Dehydration kinetics of muscovite by in situ infrared microspectroscopy

Dehydration behavior of muscovite flake was investigated at 760–860°C by using in situ high-temperature IR microspectroscopy for the OH absorption band around 3,620 cm⁻¹. Isothermal kinetic heating experiments at each temperature gave detailed decrease curves of the OH band area with time. These curves have been simulated by the first and second order reactions or mono- and two-dimensional diffusion processes. The mono-dimensional diffusion was found to give the best fit to the experimental data and apparent diffusion coefficients D were determined at 760–860°C with the activation energy of 290 ± 20 kJ/mol. The apparent diffusion coefficients D varied with the sample thickness L. This variation can be explained by an m layers model with a unit length of L′ with a constant diffusion coefficient D′. Therefore, the dehydration process might be rate-limited by mono-dimensional diffusion through tetrahedral silicate sheet perpendicular to (001) planes of muscovite with a unit length of L′.     

Summer Water Balance Characteristics of Koryto Glacier, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia

The daily water balance for the drainage basin of Koryto Glacier, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, was calculated during the period from August to September 2000. The result shows that 14×10⁶ m³ of meltwater and 2×10⁶ m³ of rainwater entered the basin, while 26×10⁶ m³ of water drained from the basin through proglacial streams. Thus, about ?9×10⁶ m³ of water storage reduction occurred in the basin. Vertical displacements of the glacier surface showed that the volume change due to contraction of subglacial cavities was nearly 20% of the total storage change. The remaining fraction of water storage during the period is thought to be stored in englacial and supraglacial locations. The estimate of water balance components in the early ablation season in 2000 indicates that meltwater was already stored within the glacier before the spring, even during the previous year, and that the stored water drained through the ablation season.     

Hydrodynamical models of the Orion-KL Nebula

The interaction between an isotropic protostellar wind and an ambient molecular cloud is investigated by two-dimensional hydrodynamic computations. The wind-cloud interaction model is promising for explanation of the observed properties of the Orion-KL Nebula.Paper presented at the IAU Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan, between 30 September–6 October, 1984.     

Interannual variability of Pacific Winter Water inflow through Barrow Canyon from 2000 to 2006

We examined the interannual variability of Pacific Winter Water (PWW), both upstream in the northeastern Chukchi Sea and Barrow Canyon using mooring observations from 2000 to 2006, and downstream in the Canada Basin using hydrographic data acquired in 2002–2006. The interannual variation of PWW salinity is governed by two factors: (1) variability in the salinity of Pacific Water that flows northward through Bering Strait in winter; and (2) the input of salt associated with sea ice formation during winter in an intermittent coastal polynya located along the Alaskan coast between Cape Lisburne and Point Barrow. During the winters of 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 an increased transport of cold and saline PWW (S?>?33.5) to the basin via Barrow Canyon was observed. In 2000/2001 enhanced ice formation in the polynya contributed to the increased salinity of PWW, whereas in 2001/2002 the salinity of water entering through the Bering Strait was higher, and this resulted in more saline PWW being delivered to the basin. In the following four winters (2002/2003, 2003/2004, 2004/2005 and 2005/2006) the transport of cold and saline PWW in winter to the basin was less than that in the two preceding winters. In three of these four winters (2003/2004 being the exception) the coastal polynya was less active, thus reducing the input of salt due to brine enrichment. In the winter of 2003/2004, however, warmer water within the polynya region constrained ice formation and thus less cold and saline PWW was produced, despite the fact that the coastal polynya was active and frequently open.     

Large-scale landslides in Toyama Prefecture,central Japan,and their probable relationship with earthquakes

Large-scale landslides along the Kubusu and Besso rivers in Toyama Prefecture are developed in the Miocene Iwaine Formation, which is composed of andesitic lava, tuff, and tuff breccia. In the middle member of this formation, the tuff is easily altered to montmorillonite-bearing rock, and subsequently plays an important role in the development of landslides events, which tend to be large-scale events, as the massive lava of the upper member forms a cap rock over the tuff. The Kiritani and Koinami basins, which are flat intermontane basins located along the Kubusu and Besso rivers, respectively, are interpreted as landslide-dammed lakes, later filled with sediment. Accelerator mass spectrometry ¹⁴C ages show that the landslides forming each dam occurred simultaneously, at approximately 2500 BP. These ages were measured from wood fragments embedded in the landslide material of Kiritani, and from an in situ stump drowned during the impoundment of Koinami. If the trigger of these landslides was an earthquake, it is most likely to have been the penultimate event along the Atotsugawa fault zone.     

影响日本佐渡岛农民实施野生动物友好型耕作的因素探究(英文)

野生动物友好型耕作(Wildlife-friendly Farming,WFF)实践是一种维持农田生态恢复的良好方式。本研究的目的在于探讨影响日本佐渡岛农民实施WFF的因素和提出影响这种实践传播的政策。对佐渡岛上把大米销售给日本农业合作社(Japan Agricultural Cooperatives,JA)的5010个农户进行了问卷调查,总共收到2231农户反馈问卷(反馈率45%)。通过与未经认证农民的态度和属性对比,我们确定了影响农民实施WFF的关键因素。与未经认证的农民相比,已认证的农民:(1)对生物多样性和WFF的经济效益表现出更高的兴趣;(2)拥有更多的已认证农民朋友;(3)感受到了来自消费者的更多的压力和期望;(4)当实施WFF时,不受恶劣劳动力或农田条件的限制。为了在佐渡岛进一步宣传WFF,我们建议把WFF实践对稻田生物多样性的有效性信息应用到公共教育中,并在非认证农民和已认证农民之间、农民与消费者之间创建交流的机会。     

Influence of bedrock groundwater on streamflow characteristics in a volcanic catchment

Groundwater movements in volcanic mountains and their effects on streamflow discharge and representative elementary area (REA) have remained largely unclear. We surveyed the discharge and chemical composition of spring and stream water in two catchments: the Hontani river (NR) catchment (6.6 km²) and the Hosotani river (SR) catchment (4.0 km²) at the southern part of Daisen volcano, Japan. Daisen volcano is a young volcano (17 × 10³ years) at an early stage of erosion. Our study indicated that deep groundwater that moved through thick lava and pyroclastic flows and that could not be explained by shallow movements controlled by surface topography contributed dominantly to streamflow at larger catchment areas. At the NR catchment, the deep groundwater contribution clearly increased at a catchment boundary defined by an area of 3.0 km² and an elevation of 800 m. At the SR catchment, the contribution deep groundwater to the stream also increased suddenly at a boundary threshold of 2.0 and 700 m. Beyond these thresholds, the contributions of deep bedrock groundwater remained constant, indicating that the REA is between 2 and 3 km² at the observed area. These results indicate that the hydrological conditions of base flow were controlled mainly by the deep bedrock groundwater that moved through thick lava and pyroclastic flows in the undissected volcanic body of the upper part of the catchment. Our study demonstrates that deep and long groundwater movements via a deep bedrock layer including thick deposits of volcanic materials at the two catchments on Daisen volcano strongly determined streamflow discharge instead of the mixing of small‐scale hydrological conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Construction of Wide Field Cryogenic Telescope

We constructed a wide field cryogenic telescope (WFCT) containing a whole Ritchey-Chrétien system and a focal plane array in a cryostat for near infrared observations to cover the field of view of 0.4°. The telescope has a primary mirror of 220 mm and an engineering grade 256 × 256 InSb array. The optical components such as two mirrors, filters, spiders, and radiation shield tube are cooled down to 180 K as well as the InSb array to 35 K by a mechanical refrigerator. We show the results of the background surface brightnesses and the limiting magnitudes at 3.3 and 3.67 μm measured at Sutherland, South Africa. We describe the on-going upgrade of this instrument, equipped with a 1024 × 1024 ALADDIN InSb science grade array. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.