Clay minerals in the deep-sea cores from the North Pacific

Clay minerals in the <2 fraction of the four deep-sea cores collected from the northeast and central North Pacific are studied. In the surface layers of the cores, illite is more dominant in the pelagic samples than in the near-shore ones, and montmorillonite is vice versa. Chlorite in the near-shore sample is relatively abundant in the areas of higher latitude than in those of lower latitude. Kaolinite content is less than 10 percent in all samples. The presence of particles of amphibole in the clay-size was confirmed by X-ray analysis in the whole of the core-st. 18 taken from the northeastern portion of the area. This fact suggests that, for a long time probably since the Tertiary age, particles of amphibole have been supplied from source areas. In the three cores except the core-st. 18 it is shown that montmorillonite clearly increases downward. It is suggested that montmorillonite has been derived from volcanic glassy material by a diagenetic change. Montmorillonite in the bottom layer (400–405 cm) of the core-st. 9 is particularly rich in iron.     

Reference systems

A reference system is a relation connecting observables and their mathematical represententions. The principle of general relativity assures that any sort of coordinate system can be used to describe physical phenomena. Thus, any reference system is only a convention, There is no absolutely true reference system. Instead, people seek for a best reference system, whose meaning may differ thus need to clarify, Taking an example from Earth rotation, we discuss how to find such a best reference system. The definition of the best system will change as scientific understandings deepen and computational environments develop. Therefore, we can not stop improving reference systems. However, when replacing an existing widely-spread system, one must take great care to minimize the inconvenience caused by its transition, especially the inconvenience which users might endure. The Standards Of Fundamental Astronomy (SOFA) project being conducted by the IAU WG on Astronomical Standards has the opportunity to ease this troublesome task. The World Wide Web (WWW) will be a main device to realize the project, namely to provide working standards including reference systems to the world.     

Fast Procedure Solving Universal Kepler's Equation

We developed a procedure to solve a modification of the standard form of the universal Kepler’s equation, which is expressed as a nondimensional equation with respect to a nondimensional variable. After reducing the domain of the variable and the argument by using the symmetry and the periodicity of the equation, the method first separates the case where the solution is so small that it is given an inverted series. Second, it separates the cases where the elliptic, parabolic, or hyperbolic standard forms of Kepler’s equation are suitable. Here the separation is done by judging whether detouring these nonuniversal equations will cause a 1-bit loss of information to their nonuniversal solutions or not. Then the nonuniversal equations are solved by the author’s procedures to solve the elliptic Kepler’s equation (Fukushima, 1997a), Barker’s equation (Fukushima, 1998), and the hyperbolic Kepler’s equation (Fukushima, 1997b), respectively. And their nonuniversal solutions are transformed back to the solution of the universal equation. For the rest of the case, we obtain an approximate solution by solving roughly the approximated cubic equation as we did in solving Barker’s equation. Then the correction to the approximate solution is obtained by Halley’s method precisely. There the special function appeared in the universal equation is rewritten into a combination of similar special functions of small arguments, so that they are efficiently evaluated by their Taylor series. Numerical measurements showed that, in the case of Intel Pentium II processor, the new method is 10–25 times as fast as Shepperd’s method (Shepperd, 1985) and 7–13 times as fast as the standard Newton method. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Expansions of elliptic motion based on elliptic function theory

New expansions of elliptic motion based on considering the eccentricitye as the modulusk of elliptic functions and introducing the new anomalyw (a sort of elliptic anomaly) defined byw=u/2K–/2,g=amu–/2 (g being the eccentric anomaly) are compared with the classic (e, M), (e, v) and (e, g) expansions in multiples of mean, true and eccentric anomalies, respectively. These (q,w) expansions turn out to be in general more compact than the classical ones. The coefficients of the (e,v) and (e,g) expansions are expressed as the hypergeometric series, which may be reduced to the hypergeometric polynomials. The coefficients of the (q,w) expansions may be presented in closed (rational function) form with respect toq, k, k=(1–k ²)^1/2,K andE, q being the Jacobi nome relatedk whileK andE are the complete elliptic integrals of the first and second kind respectively. Recurrence relations to compute these coefficients have been derived.on leave from Institute of Applied Astronomy, St.-Petersburg 197042, Russia     

The Fermi coordinate system in the post-Newtonian framework

The Fermi coordinate system (or the non-rotating proper reference frame) is studied within the framework of the post-Newtonian approximation of general relativity. First its general functional form is found to consist of three parts; (1) the motion of the space origin of the Fermi coordinate system relative to the background one, (2) the Fermi-Walker tetrad transported along the world line of the space origin, and (3) the spacelike geodesic starting from the space origin. Next, the post-Newtonian expressions of the latter two are obtained under the condition that the first is given. Then the full coordinate transformation formula connecting the Fermi coordinate system to the background one is derived explicitly. The effectiveness of the Fermi coordinate system is discussed and the effective region is found to be a cylinder with the radius of about 0.5 kpc for the Fermi coordinate system comoving with the Earth. The mathematical way to derive the generalized Fermi coordinate system which Ashby and Bertotti defined is also shown.     

Pipe–soil interaction for segmented buried pipelines subjected to dip faults

This paper describes an investigation of pipe–soil interaction equations suggested by currently used pipeline seismic design codes and the applicability of these equations to segmented pipelines. The results of computer‐aided analyses were compared to results obtained in full‐scale experiments on a segmented ductile iron pipeline 93 mm in diameter and 15 m in length. The pipeline was installed 600 mm below the ground surface in a sandy soil compacted to two different subgrade reaction values. The type of fault considered was a reverse fault with an intersection angle of 60° with the pipeline, and the fault movement was a total of 350 mm in three same steps in the fault trace direction. The findings of this study demonstrate the necessity of considering the nature of soil behavior in pipe–soil interaction equations and the effects of connection joints on the integrated response of pipelines to fault‐induced ground deformations. A new combination of equations constituting a direction‐wise selection from among the equations proposed by currently used guidelines is introduced as a new series to describe pipe–soil interaction for segmented pipelines and is verified using the results of full‐scale experiments. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diurnal Variation in Radon Concentration and Mixing-Layer Depths

Variation of 222Rn, its short-lived daughters and 212Pb concentrations in the atmosphere, and conditions of the lower atmosphere were observed simultaneously at Kamisaibara Village in Japan. The variation of 222Rn concentration and the ratio of the concentrations of 212Pb and the short-lived daughters of 222Rn during nighttime is explained by sodar echoes and temperature profiles obtained by an instrumented tethered balloon. Depths of the convective mixing layer estimated using the 222Rn concentration, using the surface sensible heat flux, and obtained by low-level sondes are compared and found to be in approximate agreement.     

Successive formation of planetary lenses in an intermediate layer

Abstract

We study the formation of lenses of the ocean's intermediate water using a 2.5-layerβ-plane primitive equation model with localized injection of water mass. For the injecting rate of 1.0 Sv, we have observed that strong vortices are shed regularly. These vortices propagate westward much faster than the second baroclinic long Rossby wave. They are totally isolated from each other and show strong baroclinicity as well. Moreover, they remain stable over a sufficiently long period of time. Regular formation of such strong vortices in the intermediate layer has not been reported previously. The translation speed is explained using the Euler's momentum integral theorem for the nonlinear baroclinic vortex on the β-plane. We have demonstrated that coupling between the primary motion in the intermediate layer and the secondary motion in the upper layer with a meridional shift is crucial to the fast westward translation of the intense vortices. A simple dispersion formula relating the zonal translation speed with the vortex radius is also derived under the assumption of quasi-geostrophy. It has turned out that the analytical relation explains the numerical results surprisingly well despite the limitation of its derivation.     

Electron probe microanalysis study on processes of low-temperature oxidation of titanomagnetite

Partially oxidized titanomagnetite grains in various kinds of volcanic rocks were investigated by electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) in order to clarify the process of oxidation at low temperature. The following results were obtained by the present investigation: (1) Primary composition of titanomagnetite is homogeneous in individual grains, although variation in composition among different grains is observed on each thin section. (2) Migration of Fe cations during low-temperature oxidation is clearly seen in all oxidized grains. Some other constituent cations are also bleached and consequently the relative content of the remaining cations becomes large. (3) The detailed internal structures of titanomagnetite grains are observed as backscattered electron images (BEI) with an electronprobe microanalyzer, and it seems likely that the structures depend upon the degree of low-temperature oxidation. (4) The chemical and physical properties of oxidized titanomagnetites imply that low-temperature oxidation is not a simple process but a complex one. Such an oxidation process is correlatable to both the mobility of cation and the oxidation condition such as a circulation of some active hydrothermal materials at low temperature.     

Impacts of the South China Sea Throughflow on seasonal and interannual variations of the Indonesian Throughflow

Impacts of the South China Sea Throughflow (SCST) on seasonal and interannual variations of the Indonesian Throughflow are studied by comparing outputs from ocean general circulation model (OGCM) experiments with and without the SCST. The observed subsurface maximum in the southward flow through the Makassar Strait is simulated only when the SCST, which is driven by the large-scale wind, is allowed in the model. The mean volume and heat transport by the Makassar Strait Throughflow are reduced by 1.7 Sv and 0.19 PW, respectively, by the existence of the SCST in the model. The difference is particularly remarkable during boreal winter when the SCST reaches its seasonal maximum. Furthermore, the SCST is strengthened during El Niño, leading to the weakening in the southward volume and heat transport through the Makassar Strait by 0.37 Sv and 0.05 PW, respectively. These findings from the OGCM experiments suggest that the SCST may play an important role in climate variability of the Indo-Pacific Ocean.