent waves near the breakwater.     

赤道西太平洋大气边界层的诊断分析

利用１９９３年ＥＮＳＯ事件爆发（４月）前酝酿时期“热带大洋与全球大气－海洋耦合响应试验”强化观测阶段“向阳红五号”科学考察船１５５°Ｅ，２°Ｓ定点海洋气象和高空大气探测资料，分析了赤道西太平洋大气边界层特征。结果表明：赤道西太平洋上空辐合对流区边界层内也有等温或逆温层存在，大气边界层物理参数变化与大尺度海－气变异有密切关系，赤道太平洋沃克环流加强、东移，边界层上部逆温层出现概率明显增大，边界层内高湿层湿度减小。另外，边界层内实测风速、风向廓线随高度的变化基本上不服从Ｅｋｍａｎ规律，但由其平均，分量合成得到的平均风随高度的变化却基本符合Ｅｋｍａｎ规律。     

莱州湾东部滨海水域砂金分布特征

通过对莱州湾东部滨海水域地球物理和地质钻综合调查，业已查明该海区地质的构造和古地理环境特征，并发现区内砂金分布较普遍，本文从砂金分布的地貌单元，沉积物类型，砂金成因类型，物质来源，古气候，构造作用，砂金成因等诸方面，研究了该海域内砂金特征。