Research Overview
“Revealing the material evolution of Earth and planets through experiments.”
Over the 4.6 billion years since its formation, Earth has undergone dynamic change and evolved into the planet we know today. Changes in the deep interior have sometimes transformed the surface environment dramatically and created severe conditions for the organisms that lived at the time. Several mass-extinction events are thought to have been linked to processes originating inside the Earth. Understanding the structure and evolution of the Earth's interior is therefore important not only for geoscience, but also for thinking about the evolution and sustainability of life.
The Earth extends to a depth of roughly 6,400 km, whereas the deepest borehole ever drilled by humans reaches only about 10 km below the surface. What lies farther below? What kind of internal structure did the Earth have in the past, and through what processes did it evolve into a life-bearing planet? Why has life continued to flourish on Earth, unlike on other planets?
To address such questions, one powerful approach is to combine geophysical observation and geological investigation with high-pressure experiments that reproduce the deep interiors of Earth and planets. Planetary interiors are composed broadly of solid oxides, solid metals, liquid metals, and fluids. Laboratories around the world are studying how these materials behave under planetary interior conditions.
Our laboratory aims to clarify the physical and chemical properties of materials inside Earth and planets through distinctive high-pressure experiments, and to understand how those materials have evolved over time.
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Laboratory Environment
Students mainly use the seminar room and experimental room for their daily work.
Left: experimental room / Right: seminar room
The laboratory includes a stereomicroscope for delicate sample preparation and a Raman spectroscopy system for material characterization. Behind the black curtains is a dark room with laser systems used for sample processing and high-temperature experiments. The laboratory infrastructure continues to evolve together with our research.
Raman spectroscopy system
A shared experimental room also houses equipment for high-pressure X-ray diffraction measurements.
X-ray diffraction system