Fluctuation in volume transport distribution accompanied by the Kuroshio front migration in the Tokara Strait

A relation between migration of the Kuroshio front and fluctuation of distribution of volume transport in the Tokara Strait was described, using sea level records at five tide gauge stations around the strait and data which were composed of sea surface temperature, XBT casts, sea surface salinity and velocities at 20 m, 75 m and 150 m depths taken en route a ferryboat. The Kuroshio front extends to about 150 m depth. The sea surface salinity and the horizontal velocities abruptly change at the front. There is a good correlation in a period range from half a month to two months between the migration of the front, which is not only at the surface but also in the subsurface, and the sea level fluctuation at Nakano-shima. A northward migration of the front with a period range from 17 to 50 days decreases the transport in the southern strait between Naze and Nakano-shima but increases in the northern strait between Nakano-shima and Sata-misaki. The northward migration intensifies inflow into Kagoshima Bay and the Ohsumi Branch Current. Correlation between the transport in the northern strait and the Ohsumi Branch Current is significant in the period range from 30 to 50 days. In this significant period range, the former leads the latter by about 3 days.     

Correlation of the Hakkoda–Kokumoto Tephra, a widespread Middle Pleistocene tephra erupted from the Hakkoda Caldera, northeast Japan

Abstract A Middle Pleistocene widespread tephra referred to here as Hakkoda–Kokumoto Tephra (Hkd–Ku) has been newly recognized. Hkd–Ku, derived from the Hakkoda Caldera located in northernmost Honshu Is. of northeast Japan, covers much of Honshu Is. At the type locality in the proximal area, Hkd–Ku comprises Plinian pumice deposits and an immediately overlying ignimbrite. The fine vitric ash nature of the distal ash‐fall deposits of Hkd–Ku suggests that they are coignimbrite ash‐fall deposits. Hkd–Ku was identified using a combination of refractive indices and chemical compositions of major, trace and rare earth elements of glass shards, heavy mineral content, refractive indices of orthopyroxene and paleomagnetic polarity. On the basis of these properties, Hkd–Ku was identified in Oga and Boso Peninsulas and Osaka Plain, 830 km southwest of the source. Stratigraphic positions in Boso Peninsula and Osaka Plain within marine sediments that have a reliable chronology based on oxygen‐isotope, and litho‐, bio‐, magneto‐ and tephrostratigraphy indicate that the age of Hkd–Ku is ca 760 ka, positioned in the transition between marine oxygen‐isotope stages 19.1 and 18.4. The widespread occurrence of Hkd–Ku providing a tie line between many different Pleistocene sections over a distance of 800 km is a key marker horizon in the early part of the Middle Pleistocene. This tephra gives a time control point of ca 760 ka to marine sediments in the Oga Peninsula – where no datum plane exists between the Brunhes–Matuyama chron boundary and oxygen‐isotope stage 12 – and to the volcanostratigraphy of the Hakkoda Caldera. The distribution of Hkd–Ku showing emplacement of coignimbrite ash‐fall deposits in the area 830 km southwest of the source emphasizes the upwind transport direction, relative to the prevailing westerly winds, typical of other coignimbrite ash‐fall deposits in the Japanese islands.     

Transport of chemical components in sea ice and under-ice water during melting in the seasonally ice-covered Saroma-ko Lagoon,Hokkaido, Japan

Physico-chemical properties in the brine and under-ice water were measured in Saroma-ko Lagoon on the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan, which is connected to the Sea of Okhotsk, during the period from mid-February through mid-March 2006. The brine within brine channels of the sea ice was collected with a new sampling method examined in this study. Salinity, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TA), dissolved oxygen (DO), nutrients and oxygen isotopic ratio (δ¹⁸O) contained in the brine within brine channels of the sea ice and in the under-ice water varied largely in both time and space during the ice melt period, when discharge from Saromabetsu River located on the southeast of the lagoon increased markedly due to the onset of snow melting. The under-ice plume expands as far as 4.5 km from the river mouth at mid-March 2006, transporting chemical components supplied from the river into the lagoon. The under-ice river water was likely transported into the sea ice through well-developed brine channels in the sea ice due to upward flushing of water through brine channels occurred by loading of snowfalls deposited over the sea ice. These results suggest that the river water plume plays an important role in supplying chemical components into the sea ice, which may be a key process influencing the biogeochemical cycle in the seasonally ice-covered Saroma-ko Lagoon.