Labs in Tohoku University, Faculty of Science

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A research lab that explores how earthquakes and tsunamis occur through topography, geological strata, and satellite observation.

The Natural Disaster Science Lab studies how earthquakes and tsunamis occur, using landforms, geological strata, and satellite observation. The lab's research rests on three pillars: surveys of coastal terraces and active faults, surveys of tsunami deposits, and measurement of landform change using satellite data. By combining field surveys with numerical calculation, the lab works to understand the magnitude of past earthquakes and tsunamis and the mechanisms by which earthquakes occur. In the faculty list of the Department of Earth Science, the lab is listed as an affiliated division (Natural Disaster Science Division) of the International Research Institute of Disaster Science.

#Active faults #Tsunami deposits #InSAR

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A lab that explores the history of the Earth through the properties and origins of minerals.

The Mineralogy Lab studies the rocks that make up the Earth and planets, treating minerals as their smallest constituent unit. The lab believes that understanding the physical and chemical properties of minerals can clarify the history and internal structure of the Earth. Studying the minerals that make up meteorites, which arrive from outside the Earth, can also provide information about other planets. Minerals are also used in familiar places such as gemstones, quartz clocks that use quartz, and cosmetics, and there are attempts to use their properties to address environmental pollution and nuclear waste.

#Mineralogy #Crystallography #Meteorites

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The lab explores the origin and evolution of life through both fieldwork and experiments.

The Resources and Environmental Geochemistry Lab uses geochemistry to investigate when and how life emerged, and how the Earth and life have evolved together. Using geological and geochemical methods, the lab searches for the oldest traces of life, reconstructs the Earth environments where early life lived, and studies how life contributed to the formation of ore deposits. The lab investigates the formation of organic matter and the chemical evolution leading to the birth of life using methods from geochemistry, organic chemistry, and molecular biology. A distinctive feature of the lab is that it pursues the origin of life from two sides: fieldwork and simulation experiments.

#Origin of life #Geochemistry #Astrobiology

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The lab explores the origin of life by analyzing meteorites and conducting experiments that recreate the early Earth.

The Planetary Organic Geochemistry Lab studies how the building-block molecules of life formed and evolved chemically. The lab analyzes samples from meteorites and asteroids, and also conducts experiments that recreate the environment of the early Earth. For the molecules that gave rise to life, there are two hypotheses: that they were formed on Earth, and that they were delivered from outside Earth. The lab also studies the process by which RNA and proteins form from the building-block molecules of life.

#Origin of life #Meteorites #RNA

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The lab explores the birth and evolution of the solar system through samples from meteorites and asteroids.

The Early Solar System Evolution Lab studies when, where, and how our solar system was born. Through analytical and recreation experiments, the lab examines primitive planetary materials such as meteorites originating from asteroids, interplanetary dust originating from comets, and samples brought back by space probes. Using clues such as the characteristics of minerals and the isotopic and noble gas compositions, the lab aims to clarify the origin of the solar system and the path of its early evolution.

#Primitive planetary materials #Meteorites #Sample return

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The lab explores Earth's interior using high temperatures, high pressures, and quantum beams.

The Quantum Beam Earth Science Lab conducts research that experimentally investigates the structure and properties of the materials that make up the Earth and other planets, in order to clarify their interiors. The lab uses high-pressure, high-temperature apparatus to recreate the environment of Earth's interior, and uses quantum beams to study how materials behave under those conditions. Experiments are carried out in the university's laboratories, at synchrotron radiation facilities, and at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut of the University of Bayreuth in Germany, a partner institution. A distinguishing feature of the lab is that it links the microscopic properties of minerals and rocks to phenomena occurring on the Earth and other planets.

#Quantum beams #Experimental petrology #Mineral physics

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The lab empirically investigates magma and fluids in subduction zones.

The Volcanology and Geofluids Lab studies the movement of magma and subsurface fluids in active subduction zones such as the Northeast Japan arc. The lab investigates the mechanisms by which magma is generated, rises, resides underground, changes in composition, and leads to eruption, as well as the relationship between plate dehydration and earthquake occurrence. It uses a variety of methods, including fieldwork, chemical analysis of rocks and minerals, high-pressure, high-temperature experiments, and numerical simulation.

#Volcanology #Geofluids #Subduction zones

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The lab investigates plate motion and the dynamism of the Earth through rocks from the ocean floor.

The Ocean Floor Science Lab studies the motion of the ocean floor and of plates as recorded in rocks, and the dynamism of the Earth as reflected in magma. The lab aims to clarify the structure and evolutionary history of subducting oceanic plates from the chemical and isotopic compositions recorded in basalts from submarine volcanoes. The lab also studies rocks of the Pacific Plate that is subducting into the trench, and rocks of ancient deep ocean floor exposed in eastern Hokkaido. The lab is the Ocean Floor Science Division of the Faculty of Science and Graduate School of Science at Tohoku University, and is also the Geochemistry Research Field of the Center for Northeast Asian Studies.

#Oceanic plates #Petit-spot volcanoes #Basalt

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A neuroscience lab that seeks to understand the brain's higher functions through their functional architecture.

The Neural Systems Lab aims to elucidate the higher functions of the brain, and for that purpose places importance on understanding the brain's functional architecture. People think, make judgments, and act based on stimuli from the outside and on information they have stored in memory. The lab emphasizes understanding functional localization, the neural structures that support functions, how information is represented, and the steps of information processing as one connected whole. At the graduate level, the lab corresponds to the Neural Systems group in the Department of Brain Sciences, Graduate School of Life Sciences.

#Higher brain functions #Functional structures

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神経行動 (introduction coming soon)

Neural basis of sensory processing, memory and learning; behavioral analysis; neuroanatomy