230Th/234U and 14C dating of a lowstand coral reef beneath the insular shelf off Irabu Island, Ryukyus, southwestern Japan

Abstract   High-resolution seismic reflection profiles delineated the distribution of mound-shaped reflections, which were interpreted as reefs, beneath the insular shelf western off Irabu Island, Ryukyus, southwestern Japan. A sediment core through one of the mounded structures was recovered from the sea floor at a depth of −118.2 m by offshore drilling and was dated by radiometric methods. The lithology and coral fauna of the core indicate that the mounded structure was composed of coral–algal boundstone suggesting a small-scaled coral reef. High-precision α-spectrometric ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U dating coupled with calibrated accelerator mass spectrometric ¹⁴C ages of corals obtained reliable ages of this reef ranging from 22.18 ± 0.63 to 30.47 ± 0.98 ka. This proves that such a submerged reef was formed during the lowstand stage of marine oxygen isotope stages 3–2. The existence of low-Mg calcite in the aragonitic coral skeleton of 22.18 ± 0.63 ka provides evidence that the reef had once been exposed by lowering of the relative sealevel to at least −126 m during the last glacial maximum in the study area. There is no room for doubt that a coral reef grew during the last glacial period on the shelf off Irabu Island of Ryukyus in the subtropical region of western Pacific.     

Decomposition of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon （PAHs） on Mineral Surface under Controlled Relative Humidity

The fate of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons （PAHs） residing in the atmosphere has received enormous attention in recent years due to their mutagenic and carcinogenic risks on human health. In this context, the stability of pyrene （as a representative PAHs） on quartz, alumina, montmorillonite, kaolinite, humic acid and quartz coated with sorbed humic acid was investigated at controlled relative humidity （RH： i.e. 5% and 30%） without light irradiation in order to detect the presence of catalytic effect of mineral surface on PAHs decomposition. The stability of pyrene was found to depend strongly on the physicochemical properties of the substrates. Quartz showed a strong catalytic effect for the decomposition of pyrene even though it was coated with sorbed humic acid. Pyrene sorbed on montmorillonite and humic acid remained stable during the experimental period （i.e. 3 days）. Moisture in the experimental cell also affected the stability of pyrene in particular minerals. Especially, pyrene sorbed on alumina was rapidly decomposed at higher RH. However, there were almost no effect in the case of quartz, kaolinite and humic acid. Depending on the physicochemical properties of aerosols and RH, PAHs associated with minerals in the atmosphere would be decomposed and/or stably reside in the atmosphere.     

The effect of surface characteristics on diffuse reflection radiation at λ=0.40 μm

The diffuse radiation in the upward direction at the top and at an internal level of an inhomogeneous atmosphere is computed at =0.40 m. The surface is assumed to reflect light in accordance with a hybrid mode of a diffuse and specular reflector. The objective is to estimate the effect of underlying surface characteristics in terms of the diffuse radiation field. By making use of these results, accuracy in monitoring the atmospheric aerosols would be increased for the use of remote sensing satellite techniques. Junge power lawv ^*=3 is adopted for the size distribution of aerosols (1963), while the data given by McClatchyet al. (1971) is used for the number density of aerosols with height distribution. It is noted from the computations that the diffuse reflection radiation is affected by the surface characteristics, even if the albedo of the surface is a fixed constant and very small.On leave from the Meterological Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan.bl]References     

Geology of the Gorny Altai subduction–accretion complex, southern Siberia: Tectonic evolution of an Ediacaran–Cambrian intra-oceanic arc-trench system

The Gorny Altai region in southern Siberia is one of the key areas in reconstructing the tectonic evolution of the western segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). This region features various orogenic elements of Late Neoproterozoic–Early Paleozoic age, such as an accretionary complex (AC), high-P/T metamorphic (HP) rocks, and ophiolite (OP), all formed by ancient subduction–accretion processes. This study investigated the detailed geology of the Upper Neoproterozoic to Lower Paleozoic rocks in a traverse between Gorno-Altaisk city and Lake Teletskoy in the northern part of the region, and in the Kurai to Chagan-Uzun area in the southern part. The tectonic units of the studied areas consist of (1) the Ediacaran (=Vendian)–Early Cambrian AC, (2) ca. 630 Ma HP complex, (3) the Ediacaran–Early Cambrian OP complex, (4) the Cryogenian–Cambrian island arc complex, and (5) the Middle Paleozoic fore-arc sedimentary rocks. The AC consists mostly of paleo-atoll limestone and underlying oceanic island basalt with minor amount of chert and serpentinite. The basaltic lavas show petrochemistry similar to modern oceanic plateau basalt. The 630 Ma HP complex records a maximum peak metamorphism at 660 °C and 2.0 GPa that corresponds to 60 km-deep burial in a subduction zone, and exhumation at ca. 570 Ma. The Cryogenian island arc complex includes boninitic rocks that suggest an incipient stage of arc development. The Upper Neoproterozoic–Lower Paleozoic complexes in the Gorno-Altaisk city to Lake Teletskoy and the Kurai to Chagan-Uzun areas are totally involved in a subhorizontal piled-nappe structure, and overprinted by Late Paleozoic strike-slip faulting. The HP complex occurs as a nappe tectonically sandwiched between the non- to weakly metamorphosed AC and the OP complex. These lithologic assemblages and geologic structure newly documented in the Gorny Altai region are essentially similar to those of the circum-Pacific (Miyashiro-type) orogenic belts, such as the Japan Islands in East Asia and the Cordillera in western North America. The Cryogenian boninite-bearing arc volcanism indicates that the initial stage of arc development occurred in a transient setting from a transform zone to an incipient subduction zone. The less abundant of terrigenous clastics from mature continental crust and thick deep-sea chert in the Ediacaran–Early Cambrian AC may suggest that the southern Gorny Altai region evolved in an intra-oceanic arc-trench setting like the modern Mariana arc, rather than along the continental arc of a major continental margin. Based on geological, petrochemical, and geochronological data, we synthesize the Late Neoproterozoic to Early Paleozoic tectonic history of the Gorny Altai region in the western CAOB.     

安宁河-则木河断裂带过渡段及其附近新发现的历史大地震破裂遗迹

在近些年的野外调查中,我们在安宁河、则木河2断裂带的过渡段(礼州至西昌之间)及其附近的3个场地发现了未知年代的地表破裂。通过分析这些地表破裂的特征以及在本区历史地震重破坏区中的位置,我们认为位于杨福山村以北与大坪子村以西2个场地的破裂应是1536年大地震地表破裂带的遗迹。这不仅反映了1536年大地震破裂带的南段沿安宁河与则木河断裂带的过渡段产生,而且反映了该破裂带的南端很可能到达了或者很接近于西昌。位于西昌略北李金堡村以东的破裂应属于1850年大地震地表破裂带的遗迹,它进一步证明了1850年大地震地表破裂带的西北端可能到达西昌以北至少数千米处。因而,由文中的证据可推断西昌附近的主干活动断裂在1536年和1850年大地震时均发生了破裂     

Simplified seismic design approach for steel portal frame piers with hysteretic dampers

A simplified seismic design procedure for steel portal frame piers installed with hysteretic dampers is proposed, which falls into the scope of performance‐based design philosophy. The fundamental goal of this approach is to design a suite of hysteretic damping devices for existing and new bridge piers, which will assure a pre‐defined target performance against future severe earthquakes. The proposed procedure is applicable to multi‐degree‐of‐freedom systems, utilizing an equivalent single‐degree‐of‐freedom methodology with nonlinear response spectra (referred to as strength‐demanded spectra) and a set of formulae of close‐form expressions for the distribution of strength and stiffness produced in the structure by the designed hysteretic damping devices. As an illustrative example, the proposed procedure is applied to a design of a simple steel bridge pier of portal frame type with buckling‐restrained braces (one of several types of hysteretic dampers). For the steel portal frame piers, an attempt is made to utilize not only the displacement‐based index but also the strain‐based index as pre‐determined target performance at the beginning of design. To validate this procedure, dynamic inelastic time‐history analyses are performed using the general‐purpose finite element program ABAQUS. The results confirm that the proposed simplified design procedure attains the expected performance level as specified by both displacement‐based and strain‐based indices with sufficient accuracy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tsunami Assessment for Risk Management at Nuclear Power Facilities in Japan

The present study focuses on evaluation of the maximum and minimum water levels caused by tsunamis as risk factors for operation and management at nuclear power facilities along the coastal area of Japan. Tsunamis generated by submarine earthquakes are examined, basing literature reviews and databases of information on historical tsunami events and run-up heights. For simulation of water level along the coast, a numerical calculation system should be designed with computational regions covering a particular site. Also the calculation system should be verified by comparison of historical and calculated tsunami heights. At the beginning of the tsunami assessment, the standard faults, their locations, mechanisms and maximum magnitudes should be carefully estimated by considering historical earthquake-induced tsunamis and seismo-tectonics at each area. Secondly, the range of errors in the model parameters should be considered since earthquakes and tsunamis are natural phenomena that involve natural variability as well as errors in estimating parameters. For these reasons, uncertainty-induced errors should be taken into account in the process of tsunami assessment with parametric study of the tsunami source model. The element tsunamis calculated by the standard fault models with the errors would be given for the design. Then, the design tsunami can be selected among the element tsunamis with the most significant impact, maximum and minimum water levels, on the site, bearing in mind the possible errors in the numerical calculation system. Finally, the design tsunami is verified by comparison with the run-up heights of historical tsunamis, ensuring that the design tsunami is selected as the highest of all historical and possible future tsunamis at the site.     

Evaluation of the internal radiation field in a composite planetary atmosphere with the lambert surface calculated by matrix method

If the atmosphere is simulated by a number of homogeneous sublayers, it was shown (Takashima, 1973a) that the intensity and polarization parameters emerging from any boundary of internal sublayer's field can be determined, provided that the diffuse reflection and transmission matrices of radiation of sublayers are known. Furthermore, if the surface (ground) is assumed to reflect light in accordance with the Lambert law, it is shown in this paper that the internal radiation field at boundary of any sublayer can be also computed in terms of the diffuse radiation matrices of sublayers rather than in terms of that of the entire atmosphere (Sekera, unpublished). The effect of polarization is included.     

Application of the Information Criterion to the Estimation ofGalaxy Luminosity Function

To determine the exact shape of the luminosity function (LF) of galaxies is one of the central problems in galactic astronomy and observational cosmology. The most popular method to estimate the LF is maximum likelihood, which is clearly understood with the concepts of the information theory. In the field of information theory and statistical inference, great advance has been made by the discovery of Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC). It enables us to perform a direct comparison among different types of model swith different numbers of parameters, and provides us a common basis of the model adequacy. In this paper we applied AIC to the determination of the shape of the LF. We first treated the estimation using stepwise LF(Efstathiou, Ellis and Peterson,1988), and derived a formula to obtain the optimal bin number. In addition, we studied the method to compare the goodness-of-fit of the parametric form (Sandage, Tamman and Yahil, 1979) with stepwise LF. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A practical model to estimate photosynthetically active radiation using general meteorological elements in a temperate humid area and comparison among models

Although accurately evaluating photosynthetically active radiation is important, much effort is required to measure this radiation using a quantum sensor. We develop a new model that makes estimates using only general meteorological data—solar radiation, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, and relative humidity. Root mean square deviations for eight datasets at five sites in Japan were smaller than 5.2 %, similar to error in other studies and to individual differences of quantum sensors. Most root mean square deviations of nine previous models and our eight datasets are larger than that of the new estimation model, which performed well. This suggests that the model is useful for estimating photosynthetically active radiation in a temperate, humid area of Japan.