Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2015

Presentation information

Print

Oral

Symbol M (Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary) » M-IS Intersection

[M-IS33] Progress in marine geoscience off Pacific coast of Tohoku after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami

Tue. May 26, 2015 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM 102B (1F)

Convener:*Kazuko Usami(Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Ken Ikehara(Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Yoshihiro Ito(Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University), Takashi Toyofuku(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)), Chair:Ken Ikehara(Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)

12:33 PM - 12:36 PM

[MIS33-P07] Effects of mass sedimentation event after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake on benthic organisms in the upper bathyal sediments

3-min talk in an oral session

*Hidetaka NOMAKI1, Tomohiro MOCHIZUKI2, Tomo KITAHASHI3, Takuro NUNOURA1, Kazuno ARAI4, Takashi TOYOFUKU1, Hisami SUGA1, Masahide WAKITA1, Gengo TANAKA5, Shuichi SHIGENO1, Eiji TASUMI1, Katsunori FUJIKURA1, Shuichi WATANABE1 (1.JAMSTEC, 2.Tokyo Institute of Technology, 3.The University of Tokyo, 4.Saitama University, 5.Kumamoto University)

Keywords:Meiobenthos, Sedimentary microbe, the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake, Vertical distribution

We examined the effects of mass sedimentation events caused by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake on abundances and vertical distributions of prokaryotes and metazoan meiofauna in sediments, using sediment cores collected from eight bathyal stations off Tohoku 1 and 2.5 years after the M9.0 earthquake. Event deposits of 1 to 7 cm thick were observed at the topmost part of the sediment cores at all sampling stations. At some stations, prokaryotic cell abundances were lower in the surface event-deposit layers compared to those in deeper sediments. These variations were explained by environmental parameters such as a sorting factor and mean grain size, suggesting that turbidite sedimentation affected prokaryotic cell abundances. Nematodes had anomalously higher subsurface abundances at the stations where subsurface peak prokaryotic cell numbers were observed. Although there are no corresponding data before the earthquake from the same sites, it is likely that the subsurface peaks in prokaryotic cell numbers and meiofaunal density resulted from the sedimentation events. The effects of sedimentation events on the organisms were observed 2.5 years after the earthquake, indicating that episodic sedimentation events on scales of several centimeters have a large effect on small organisms inhabiting sediments.