Secular acceleration of solar rotation from 1943 to 1986

The rotation of the surface layer of the Sun is found to have been accelerated secularly from the sunspot data of 1943 to 1986. To represent the overall state of rotation of the differentially rotating Sun, we define an indexM, by integrating the angular momentum density over the whole surface of the Sun, and call it the angular momentum layer density. The indexM increased monotonically or secularly from 1943 to 1986. This period corresponds to solar cycles 18, 19, 20, and 21. The monotonic increase ofM indicates that a net angular momentum must have steadily been coming from the layer down below the surface. The differential rotation latitudinal dependence profile did not change much from cycle 18 to cycle 20, but at cycle 21 the degree of equatorial acceleration dropped. This aspect is discussed in the context of the 55-year grand cycle. Cycle 21 is the start of grand cycle VI. The latitudinal dependence is less steep at cycle 21. The time scale of secular change of the indexM reflects the time scale of change of linkage of the surface and the deep layer in form of the angular momentum transfer, and that the time scale of the profile change of the differential rotation reflects the time scale of the angular momentum transfer within the surface layer.     

Field vibration mitigation by honeycomb WIB for pile foundations of a high-speed train viaduct

Environmental vibrations from recent high-speed trains are becoming a special concern in the civil and environmental engineering field since they can give detrimental effects to residents, sensitive equipments and high-tech production facilities in the vicinity of train tacks. Herein, aiming at the vibration mitigation for a specific high-tech industrial area, the low-frequency vibrations from a train viaduct are targeted over an anticipated range. A theoretically designed innovative countermeasure, called honeycomb wave impeding barrier (WIB) for a wave impeding barrier, is introduced and its effects are investigated by computer simulation. The present WIB is based on the wave dispersion phenomenon that can modulate the incoming wavelengths into the shorter wavelengths, creating an apparent wave cut-off characteristic in the wave field across WIB installation area. The shorter wavelengths are further impeded due to the impedance ratio of the WIB walls and in-fill materials and absorbed by the in-fills more. The three-dimensional FEM simulation demonstrates a dramatic reduction effect that is difficult to achieve by conventional measures.     

Damage Evaluation of Agro-meteorological Hazards in the Maize-Growing Region of Songliao Plain,China: Case Study of Lishu County of Jilin Province

Agro-meteorological hazards such as drought, waterlogging and cool summer occur with very high frequency and affect maize production and social-economic development in the maize-growing region of Songliao Plain, China. Moreover, both the frequency of these hazards and loss from them are considered to be increasing with global warming. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively analyze the relationships between the fluctuation of maize yield and drought, waterlogging and cool summer, and to evaluate the consequences of these hazards in the maize-growing area of Songliao Plain, taking Lishu county as a case study area based on GIS (Geographic Information System). Crop yield-climate analysis and regression analysis were employed to analyze and quantify relationships between the fluctuation of maize yield and drought, waterlogging and cool summer, and to evaluate the consequences of these hazards. The parameters and model of damage evaluation were presented using weighted comprehensive analysis, and the degree of damage of drought, waterlogging and cool summer to maize production was comprehensively evaluated and regionalized. It is shown that from 1949 to 1990, the negative value years of the fluctuation of maize yield due to meteorological hazards accounted for 55% of seasons, of which 14% was caused by drought, 30% by waterlogging, 4% by cool summer and drought, 9% by cool summer and waterlogging, 13% by drought and waterlogging, 30% by drought, waterlogging and cool summer. Studies on the instability and spatial variation of the fluctuations in maize yield in Lishu county showed that the middle plains are stable areas to climatic influence, while southeastern hills and low mountains, the low lands of the plains along the East Liao River and the western plain are unstable areas in terms of areas in maize yield. The synthetic index of the degree of damage to maize of drought, waterlogging and cool summer showed a strong positive correlation with the ratio of the amount damaged to the normal yield of maize. This suggests that this index can be used to evaluate such damage. The degree of damage of drought, waterlogging and cool summer to maize in Lishu county shows the regional characteristics, which increase gradually from the center to the west and east, this being almost identical with the spatial distribution of the fluctuation of maize yield due to these hazards. This study can be expected to provide the basis for developing strategies to mitigate agro-meteorological hazards and reducing the losses from them, and adjust the medium and long-term distribution of agricultural activities so as to adapt to environmental changes.     

Long-term bottom water warming in the north Ross Sea

We measured potential temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen profiles from the surface to the bottom at two locations in the north Ross Sea (65.2°S, 174.2°E and 67.2°S, 172.7°W) in December 2004. Comparison of our data with previous results from the same region reveals an increase in potential temperature and decreases in salinity and dissolved oxygen concentration in the bottom layer (deeper than 3000 m) over the past four decades. The changes were significantly different from the analytical precisions. Detailed investigation of the temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and σ ₃ value distributions and the bottom water flow in the north Ross Sea suggests a long-term change in water mass mixing balance. That is to say, it is speculated that the influence of cool, saline, high-oxygen bottom water (high-salinity Ross Sea Bottom Water) formed in the southwestern Ross Sea has possibly been decreased, while the influences of relatively warmer and fresher bottom water (low-salinity Ross Sea Bottom Water) and the Adélie Land Bottom Water coming from the Australia-Antarctic Basin have increased. The possible impact of global warming on ocean circulation needs much more investigation.     

Basalt produced by mechanical mixing of andesite magma and gabbroic fragments: Hakone volcano and adjacent areas, central Japan

Rocks from Hakone volcano and the adjacent Hata and Aziro areas were studied to clarify the anomalous partition coefficient of Ce between olivine and groundmass in the basalts of Hakone. In addition, the most primitive basalt is more enriched in REE than the other basalts from this volcano.The REE features are well explained by a mechanical mixing model. The basaltic rocks from the volcano are mixtures of basic andesite magma and fragments of gabbroic rock. Most of minerals of phenocrystic size and glomeroporphyritic crystal aggregates in the basaltic rocks are xenocrysts and were derived from a gabbroic body lying beneath the volcano. This conclusion is consistent with major element, mineralogical and petrographical data.     

2-D transient soil–surface foundation interaction and wave propagation by time domain BEM

This paper shows an effective implementation of the half-plane Green function for surface strip impulses (Lamb's problem), which was previously developed in a closed form by the authors, into the time-domain boundary element method for the analysis of related initial boundary value problems. The time-stepping algorithm utilizing Heaviside step function makes the solution process free from the Rayleigh wave front singularity. Illustrative analyses performed include that: First, the response due to an impulsive uniform strip loading is dealt with in order to check the accuracy of the present solution and to interpret the associated wave motion in the medium. Second, a rigid massless strip surface foundation is analysed when subjected to various impulsive loadings in vertical, horizontal and rotational directions to observe which wave is most concerned with the respective foundation motion. The field response is also of interest with respect to distance attenuation. Third, the dynamic cross-interaction between active and passive foundations through soil is investigated when multiple strip foundations are placed separately on a half-space with a certain distance.     

Partition coefficients of Hf,Zr, and REE between zircon,apatite, and liquid

Concentration ratios of Hf, Zr, and REE between zircon, apatite, and liquid were determined for three igneous compositions: two andesites and a diorite. The concentration ratios of these elements between zircon and corresponding liquid can approximate the partition coefficient. Although the concentration ratios between apatite and andesite groundmass can be considered as partition coefficients, those for the apatite in the diorite may deviate from the partition coefficients. The HREE partition coefficients between zircon and liquid are very large (100 for Er to 500 for Lu), and the Hf partition coefficient is even larger. The REE partition coefficients between apatite and liquid are convex upward, and large (D=10–100), whereas the Hf and Zr partition coefficients are less than 1. The large differences between partition coefficients of Lu and Hf for zircon-liquid and for apatite-liquid are confirmed. These partition coefficients are useful for petrogenetic models involving zircon and apatite.     

Evolution processes of Ordovician–Devonian arc system in the South‐Kitakami Massif and its relevance to the Ordovician ophiolite pulse

The South Kitakami Massif is one of the oldest geological domains in Japan having Silurian strata with acidic pyroclastic rocks and Ordovician–Silurian granodiorite–tonalite basement, suggesting that it was matured enough to develop acidic volcanisms in the Silurian period. On the northern and western margin of the South Kitakami Massif, an Ordovician arc ophiolite (Hayachine–Miyamori Ophiolite) and high‐pressure and low‐temperature metamorphic rocks (Motai metamorphic rocks) exhumed sometime in the Ordovician–Devonian periods are distributed. Chronological, geological, and petrochemical studies on the Hayachine–Miyamori Ophiolite, Motai metamorphic rocks, and other early Paleozoic geological units of the South Kitakami Massif are reviewed for reconstruction of the South Kitakami arc system during Ordovician to Devonian times with supplementary new data. The reconstruction suggests a change in the convergence polarity from eastward‐ to westward‐dipping subduction sometime before the Late Devonian period. The Hayachine–Miyamori Ophiolite was developed above the eastward‐dipping subduction through three distinctive stages. Two separate stages of overriding plate extension inducing decompressional melting with minor involvement of slab‐derived fluid occurred before and after a stage of melting under strong influence of slab‐derived fluids. The first overriding plate extension took place in the back‐arc side forming a back‐arc basin. The second one took place immediately before the ophiolite exhumation and near the fore‐arc region. We postulate that the second decompressional melting was triggered by slab breakoff, which was preceded by slab rollback inducing trench‐parallel wedge mantle flow and non‐steady fluid and heat transport leaving exceptionally hydrous residual mantle. The formation history of the Hayachine–Miyamori Ophiolite implies that weaker plate coupling may provide preferential conditions for exhumation of very hydrous mantle. Very hydrous peridotites involved in arc magmatism have not yet been discovered except for in the Cambrian–Ordovician periods, suggesting its implications for global geodynamics, such as the thermal state and water circulation in the mantle.     

Phase relation between the poloidal and toroidal solar-cycle general magnetic fields and location of the origin of the surface magnetic fields

The phase relation of the poloidal and toroidal components of the solar-cycle general magnetic fields, which propagate along isorotation surfaces as dynamo waves, is investigated to infer the structure of the differential rotation and the direction of the regeneration action of the dynamo processes responsible for the solar cycle. It is shown that, from the phase relation alone, (i) the sign of the radial gradient of the differential rotation (/r) can be determined in the case that the radial gradient dominates the differential rotation, and (ii) the direction of the regeneration action can be determined in the case that the latitudinal gradient (/) dominates the differential rotation. Examining the observed poloidal and toroidal fields, it is concluded that (i) the / should dominate the differential rotation, and (ii) the determined sign of the regeneration factor (positive [negative] in the northern [southern] hemisphere) describing the direction of the regeneration action requires that the surface magnetic fields should originate from the upper part of the convection zone according to the model of the solar cycle driven by the dynamo action of the global convection.     

On time variations of the solar differential rotation law and asymmetry of the global distribution of the solar activity

The relation between the systematic time variations of the solar differential rotation at middle latitudes and the asymmetry of global distribution of the solar activity is discussed in connection with the study of the maintenance of the solar differential rotation. The systematic variations at middle latitudes are inferred from a peculiar correlation in the time variations of the solar differential rotation which is shown in this paper to be implied in the data of Howard and Harvey (1970) of spectroscopic measurements of rotational velocities. If we adopt the working hypothesis of the solar equatorial acceleration maintained by the angular momentum transport due to the very large scale convection, the two phenomena are related through the concurrent presence of the neighboring modes with the presumed dominant mode of the very large scale convection.