Petrogenesis of the Kaikomagatake granitoid pluton in the Izu Collision Zone, central Japan: implications for transformation of juvenile oceanic arc into mature continental crust

The Miocene Kaikomagatake pluton is one of the Neogene granitoid plutons exposed in the Izu Collision Zone, which is where the juvenile Izu-Bonin oceanic arc is colliding against the mature Honshu arc. The pluton intrudes into the Cretaceous to Paleogene Shimanto accretionary complex of the Honshu arc along the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line, which is the collisional boundary between the two arcs. The pluton consists of hornblende–biotite granodiorite and biotite monzogranite, and has SiO₂ contents of 68–75 wt%. It has high-K series compositions, and its incompatible element abundances are comparable to the average upper continental crust. Major and trace element compositions of the pluton show well-defined chemical trends. The trends can be interpreted with a crystal fractionation model involving the removal of plagioclase, biotite, hornblende, quartz, apatite, and zircon from a potential parent magma with a composition of ~68 wt% SiO₂. The Sr isotopic compositions, together with the partial melting modeling results, suggest that the parent magma is derived by ~53% melting of a hybrid lower crustal source comprising ~30% Shimanto metasedimentary rocks of the Honshu arc and ~70% K-enriched basaltic rocks of the Izu-Bonin rear-arc region. Together with previous studies on the Izu Collision Zone granitoid plutons, the results of this study suggest that the chemical diversity within the parental magmas of the granitoid plutons reflects the chemical variation of basaltic sources (i.e., across-arc chemical variation in the Izu-Bonin arc), as well as a variable contribution of the metasedimentary component in the lower crustal source regions. In addition, the petrogenetic models of the Izu Collision Zone granitoid plutons collectively suggest that the contribution of the metasedimentary component is required to produce granitoid magma with compositions comparable to the average upper continental crust. The Izu Collision Zone plutons provide an exceptional example of the transformation of a juvenile oceanic arc into mature continental crust.     

Characterization of sulfate mineral deposits in central Thailand

In this paper we present petrographic and geochemical data of sulfate mineral deposits in northeast Nakhon Sawan, central Thailand, and provide new constraints on their age. The deposits are made up mainly of strongly deformed nodular and massive gypsum in the upper part, and less deformed layered anhydrite in the lower part. They are intruded by andesitic dikes that contain Middle Triassic zircons (ca 240 Ma). These dikes are probably part of the regional magmatic activity of the Sukhothai Arc during the Early to Middle Triassic. Sulfur (δ³⁴S) and strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) isotopic compositions of the sulfates range from 15.86 ‰ to 16.26 ‰ and from 0.70810 to 0.70817, respectively. Comparisons with the Phanerozoic seawater isotopic evolution curve indicate that those values are best explained by precipitation of the sulfates from Carboniferous seawater, in particular seawater of late Mississippian age (ca 326 Ma), and this would be consistent with previous studies of calcareous fossils in the limestones that crop out around this site. Our interpretation is that evaporitic gypsum was originally precipitated from hypersaline seawater on a shallow lagoon or shelf on the Khao Khwang Platform during the Serpukhovian, and that this gypsum changed to anhydrite during early burial. The anhydrite was then cut by andesitic dikes during the Middle Triassic, and more recently the upper part of which was rehydrated during exhumation to form secondary gypsum near the surface.     

Coronal structure observed at the total solar eclipse of 11 June, 1983 in Indonesia

From the photographs taken at the total solar eclipse of 11 June 1983, we derived the electron density for the north polar rays and for the thread-like fine structures above the active region, which are 10⁸ at 1.4 solar radii and 3×10⁹ at 1.15 solar radii, respectively. The brightness distributions of the corona at the polar region and above the active region, and the flattening index were also derived.Paper presented at the IAU Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan, between 30 September–6 October, 1984.     

On the electric field screening by electron–positron pairs in a pulsar magnetosphere

We present a steady one-dimensional model for a pulsar polar cap accelerator, where the field-aligned electric field and flow are solved self-consistently with a given current density. It is assumed that no particles return to the star. It is known that the space-charge-limited flow is accelerated to energies high enough to create electron–positron pairs if the assumed current density is high enough. We find that when pairs are created in such a space-charge-limited flow, the accelerating electric field is screened out within a short distance after pair creation, if the pair particle flux is larger than a critical value. We also find that a space charge density wave is excited in the screening region.
We find that a pair flux larger than the critical value M _c=10³–10⁵ must be reached in a layer with thickness equal to the braking distance for the decelerating component. Therefore, the required multiplicity – the number of pairs created by one primary particle – is too large to be realized in the actual pulsar magnetosphere. We suggest that in order to obtain a localized potential drop along the polar cap magnetic flux, one needs to take into account additional effects such as wave–particle interaction or quasi-periodic pair creation.     

Placental transfer of arsenic to fetus of Dall's porpoises (Phocoenoides dalli)

Concentrations of total arsenic and individual arsenic compounds were determined in liver, muscle, kidney and blubber of mother and fetus of Dall’s porpoises collected from off Sanriku, Japan, in the year 2000 to characterize the placental transfer of arsenic to fetus in cetaceans. Arsenic was detected in all the tissues of Dall’s porpoises. Total arsenic concentrations in liver, kidney, muscle and blubber were 0.76, 0.69, 0.35 and 0.55 μg/g wet wt, respectively, for mother and 0.28, 0.23, 0.26 and 0.07 μg/g wet wt, respectively, for fetus. In all the tissues, concentrations of total arsenic in mother Dall’s porpoise were higher than in fetus. Arsenic speciation revealed that arsenobetaine was the major arsenic compound in liver, kidney and muscle of both mother and fetus. The percentage of arsenobetaine to total arsenic ranged from 76.0 to 91.0% in the tissues. Dimethylarsinic acid, arsenocholine, methylarsonic acid and an unidentified arsenic compound were also detected in tissues of both mother and fetus as minor constituents, whereas tetramethylarsonium ion was not detected in tissues of the fetus. These results suggest that arsenobetaine, dimethylarsinic acid, arsenocholine and methylarsonic acid are transferable from mother to fetus in Dall’s porpoises. To our knowledge, this is the first report on placental transfer of arsenic compounds to fetus in marine mammals.     

Pre-Japan-ARGO: Experimental Observation of Upper and Middle Layers South of the Kuroshio Extension Region Using Profiling Floats

We deployed two profiling floats in the region south of the Kuroshio Extension in March 2000. Temperature and salinity profiles from a depth of 1500 × 10⁴ Pa to the surface are reported every two and four weeks, respectively. The floats performed very well for first four months after deployment. Later they failed in surfacing for a few months when the sea surface temperature in the region was high. The salinity sensors seemed to suffer from some damage during their failure-in-surfacing period. Despite this trouble, the results clearly demonstrate that the profiling float is a very useful and cost-effective tool for physical oceanographic observation in the open sea. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A study on the interaction between ferric ion and silicic acid in hydrosphere: Si-containing ferruginous deposits formed in neutral hot spring waters

Five ferruginous deposit samples formed from neutral hot springs were analyzed to determine whether they consisted of a mixture of silica, hydrous iron oxide or iron silicate by differential thermal analysis (DTA), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and 57Fe Mssbauer spectroscopy. The Si/Fe atomic ratios of the deposits ranged from 0.25 to 0.45, and were smaller than those of hisingerite (12), but apparently close to those of siliceous ferrihydrite (0.250.5). Si was confirmed to be present as monomeric or oligomeric silicate from the Si-O stretching vibration frequencies on the IR spectra. Judging from the results of DTA, which minerals starting to produce after heating, and a relationship between Si-O stretching vibration frequency and Si/Fe atomic ratio proposed by Henmi et al. (1981), all the deposits in this study were concluded to be mixtures of various siliceous ferri-hydrites with low and high Si/Fe atomic ratios. Moreover, by comparing the chemical properties of hot spring waters, the formation conditions of siliceous ferrihydrite were also discussed.     

Synplutonic mafic dykes from late Archaean granitoids in the Eastern Dharwar Craton,southern India

We present a first overview of the synplutonic mafic dykes (mafic injections) from the 2.56–2.52 Ga calcalkaline to potassic plutons in the Eastern Dharwar Craton (EDC). The host plutons comprise voluminous intrusive facies (dark grey clinopyroxene-amphibole rich monzodiorite and quartz monzonite, pinkish grey porphyritic monzogranite and grey granodiorite) located in the central part of individual pluton, whilst subordinate anatectic facies (light grey and pink granite) confined to the periphery. The enclaves found in the plutons include highly angular screens of xenoliths of the basement, rounded to pillowed mafic magmatic enclaves (MME) and most spectacular synplutonic mafic dykes. The similar textures of MME and adjoining synplutonic mafic dykes together with their spatial association and occasional transition of MME to dismembered synplutonic mafic dykes imply a genetic link between them. The synplutonic dykes occur in varying dimension ranging from a few centimeter width upto 200 meters width and are generally dismembered or disrupted and rarely continuous. Necking of dyke along its length and back veining of more leucocratic variant of the host is common feature. They show lobate as well as sharp contacts with chilled margins suggesting their injection during different stages of crystallization of host plutons in magma chamber. Local interaction, mixing and mingling processes are documented in all the studied crustal corridors in the EDC. The observed mixing, mingling, partial hybridization, MME and emplacement of synplutonic mafic dykes can be explained by four stage processes: (1) Mafic magma injected during very early stage of crystallization of host felsic magma, mixing of mafic and felsic host magma results in hybridization with occasional MME; (2) Mafic magma introduced slightly later, the viscosities of two magmas may be different and permit only mingling where by each component retain their identity; (3) When mafic magma injected into crystallizing granitic host magma with significant crystal content, the mafic magma is channeled into early fractures and form dismembered synplutonic mafic dykes and (4) Mafic injections enter into largely crystallized (>80% crystals) granitic host results in continuous dykes with sharp contacts. The origin of mafic magmas may be related to development of fractures to mantle depth during crystallization of host magmas which results in the decompression melting of mantle source. The resultant hot mafic melts with low viscosity rise rapidly into the crystallizing host magma chamber where they interact depending upon the crystallinity and viscosity of the host. These hot mafic injections locally cause reversal of crystallization of the felsic host and induce melting and resultant melts in turn penetrate the crystallizing mafic body as back veining. Field chronology indicates injection of mafic magmas is synchronous with emplacement of anatectic melts and slightly predates the 2.5 Ga metamorphic event which affected the whole Archaean crust. The injection of mafic magmas into the crystallizing host plutons forms the terminal Archaean magmatic event and spatially associated with reworking and cratonization of Archaean crust in the EDC.     

A jadeite–quartz–glaucophane rock from Karangsambung, central Java, Indonesia

High-pressure metamorphic rocks are exposed in Karangsambung area of central Java, Indonesia. They form part of a Cretaceous subduction complex (Luk–Ulo Complex) with fault-bounded slices of shale, sandstone, chert, basalt, limestone, conglomerate and ultrabasic rocks. The most abundant metamorphic rock type are pelitic schists, which have yielded late Early Cretaceous K–Ar ages. Small amounts of eclogite, glaucophane rock, garnet–amphibolite and jadeite–quartz–glaucophane rock occur as tectonic blocks in sheared serpentinite. Using the jadeite–garnet–glaucophane–phengite–quartz equilibrium, peak pressure and temperature of the jadeite–quartz–glaucophane rock are P  = 22 ± 2 kbar and T  = 530 ± 40 °C. The estimated P–T conditions indicate that the rock was subducted to ca 80 km depth, and that the overall geothermal gradient was ∼ 7.0 °C/km. This rock type is interpreted to have been generated by the metamorphism of cold oceanic lithosphere subducted to upper mantle depths. The exhumation from the upper mantle to lower or middle crustal depths can be explained by buoyancy forces. The tectonic block is interpreted to be combined with the quartz–mica schists at lower or middle crustal depths.     

A high‐T metamorphic complex derived from the high‐P Suo metamorphic complex in the Omuta district,northern Kyushu,southwest Japan

New U–Pb ages of zircons from migmatitic pelitic gneisses in the Omuta district, northern Kyushu, southwest Japan are presented. Metamorphic zonation from the Suo metamorphic complex to the gneisses suggests that the protolith of the gneisses was the Suo metamorphic complex. The zircon ages reveal the following: (i) a transformation took place from the high‐P Suo metamorphic complex to a high‐T metamorphic complex that includes the migmatitic pelitic gneisses; (ii) the detrital zircon cores in the Suo pelitic rocks have two main age components (ca 1900–1800 Ma and 250 Ma), with some of the detrital zircon cores being supplied (being reworked) from a high‐grade metamorphic source; and (iii) one metamorphic zircon rim yields 105.1 ±5.3 Ma concordant age that represents the age of the high‐T metamorphism. The high‐P to high‐T transformation of metamorphic complexes implies the seaward shift of a volcanic arc or a landward shift of the metamorphic complex from a trench to the sides of a volcanic arc in an arc–trench system during the Early Cretaceous. The Omuta district is located on the same geographical trend as the Ryoke plutono‐metamorphic complex, and our estimated age of the high‐T metamorphism is similar to that of the Ryoke plutono‐metamorphism in the Yanai district of western Chugoku. Therefore, the high‐T metamorphic complex possibly represents the western extension of the Ryoke plutono‐metamorphic complex. The protolith of the metamorphic rocks of the Ryoke plutono‐metamorphic complex was the Jurassic accretionary complex of the inner zone of southwest Japan. The high‐P to high‐T transformation in the Omuta district also suggests that the geographic trend of the Jurassic accretionary complex was oblique to that of the mid‐Cretaceous high‐T metamorphic field.