241Pu and241Am in sediments from coastal basins off California and Mexico

In sediments deposited in the coastal basins off the western North American continent since the early 1960's, there is more²⁴¹Am activity than one would predict if its presence was solely due to the decay of²⁴¹Pu that was produced during the testing of weapons in 1961–1962 (taken as July 1, 1962 for calculations). This excess can be accounted for by the decay of²⁴¹Pu, if pre-1962 fallout (fallout from the pre-moratorium testing) has been continuously introduced into the recent sediments along with fallout from post-moratorium testing. This hypothesis is supported by the plutonium depth profiles which do not reflect direct fallout from the atmosphere, as characterized by two peaks corresponding to the two major weapons testing periods, but continuously increasing plutonium and americium concentrations from 1954 to 1974. Thus, the nuclides may be coming from a large reservoir that has accumulated and mixed fallout since 1952. Such a concentration gradient for all of the nuclides requires their immobilization in the sediment after deposition.     

Marine geochronology withPb

The application of²¹⁰Pb dating to an inshore marine deposit off the California coast has been successful. The amounts of unsupported²¹⁰Pb annually accumulated in the Santa Barbara sediments are much greater than those from lake and glacial deposits and than the amount produced through the decay of radium in the overlying water column.     

Dependence of the effective attachment coefficient of small ions upon the size of condensation nuclei

Summary To clarify the ionization equilibrium near the ground, simultaneous measurements of the rate of ion pair production (q), the concentrations of small ions (n) and condensation nuclei (Z), and the diffusion coefficient of condensation nuclei (D) were carried out at several stations in the central area of Japan. The total rate of ion pair production (q) was estimated fromq=q(Rn)+q(Tn)+q()+q(+CR). The value ofq was estimated as 10J to 20J. The mean life () and the effective attachment coefficient () of small ions were also estimated at each station. Correlations amongn, Z, q, andD were also studied. If we take the variation ofD into consideration, the correlation was expressed by the simple formula;q=n Z. The dependence of upon size of nuclei (2r) were also measured, and was found to correlate well withD orr.     

Study of the effect of water-soluble fractions of heavy-oil on coastal marine organisms using enclosed ecosystems,mesocosms

Mesocosm facilities composed of 4 experimental and 2 reservoir tanks (1.5 m in diameter, 3.0 m in depth and 5 tons in capacity) made of FRP plastics, were constructed in the concrete fish rearing pond in the Fisheries Laboratory, The University of Tokyo. The water-soluble fraction of Rank A heavy residual oil was formed by mixing 500 g of the oil with 10 l of seawater, which was introduced to the 5000 l-capacity tanks. Experimental Run 4 was conducted from May 31 to June 7, 2000. Oil concentrations in the tanks were 4.5 microg/l called LOW, and 13.5 microg/l, called HIGH tank. Bacterial growth rates very quickly accelerated in the HIGH tank just after the loading of oil which corresponded with a high increase of bacterial cells in the same tank after 2 days. Later, bacterial numbers in HIGH tank rapidly decreased, corresponding with the rapid increase of heterotrophic nano-flagellates and virus numbers on the same day. Sediment traps were deployed at the bottom of the experimental tanks, and were periodically retrieved. These samples were observed both under light microscope and epi-fluorescent microscope with UV-excitation. It was observed that the main components of the vertical flux were amorphous suspended matter, mostly originating from dead phytoplankton and living diatoms. It was further observed from the pictures that vertical transport of oil emulsions were probably conducted after adsorption to amorphous suspended matter and living diatoms, and were settling in the sediment traps at the bottom of the tanks. This means that the main force which drives the soluble fraction of oil into bottom sediment would be vertical flux of such amorphous suspended particles and phytoplankton. Further incubation of the samples revealed that the oil emulsions were degraded by the activity of autochtonous bacteria in the sediment in aerobic condition.     

Stereology-based fabric analysis of microcracks in damaged granite

Crack-related fabric analyses were carried out in terms of crack tensors using Inada granite deformed inelastically in a triaxial vessel up to post-failure, focusing on the fabric changes during brittle failure. Complementarily, numerical simulation tests were conducted to determine the representative volume element (RVE) required for crack surveying. Numerical simulation tests show that the window size for crack surveying should be at least six times the mean trace length in order to obtain a statistically meaningful crack tensor. A larger window is needed to estimate the distribution of crack radii. In quartz, cracks grow preferentially parallel to the major loading axis. Crack tensors in quartz can provide a measure of damage reflecting inelastic deformation under differential stress in past geological events. During the first stage of inelastic deformation, the number density of cracks decreases with a rather sharp increase in crack diameters. This happens because pre-existing cracks in intact rock join together to make longer cracks. However, the density remains almost constant during the second stage of loading from 90% to 100% of the peak stress. The crack diameter gradually increases due to the stable propagation of cracks. When granite is further deformed beyond the peak stress, the number density decreases again while sharp increases in crack diameters appear as a result of the forking and coalescence of cracks. It is also suggested that load-normal grain boundary cracks are generated as a result of the rolling and sliding of disintegrated blocks in the post-failure stage.     

Geology of the summit limestone of Mount Qomolangma (Everest) and cooling history of the Yellow Band under the Qomolangma detachment

Abstract   Newly discovered peloidal limestone from the summit of Mount Qomolangma (Mount Everest) contains skeletal fragments of trilobites, ostracods and crinoids. They are small pebble-sized debris interbedded in micritic bedded limestone of the Qomolangma Formation, and are interpreted to have been derived from a bank margin and redeposited in peri-platform environments. An exposure of the Qomolangma detachment at the base of the first step (8520 m), on the northern slope of Mount Qomolangma was also found. Non-metamorphosed, strongly fractured Ordovician limestone is separated from underlying metamorphosed Yellow Band by a sharp fault with a breccia zone. The ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar ages of muscovite from the Yellow Band show two-phase metamorphic events of approximately 33.3 and 24.5 Ma. The older age represents the peak of a Barrovian-type Eo-Himalayan metamorphic event and the younger age records a decompressional high-temperature Neo-Himalayan metamorphic event. A muscovite whole-rock ⁸⁷Rb–⁸⁶Sr isochron of the Yellow Band yielded 40.06 ± 0.81 Ma, which suggests a Pre-Himalayan metamorphism, probably caused by tectonic stacking of the Tibetan Tethys sediments in the leading margin of the Indian subcontinent. Zircon and apatite grains, separated from the Yellow Band, gave pooled fission-track ages of 14.4 ± 0.9 and 14.4 ± 1.4 Ma, respectively. These new chronologic data indicate rapid cooling of the hanging wall of the Qomolangma detachment from approximately 350°C to 130°C during a short period (15.5–14.4 Ma).     

Hydrogen Flux in the Semiconvection Zone of the Massive Main Sequence Stars

We find that the hydrogen flux near the boundary of the semiconvection zone with Ledoux's neutral condition is unreasonably positive while it is reasonably negative throughout the semiconvection zone with Schwarzschild's neutral condition. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The dependence of the diffusion coefficient on the mixing length in Kato's overstable zone

The treatment of the overstable zone by Langer, Sugimoto &38; Fricke is extended so that the effects of radiative heat loss from convective elements and of the mixing length are included. As the overstability investigated by Kato arises because of the radiative heat loss from the convective element, this loss may play a role in the heat flux. In the formulation presented in this work, the diffusion coefficient depends on the mixing length when the mixing length is very small. In calculations with the method of Langer et al., the efficiency factor of the diffusion coefficient of chemical species is sometimes much smaller than 1. This exceedingly small efficiency factor may be explained by the dependence of the diffusion coefficient on the mixing length. We find that the neutral condition of Kato's overstable zone is ∇ _rad = ∇ _ad.     

Marine geochemistry—2: scavenging redux

Inorganic surfaces sorb dissolved and particulate phases from seawater onto organic films from a variety of sources. Heavy metals such as Au, Pt, Mn and Cd come to the coatings primarily from particulate phases. This observation confirms a previous finding of this laboratory for the uptake of U, Pu and Po. With depth in the open ocean there are greater contributions from the dissolved phases. Microbial and photochemical processes can enrich surfaces in some metals through reduction reactions. Copper and Mn enrichments in the films are attributed to the photo-reductions of Cu(II) to Cu(I) and manganese oxides to Mn(II), respectively, while the uptake of Mo is a consequence of the reduction, mediated by organisms, of molybdate to Mo(V) or Mo(IV). Cadmium, on the other hand, appears to be bioaccumulated in the films.