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Biogeochemistry Lab (Tomaru)
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A lab that traces changes in the global environment through the chemistry of methane hydrate and groundwater.
AboutAbout the lab
Reading global environmental change from seafloor methane.
Professor Hitoshi Tomaru's lab studies methane hydrate on the seafloor and the chemistry of water moving underground.
Methane hydrate, an ice-like substance containing large amounts of methane, is widespread on the seafloor around Japan.
In response to changes in the marine environment such as temperature and pressure, methane hydrate repeatedly forms and decomposes over shorter timescales than other geological phenomena.
The lab also uses iodine isotopes dissolved in water to investigate by what paths and over what length of time materials and water move in subduction zones.
Key terms
- Methane hydrate
- An ice-like substance formed when methane is trapped in cages of water molecules.
- Pore water
- Water that fills the spaces between sediment grains.
- Subduction zone
- A place where an oceanic plate sinks beneath another plate.
NewsLab news
First recovery of massive methane hydrate from the seafloor of the Oki Ridge, off Tottori Prefecture
ResearchResearch themes
Using geological and geochemical methods, the lab aims to clarify how methane hydrate has responded to past changes in the marine environment and how it may change in the present and future. It also investigates the paths and timescales of water and materials moving underground, through dating based on radioactive iodine isotopes dissolved in the water.
*Illustrative imageMethane hydrate and the marine environment
The lab chemically analyzes sediments and pore water collected on marine surveys in the Sea of Japan and the Nankai Trough. It aims to clarify the elementary processes by which methane hydrate forms and decomposes, and how it responds to changes in the global environment.
*Illustrative imageDating water with iodine isotopes
The lab chemically analyzes pore water, groundwater, and hot spring water from Aomori, Akita, Niigata, and Chiba. Using dating based on radioactive iodine isotopes dissolved in the water, it investigates by what paths and over what length of time materials move.
MembersFaculty
- ProfessorHitoshi Tomaru
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Gashydrat mit Struktur” Wusel007 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Methane hydrate and the marine environment: “Gas hydrate under carbonate rock” USGS / Public domain (cropped)
- Dating water with iodine isotopes: “Hot Spring P6200123” Chris Light / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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