3 - The chemical characteristics of submarine groundwater seepage in toyama bay, Central Japan

Abstract

This chapter discusses the chemical characteristics of submarine groundwater seepage in Toyama Bay in Central Japan. There are several important sources for various materials that flow from the land to the ocean, and one of these sources is fresh water. This chapter considers and discusses the input and distribution of material to the marine environment by means of riverine inflow, atmospheric precipitation, or geothermal input due to the eruption of submarine volcanoes on mid-oceanic ridges. By the development of research techniques, the presence of submarine spring water was discovered to be a common phenomenon in continental shelf areas around the world. Spring water has been found in the northern and southern American continental shelves of California. Groundwater that seeps from the sea floor are classified into the following three patterns: the potential type, the density type, and the geothermic type. The seepage water collected off Uwozu is of the potential type. The source of the freshwater is the precipitation in the Toyama region, which is among the highest in Japan. Toyama's high precipitation is caused by high seawater temperature, which is maintained by the warm Tsushima current moving at 2.6 million m3/sec from the southwest to the northeast along the Japan Sea coast.