Episyenite formation in the Toki granite,central Japan

Episyenite is a quartz-depleted vuggy rock resulting from hydrothermal alteration of granitic rocks. This is the first report of its existence in an island arc, which is identified in a deep drill core of the Toki Cretaceous granite distributed in central Japan. In order to understand the petrographical features of the episyenite, neutron porosity measurement, geochemical analysis, microscopic observation, and X-ray computed tomography scanning were carried out. The results show remarkably high porosity (35.4 %) due to interconnecting vugs and the removal of quartz, plagioclase, and biotite. The Rb–Sr isotopic results and the paragenetic sequence of secondary minerals in the vugs suggest that the hydrothermal alteration process can be divided into an episyenitization stage and a later hydrothermal stage. At the episyenitization stage (70.6 ± 3.1 Ma) ca. 6 million years after the emplacement of the unaltered granite (76.3 ± 1.5 Ma), dissolution of quartz, biotite, and plagioclase occurred and was followed by the precipitation of albite, vermicular chlorite, and platy calcite. The episyenitization is considered as a local alteration of the Toki granite in an isotopically closed system. At the later hydrothermal stage, illite and secondary quartz precipitated from circulating meteoric-derived water in the dissolution vugs. Superimposing alteration at the later hydrothermal stage is limited, which results in the preservation of the episyenite in an almost primitive condition.     

Water content of primitive low-K tholeiitic basalt magma from Iwate Volcano,NE Japan arc: implications for differentiation mechanism of frontal-arc basalt magmas

The water content of low-K tholeiitic basalt magma from Iwate volcano, which is located on the volcanic front of the NE Japan arc, was estimated using multi-component thermodynamic models. The Iwate lavas are moderately porphyritic, consisting of ~8 vol.% olivine and ~20 vol.% plagioclase phenocrysts. The olivine and plagioclase phenocrysts show significant compositional variations, and the Mg# of olivine phenocrysts (Mg#78–85) correlates positively with the An content of coexisting plagioclase phenocrysts (An_85–92). The olivine phenocrysts with Mg# > ~82 do not form crystal aggregates with plagioclase phenocrysts. It is inferred from these observations that the phenocrysts with variable compositions were primarily derived from mushy boundary layers along the walls of a magma chamber. By using thermodynamic calculations with the observed petrological features of the lavas, the water content of the Iwate magma was estimated to be 4–5 wt.%. The high water content of the magma supports the recent consensus that frontal-arc magmas are remarkably hydrous. Using the estimated water content of the Iwate magma, the water content and temperature of the source mantle were estimated. Given that the Iwate magma was derived from a primary magma solely by olivine fractionation, the water content and temperature were estimated to be ~0.7 wt.% and ~1,310 °C, respectively. Differentiation mechanisms of low-K frontal-arc basalt magmas were also examined by application of a thermodynamics-based mass balance model to the Iwate magma. It is suggested that magmatic differentiation proceeds primarily through fractionation of crystals from the main molten part of a magma chamber when it is located at <~200 MPa, whereas magma evolves through a convective melt exchange between the main magma and mushy boundary layers when the magma body is located at >~200 MPa.     

The first generation of stars in the Λ cold dark matter cosmology

We have performed a large set of high-resolution cosmological simulations using smoothed particle hydrodynamics to study the formation of the first luminous objects in the Lambda cold dark matter cosmology. We follow the collapse of primordial gas clouds in eight early structures and document the scatter in the properties of the first star-forming clouds. Our first objects span formation redshifts from   z ∼ 10  to ∼50 and cover an order of magnitude in halo mass. We find that the physical properties of the central star-forming clouds are very similar in all of the simulated objects despite significant differences in formation redshift and environment. This suggests that the formation path of the first stars is largely independent of the collapse redshift; the physical properties of the clouds have little correlation with spin, mass or assembly history of the host halo. The collapse of protostellar objects at higher redshifts progresses much more rapidly due to the higher densities, which accelerates the formation of molecular hydrogen, enhances initial cooling and shortens the dynamical time-scales. The mass of the star-forming clouds cover a broad range, from a few hundred to a few thousand solar masses, and exhibit various morphologies: some have disc-like structures which are nearly rotational supported; others form flattened spheroids; still others form bars. All of them develop a single protostellar 'seed' which does not fragment into multiple objects up to the moment that the central gas becomes optically thick to H₂ cooling lines. At this time, the instantaneous mass accretion rate on to the centre varies significantly from object to object, with disc-like structures having the smallest mass accretion rates. The formation epoch and properties of the star-forming clouds are sensitive to the values of cosmological parameters.     

Miocene provenance change in Himalayan foreland basin and Bengal Fan sediments,with special reference to detrital garnet chemistry

Bengal Fan Miocene sediments were collected during International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 354 and investigated using petrographic and detrital garnet chemistry analyses. The Miocene Siwalik Group, which is composed of sediments deposited in the Himalayan foreland basin, was also analyzed for comparison with the Bengal Fan data for the provenance change during the Miocene. Our petrographic analyses revealed that the Miocene sediments of the Bengal Fan and Siwalik Group consist predominantly of Higher Himalayan Crystalline (HHC)-derived detritus such as chloritoid, staurolite, sillimanite, and/or kyanite, which appear among the accessory minerals. The chemistry of the detrital garnet varies across the stratigraphy; most of the garnet is rich in almandine and poor in spessartine and pyrope. However, pyrope-rich garnet, which is considered to originate from the HHC core (granulite facies), was found in the lower to upper Miocene deposits. The deposition of HHC-derived detrital garnet began before the Middle Miocene (15 Ma) and before the Late Miocene (10–9 Ma) in the Siwalik Group. The Bengal Fan data, by contrast, indicated that pyrope-rich garnet appeared in the Early Miocene (17.3 Ma) and Late Miocene (8.5–6.5 Ma). We conclude that the Bengal Fan sediments record the erosion of the HHC zone since the Early Miocene that appears in the Siwalik sediments. Furthermore, we found that the HHC-derived inputs decreased from the late Middle Miocene (12 Ma) to the early Middle Miocene (10 Ma) in both the Nepal Himalaya foreland basin and the Bengal Fan. The disappearance of the HHC-derived detritus is probably the result of dilution by Lesser Himalayan detritus, which suggests that the Lesser Himalayan zone, which is composed of metamorphosed and unmetamorphosed sedimentary rocks, was uplifted.     

Financial risk management for energy service project under the Tokyo emission trading system

Recently, energy service providers (ESP) have increased due to deregulation in the power market. They install energy supply equipment at their own cost and supply the necessary energy to the client. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government started Asia’s first cap-and-trade program in April 2010. This program caps energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from some 1,330 offices and factories in Tokyo. Then, ESPs have to manage the many risks of energy service project directly linked to the profits. In this paper, we describes the risk analysis and investment optimization for energy service projects using financial engineering.     

Biomass and estimated production rates of metazoan zooplankton community in a tropical coral reef of Malaysia

Quantitative research on composition, biomass and production rates of zooplankton community is crucial to understand the trophic structure in coral reef pelagic ecosystems. In the present study, micro‐ (35–100 μm) and net‐ (>100 μm) metazooplankton were investigated in a fringing coral reef at Tioman Island of Malaysia. Sampling was done during the day and night in August and October 2004, and February and June 2005. The mean biomass of total metazooplankton (i.e. micro + net) was 3.42 ± 0.64 mg C·m^?3, ranging from 2.32 ± 0.75 mg C·m^?3 in October to 3.26 ± 1.77 mg C·m^?3 in August. The net‐zooplankton biomass exhibited a nocturnal increase from daytime at 131–264% due to the addition of both pelagic and reef‐associated zooplankton into the water column. The estimated daily production rates of the total metazooplankton community were on average 1.80 ± 0.57 mg C·m^?3·day^?1, but this increased to 2.51 ± 1.06 mg C·m^?3·day^?1 if house production of larvaceans was taken into account. Of the total production rate, the secondary and tertiary production rates were 2.20 ± 1.03 and 0.30 ± 0.06 mg C·m^?3·day^?1, respectively. We estimated the food requirements of zooplankton in order to examine the trophic structure of the pelagic ecosystem. The secondary production may not be satisfied by phytoplankton alone in the study area and the shortfall may be supplied by other organic sources such as detritus.