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Awaji Island (awaji + island)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	80%

Selected Abstracts

Quaternary vertical offset and average slip rate of the Nojima Fault on Awaji Island, Japan

ISLAND ARC, Issue 3-4 2001
Akihiro Murata
Abstract Drilling was carried out to penetrate the Nojima Fault where the surface rupture occurred associated with the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake. Two 500 m boreholes were successfully drilled through the fault zone at a depth of 389.4 m. The drilling data show that the relative uplift of the south-east side of the Nojima Fault (south-west segment) was approximately 230 m. The Nojima branch fault, which branches from the Nojima Fault, is inferred to extend to the Asano Fault. From the structural contour map of basal unconformity of the Kobe Group, the vertical component of displacement of the Nojima branch,Asano Fault is estimated to be 260,310 m. Because the vertical component of displacement on the Nojima Fault of the north-east segment is a total of those of the Nojima Fault of the south-west segment and of the Nojima branch,Asano Fault, it is estimated to total to 490,540 m. From this, the average vertical component of the slip rate on the Nojima Fault is estimated to be 0.4,0.45 m/103 years for the past 1.2 million years. [source]

Hardened foliated fault gouge from the Nojima Fault zone at Hirabayashi: Evidence for earthquake lightning accompanying the 1995 Kobe earthquake?

ISLAND ARC, Issue 3-4 2001
Yuji Enomoto
Abstract Two anomalous features were found in the Nojima Fault zone at Hirabayashi in Awaji Island, south-west Japan: (i) hard foliated gouge between weathered granitic fault breccia and weakly consolidated mudstone of the Osaka Group; and (ii) mudstone near the gouge showing anomalous magnetization behavior. Roots of herbaceous vegetation near the foliated gouge were extraordinarily charred. In order to understand the nature of the gouge, shallow drillings were made to a depth of 3,14 m across the fault zone. Various physicochemical measurements of the gouge at depths and charred roots of herbaceous vegetation were conducted. The main results were: (i) Using electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis, the carbon radical peak (g = 2.006) of the charred roots was found to be 25 times larger than that of the non-charred roots of the same vegetation taken near the fault, indicating that the charred roots were subjected to baking; (ii) the hard foliated gouge clearly showed a lamellar structure consisting alternately of gray and black layers; (iii) the black layers in most of the foliated gouge showed flow structures almost parallel to the fault, but the gray layers rarely showed flow patterns; (iv) natural remanent magnetization (NRM) of the foliated gouge was 430 times greater than that of the granitic fault breccia and approximately 70 times greater than that of the mudstone; (v) the NRM intensity of the mudstone near the fault was highest near the ground level and decreased as the depth increased, although the magnetic susceptibility of the mudstone was almost constant and independent of depth; (vi) the high-coe civity magnetization component vectors of both the mudstone and the foliated gouge in a Schmidt equal-area projection was quite different from that of the present direction of the Earth's field; and (vii) using a magnetic force microscope, intense magnetic force lines were found in the black parts of the foliated gouge. It is suggested that these anomalies were possibly caused by earthquake lightning that accompanied the 1995 Kobe earthquake. In a spark plasma sintering test, which was conducted to simulate the possibility of earthquake lightning-induced sintering of the gouge, weakly altered gouge was successfully sintered within 10 s. The hardness of sintered sample was comparable to that of the hard foliated gouge. [source]

Thermal anomaly around the Nojima Fault as detected by fission-track analysis of Ogura 500 m borehole samples

ISLAND ARC, Issue 3-4 2001
Takahiro Tagami
Abstract To better understand heat generation and transfer along earthquake faults, this paper presents preliminary zircon fission-track (FT) length data from the Nojima Fault, Awaji Island, Japan, which was activated during the 1995 Kobe earthquake (Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake). Samples were collected of Cretaceous granitic rocks from the Ogura 500 m borehole as well as at outcrops adjacent to the borehole site. The Nojima Fault plane was drilled at a depth of 389.4 m (borehole apparent depth). Fission-track lengths in zircons from localities > 60 m distance from the fault plane, as well as those from outcrops, are characterized by the mean values of ,10,11 ,m and unimodal distributions with positive skewness, which show no signs of an appreciable reduction in FT length. In contrast, those from nearby the fault at depths show significantly reduced mean track lengths of ,6,8 ,m and distributions having a peak around 6,7 ,m with rather negative skewness. In conjunction with other geological constraints, these results are best interpreted by a recent thermal anomaly around the fault, which is attributable to heat transfer via focused fluids from the deep interior of the crust and/or heat dispersion via fluids associated with frictional heating by fault motion. [source]

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Retinal Proteins held at Awaji Island, Hyogo, Japan on 4,8 June 2006 Introduction

PHOTOCHEMISTRY & PHOTOBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2007
Motoyuki Tsuda
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Relationship between species richness and spatial and temporal distance from seed source in semi-natural grassland

APPLIED VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 3 2010
Toshikazu Matsumura
Abstract Question: How do traditional management practices of field margins maintain the biodiversity of native grassland species? Location: Semi-natural grassland on the field margins of traditional and consolidated agricultural fields on Awaji Island, central Japan. Methods: The distance to the nearest traditional field margin to the study sites was determined because the traditional field was considered as a seed source of native vegetation to the semi-natural grasslands under study. We selected field margins in consolidated fields of different ages and distances from seed sources. Indicator species for both field types were sought. Regression analysis and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) were used to determine the effect of spatial and temporal distances on the species composition of native vegetation. Results: Species richness differed significantly between the margin of traditional and consolidated fields. We identified significant indicator species of traditional fields, but not of consolidated fields. In consolidated fields, species richness increased significantly with age and decreased significantly with increasing distance to the source. At younger sites, species richness decreased faster with distance to the source because of strong negative correlation, but not at older sites. DCA ordination plots similarly indicated that similarities of vegetation composition in consolidated and traditional fields decreased with distance, and the effect of distance decreased with age. Conclusions: The species composition of the grassland margins of consolidated field was more similar to the margins of traditional fields if the consolidated fields were older, and/or closer to traditional fields. This pattern suggests that dispersal may play a role in the establishment of species on field margins. [source]