Fog and rain water chemistry at Mt. Fuji: A case study during the September 2002 campaign

Measurements of fog and rain water chemistry at the summit of Mt. Fuji, the highest peak in Japan, as well as at Tarobo, the ESE slope of Mt. Fuji in September 2002. The pH of fog and rain water sampled at Mt. Fuji varied over a range of 4.0–6.8. Acidic fogs (pH < 5.0) were observed at the summit when the air mass came from the industrial regions on the Asian continent. The ratio of [SO₄²⁻]/[NO₃⁻] in the fog water was lower at Tarobo than at the summit. High concentrations of Na⁺ and Cl⁻ were determined in the rain water sampled at the summit, possibly because of the long-range transport of sea-salt particles raised by a typhoon through the middle troposphere. The vertical transport of sea-salt particles would influence the cloud microphysical properties in the middle troposphere. Significant loss of Mg²⁺ was seen in the rain water at the summit. The concentrations of peroxides in the fog and rain water were relatively large (10–105 μM). The potential capacity for SO₂ oxidation seems to be strong from summer to early autumn at Mt. Fuji. The fog water peroxide concentrations displayed diurnal variability. The peroxide concentrations in the nighttime were significantly higher than those in the daytime.     

Retardation capacity of altered granitic rock distributed along fractured and faulted zones in the orogenic belt of Japan

There are wide areas of granitic rocks in the Japanese orogenic belt. These granitic bodies inevitably contain fracture and fault systems associated with alteration zones. However, relatively little attention has been given to the possible influence of such widely distributed alteration zones on the migration of radionuclides from any radioactive waste repository that might in future be sited within granitic rock. In particular, the influences of alteration products and micro-fractures, due to chemical sorption and/or physical retardation require further consideration. In order to understand the retardation capacity of the altered deep granitic rocks, detailed geometrical characterization of pores, geochemical analysis, and batch sorption and flow-through experiments have been carried out. Those results show that the altered granite has a large volume of accessible pores, particularly in potassium-feldspar grains, which would influence nuclide retardation more than the accessible porosity in other minerals present, such as biotite. The distribution coefficients, Kd estimated from batch sorption tests and flow-through experiments suggest that altered granite has a high capability to retard the migration of nuclides. The retardation would probably be due to sorption on altered minerals such as sericite and iron hydroxides formed along grain boundaries and in pores created by dissolution, in addition to sorption on primary sorptive minerals. These results provide confidence that even altered and fractured parts of any granitic rock that might be encountered in a site for the disposal of high level radioactive waste may still retard radionuclide migration and thereby help the geosphere to function as a barrier.     

Midnight reversal of ionospheric plasma bubble eastward velocity to westward velocity during geomagnetically quiettime: Climatology and its model validation

In an effort to better understand the dynamics of westward velocities of the nocturnal F-region plasma, the climatology of the westward traveling plasma bubbles – WTB – occurring during quiettime is studied here. The climatology of the WTB is analyzed here based on airglow images obtained during 14 quiet days between 2001 and 2006 at the Brazilian station São João do Cariri (Geographic 7.45°S, 36.5°W, dip ～20°S). The frequency of occurrence of the WTB maximizes in the descending phase of the solar cycle. The WTB velocities ranged between ～20 and 40 ms^?1. The frequency of occurrence had a peak value of only 3.65% at 2345 LT. The maximum occurrence of the WTB was in July–September. No WTB have been observed from November until April in all years 2001–2006. We show for the first time theoretically that the WTB dominant forcing mechanisms during geomagnetically quiet days are westward thermospheric winds.     

Observation and research on ULF and VLF seismo－electromagnetic radiation

ＯｂｓｅｒｖａｔｉｏｎａｎｄｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈｏｎＵＬＦａｎｄＶＬＦｓｅｉｓｍｏ－ｅｌｅｃｔｒｏｍａｇｎｅｔｉｃｒａｄｉａｔｉｏｎＪＩＡ－ＺＨＩＹＵＡＮ（袁家治）；ＫｏｚｏＴａｋａｈａｓｈｉ；ＳＨＵ－ＱＩＮＧＱＩＡＮ（钱书清），ＹｏｋｉｏＦｕｊｉｎａｗ...     

Primary melt from Sannome-gata volcano,NE Japan arc: constraints on generation conditions of rear-arc magmas

The conditions under which rear-arc magmas are generated were estimated using primary basalts from the Sannome-gata volcano, located in the rear of the NE Japan arc. Scoriae from the volcano occur with abundant crustal and mantle xenoliths, suggesting that the magma ascended rapidly from the upper mantle. The scoriae show significant variations in their whole-rock compositions (7.9–11.1 wt% MgO). High-MgO scoriae (MgO > ~9.5 wt%) have mostly homogeneous ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios (0.70318–0.70320), whereas low-MgO scoriae (MgO < ~9 wt%) have higher ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios (>0.70327); ratios tend to increase with decreasing MgO content. The high-MgO scoriae are aphyric, containing ~5 vol% olivine microphenocrysts with Mg# [100 × Mg/(Mg + Fe²⁺)] of up to 90. In contrast, the low-MgO scoriae have crustal xenocrysts of plagioclase, alkali feldspar, and quartz, and the mineralogic modes correlate negatively with whole-rock MgO content. On the basis of these observations, it is inferred that the high-MgO scoriae represent primary or near-primary melts, while the low-MgO scoriae underwent considerable interaction with the crust. Using thermodynamic analysis of the observed petrological features of the high-MgO scoriae, the eruption temperature of the magmas was constrained to 1,160–1,220 °C. Given that the source mantle was depleted MORB-source mantle, the primary magma was plausibly generated by ~7 % melting of a garnet-bearing spinel peridotite; taking this into consideration, and considering the constraints of multi-component thermodynamics, we estimated that the primary Sannome-gata magma was generated in the source mantle with 0.5–0.6 wt% H₂O at 1,220–1,230 °C and at ~1.8 GPa, and that the H₂O content of the primary magma was 6–7 wt%. The rear-arc Sannome-gata magma was generated by a lower degree of melting of the mantle at greater depths and lower temperatures than the frontal-arc magma from the Iwate volcano, which was also estimated to be generated by ~15 % melting of the source mantle with 0.6–0.7 wt% H₂O at ~1,250 °C and at ~1.3 GPa.     

Possible solar neutron events recorded by the ground-based neutron monitor

Possible solar neutron emission associated with five SMM gamma-ray events on 7 June 1980, 21 June 1980, 6 November 1980, 26 November 1982 and 25 April 1984 was found from analysis of 10-minute records of the ground-based neutron monitor at Tokyo. Of these the two events on 21 June 1980 and 25 April 1984 have been already known as neutron events. The time histories of the neutron monitor count rate are compared with those of the gamma-ray count rate and the possibility of energetic neutron emission at the flare site is discussed.     

Pressure and temperature dependence of the viscosity of a NaAlSi<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>6</Subscript> melt

The viscosity of a silicate melt of composition NaAlSi₂O₆ was measured at pressures from 1.6 to 5.5 GPa and at temperatures from 1,350 to 1,880°C. We employed in situ falling sphere viscometry using X-ray radiography. We found that the viscosity of the NaAlSi₂O₆ melt decreased with increasing pressure up to 2 GPa. The pressure dependence of viscosity is diminished above 2 GPa. By using the relationship between the logarithm of viscosity and the reciprocal temperature, the activation energies for viscous flow were calculated to be 3.7 ± 0.4 × 10² and 3.7 ± 0.5 × 10² kJ/mol at 2.2 and 2.9 GPa, respectively.     

Improving integrity of RC beam-column joints with deficient beam rebar anchorage

In recent earthquakes in developing countries, severe damage was observed on reinforced concrete buildings. This study focuses on exterior beam-column joints with substandard beam rebar anchorage and seismic strengthening by installing wing walls. First, a series of experiments was conducted to investigate the seismic behavior of exterior joints with substandard beam rebar anchorage representing typical Bangladeshi buildings. Two 0.7-scaled exterior joint specimens were tested, and these specimens showed beam rebar anchorage failure and/or joint shear failure. Prior to strengthening of the joint, a series of pullout tests was conducted on postinstalled bonded anchors in low-strength concrete for strengthening design. Then, an experiment was performed to apply the strengthening method by wing walls to one of the exterior joint specimens to improve the integrity, and this method was intended to prevent the failure of beam rebar anchorage. The strengthening method is proposed to extend the development length of beam longitudinal bars by considering the embedment length along the wing walls. The test results verified the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed strengthening method to upgrade exterior RC beam-column joints with deficient beam rebar anchorage.