Oxygen Isotope Study of Paleoproterozoic Banded Iron Formation, Hamersley Basin, Western Australia

A submillimeter‐scale variation of δ¹⁸O in quartz was identified in chert and Fe‐oxide mesobands of the Brockman Iron Formation, Western Australia, using an in situ CO₂‐laser fluorination technique. The total range of variation is 11.2–23.0‰, with >5‰ variations within a single mesoband of approximately 2 cm thickness. These data contradict most previous works, which have suggested that banded iron formations are isotopically homogeneous. The present sample was obtained outside of the iron mining area, and as such is considered to have been less altered by the hydrothermal event recently shown to be responsible for the formation of the iron ore. The data suggest that the largest Paleoproterozoic banded iron formations may have formed not in a stable, quiescent sea, but instead as a result of increased influx of iron‐ and silica‐rich solutions during periods of increased magmatism and submarine hydrothermal activity in a rift basin environment.     

Improving Representation of Tropical Cloud Overlap in GCMs Based on Cloud-Resolving Model Data

The decorrelation length (L_cf) has been widely used to describe the behavior of vertical overlap of clouds in general circulation models (GCMs); however, it has been a challenge to associate L_cf with the large-scale meteorological conditions during cloud evolution. This study explored the relationship between L_cf and the strength of atmospheric convection in the tropics based on output from a global cloud-resolving model. L_cf tends to increase with vertical velocity in the mid-troposphere (w₅₀₀) at locations of ascent, but shows little or no dependency on w₅₀₀ at locations of descent. A representation of L_cf as a function of vertical velocity is obtained, with a linear regression in ascending regions and a constant value in descending regions. This simple and dynamic-related representation of L_cf leads to a significant improvement in simulation of both cloud cover and radiation fields compared with traditional overlap treatments. This work presents a physically justifiable approach to depicting cloud overlap in the tropics in GCMs.     

High-resolution observations of the Orion bright bar

High resolution strip maps of CS (J=1–0) and H51 line emission across the Orion bright bar are presented. They reveal the existence of a high density molecular layer (molecular sheet) plane parallel to the ionization front. This molecular sheet is redshifted relative to the ambient molecular cloud by about 2 km s^–1. The rapid decrease of the CS emission at about 50 arc sec from the bar suggests that a shock front exists here and the sheet is a post shock layer.Paper presented at the IAU Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan, between 30 September–6 October, 1984.This work was carried out under the common use observation program at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO). NRO, a branch of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, University of Tokyo, Japan, is a cosmic radio observing facility open to outside users.     

Physical properties of the outflow sources in taurus

We have searched for CO outflows in eight embedded IRAS sources located in the Taurus molecular cloud using the 45m telescope of Nobeyama Radio Observatory. We have detected CO wing emission in four of these sources. CO outflow associated with TMC1A (04365+2535) is strong and spatially compact (radius 0.04 pc). The dynamical timescale of 2.5 × 10³ yr suggests this outflow is the youngest one in Taurus.We have combined our data with previously published survey data and have analyzed the physical properties of the outflow sources. We found that 12 out of 16 embedded sources ( 75 %) have CO outflows associated with them; this indicates that almost all stars experience a phase of molecular outflow in their embedded stage. The IRAS color of the outflow sources suggests that the outflows appear in considerably early phase of the evolution of YSOs, that is, as early as YSOs became observable with IRAS and that visible outflow sources are in a transient phase of evolution between embedded sources and visible T Tauri stars without outflow. Visible outflow sources are systematically more luminous than visible no-outflow sources, while embedded outflow sources have comparable luminosities with visible no-outflow sources. Such luminosity function suggests that the YSOs with outflow undergo mass accretion and increase their stellar mass as they progress from embedded sources to visible outflow sources. Typical mass accretion rate derived from the bolometric luminosity is 2 ×10^–6 M _yr ^–1. The timescale for mass accretion to acquire typical stellar mass, 0.5 – 0.8M , is 2.5 – 4 × 10⁵ yr.     

Growth and sedimentation of dust grains in the primordial solar nebula

Of the formation processes in the solar system, the process of growth and sedimentation of dust grains in the primordial solar nebula is investigated for a region near the Earth's orbit. The growth equation for dust grains, which are sinking as well as being in thermal motion, is solved numerically in the wide mass range between 10^?12 and 10⁶ g. Any turbulent motions in the nebula are assumed to have already decayed when the sedimentation begins. The numerical simulation shows that the growth and sedimentation proceed faster than was found by Kusaka et al. (1970) but in accordance with the estimate of Safronov (1969) owing to a cooperative interaction of the growth and the sedimentation; that is, at about 3 × 10³ years after the beginning of the growth and sedimentation a dust layer, composed of centimeter-sized grains, is formed at the equator of the solar nebula. Furthermore, the mass density of dust grains floating in the outer layers of the nebula is found to be of the order of 10^?5 after 10⁵ years compared with that before the sedimentation. From these results, it can be estimated that at about 5 × 10³ years after the beginning of sedimentation the dust layer breaks up owing to the onset of gravitational instability.     

Focused infiltration of snowmelt water in partially frozen soil under small depressions

Ephemeral puddles in small closed depressions can play an important role in the hydrology and ecology of many landscapes, by storing runoff water, recharging soil moisture and shallow groundwater, and by providing food and habitat for many organisms. Infiltration of snowmelt water under small depressions (<1000 m²) has been studied in the St. Denis National Wildlife Area in Saskatchewan, Canada, located within the northern glaciated prairie of North America where numerous depressions of varying sizes exist. The depressions stored most of the snowmelt runoff generated within their respective watersheds. The water level in a typical depression declined at 0.6 mm/h while the underlying frozen soil was thawing. This rate was likely limited by the rate of downward movement of the thawing front, which was functioning as a moving impermeable boundary. The rate of thawing was controlled by the external energy input from the ground surface. Standing water in depressions efficiently trapped incoming radiation and conducted it to the thawing front. The recession rate increased to 1.1 mm/h when the soil under the depression thawed completely. The recession rate at this later stage appears to be limited by the hydraulic conductivity of the subsoil (0.04–4 mm/h), which is much smaller than the topsoil conductivity (10–20 mm/h).     

Building Damage and Casualties after an Earthquake

The relationship between building damage patterns and human casualties in Nishinomiya City – one of the most heavily damaged cities in the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster – was investigated using photographs of damaged buildings. First, the photographs of buildings in which casualties occurred were identified, and the building damage patterns were judged based on the photographs considering the existence of survival space. Then the relationship between the building damage pattern and casualty occurrence, and the characteristics of casualty distribution, were investigated. The main findings were as follows: Most casualties occurred in relatively old two-story wooden buildings in which the ground floor completely collapsed without survival space; casualties occurred at all building damage levels including ``no damage', and it can be seen that building damage is the major, but not the sole cause, of casualties in an earthquake; in Nishinomiya City, the regional distributions of casualties due to the collapse of buildings that left no survival space is similar to that of casualties due to other types of building damage.     

Faunal analysis of Neogene planktonic foraminifera from forearc sediments of the Japan Trench, ODP Site 1151, Leg 186

Abstract The present paper describes the general outline of Neogene paleoceanographic changes in the northwestern Pacific by means of planktonic foraminiferal assemblages. Planktonic foraminiferal fossils occur commonly in the upper Miocene to lower Pleistocene sediments of Hole 1151A, Ocean Drilling Program Leg 186 in the forearc basin off northeast Japan, with the exception of 11 barren intervals. These barren intervals are explained as a result of dissolution under organic decomposing processes. Three assemblages of planktonic foraminifers were identified by Q‐mode cluster analysis. The succession of the assemblages can be divided into four paleoceanographic stages: (i) warm‐temperate Tortonian; (ii) cold‐temperate Messinian to lower Pliocene; (iii) warm climatic optimum in the middle part of the Pliocene; and (iv) strong glacial–interglacial oscillation of the upper Pliocene to the lower Pleistocene. Three short warming events—namely, the late Miocene climatic optimum 3, the Miocene–Pliocene boundary and the middle Pliocene events—and a short cooling event of the late Miocene could be determined in the studied section of Site 1151.     

Possible effects of lateral viscosity variations induced by plate-tectonic mechanism on geoid inferred from numerical models of mantle convection

In a traditional analytical method, the convective features of Earth’s mantle have been inferred from surface signatures obtained by the geodynamic model only with depth-dependent viscosity structure. The moving and subducting plates, however, bring lateral viscosity variations in the mantle. To clarify the effects of lateral viscosity variations caused by the plate-tectonic mechanism, I have first studied systematically instantaneous dynamic flow calculations using new density-viscosity models only with vertical viscosity variations in a three-dimensional spherical shell. I find that the geoid high arises over subduction zones only when the vertical viscosity contrast between the upper mantle and the lower mantle is O(10³) to O(10⁴), which seems to be much larger than the viscosity contrast suggested by other studies. I next show that this discrepancy may be removed when I consider the lateral viscosity variation caused by the plate-tectonic mechanism using two-dimensional numerical models of mantle convection with self-consistently moving and subducting plates, and suggest that the observed geoid anomaly on the Earth’s surface is significantly affected by plate-tectonic mechanism as a first-order effect.