An assessment of uncertainties in VS profiles obtained from microtremor observations in the phased 2018 COSMOS blind trials

Journal of Seismology - Site response is a critical consideration when assessing earthquake hazards. Site characterization is key to understanding site effects as influenced by seismic site...     

Azimuthal dependence on amplifications for long-period ground motions propagating in the Kanto Basin,Japan

Journal of Seismology - In the Kanto Basin, Japan, it has been reported that the dominant periods of long-period ground motions vary depending on the areas where earthquakes occurred. This suggests...     

Effects of salinity on the growth,Na partitioning,and Na dynamics of a salt-tolerant tree,Populus alba L.

To obtain the basic information required before using Populus alba L. to phytoremediate degraded saline environments, we investigated the effects of saline irrigation on the growth, survival, Na partitioning, and Na dynamics of 1-year-old rooted cuttings. The plants were grown in a greenhouse in lysimeters containing sandy soil and were watered with field water (control) or solutions containing either 2000 or 5000 mg L^?1 of a mixture of NaCl and CaCl₂ (low- and high-salt treatments, respectively). All plants in the control and the low-salt treatment survived after 1 year of treatment, but the high-salt treatment significantly decreased growth and caused 20% mortality. Strong Na partitioning was observed in the roots in all three treatments, suggesting that this is an important salt tolerance mechanism in P. alba. Total Na uptake was similar in the low-salt and high-salt treatments, and was about 3 times the value in the control. However, the compartmentalization of Na in fallen leaves, dead leaves and dead branches in the high-salt treatment was about twice the level in the low-salt treatment. The plants accumulate Na under moderate levels of salinity, suggesting that P. alba is a good candidate for phytoremediating salinized soil.     

Nitrate-nitrogen isotopic patterns in surface waters of the western and central equatorial pacific

To understand the processes transporting nitrate to the surface layer of the western and central equatorial Pacific, we measured the nitrogen isotopic ratio of nitrate (δ ¹⁵NO ₃ ⁻ ), which is a very useful tracer of the source of nitrate, above 200 m depth in this region in December 1999. δ ¹⁵NO ₃ ⁻ is higher (about 13.0‰) in the surface water than in the subsurface water (where it is about 6.5‰) due to isotopic fractionation during nitrate uptake by phytoplankton. The δ ¹⁵NO ₃ ⁻ value has a roughly linear relationship with the natural logarithm of nitrate concentration (ln[NO ₃ ⁻ ]). However, for values above 150 m depth, the intercept of this linear relationship varies with position from east to west. On the other hand, the data at 200 m depth at all observation stations are concentrated around a single point (ln[NO ₃ ⁻ ] = 2.5 and δ ¹⁵NO ₃ ⁻ = 6.5‰) and do not fit the linear relationships for the shallower values. To examine the meaning of the observed distributions of δ ¹⁵NO ₃ ⁻ and nitrate concentration we developed a box model including nitrogen and nitrogen isotopic cycles. By reproducing the observed relationship between δ ¹⁵NO ₃ ⁻ and nitrate concentration using this model we found that most nitrate is transported horizontally from the eastern equatorial Pacific. We also conducted case studies and investigated the effects of differences in pathways of nitrate transport on the distributions of δ ¹⁵NO ₃ ⁻ and nitrate concentration. From these studies we concluded that the observed linear relationships between δ ¹⁵NO ₃ ⁻ and ln[NO ₃ ⁻ ], having a common slope around 6‰ but different intercepts at each station, are evidence of the significant horizontal transport of nitrate to the surface water in this area.     

Roles of Physical Processes in the Carbon Cycle Using a Simplified Physical Model

A simplified physical model is proposed in this article to describe differences among basins in substance distributions which were not well described by previous simplified models. In the proposed model, the global ocean is divided into the Pacific/Indian Ocean (PI), the Atlantic Ocean (AT), the Southern Ocean and the Greenland/Iceland/Norwegian Sea. The model is consisted of five physical parameters, namely the air-sea gas exchange, the thermohaline circulation, the horizontal and vertical diffusions, and the deep convection in the high-latitude regions. Individual values of these parameters are chosen by optimizing model distribution of natural ¹⁴C as a physical tracer. The optimal value for a coefficient of vertical diffusion in the low-latitude region is 7.5 × 10^–5 [m²s^–1]. Vertical transports by the Antarctic Bottom Water and the North Atlantic Deep Water are estimated at 1.0 Sv and 9.0 Sv. Global-mean air-sea gas exchange time is calculated at 9.0 years. Using these optimal values, vertical profiles of dissolved inorganic carbon without biological production in PI and AT are estimated. Oceanic responses to anthropogenic fluctuations in substance concentrations in the atmosphere induced by the industrialization and nuclear bomb are also discribed, i.e., the effects appear significantly in AT while a signal is extremely weak in PI. A time-delay term is effective to make the PI water older near the bottom boundary.     

Compression mechanism and amorphization of portlandite, Ca(OH)2: structural refinement under pressure

In order to investigate compression mechanism and the pressure-induced amorphization of portlandite, Ca(OH)₂, the crystal structure has been refined up to 9.7?GPa using Rietveld analysis. Angular-dispersive synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction experiments were performed using a diamond anvil cell and an imaging plate at BL-18C in the Photon Factory at KEK, Japan. Compression behavior is highly anisotropic and the c axis is approximately 2.5 times as compressible as the a axis (β_a=0.004, β_c=0.011?GPa^?1). Because the refined fractional coordinate, z, of the O atom increases linearly with pressure, compression along the c axis is due to the shortening of the interlayer spacing. The compression mechanism shows no change up to the amorphization pressure and is basically the same as that of brucite, Mg(OH)₂, observed below 10 GPa. The octahedral regularity of CaO₆ approaches a regular configuration with pressure. The interlayer O…O distance is expected to be about 2.75 Å at the amorphization pressure and should affect hydrogen bonding.     

Influence of export rain ratio changes on atmospheric CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> and sedimentary calcite preservation

The responses of atmospheric pCO₂ and sediment calcite content to changes in the export rain ratio of calcium carbonate to organic carbon are examined using a diffusion-advection ocean biogeochemical model coupled to a one-dimensional sediment geochemistry model. Our model shows that a 25% reduction in rain ratio decreases atmospheric pCO₂ by 59 ppm. This is caused by alkalinity redistribution by a weakened carbonate pump and an alkalinity increase in the whole ocean via carbonate compensation with decreasing calcite burial. The steady state responses of sedimentary calcite content and calcite preservation efficiency are rather insensitive to the deepening of the saturation horizon of 1.9 km. This insensitivity is a result of the reduced deposition flux that decreases calcite burial, counteracting the saturation horizon deepening that increases calcite burial. However, in the first 10,000 years the effect of reduced calcite deposition on the burial change is more prominent; while after 10,000 years, the effect of saturation horizon deepening is more dominant. The lowering of sediment calcite content for the first 10,000 years is effectively decoupled from the 1.9 km downward shift of the saturation horizon. Our results are in part a consequence of the more dominant role that respiration CO₂ plays in sediment calcite dissolution over bottom water chemistry in our control run and support the decoupling of calcite lysocline depth and saturation horizon shifts, as suggested originally by Archer and Maier-Reimer (1994) and Archer et al. (2000).     

O<Subscript>2</Subscript> consumption rate and its isotopic fractionation factor in the deep water of the Philippine Sea

Concentration and stable isotopic compositions (δ ¹⁸O) of dissolved O₂ were measured in seawater samples collected from the Philippine Sea in June 2006. The in-situ O₂ consumption rate and the isotopic fractionation factor (α _r ) during dissolved O₂ consumption were obtained from field observations by applying a vertical one-dimensional advection diffusion model to the deep water mass of about 1000–4000 m. The average O₂ consumption rate and α _r were, respectively, 0.11 ± 0.07 μmol kg⁻¹yr⁻¹ and 0.990 ± 0.001. These estimated values agree well with values from earlier estimations of Pacific deep water. The in-situ O₂ consumption rates are two or more times higher north of 20°N, although the value of α _r was not significantly different between the north and south. Its levels varied rapidly in the water mass of less about 2000 m depth. These results suggest that organic matter from the continent imparts a meaningful contribution to the upper water in the northern part of the area; it might produce the strong O₂ minimum that is evident in the water mass from about 1000–2000 m in the northern part of the Philippine Sea.     

Morphology of intergranular pores and wetting angles in pelitic schists studied by transmission electron microscopy

In pelitic schists composed mainly of quartz and albite grains, the morphology of intergranular pores, which were filled with water, was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Although some pores are defined by crystallographic planes (F-face), most of their form has an ideal shape determined by interface tensions between grains and fluid. High-resolution TEM observations demonstrate that pore-free regions at grain boundaries are tight even at the nanometer scale, showing that the wetting angle is larger than 0° in this rock. The pore distribution in two-grain junctions can be compared to a "necklace microstructure" developed by instability of a fluid film along the boundary induced by microcracking. Wetting angles for pores located at grain edges of quartz and albite decrease in the order albite/albite, quartz/quartz, and quartz/albite. The quartz/quartz wetting angle in a calcite-free sample is smaller than that in a calcite-containing sample. This angle also changes due to grain misorientation. Our results confirm that solid-solid and solid-fluid interfacial energies control the geometry of intergranular fluid in natural rocks.     

Effects of large-scale wind on the Kuroshio path south of Japan in a 60-year historical OGCM simulation

The effects of large-scale wind forcing on the bimodality of the Kuroshio path south of Japan, the large meander (LM) and non-large meander (NLM), were studied by using a historical simulation (1948–2007) with a high-resolution Ocean general circulation models (OGCM). The Kuroshio in this simulation spent much time in the NLM state, and reproduced several aspects of its long-term path variability for the first time in historical OGCM simulation, presumably because the eddy kinetic energy was kept at a moderate level. By using the simulated fields, the relationships between wind forcing (or Kuroshio transport) and path variation proposed by past studies were tested, and specific roles of eddies in those variations were investigated. The long-term variation of the simulated net Kuroshio transport south of Japan was largely explained by the linear baroclinic Rossby wave adjustment to wind forcing. In the simulated LM events, a triggering meander originated from the interaction of a wind-induced positive sea surface height (SSH) anomaly with the upstream Kuroshio and was enlarged by cyclonic eddies from the recirculation gyre. The cyclonic eddy of the trigger meander was followed by a sizable anticyclonic eddy on the upstream side. Subsequently, a weak (strong) Kuroshio favored the LM (NLM). The LM tended to be maintained when the Kuroshio transport off southern Japan was small, and increasing Kuroshio transport promoted decay of an existing LM. The supply of disturbances from upstream, which is related to the wind-induced SSH variability at low latitudes, contributed to the maintenance of an existing LM.