Aseismic deep subduction of the Philippine Sea plate and slab window

We have made great efforts to collect and combine a large number of high-quality data from local earthquakes and teleseismic events recorded by the dense seismic networks in both South Korea and West Japan. This is the first time that a large number of Korean and Japanese seismic data sets are analyzed jointly. As a result, a high-resolution 3-D P-wave velocity model down to 700-km depth is determined, which clearly shows that the Philippine Sea (PHS) plate has subducted aseismically down to ∼460 km depth under the Japan Sea, Tsushima Strait and East China Sea. The aseismic PHS slab is visible in two areas: one is under the Japan Sea off western Honshu, and the other is under East China Sea off western Kyushu. However, the aseismic PHS slab is not visible between the two areas, where a slab window has formed. The slab window is located beneath the center of the present study region where many teleseismic rays crisscross. Detailed synthetic tests were conducted, which indicate that both the aseismic PHS slab and the slab window are robust features. Using the teleseismic data recorded by the Japanese stations alone, the aseismic PHS slab and the slab window were also revealed (Zhao et al., 2012), though the ray paths in the Japanese data set crisscross less well offshore. The slab window may be caused by the subducted Kyushu-Palau Ridge and Kinan Seamount Chain where the PHS slab may be segmented. Hot mantle upwelling is revealed in the big mantle wedge above the Pacific slab under the present study region, which may have facilitated the formation of the PHS slab window. These novel findings may shed new light on the subduction history of the PHS plate and the dynamic evolution of the Japan subduction zone.     

Precambrian and Early Paleozoic evolution of the Andean basement at Belen (northern Chile) and Cerro Uyarani (western Bolivia Altiplano)

Exposures of metamorphic basement in the Central Andes are scarce and reconstructions of the history of the Pacific margin of Gondwanaland must rely on a few isolated outcrops. We studied two areas of exposed basement in northernmost Chile (Belen) and westernmost Bolivia (Cerro Uyarani). The Belen metamorphic complex has been known for some time and consists of fault-bounded amphibolites, gneisses, schists, and minor quartzites overlain by folded Mesozoic to Cenozoic strata. The Cerro Uyarani is the only basement outcrop on the Bolivian Altiplano and has only recently been found and studied by geological reconnaissance. It consists of foliated mafic and felsic granulites, charnockites, and amphibolites. How do these basement occurrences compare and how do they relate to the other Precambrian crustal domains in the Central Andes? To answer these questions, we used geothermobarometers to reconstruct the P–T conditions of metamorphism, as well as geochemical analyses and petrological methods to study these rocks. The two basement blocks were found to have distinct geological histories and are probably separated by a major crustal domain boundary. Isotopic fingerprinting by Pb-isotopes clearly exclude Laurentian crustal components either in the protoliths or as reworked material. This signature is quite distinct from basement rocks farther south in Chile and northwestern Argentina.     

热带太平洋上空大气热源、水汽汇的年际变化及其与海温异常之间的联系

利用ECMWF(1979～1993年)的再分析资料计算分析了热带太平洋上空大气热源及水汽汇的年际变化及其与海表温度异常之间的联系。通过SVD的分析,发现大气热源的垂直积分〈Q1〉和水汽汇垂直积分〈Q2〉异常与SST异常有着较高正相关关系的热带太平洋区域主要集中在170 E以东的5 S～5 N之间的一个狭长带中。分析大气热源和水汽汇的空间结构,则发现在赤道太平洋中、东部地区,除了最低层(962.5 hPa)和最高层(85 hPa)以外,对流层其余各层Q1、Q2异常与SST异常都存在较高的正相关关系;而在赤道西太平洋地区,850 hPa层以下,Q1异常与SST异常为负相关关系,在962.5 hPa相关系数甚至为 -0.59,其余各层Q1、Q2异常与SST异常也只有很弱的正相关关系。     

Geochemical fingerprint of hyaloclasts in glassy fragmental rocks of Macquarie Island (Southern Ocean): implications for volcanogenic sedimentary processes at a waning mid-ocean ridge

Two main types of glassy fragmental rocks formed along the Proto-Macquarie Spreading Ridge: (i) hyaloclastite breccia; and (ii) pillow-fragment breccia. Examples now exposed on Macquarie Island, Southern Ocean, were largely sourced from proximal pillow lavas. In each of seven samples examined, hyaloclasts (basaltic glass grains) have a narrow major- and trace-element geochemical range, consistent with derivation of each sample from a single volcanic eruption event. Moreover, every sample analysed within the one stratigraphic section (at three sites) displays distinctive major- and trace-element geochemistry compared with the other two sections. This suggests that hyaloclasts at each site represent discrete magma batches. A single source for these glassy fragmental rocks contrasts with the dominant fault-scarp-derived polymict sedimentary rocks on Macquarie Island. We suggest that the hyaloclasts analysed in this study were deposited in small basins between the slopes of growing pillow cones along the mid-ocean ridge. The geochemical analyses presented here encompass (weakly) fractionated (e.g. Bauer Bay) to near-primitive (e.g. Pyramid Peak) compositions. All samples presented here lie within the range of the enriched- to normal-MORB suites previously reported for the island that include the least fractionated MORB melts known globally. The interpretation of geochemically distinct magma batches over the small area of the island suggests very limited magma mixing consistent with an immature or waning magmatic system. We relate these geochemical characteristics to: (i) volcanism near a very long offset transform; and (ii) genesis of magmas during the waning stages of slow seafloor spreading within a very narrow (<50 km-wide) spreading corridor.     

ENSO cycle and climate anomaly in China

The inter-annual variability of the tropical Pacific Subsurface Ocean Temperature Anomaly (SOTA) and the associated anomalous atmospheric circulation over the Asian North Pacific during the El Ni o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) were investigated using National Centers for Environmental Prediction/ National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) atmospheric reanalysis data and simple ocean data simulation (SODA). The relationship between the ENSO and the climate of China was revealed. The main results indicated the following: 1) there are two ENSO modes acting on the subsurface tropical Pacific. The first mode is related to the mature phase of ENSO, which mainly appears during winter. The second mode is associated with a transition stage of the ENSO developing or decaying, which mainly occurs during summer; 2) during the mature phase of El Ni o, the meridionality of the atmosphere in the mid-high latitude increases, the Aleutian low and high pressure ridge over Lake Baikal strengthens, northerly winds prevail in northern China, and precipitation in northern China decreases significantly. The ridge of the Ural High strengthens during the decaying phase of El Ni o, as atmospheric circulation is sustained during winter, and the northerly wind anomaly appears in northern China during summer. Due to the ascending branch of the Walker circulation over the western Pacific, the western Pacific Subtropical High becomes weaker, and south-southeasterly winds prevail over southern China. As a result, less rainfall occurs over northern China and more rainfall over the Changjiang River basin and the southwestern and eastern region of Inner Mongolia. The flood disaster that occurred south of Changjiang River can be attributed to this. The La Ni a event causes an opposite, but weaker effect; 3) the ENSO cycle can influence climate anomalies within China via zonal and meridional heat transport. This is known as the "atmospheric-bridge", where the energy anomaly within the tropical Pacific transfers to the mid-high latitude in the northern Pacific through Hadley cells and Rossby waves, and to the western Pacific-eastern Indian Ocean through Walker circulation. This research also discusses the special air-sea boundary processes during the ENSO events in the tropical Pacific, and indicates that the influence of the subsurface water of the tropical Pacific on the atmospheric circulation may be realized through the sea surface temperature anomalies of the mixed water, which contact the atmosphere and transfer the anomalous heat and moisture to the atmosphere directly. Moreover, the reason for the heavy flood within the Changjiang River during the summer of 1998 is reviewed in this paper.     

Earthquake, strong tide and global low temperature

"La Madre" is a kind of upper atmospheric air current, and occurs as "warm phase" and "cold phase" in the sky of Pacific Ocean alternately. There exists this phenomenon, called "Oscillation Decade in the Pacific" (ODP), for 20～30years. It is concerned with 60 year cycle of the tides. Lunar oscillations explain an intriguing 60-year cycle in the world's temperature. Strong tides increase the vertical mixing of water in the oceans, drawing cold ocean water from the depths to surface, where it cools the atmosphere above. The first strong seismic episode in China was from 1897 to 1912; the second to the fifth was the in1920-1937, 1946-1957, 1966-1980, 1991-2002, tsrectruely. The alternative boundaries of"La Madre" warm phase and cold phase were in 1890, 1924, 1946 and 2000, which were near the boundaries of four strong earthquakes. It indicated the strong earthquakes closedly related with the substances' motion of atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, the change of gravity potential, and the exchange of angular momentum. The strong earthquakes in the ocean bottom can bring the cool waters at the deep ocean up to the ocean surface and make the global climate cold. the earthquake, strong tide and global low temperature are close inrelntion for each othen.     

Impacts of an improved low-level cloud scheme on the eastern Pacific ITCZ-cold tongue complex

A statistically-based low-level cloud parameterization scheme is introduced, modified, and applied in the Flexible coupled General Circulation Model (FGCM-0). It is found that the low-level cloud scheme makes improved simulations of low-level cloud fractions and net surface shortwave radiation fluxes in the subtropical eastern oceans off western coasts in the model. Accompanying the improvement in the net surface shortwave radiation fluxes, the simulated distribution of SSTs is more reasonably asymmetrical about the equator in the tropical eastern Pacific, which suppresses, to some extent, the development of the double ITCZ in the model. Warm SST biases in the ITCZ north of the equator are more realistically reduced, too. But the equatorial cold tongue is strengthened and extends further westward, which reduces the precipitation rate in the western equatorial Pacific but increases it in the ITCZ north of the equator in the far eastern Pacific. It is demonstrated that the low-level cloud-radiation feedback would enhance the cooperative feedback between the equatorial cold tongue and the ITCZ. Based on surface layer heat budget analyses, it is demonstrated that the reduction of SSTs is attributed to both the thermodynamic cooling process modified by the increase of cloud fractions and the oceanic dynamical cooling processes associated with the strengthened surface wind in the eastern equatorial Pacific, but it is mainly attributed to oceanic dynamical cooling processes associated with the strengthening of surface wind in the central and western equatorial Pacific.     

Studying Indian ocean typical dynamical phenomena using TOPEX observations

TOPEX altimeter data of 1993 have been analyzed to study the following three types of oceanographic phenomena in the Indian Ocean: (1) sea level variability of the Indian Ocean (20⁼S to 25⁼N. 40⁼E to 100⁼E): (2) sea surface height signals of the Somali eddy; and (3) sea surface slope variations of the equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO) spanning 5⁼S to 5⁼N and 45⁼E to 95⁼E. Root‐mean‐square sea level variability revealed the presence of Rossby waves in the southern Indian Ocean. Fast Fourier technique analysis of a few passes near the Somali region is used to study the formation and dissipation of an anticyclonic eddy.     

东太平洋克拉里昂-克里帕顿断裂带WPC1101沉积柱样磁性地层及沉积环境

对采自东太平洋CC区西部的WPC1101重力活塞柱样进行了岩石磁学、古地磁极性地层及古生物地层年代学研究工作。等温剩余磁化强度（IRM）、磁滞回线和反向场退磁曲线测试结果表明,沉积物中的磁性矿物主要为磁铁矿,仅在柱状样底部存在少量赤铁矿/针铁矿。340~350 cm发育的埋藏结核层,标志着一处沉积间断的存在;60~336 cm发育上新世晚期的硅藻化石Cosinodiscus nodulifer,但古地磁极性地层缺失上新世-第四纪的2r反极性时;0~60 cm见第四纪标准化石Pseudoenuotia doliolus、Spongaster tetras,且顶部缺失1正极性时。综合对比古生物地层学、磁性地层学以及邻近区域地层学特征,认为该柱状样记录了从晚渐新世至第四纪的沉积历史,期间存在晚渐新世至早上新世、上新世晚期至第四纪早期及第四纪晚期3个时期的沉积间断,上述沉积间断的形成可能是南极底流的形成与增强、CCD界面抬升及海底侵蚀作用增强共同控制的结果。