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Marine biomarkers deposited on coastal land by the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami

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Abstract

To determine how and what kind of marine-sourced biomarkers are transported and deposited on land by tsunami, we collected and analyzed samples of the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami deposits and the underlying and overlying soil at Sendai and Odaka, in northeast Japan. Characteristic hydrocarbons, such as short-chain n-alkanes, pristane, and phytane, were detected only in soil layers 0–2 cm below the tsunami deposits at both sites. Dinosterol originated from dinoflagellates was detected in a mud layer overlying sand deposits in Odaka. Such characteristic biomarkers were not detected in soil layers deeper than 2 cm beneath the tsunami deposits at either site, and none was found in the surface soil layer overlying the tsunami deposit in Odaka. Therefore, it is probable that the biomarkers were transported and deposited by the tsunami. The sand layer was highly permeable and low in clay or organic matter to which biomarkers could bind. Any biomarkers deposited with the sand probably leached into the underlying soil or were found in sediments richer in clay and organic matter such as tsunamigenic mud. Sediment samples were collected more than 2 years after the tsunami, indicating that the marine-sourced biomarkers were preserved for at least 2 years in the soil. In addition, a comparative analysis of sediment samples collected earlier indicated that characteristic biomarkers did not remain in the sand layer 3 months after the tsunami. These findings show the potential of using biomarkers as proxies to identify marine-sourced deposits on coastal land.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Catherine Chagué-Goff and an anonymous reviewer for providing valuable comments. This study was performed under the cooperative research program of the Center for Advanced Marine Core Research (CMCR), Kochi University (Accept No. 13A028, 13B043, and 14A019). It was supported by the University of Tsukuba Program to Disseminate Tenure Tracking System and the University of Tsukuba Research Infrastructure Support Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305-8572, Japan

    Tetsuya Shinozaki

  2. Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Central 7, Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305-8567, Japan

    Tetsuya Shinozaki, Yuki Sawai & Toru Tamura

  3. Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305-0006, Japan

    Shigehiro Fujino

  4. Center for Advanced Marine Core Research, Kochi University, Monobe 200, Nankoku, 783-8502, Japan

    Minoru Ikehara

  5. International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Aoba 468-1, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-0845, Japan

    Kazuhisa Goto & Daisuke Sugawara

  6. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Tomoya Abe

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  1. Tetsuya Shinozaki
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  2. Shigehiro Fujino
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  3. Minoru Ikehara
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  8. Tomoya Abe
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Correspondence to Tetsuya Shinozaki.

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Shinozaki, T., Fujino, S., Ikehara, M. et al. Marine biomarkers deposited on coastal land by the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami. Nat Hazards 77, 445–460 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1598-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1598-9

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