Effects of a continental slope along the western boundary on the abyssal circulation

To investigate effects of a continental slope along the western boundary on the abyssal circulation, numerical experiments using multi-level models were carried out. An ocean which extends over the northern and southern hemispheres is forced by cooling inside the ocean at the southwest corner of the basin and uniform heating through the sea surface. When the reference density for the cooling is vertically uniform, effects of the slope emerge clearly for the slope with considerably broad width. The deep western boundary current flowing over the slope feeds no bottom flows in the southern hemisphere, and carries the warmed deep water into the northern hemisphere. This leads to the increased meridional density gradient, which results in the modification of deep flow patterns. When the reference density is vertically distributed, the upper and lower northward flowing western boundary currents form in the deep layer. As the density stratification relaxes the topographic control, the westward intensification of the upper boundary current is achieved over the slope. The intensified flow is accompanied by the countercurrent and they form the horizontal recirculation over the slope. However, the effects are confined around the slope region and the interior flow patterns do not change. The lower boundary current is not significantly affected by the slope and has the large width with no countercurrent. It is found that the actual continental slope does not have significant effects on the gross feature of the thermohaline circulation.     

Growth inhibition of a red tide flagellate,Chattonella antiqua by copper

Journal of Oceanography - Copper toxicity inChattonella antiqua (Raphidophyceae) was examined using an artificial seawater medium. The growth rate (Μ) was found to be a unique function of...     

Sensitivity of CFCs and Anthropogenic CO2 Uptake in a North Pacific GCM to Mixing Parameterization and Surface Forcing

Distributions and characteristics of water mass and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the North Pacific are investigated by using a General Circulation Model (GCM). The anthropogenic CO₂ uptake by the ocean is estimated with velocity fields derived from the GCM experiments. The sensitivity of the uptake to different diffusion parameterizations and different surface forcing used in the GCM is investigated by conducting the three GCM experiments; the diffusive processes are parameterized by horizontal and vertical eddy diffusion which is used in many previous models (RUN1), parameterized by isopycnal diffusion (RUN2), and isopycnal diffusion and perpetual winter forcing for surface temperature and salinity (RUN3). Realistic features for water masses and CFCs can be simulated by the isopycnal diffusion models. The horizontal and vertical diffusion model fails to simulate the salinity minimum and realistic penetration of CFCs into the ocean. The depth of the salinity minimum layer is better simulated under the winter forcing. The results suggest that both isopycnal parameterization and winter forcing are crucial for the model water masses and CFCs simulations. The oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO₂ in RUN3 is about 19.8 GtC in 1990, which is larger by about 10% than that in RUN1 with horizontal and vertical diffusive parameterization. RUN3 well simulates the realistic water mass structure of the intermediate layer considered as a candidate of oceanic sink for anthropogenic CO₂. The results suggest that the previous models with horizontal and vertical diffusive parameterization may give the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO₂ underestimated. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effects of fixation and storage on flow cytometric analysis of marine bacteria

Flow cytometry (FCM) is now becoming a routine tool for the enumeration and optical characterization of bacteria in marine environments. We investigated the effects of sample fixation and storage upon flow cytometric determination of marine bacteria. Fixed and unfixed seawater samples were analyzed by FCM immediately aboard ship and/or later in the laboratory, and the appearances of the fluorescence signals and bacterial counts of these samples were compared. Fixation and storage led to the formation of multiple peaks in fluorescence histograms; this was also seen in 22 out of 36 samples frozen in liquid nitrogen. Fixation did not, but storage did induce a decrease of bacterial counts: a rapid decrease during the first 3 days followed by a slower decline. The decline of cell numbers in stored samples was expressed by a regression model. Our studies indicate that precaution is necessary when interpreting the data from fixed and/or stored marine bacterial samples analyzed by FCM. The possibility that the procedure of fixation and storage leads to the appearance of high DNA and low DNA bacterial groups should be considered.     

Properties of sea ice and overlying snow in the Southern Sea of Okhotsk

The general properties of sea ice and overlying snow in the southern Sea of Okhotsk were examined during early February of 2003 to 2005 with the P/V “Soya”. Thin section analysis of crystal structure revealed that frazil ice (48% of total core length) was more prevalent than columnar ice (39%) and that stratigraphic layering was prominent with a mean layer thickness of 12 cm, indicating that dynamic processes are essential to ice growth. The mean thickness of ice blocks and visual observations suggest that ridging dominates the deformation process above thicknesses of 30 to 40 cm. As for snow, it was found that faceted crystals and depth hoar are dominant (78%), as which is also common in the Antarctic sea ice, and is indicative of the strong vertical temperature gradients within the snow. Stable isotope measurements (δ¹⁸O) indicate that snow ice occupies 9% of total core length and that the mass fraction of meteoric ice accounts for 1 to 2% of total ice volume, which is lower than the Antarctic sea ice. Associated with this, the effective fractionation coefficient during the freezing of seawater was also derived. Snow ice was characterized by lower density, higher salinity, and nearly twice the gas content of ice of seawater origin. In addition, it is shown that the surface brine volume fraction and freeboard are well correlated with ice thickness, indicating some promise for remote sensing approaches to the estimation of ice thickness.     

Petrology of mafic inclusions from Itinome-gata,Japan

Various types of mafic inclusions up to 30 cm in size occur in lapilli tuff of alkali basalt at Itinome-gata crater, northeastern Japan. They are divided into the following four groups: amphibolite, hornblendite—hornblende gabbro, leucogabbro, and pyroxene gabbro. Also occurring with the mafic inclusions are lherzolite and websterite inclusions and megacrysts of Mg-rich olivine and chromian diopside. New analyses are presented for twenty five representative mafic inclusions, eight clinopyroxenes, six orthopyroxenes, and fifteen brown hornblendes. There are conspicuous chemical differences between the mafic inclusions and lherzolite and websterite inclusions: the former have higher TiO₂, Al₂O₃, total FeO, CaO, Na₂O, and K₂O, and lower MgO than the lherzolites and higher TiO₂, Al₂O₃, total FeO, and alkalis, and lower MgO than the websterites. The petrographic and chemical gradations among these three are not easily recognized. It is indicated that the Moho in this region is a boundary between mafic and ultramafic phases. The mineral assemblages of the mafic inclusions and the compositions of their essential minerals show that all of them recrystallized or crystallized under approximately the same temperature — pressure conditions, within the range of 600–1000° C and 6–9 kb. The following is hypothetically considered. The old and thick tholeiites or high-alumina basalts (may be pre-Silurian) making up the basement of the Japanese Islands had been subjected to the high T/P type metamorphism during Cretaceous time, and changed to amphibolites. In the cataclastic stage, complete melting of the lower part of the amphibolites occured locally and formed a gabbro magma. This gabbro magma moved upward slightly and produced hornblendite, hornblende gabbro and leucogabbro magmas by differentiation under wet conditions and a pyroxene gabbro magma under less wet conditions. Namely, the mafic inclusions are thought to be of fragments of the lower crust.     

Subsurface structure under a basaltic monogenetic volcano near the active Atera fault

In this study, we examined the subsurface structure in the vicinity of the active Atera fault beneath at least one monogenetic volcano that forms the Sakashita body of the Ueno basalts, central Japan. Microgravity and seismic reflection surveys over an area of about 3×3 km (horizontal)×1 km (vertical from surface) revealed that (1) a low-density body interpreted as the damaged zone of the Atera fault reaches a depth more than 200 m below sea level; and (2) a weak zone of crust that may exist about 1.5 km southwest of the Atera fault in a direction parallel to it. By combining the shape of the Sakashita body and (2), we propose that a dyke extending in a NW–SE direction with several vent alignments in the same direction may exist along this weak zone. This suggests that the studied area was governed in the NW–SE compressional and NE–SW extensional stress field when the Sakashita body formed.