Mean slope-angle frequency distribution and size frequency distribution of landslide masses in Higashikubiki area, Japan

Landslide mass size frequency distributions and mean slope-angle frequency distributions were calculated for slump, slide, and creep type landslides in the Higashikubiki area. Mean slope-angle frequency distributions closely approximated Weibull distributions. Size frequency distributions show power-law dependencies. Both can be explained by modeling landslides as linked uniform blocks in tensile force. Power coefficients for size frequency distributions were 2.01–2.32 (approximation to power functions) or 2.10–2.24 (approximation to Pareto distributions).     

Small inflation sources producing seismic and infrasonic pulses during the 2000 eruptions of Miyake-jima, Japan

During the 2000 activity of Miyake-jima volcano, Japan, we detected long period seismic signals with initial pulse widths of 1-2 s, accompanied by infrasonic pulses with almost the same pulse widths. The seismic signals were observed from 13 July 2000, a day before the second summit eruption. The occurrences of the seismic signals were intermittent with a gradual increase in their magnitudes and numbers building toward a significant explosive eruption on 18 August. After the eruption, the seismic and infrasonic events ceased. The results of a waveform inversion show that the initial motions were excited by an isotropic inflation source beneath the south edge of the caldera at a depth of 1.4 km. On the other hand, the sources of the infrasonic pulses were located in the summit caldera area. The times at which the infrasonic pulses were emitted at the surface were delayed by about 3 s from the origin times of the seismic events. It is suggested that small isotropic inflations excited seismic waves in the crust and simultaneously caused acoustic waves that traveled in the conduit and produced infrasonic pulses at the crater bottom. Considering the observed time differences and gas temperatures emitted from the vent, the conduit should have been filled with vapor mixed with SO₂ gas and volcanic ash. The change of the time differences between the seismic and infrasonic signals suggests that the seismic source became shallower within half a day before the August 18 explosive eruption. We interpret the source process as a fragmentation process of magma in which gas bubbles burst and quickly released part of the pressure that had been sustained by the tensional strength of magma.     

Sexual reproduction and early life‐history traits of the Mediterranean soft coral Alcyonium acaule

Understanding processes that contribute to a better comprehension of the population dynamics of long‐lived species is critical for the maintenance and potential recovery of such species. Despite the abundance of soft corals in Mediterranean rocky reefs, little information exists on their life histories and reproductive patterns. In this study, we assessed the main reproductive characteristics and early life‐history traits of the long‐lived soft coral Alcyonium acaule. The sex ratio was 1:1; the smallest fertile colonies were one finger in size (2.1 ± 0.6 cm in height), and both colony and polyp fertility increased with colony size. Likewise, the number of eggs and spermary sacs per polyp increased significantly with colony size, whereas the diameter of the female and male sexual products did not. Over 6 years of observations (2007–2012), spawning occurred primarily in July, after the seawater reached 20 °C, in a single spawning episode per year. Approximately 80% of female colonies released eggs, which were retained on the surface of the mother colony by mucous strings for up to a few days. High fertilization rates were observed during spawning in 2008 and 2009 (94.9% and 87.0%, respectively). The timing of development was ~24 h for the blastulae, ~48–72 h for the planulae and 8–22 days for metamorphosis into primary polyps. Survivorship of planulae was relatively high (~50% at 45 days after release), but only 24% of larvae metamorphosed into primary polyps, and their survivorship was moderate after 2 months (65% in 2008 and 74% in 2009). Asexual reproduction was negligible, indicating that sexual reproduction is the main mechanism supporting the maintenance and recovery of populations.     

Indonesian rainfall variability during Western North Pacific and Australian monsoon phase related to convectively coupled equatorial waves

The Indonesian archipelago which has over 15,000 islands, lies in the tropics between Asia and Australia. This eventually alters the rainfall variability over the region, which was influenced by the Asian-Australian monsoon and controlled by intraseasonal variabilities such as convectively coupled equatorial waves (CCEW), i.e., Kelvin, n?=?1 equatorial Rossby (ER), mixed Rossby gravity (MRG), and n?=?1 Westward inertio gravity (WIG), including the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO). This study examines a 15-year 3B42 data for trapping CCEW and MJO in the region of Indonesia during both active and extreme Western North Pacific (WNP) and Australian (AU) monsoon phases, which are then compared with 30-year rainfall anomalies among 38 synoptic stations over Indonesia. The space–time spectral analysis is employed to filter each wave including the MJO in the equator, then proceeding with the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) method to seek each wave peak which then coincides with WNP and AU monsoon peaks over Indonesia. It is concluded that an extreme monsoon classification has proven to control rainfall activity related to the CCEW and MJO at 60.66% during December through February (DJF)-WNP for only the significant wave perturbation value. Meanwhile, the CCEW and MJO significantly increase/decrease precipitation at Day 0 for about 37.88% from the total of Day 1st to Day end. Although the contribution of the CCEW and MJO does not profoundly influence rainfall activity during monsoon phase over Indonesia, they still modulate weather condition for more than 50%. On the other hand, a complex topography with a number of land–sea complexities is capable of influencing the rainfall variability in the region as a negative relationship is associated with the CCEW and MJO either during DJF-WNP or July through August (JAS)-AU monsoon phase.     

Secondary‐volatiles linked metallic iron in eucrites: The dual‐origin metals of Camel Donga

The unique occurrence of abundant (~1 vol%) near‐pure‐Fe metal in the Camel Donga eucrite is more complicated than previously believed. In addition to that component of groundmass metal, scattered within the meteorite are discrete nodules of much higher kamacite abundance. We have studied the petrology and composition of two of these nodules in the form of samples we call CD2 and CD3. The nodules are ovoids 11 (CD2) to 15 (CD3) mm across, with metal, or inferred preweathering metal, abundances of 12–17 vol% (CD2 is unfortunately quite weathered). The CD3 nodule also includes at its center a 5 mm ovoid clumping (6 vol%) of F‐apatite. Both nodules are fine‐grained, so the high Fe metal and apatite contents are clearly not flukes of inadequate sampling. The metals within the nodules are distinctly Ni‐rich (0.3–0.6 wt%) compared to the pure‐Fe (Ni generally 0.01 wt%) groundmass metals. Bulk analyses of three pieces of the CD2 nodule show that trace siderophile elements Ir, Os, and Co are commensurately enriched; Au is enriched to a lesser degree. The siderophile evidence shows the nodules did not form by in situ reduction of pyroxene FeO. Moreover, the nodules do not show features such as silica‐phase enrichment or pyroxene with reduced FeO (as constrained by FeO/MgO and especially FeO/MnO) predicted by the in situ reduction model. The oxide minerals, even in groundmass samples well away from the nodules, also show little evidence of reduction. Although the nodule boundaries are generally sharp, groundmass‐metal Ni content is anti‐correlated with distance from the CD3 nodule. We infer that the nodules represent materials that originated within impactors into the Camel Donga portion of the eucrite crust, but probably were profoundly altered during later metamorphism/metasomatism. Origin of the pure‐Fe groundmass metal remains enigmatic. In situ reduction probably played an important role, and association in the same meteorite of the Fe‐nodules is probably significant. But the fluid during alteration was probably not (as previously modeled) purely S and O, of simple heat‐driven internal derivation. We conjecture a two‐stage metasomatism, as fluids passed through Camel Donga after impact heating of volatile‐rich chondritic masses (survivors of gentle accretionary impacts) within the nearby crust. First, reduction to form troilite may have been triggered by fluids rich in S₂ and CO (derived from the protonodules?), and then in a distinct later stage, fluids were (comparatively) H₂O‐rich, and thus reacted with troilite to form pure‐Fe metal along with H₂S and SO₂. The early eucrite crust was in places a dynamic fluid‐bearing environment that hosted complex chemical processes, including some that engendered significant diversity among metal+sulfide alterations.     

Eigen oscillation of a fluid sphere and source mechanism of harmonic volcanic tremor

The eigen oscillation of a fluid sphere embedded in an infinite elastic medium is analyzed to understand the source mechanism of volcanic tremor that vibrates nearly monotonically and attenuates slowly. The dimensionless eigen frequencies of the sinusoidal oscillation are calculated in a complex form with the attenuation factor in its imaginary part for various combinations of the three parameters: the contrasts of P-wave velocity, density and rigidity between the fluid and the country rock. Eigen oscillations consist of a high attenuation mode with a rapidly decaying pulsive wave at a low frequency and infinite number of regular modes with slowly decaying vibrations. For regular modes, the frequency of oscillation obtained from the real part of an eigen value is distributed in approximately regular intervals while the attenuation factor from the imaginary part is almost constant independent of the mode. Each eigen frequency of regular and high attenuation modes is degenerated with two independent eigen functions describing different distributions of displacement, velocity and stress. The theory is applied to harmonic volcanic tremor observed at Kusatsu-Shirane Volcano, central Japan. Observed spectral peaks of the tremor are explained by the eigen frequencies and attenuation factors of several lowest regular modes if the spherical fluid oscillator has a radius of dozens of meters and a P-wave velocity of about several hundred meters per second.     

Overview of Holocene Tsunami Deposits along the Nankai,Suruga, and Sagami Troughs,Southwest Japan

Tsunami deposits provide a basis for reconstructing Holocene histories of great earthquakes and tsunamis on the Pacific Coast of southwest Japan. The deposits have been found in the past 15 years at lakes, lagoons, outcrops, and archaeological excavations. The inferred tsunami histories span 3000 years for the Nankai and Suruga Troughs and nearly 10,000 years for the Sagami Trough. The inferred histories contain recurrence intervals of variable length. The shortest of these —100–200 years for the Nankai Trough, 150–300 years for the Sagami Trough — resemble those known from written history of the past 1000–1500 years. Longer intervals inferred from the tsunami deposits probably reflect variability in rupture mode, incompleteness of geologic records, and insufficient research. The region's tsunami history could be clarified by improving the geologic distinction between tsunami and storm, dating the inferred tsunamis more accurately and precisely, and using the deposits to help quantify the source areas and sizes of the parent earthquakes.     

Latérite als Leithorizonte zur Rekonstruktion tektonischer Vorgänge auf den Festländern

A reconstruction is made of the relief which is probably developed through peneplanation and a contemporary deep kaolinisation during late Cretaceous time before the laterite formation and the relief at the time of the laterite formation in Eocene in the region of the present Guiana shield and its foreland. A characteristic plain with very shallow valleys and a thick Al-laterite on its surface was formed during Eocene time. The Al-laterite is used as a characteristic and reference horizon for the post Eocene tectonic which is characterized by a main bulge of the Guiana shield in Surinam, a weaker lift in Guyana and a submergence below sea level in the north.