Kantaro Fujioka

Postglacial environmental change of the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of central Japan

Abstract Downcore changes in microfossil assemblages and oxygen isotope ratios in three piston cores recovered from the Northwestern Pacific, off central Japan, show that the subtropical Kuroshio front was located to the south of C-4 core site (Lat. 33° N) during the last glacial. The front then advanced northward, passing over the C-4 site and the C-6 site (34.6° N) at about 13 ka and 10 ka, respectively, and reached the C-1 core site (36° N) at about 7 ka. After 5.5 ka it retreated to the area between the C-1 and C-6 sites. A brief but significant cold event, the readvance of the cold Oyashio Current, is recognized between 11 and 10 ka in the two northern cores, but the current did not reach the southern C-4 site. A contemporaneous cold event is known in the North Atlantic, and the cooling was probably a global phenomenon likely to be associated with lowering of sea level. Contamination of isotopically light water is apparent between 14 and 11 ka in the marked change in isotopic composition of benthic foraminifers. Oxygen isotope ratios of planktonic foraminifers show that prior to the advance of the Kuroshio front, the surface water at these core sites was isotopically lighter than the Kuroshio water at that time.

Submersible study of an oceanic megamullion in the central North Atlantic

Recently discovered megamullions on the seafloor have been interpreted to be the exhumed footwalls of long-lived detachment faults operating near the ends of spreading segments in slow spreading crust. We conducted five submersible dives on one of these features just east of the rift valley in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 26°35′N and obtained visual, rock sample, gravity, and heat flow data along a transect from the breakaway zone (where the fault is interpreted to have first nucleated in ∼2.0–2.2 Ma crust) westward to near the termination (∼0.7 Ma). Our observations are consistent with the detachment fault hypothesis and show the following features. In the breakaway zone, faulted and steeply backtilted basaltic blocks suggest rotation above a deeper shear zone; the youngest normal faults in this sequence are interpreted to have evolved into the long-lived detachment fault. In younger crust the interpreted detachment surface rises as monotonously flat seafloor in a pair of broad, gently sloping domes that formed simultaneously along isochrons and are now thinly covered by sediment. The detachment surface is locally littered with basaltic debris that may have been clipped from the hanging wall. The domes coincide with a gravity high that continues along isochrons within the spreading segment. Modeling of on-bottom gravity measurements and recovery of serpentinites imply that mantle rises steeply and is exposed within ∼7 km west of the breakaway but that rocks with intermediate densities prevail farther west. Within ∼5 km of the termination, small volcanic cones appear on the detachment surface, indicating melt input into the footwall. We interpret the megamullion to have developed during a phase of limited magmatism in the spreading segment, with mantle being exhumed by the detachment fault <0.5 m.y. after its initiation. Increasing magmatism may eventually have weakened the lithosphere and facilitated propagation of a rift that terminated slip on the detachment fault progressively between ∼1.3 m.y. and 0.7 m.y. Identifiable but low-amplitude magnetic anomalies over the megamullion indicate that it incorporates a magmatic component. We infer that much of the footwall is composed of variably serpentinized peridotite intruded by plutons and dikes.

Widespread submarine tephras around Japan — Petrographic and chemical properties

Abstract In deep-sea sediments around the Japanese Islands, tephra layers are frequently recognized, and some tephras can be identified by petrographic and chemical features and correlated to source volcanoes of both Japan and Korea. Most tephras distributed over more than several hundred kilometers from the source volcanoes were presumably carried away by the dominant westerly wind. Six characteristic marker tephras in deep-sea sediments can be identified and correlated according to their distribution and grain size, petrography, and chemistry. They play an important role in compiling the Late Quaternary chronology of the deep-sea sediments distributed around the Japanese Islands. Petrographic and geochemical studies reveal that the refractive index of volcanic glass shards in tephras is controlled by the amount of total transition metal oxides rather than the amount of SiO 2 . We propose a new equation relating refractive index to glass shard chemistry.

Constraints on the evolution of the Japan Sea based on 40Ar- 39Ar ages and Sr isotopic ratios for volcanic rocks of the Yamato Seamount chain in the Japan Sea

40 Ar- 39 Ar and Sr isotope analyses were performed on basalts and andesites dredged from the Yamato Seamount chain in the Japan Sea. The 40 Ar- 39 Ar plateau ages range from about 11 to 17 Ma, though most samples show ages between 10 and 14 Ma. The seamounts seem to have formed within a period of a few million years, although some of them might have formed earlier. Based on the present results together with previously reported radiometric age data, it is thought that the Yamato Basin formed during some period prior to 17 Ma and probably later than around 25 Ma. Taking into account the radiometric age data on rocks from the Japan Basin, it is conjectured that the opening of the Japan Sea might have started almost at this time or a little earlier. The observed 87 Sr 86 Sr ratios range from 0.70357 to 0.70388, suggesting incorporation of some time-integrated components enriched in incompatible elements such as continental crustal materials. This may indicate that in the Japan Sea area, at least the Yamato Basin had not developed enough to show the characteristics of typical N-type MORB source materials without being affected by pre-existing continental crustal materials.

A trapped Philippine Sea plate origin for MORB from the inner slope of the Izu^Bonin trench

Basement outcrops sampled by submersible and dredge from the inner slope of the Izu^Bonin trench at 32‡N and 6200^6700 m water depth have a distinct mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) chemistry unlike any other rocks previously sampled in the Izu^Bonin arc. They are low K tholeiites with moderate TiO2 (0.7^1.8 wt%), extremely low Ba (1.5^7 parts per million), low Ba/La (1.2^3) and are depleted in light rare-earth elements. These samples could represent either an accreted piece of subducting Pacific plate or a trapped remnant of Philippine Sea plate on which the Izu^Bonin arc was built. Although their major and trace element chemistry do not help to distinguish their source, the Sr, Nd and Pb isotopes clearly support a Philippine Sea plate origin. The isotopic signature of the inner trench slope samples matches that of Philippine Sea plate lavas, with 87 Sr/ 86 Sr = 0.70321^0.70373, 143 Nd/ 144 Nd = 0.513057^0.513077 and 206 Pb/ 204 Pb = 18.2^18.5. The samples have elevated 207 Pb/ 204 Pb (15.3^15.5) and 208 Pb/ 204 Pb (38.0^38.2) values compared to the Northern Hemisphere reference line (NHRL) and their isotopic signature is distinct from the Mesozoic Pacific MORB being subducted. These are the first samples of trapped Philippine Sea oceanic crust discovered in the Izu^ Bonin^Mariana arc. They require that models for the formation of intra-oceanic arc crust account for pre-existing oceanic crust and that estimates of arc magma production rates are lowered accordingly. fl 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Biological Community and Sediment Fatty Acids Associated with the Deep-Sea Whale Skeleton at the Torishima Seamount

A whale skeleton was discovered on the flat-topped summit of the Torishima Seamount, 4037 m deep, northwest Pacific Ocean, during a dive by the submersibleShinkai 6500 in 1992. The skeleton was encrusted with mytilid mussels and harbored benthic animals such as galatheid crabs, echinoderms, sea anemones, and unidentifiable tube worms. The whale skeleton was revisited in 1993. Sediment samples were collected to outline the chemical-microbial distribution in the sediment associated with the skeleton. In the sediment, there was a gradient of sulfide concentration with the peak of 20 n moles per gram sediment just beneath a bone. Corresponding gradients were observed in thiosulfate-oxidizing enzyme activity, bacterial colony counts and fatty acid amounts. Direct analysis of the sediment fatty acid composition suggested the occurrence of methane-oxidizing bacteria and sulfur-reducing bacteria in close association with the whale skeleton. These observations imply that the methane and sulfides were formed during the saprogenic process and utilized for the chemosynthetic bacterial production to feed the whale skeleton-animal community.

Oblique and near collision subduction, Sagami and Suruga Troughs —preliminary results of the French-Japanese 1984 Kaiko cruise, Leg 2

Abstract Leg 2 of the French-Japanese 1984 Kaiko cruise has surveyed the Suruga and the Sagami Troughs, which lie on both sides of the northwestward moving and colliding Izu-Bonin Ridge, the northernmost part of the Philippine Sea plate. The transition from the Nankai Trough to the Suruga Trough is characterized by northward decrease in width of the accretionary prism, in good agreement with the increasing obliquity between the through axis and the direction of the convergence, as the strike of the convergent boundary changes from ENE-NNE to south-north. South of the area, the southern margin of the Zenisu Ridge shows contractional deformations. This supports the interpretation made by the team of Leg 1 who studied the western extension of the area we studied, that it is an intra-oceanic thrusting of the ridge over the Shikoku Basin. In the Sagami Trough, where the relative motion is highly oblique to the plate boundary, active subduction is mostly confined in the east-west trending portions of the trough located south of the Boso Peninsula and along the lower Boso Canyon, near the TTT triple junction. In between, the present motion is mainly right-lateral along the northwest trending Boso escarpment. However, an inactive but recent (Pliocene to lower Pleistocene) accretionary prism exists south of the Boso escarpment, which suggests that the relative motion was more northerly than at present before about 1 Ma ago.

Enigmatic extinct spreading center in the West Philippine backarc basin unveiled

The Central Basin fault in the center of the West Philippine Basin was first discovered ∼50 yr ago. It is a 1000-km-long ridge oriented northwest to southeast and is cut by north-south–trending fracture zones. Hypotheses about the origin and development of the Central Basin fault have remained unresolved until recently. Submersible observations and SeaBeam surveys show that the Central Basin fault is a segmented spreading ridge having a morphology similar to that of a slow spreading ridge, with a nontransform offset, a nodal deep, and an inside corner high. The distance from the ridge versus the depth of the sea floor, the obliqueness of sets of small trough and ridge structures, and heat-flow values both of the crestal and off-axis areas of the Central Basin fault suggest that the fault is not a simple spreading center, but rather underwent multiple spreading episodes. The texture and chemistry of basalts obtained from the ridge suggest that the lavas were formed in a backarc basin setting. These data confirm that the Central Basin fault is a slow backarc spreading center that has a more complicated evolutionary history than previously realized.

Significance of serpentinization of wedge mantle peridotites beneath Mariana forearc, western Pacific

In the Mariana forearc, horst and graben structures are well developed in the outer forearc basement, which is composed of both island arc and oceanic crust-mantle rocks. A zone of dome-shaped diapiric seamounts, which are composed mainly of serpentinized peridotites, formed on the basement in the outer forearc regions. Serpentine minerals in peridotites from both diapiric seamounts and basement are mostly chrysotile and/or lizardite. Antigorite, however, is rarely found in peridotites recovered from Conical, Big Blue, Celestial, and South Chamorro Seamounts. Antigorite-bearing peridotites always contain secondary iron-rich olivine and metamorphic clinopyroxene, and antigorite seems to coexist stably with them. Iron-rich secondary olivine (Fo 86–90 ) occurs as overgrowth on the rim or along the cleavage traces of primary olivine (Fo 90–92 ). The assemblage shows high-temperature conditions of serpentinization at ~450–550 °C, whereas chrysotile- and/or lizardite-bearing assemblages occur at ~200–300 °C. In antigorite-bearing samples, chrysotile and/or lizardite veins both predating and postdating antigorite formation are recognized. This may reflect a complex process of tectonic cycling of shallow mantle wedge serpentinized peridotites to depth and then back again to the surface.

Structure and development of the Sagami trough and the Boso triple junction

Abstract The Sagami trough is located at the particular plate margin where the Izu forearc is subducted underneath the Honshu forearc. At its southeastern end, the worlds only known TTT-type triple junction (Boso triple junction) has developed. Several different kinds of basins occur in different segments along the Sagami trough and at the triple junction. The bathymetric, geologic, and geophysical data obtained during the Kaiko Project and from additional studies are summarized together with our onland studies. We suggest that the right-lateral oblique plate motion formed an eduction margin in the Sagami basin, while a normal subduction margin and an oblique subduction margin have been formed in the Middle Sagami trough basin. These tectonic phenomena resulted from the long-lasting compressional covergence between the Philippine Sea plate and Eurasian plate since the early or middle Miocene. The North basin on the northeasternmost margin of the Philippine Sea plate near the Boso triple junction has developed as a stretched basin due to the westward motion of the Philippine Sea plate with respect to the Eurasian plate.