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Komiya Lab
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A lab that uncovers the history of the Earth and the evolution of life from rocks and fossils.
AboutAbout the lab
Reading the history of Earth and life from rocks
The Komiya Lab studies the history of the Earth from the perspectives of the solid Earth, the atmosphere and oceans, and the evolution of life.
The lab conducts geological fieldwork in places such as Canada, Greenland, India, and China, and analyzes the rocks and fossils it collects.
So far, it has found traces of life in sedimentary rocks that are 3.95 billion years old or older.
For graduate study, students can join the lab through the Graduate School of Science as well as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Key terms
- Proterozoic
- The geological era from about 2.5 billion to about 540 million years ago. It is thought to be the time when eukaryotes and multicellular organisms appeared.
- Plate tectonics
- The idea that the many rock plates covering the Earth's surface move, causing earthquakes and forming mountain ranges.
- Isotope
- Atoms of the same element that differ slightly in weight. Their ratios can be used to infer past environments and the activity of living organisms.
ResearchResearch themes
The lab takes an integrated approach to reading the evolution of the Earth from the perspectives of the solid Earth, the atmosphere and oceans, and the evolution of life, and clarifies how these are interconnected. Its research is based on geological fieldwork and chemical analysis of rocks and fossils.
*Illustrative imageEvolutionary History of Earth's Life and Environment
The lab clarifies what kinds of life existed on the early Earth and what the environment was like at the time. It also estimates atmospheric and oceanic oxygen levels, seawater temperatures, and nutrient concentrations in the mid-Proterozoic, when eukaryotes and multicellular organisms are thought to have appeared.
*Illustrative imageGlobal Material Cycles
Focusing on the redox reactions of iron, carbon, and sulfur and on the behavior of water, the lab investigates how materials have circulated through Earth's history, including the thermal history of the mantle and plate tectonics. It combines geological and geochemical research with modeling.
*Illustrative imageChemical Paleontology
The lab analyzes fossils not by their shape but by their chemical and isotopic compositions and by how the organisms' bodies functioned. It also examines the three-dimensional structure of fossils using X-ray micro-CT at SPring-8.
MembersFaculty
The Komiya Lab is made up of faculty, postdocs, PhD and master's students, and undergraduates writing graduation theses.As of 2024
- ProfessorKomiya TsuyoshiPublications ↗
VoicesStudent voices
Compiled from answers by students who were in the lab. Ratings and reviews reflect individual students' experiences, not the lab's official views.
Students who take part in an interview may receive a thank-you gift worth ¥1,000, regardless of what they say.
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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: “Nuvvuagittuq belt rocks” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Evolutionary History of Earth's Life and Environment: “Stromatolite (Dresser Formation, Paleoarchean, 3.48 Ga; Normay Mine, North Pole Dome, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia) )” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Global Material Cycles: “Spinifex komatiite sill in cumulate komatiite lava flow (Upper Komatiitic Unit, Kidd-Munro Assemblage, Neoarchean, Ga; Pyke Hill, near the Potter Mine, east of Timmins, Ontario, Canada) )” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Chemical Paleontology: “SPring- img pano” Artorius / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (日比谷(由紀)研究室): “Carbonaceous chondrite (Allende Meteorite) ( Ga) 9” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (池田(啓)研究室): “Alpine plants and rocks on Mount Shirouma” Alpsdake / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (江守研究室): “20190705 Warming stripes - Berkeley Earth (world) - avg above- and below-ice readings” RCraig09 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (成田研究室): “Artist's impression of a transiting extrasolar planet (heic0612b)” NASA, ESA and G. Bacon / Public domain (cropped)
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