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Recent seismic monitoring mainly by the Hi-net High sensitivity seismograph network in Japan for the last decade has been revealing the 3D structure of velocity anomaly in the crust and mantle due to heterogeneous presence of deep-seated fluids and fluid-related deep low frequency earthquakes in subduction zones of Japan arc. Petrological water circulation models combined with geophysical subduction models quantitatively show the water budget in the solid earth. The recent findings infer the importance of deep hydrothermal fluid on the occurrence of inland earthquakes. As the models are built with the result obtained by monitoring, experimental techniques or simulations, implications from evidence-based geochemical and geological studies are expected for the proof of water circulation models. Hence, we examined chemical features of deep groundwaters in SW Japan arc, and showed spatial distribution of deep-seated fluid mixed into groundwater. We found that the deep-seated fluid, whose isotopic composition is similar to magmatic, has the high Li/Cl ratio 0.001 in wt. ratio and concluded that Li/Cl is a good indicator for detecting the slab-related deep-seated fluid in groundwaters. Spatial distribution of Li/Cl reveals that slab-related deep-seated fluid upwells along the faults and tectonic lines, and at close to Quaternary volcanoes in SW Japan arc. In most cases, upwelling places are found close to the areas where deep low frequency DLF earthquakes are occurring, implying that deep-seated fluid causes DLF events.

Based on skeletal oxygen and carbon isotope analyses, we found a remarkable decrease in skeletal linear extension rate of a Porites colony during the bleaching event of 1998 around the Ryukyu Islands. Water temperature in the summer of 1998 was recorded as the highest for at least last 50 years in the region. This colony, growing in a channel of fringing reef in Ishigaki Island, has experienced complete bleaching, as evidenced from direct observations of discoloration of the colony. Growth increment between the summer of 1997 and winter of 1997-98 is about 7 mm long while the corresponding increment between the summer of 1998 and winter of 1998-99 is only 2 mm long. Since the surface colonization by algae and excavating sponges cannot be recognized by visual inspection of X-radiographs, the slow growth might have been caused by the temporal perturbations in coral-algal symbiotic system, which inhibits calcification. The shift of skeletal carbon isotope ratios toward negative during bleaching also suggests the decrease of photosynthetic activity of symbiotic algae. Presumably, high temperature during the summer of 1998 could have led to massive decrease in carbonate production by coral reefs around the Ryukyu Islands through a large-scale coral bleaching event.

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