Experiments on the ocean sequestration of fossil fuel CO₂: pH measurements and hydrate formation     

Peter G. Brewer  Edward T. Peltzer  Gernot Friederich  Izuo Aya  Kenji Yamane 《Marine Chemistry》2000,72(2-4)

We have carried out a series of in situ experiments to investigate the formation of a CO₂ hydrate (CO₂:5.75 H₂O) for the purpose of evaluating scenarios for ocean fossil fuel CO₂ disposal with a solid hydrate as the sequestered form. The experiments were carried out with a remotely operated vehicle in Monterey Bay at a depth of 619 m. pH measurements made in close proximity to the hydrate–seawater interface showed a wide range of values, depending upon the method of injection and the surface area of the hydrate formed. Rapid injection of liquid CO₂ into an inverted beaker to form a flocculant mass of hydrate resulted in pH initially as low as 4.5 within a few centimeters of the interface, decaying slowly over 1–2 h towards normal seawater values as dense CO₂ rich brine drained from the hydrate mass. In a second experiment, slower injection of the liquid CO₂ to produce a simple two-layer system with a near planar interface of liquid CO₂ with a thin hydrate film yielded pH values indistinguishable from the in situ ocean background level of 7.6. Both field and laboratory results now show that the dissolution rate of a mass of CO₂ hydrate in seawater is slow but finite.  相似文献   

Suspended matter in surface waters of the eastern Gulf of Guinea     

Brian D. Bornhold  Jean R. Mascle  Kenichi Harada 《Marine Geology》1973,14(4):M21-M31

Suspended matter in the surface waters of the eastern Gulf of Guinea was studied in relation to the prevailing oceanic currents and the sediment composition and source. A confused current system arises from the confluence of the Guinea Current and the South Equatorial Current in this area. Sediment-laden water is transported to the south of Fernando Póo into the Gulf in a south-westerly direction. The southeasterly flowing Guinea Current along the western edge of the Niger delta and the enormous sediment loads of the distributaries in this area contribute to a major lobe of suspended matter off the southwestern nose of the delta. Sediment concentration is inversely related to salinity in the northeastern Gulf. Sediment is also swept northwestward from the continental shelf of Gabon and the Congo Republic into the Gulf. Diatoms are the most abundant constituents with lesser amounts of organic aggregates and two varieties of fecal pellets.  相似文献   

Rapid Identification of Water-Conducting Fractures Using a Trace Methane Gas Measurement     

Masakazu Niwa Ph.D  Kenji Amano Ph.D  Ryuji Takeuchi Ph.D  Koji Shimada Ph.D 《Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation》2021,41(3):41-50

Identification of water-conducting fractures is important for the safety assessment of underground projects in crystalline rocks at geological disposal sites. We applied a portable methane gas analyzer by wavelength-scanned cavity ring-down spectroscopy to detect the water-conducting fractures in the underground tunnel of the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory, central Japan. The tunnel is excavated in granite with CH₄-rich groundwater. Two approaches were taken to obtain the profile of CH₄ concentration along the gallery walls: (1) “Scan by walking” at the speed of 0.5 m/s and (2) monitoring for 30 s at 0.5 or 1 m intervals. In the Scan by walking approach, the peaks of the CH₄ concentration corresponded well with the occurrence of high water flow rate fractures. Thus, this method is useful for rapid identification of major water-conducting fractures. Monitoring at constant intervals takes more time than the Scan by walking approach; however, this method can largely detect occurrences of fractures with low fluid fluxes.  相似文献   

Origin of the difference in the distribution behavior of tellurium and selenium in a soil-water system   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  

Teppei Harada 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2008,72(5):1281-1294

The distribution behavior of tellurium (Te) between soil and water in a synthetic soil-water system was studied coupled with the speciation of Te both in soil and water phases by using X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy and a high-performance liquid chromatography connected to an ICP-MS (HPLC-ICP-MS), respectively. The results were compared with a similar data set for Se, which was simultaneously obtained in this study. The oxidation states and host phases of Te and Se in the soil samples were given by XAFS, while the oxidation states in water were given by HPLC-ICP-MS. It was found that both Te and Se in soil are mainly associated with Fe(III) hydroxides under oxic conditions. From the EXAFS analyses, the outer-sphere complex is important for the Se(VI) sorbed on Fe(III) hydroxides in soils, while Se(IV), Te(IV), and Te(VI) form inner-sphere complexes. Under reducing condition, it was found that Te(0) and Se(0) species were formed and that Se was more readily reduced to Se(0) than Te, as is predicted from their Eh-pH diagrams. The reduction process from hexavalent to zerovalent species was different between Se and Te, that is, the direct reduction from Se(VI) to Se(0) was observed for Se, while Te was reduced stepwise from Te(VI) to Te(0) via Te(IV). In terms of the distribution between soil and water, Se distribution to water was much higher than that of Te under wide redox conditions. For Se, selenate is the predominant species in water even under reducing condition due to the much higher solubility of Se(VI) than Se(IV). Furthermore, a much smaller distribution of Te in water was primarily due to the larger affinities of Te(IV) and Te(VI) to Fe(III) hydroxides than Se(VI), which originates from the formation of the inner-sphere complexes of Te(IV) and Te(VI) to Fe(III) hydroxides.  相似文献   

Snow ripples and their contribution to the mass transport in drifting snow     

Kenji Kosugi  Kouichi Nishimura  Norikazu Maeno 《Boundary-Layer Meteorology》1992,59(1-2):59-66

Morphological characteristics of snow ripples formed by drifting snow were investigated as functions of wind velocity in a cold wind tunnel at -15 °C. Wave-length, wave height and migration rate of snow ripples increased from 5 to 20 cm, 3 to 5 mm and 1 to 8 cm/min, respectively, with increasing wind velocity from 5 to 7 m/s. Measured size distributions of snow particles in snow ripples showed sorting of large particles in ridges, suggesting that the snow ripple migration is caused by creeping of large particles. The snow drift rate caused by creep, that is, by the ripple migration, was estimated to amount, at least, to 6% of the total snow drift rate.  相似文献   

Use of tsunami waveforms for earthquake source study   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Kenji Satake  Hiroo Kanamori 《Natural Hazards》1991,4(2-3):193-208

Tsunami waveforms recorded on tide gauges, like seismic waves recorded on seismograms, can be used to study earthquake source processes. The tsunami propagation can be accurately evaluated, since bathymetry is much better known than seismic velocity structure in the Earth. Using waveform inversion techniques, we can estimate the spatial distribution of coseismic slip on the fault plane from tsunami waveforms. This method has been applied to several earthquakes around Japan. Two recent earthquakes, the 1968 Tokachi-oki and 1983 Japan Sea earthquakes, are examined for calibration purposes. Both events show nonuniform slip distributions very similar to those obtained from seismic wave analyses. The use of tsunami waveforms is more useful for the study of unusual or old earthquakes. The 1984 Torishima earthquake caused unusually large tsunamis for its earthquake size. Waveform modeling of this event shows that part of the abnormal size of this tsunami is due to the propagation effect along the shallow ridge system. For old earthquakes, many tide gauge records exist with quality comparable to modern records, while there are only a few good quality seismic records. The 1944 Tonankai and 1946 Nankaido earthquakes are examined as examples of old events, and slip distributions are obtained. Such estimates are possible only using tsunami records. Since tide-gauge records are available as far back as the 1850s, use of them will provide unique and important information on long-term global seismicity.  相似文献   

The correlation of whistler occurrence rate at a low latitude with thunderstorm activity at its conjugate region and with solar activity   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Kenji Ohta  Masashi Hayakawa 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》1990,133(1):167-178

The correlations of occurrence rate of whistlers in January during one solar cycle (1977–1987) at a low latitude station (Yamaoka, geomag. lat. 25°, L=1.26) with thunderstorm activity near its conjugate region and also with solar activity have been investigated, and it is found that the occurrence rate has no correlation with the lightning flashes near the conjugate point, while it is negatively correlated with solar activity. On the basis of these findings it is suggested that the ionospheric absorption is of major importance in the long-term variation of whistler occurrence rate, with the duct formation being of secondary effect, while the lightning activity is only a necessary condition for whistler occurrence.  相似文献   

Measurements of wave normal direction of whistler mode signals in the ionosphere by means of the Rocket-Doppler technique     

Iwane Kimura  Tetsuo Tomimoto  Kenji Hiraishi 《Planetary and Space Science》1973,21(4):671-682

Wave normal directions of VLF signals propagating through the ionosphere can be determined by measuring Doppler frequency shift of the signals by means of rocket borne receivers. Two rockets were launched to detect the NWC signal of 22.3 kHz which was transmitted from Australia and propagated on two completely different paths, one being propagated through the Earth-ionosphere waveguide and up to the rocket, the other propagated down to the rocket by the whistler mode directly from the source in the opposite hemisphere. The wave normal directions of the latter mode were almost vertically downward in the ionosphere in the northern hemisphere, although substantial error was involved in the determination of the wave normal direction for a part of the upgoing flight of the rockets, due to the relative geometry of the directions of the rocket flight and the geomagnetic field. The effect of the horizontal gradients of the ionosphere on the above results were found to be not significant. From the experimental results it is concluded that field aligned ducts stretching down to the rocket altitudes did not exist, at least, during the rocket flights.  相似文献   

Small Scale Field Study of an Ocean CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Plume     

Peter G. Brewer  Edward Peltzer  Izuo Aya  Peter Haugan  Richard Bellerby  Kenji Yamane  Ryuji Kojima  Peter Walz  Yasuharu Nakajima 《Journal of Oceanography》2004,60(4):751-758

We have carried out a small-scale (∼20 l) CO₂ sequestration experiment off northern California (684 m depth, ∼5°C, background ocean pH ∼7.7) designed as an initial investigation of the effects of physical forcing of the fluid, and the problem of sensing the formation of a low pH plume. The buoyant CO₂ was contained in a square frame 1.2 m high, exposing 0.21 m² to ocean flow. Two pH electrodes attached to the frame recorded the signal; a second frame placed 1.9 m south of the CO₂ pool was also equipped with two recording pH electrodes. An additional pH electrode was held in the ROV robotic arm to probe the fluid interface. Local water velocities of up to 40 cm sec⁻¹ were encountered, creating significant eddies within the CO₂ box, and forcing wavelets at the fluid interface. This resulted in rapid CO₂ dissolution, with all CO₂ being depleted in a little more than 2 days. The pH record from the sensor closest (∼10 cm) to the CO₂ showed many spikes of low pH water, the extreme value being ∼5.9. The sensor 1 m immediately below this showed no detectable response. The electrodes placed 1.9 m distant from the source also recorded very small perturbations. The results provide important clues for the design of future experiments for CO₂ disposal and biogeochemical impact studies. These include the need for dealing with the slow CO₂ hydration kinetics, better understanding of the fluid dynamics of the CO₂-water interface, and non-point source release designs to provide more constant, controlled local CO₂ enrichments within the experimental area. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

Age determination of marine sediments in the western North Pacific by as partic acid chronology     

Naomi Harada  Nobuhiko Handa  Tadamichi Oba  Hiromi Matsuoka  Katsunori Kimoto  Masashi Kusakabe 《Journal of Oceanography》1997,53(1):1-7

The ages of fossil planktonic foraminifera,Pulleniatina obliquiloculata, in sediments (core 3bPC) from the western North Pacific were determined by aspartic acid chronology, which uses the racemization reaction rate constant of aspartic acid (k_Asp). Aspartic acid racemization-based ages (Asp ages) ranged from 7,600 yrBP at the surface, to 307,000 yrBP at a depth of 352.9 cm in the sediments. This sediment core was also dated by the glacial-interglacial fluctuation of δ¹⁸O chronology, and the ages determined by both chronologies were compared. The ages derived from aspartic acid chronology and δ¹⁸O stratigraphy were more or less consistent, but there appeared to be some differences in age estimates between these two dating methods at some depths within the core. In the core top sediments, the likely cause for the age discrepancy could be the loss of the surface sediment during sampling of the core. At depths of 66.3 and 139 cm within the core, Asp ages indicated reduced sedimentation rates duringca. 60,000-80,000 yrBP andca. 140,000–190,000 yrBP. The maximum age differences in both chronologies are 33,000 yr and 46,600 yr during each of these periods. These anomalous reductions in sedimentation rates occurring during these periods could possibly be related to some geological events, such as an increased dissolution effect of the calcium carbonate in the western North Pacific. Another possible reason for these age differences could be the unreliability in δ¹⁸O ages of core 3bPC as they were estimated by δ¹⁸O ages of another core, 3aPC.  相似文献