Application of scanning X-ray analytical microscope to the petrographic characterization of a ductile shear zone: an alternative method to image microstructures

A ductile shear zone within a metasomatic biotite band in the Ryoke granite, Teshima, SW Japan, has been studied using the scanning X-ray analytical microscope (SXAM). This enabled the quantitative distributions of major elements, such as Si, K, Fe, Al and Ca, to be determined within the shear zone. These element maps were processed to transform them into images showing the distribution of minerals such as quartz, biotite, plagioclase and K-feldspar, which form the major minerals within the biotite band and the granite protolith. Mineral profiles based on these mineral maps compared with the simple shear strain profile reveal that the shear zone is most intense where quartz and biotite have been substituted for the primary mineral assemblage of the granite protolith, suggesting that the stresses imposed on the granite caused the shear strain to localize along the biotite band to produce the observed shear zone. It appears that the rheological behavior changed around 50–60% of quartz modal composition.     

Experiment and Theoretical Study of Earthquake Detection Capability by Means of Microwave Passive Sensors on a Satellite

This letter presents the possibility of detecting earthquakes (EQs) from microwaves emitted when rock fractures. The method is based on an experiment in which microwave emission was detected from rock fracturing in a laboratory for the first time in the world. First, the method of calibrating emitted microwave power from experimental data is presented. A model of microwave emission and propagation to a satellite is then proposed. An advantage of microwaves is that they penetrate the Earth's ionosphere, unlike radiowaves of frequencies lower than several tens of megahertz. The power received by a satelliteborne receiver is estimated by assuming parameters of a radiometer currently operating in orbit. The result indicates that a satelliteborne receiver can detect microwave signals generated by an EQ. Based on this result, we attempted to detect some features associated with an actual EQ from the data of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observation System aboard the remote sensing satellite Aqua.     

Inferred ultrahigh-temperature metamorphism of amphibolitized olivine granulite from the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica

This paper reports the first evidence of ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism from the Sør Rondane Mountains, eastern Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, which is evident as orthopyroxene + spinel symplectite in an amphibolitized mafic granulite. The granulite consists of olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, pargasitic amphibole, plagioclase, and ilmenite, and it possesses a within-plate alkali basalt signature. The local bulk chemical composition of symplectite, major and trace element compositions, and thermodynamic calculations for the symplectite, suggest the presence of garnet at the high-pressure stage and that the symplectite formed from garnet, olivine, and primary orthopyroxene by decompression from more than 12 kbar at 1000 °C. The granulite records a subsequent amphibolite-facies overprint (<700 °C at <6 kbar) that involved the chemical re-equilibration of several phases. The obtained pressure–temperature (P–T) conditions and P–T path are different from the UHT metamorphism from the Schirmacher Hills, central Dronning Maud Land, which is considered to have occurred in a back-arc tectonic setting. The relatively high-P conditions and the decompression path reconstructed in the present study are similar to those reported for southern India, Sri Lanka, and part of northeastern Mozambique, possibly reflecting continental thickening and exhumation during the main collision event between East and West Gondwana.     

Analysis of the geographical accessibility of neurosurgical emergency hospitals in Sapporo city using GIS and AHP

To improve the geographical accessibility of neurosurgical emergency hospitals for elderly people, we developed several alternative site plans for a new neurosurgical emergency hospital in Sapporo, Japan. Hospitals, population data, routes, and the numerical information for the Analytic Hierarchy Process computations were input into a Geographical Information System. Pairwise comparison revealed the following weights which were assigned to each of the four criteria: 0.674 for availability of hospital beds; 0.169 for the maximum road distance of the shortest routes; 0.101 for the elderly population within a 3‐km radius; and 0.056 for the median road distance of the shortest routes. The alternative proposed could cover 4000 more elderly people in the 3‐km radius of the hospitals. The integration of Geographical Information Systems and the Analytic Hierarchy Process constitutes a powerful tool for analysing traffic conditions in mid‐sized cities and for suggesting city planning to improve prognosis of stroke.     

Finite difference analog of the Coriolis force in papers by Endoh

A wrong finite difference form is used for the rotation of the Coriolis force in the vorticity equation with bottom topography in a series of papers byEndoh.     

Ice cloud microphysics,radiative transfer and large-scale cloud processes

Summary Parameterization programs for cloud microphyscs and radiative transfer involving ice clouds have been developed in terms of the mean effective size and ice water path. The mean effective size appears to be adequate in representing the ice crystal size distribution for radiative parameterizations. For a given ice water path, smaller mean effective sizes reflect more solar radiation, emit more IR radiation and enhance net radiative heating/cooling at the cloud top and bottom than larger sizes. The presence of small ice crystals may generate steeper lapse rates in clouds. A 3-D global cloud model that prescribes the horizontal wind fields in a 24 hour period is used to investigate the sensitivity of the mean effective size of ice crystals on the simulation of radiative heating, temperature, cloud cover and ice water content. A variation in the mean effective size from 75 to 50 m in a 24 hour prediction on simulation generates more cooling above the high cloud top and a decrease of temperature. These results lead to an increase of high cloud cover in some latitudes by as much as 4% and, at the same time, a decrease of middle cloud cover by 3–4% in latitudes between 60°S and 60°N.With 7 Figures     

Frequency selective surfaces for radio astronomy

Frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) with the Jerusalem-cross array configuration have been developed for simultaneous observations of radio astronomical sources at the 40GHz and 80GHz bands. For supporting material, PET(polyethylene terephthalate: 200×220mm large, 12m thick, permittivity 3.0) was used, and copper was used for the conducting array. The measured characteristics were in good agreement with the calculated ones. The fabricated FSS has low insertion losses of less than 0.2dB and little distortion of polarization for each band. The characteristics of the developed FSS satisfy radio astronomical requirements.     

Sequence-stratigraphic signatures of hemipelagic siltstones in deep-water successions: the Lower Pleistocene Kiwada and Otadai Formations, Boso Peninsula, Japan

Sequence-stratigraphic signatures of hemipelagic siltstones were investigated using profiles of the magnetic susceptibility and selected chemical composition of the Early Pleistocene deep-water successions of the Kiwada and Otadai Formations on the Boso Peninsula, Japan. In the context of an independently developed sequence-stratigraphic framework for the submarine-fan deposits of the Otadai Formation, the magnetic susceptibility and chemical composition, such as the concentrations of TiO₂, MgO and Fe₂O₃, show that the lowstand systems tract deposits have higher values of these parameters than the transgressive and highstand systems tract deposits. In contrast, the CaO contents have inverse relationships with the magnetic susceptibility and are higher in the transgressive and highstand systems tract deposits. The positions of sequence boundaries largely coincide with the horizons from which the magnetic susceptibility and the contents of mafic component increase abruptly. The sequence-stratigraphic variations in the magnetic susceptibility and chemical composition of the submarine-fan hemipelagic siltstones are due to increases in the input of fine-grained, terrigenous clastic sediments from midwater flow suspension, in addition to the direct fluvial supply of relatively unmodified terrigenous clastic sediments during relative sea-level lowstands, although grain size of hemipelagic siltstones does not exhibit any distinct variation through depositional sequences. The Kiwada Formation is characterized by siltstone-dominated basin-plain deposits and its sequence-stratigraphic classification has been difficult when using just lithofacies features. Nevertheless, the profiles of the magnetic susceptibility and chemical composition of the basin-plain deposits are similar to those of the submarine-fan deposits with duration largely equivalent to the 41,000-years obliquity cycle of the Early Pleistocene oxygen isotope sea-level index. This finding indicates that the profiles of the magnetic susceptibility and chemical composition of hemipelagic siltstones reflect sequence-stratigraphic variation in the input of fine-grained terrigenous clastic sediments to the deep-water environments and are crucial for the recognition of cryptic sequence boundaries in hemipelagic successions.