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Ready for action on Day 1 -
Tsukuba Geology Museum -
Tsukuba Geology Museum -
Checking out the Iwaki Formation -
Finding the contact -
Nakahama Elementary School, Sendai Plain. High-water mark from the 2011 tsunami disaster is visible (blue sign) -
On a newly build tsunami barrier, Sendai Plain -
Entering a mine in the Ishikawa pegmatite, Ryoke Belt -
Checking out the Ishikawa pegmatite -
Checking out the Ishikawa pegmatite -
Seeing meter-long tourmaline crystals and other mineralogical delights, Ishikawa -
Looking for mineral treasures in Ishikawa -
Looking for mineral treasures in Ishikawa -
Exploring the Ryoke Belt -
Checking out a pyroclastic flow deposit, Niigata -
Pyroclastic flow selfie, Niigata -
Pyroclastic flow deposit with Yoshi for scale, Niigata -
Lake Nojiri, home to famous Naumann Elephant fossils -
Finding Devonian fossils, Takayama -
Searching for the Takadani Granodiorite near Mount Yake -
At an exposure of the Median Tectonic Line, a major fault in Japan. We even found pseudotachylite! -
Exploring a spectacular Mesozoic bedded chert along the Kiso River, Sakahogi -
Kiso River cherts -
Kiso River cherts -
Checking out a preserved 5 meter fault offset from the 1891 Nobi earthquake, Motosu -
A windy day on Mount Ibuki -
Mount Ibuki -
Checking out the famous Naruto Whirlpools from the bridge -
Getting ready to see the Naruto Whirlpools by boat -
Naruto Whirlpools -
Group photo in front of the Naruto Strait -
Puzzling through a tricky outcrop near the Naruto Strait -
Hunting for blueschists and eclogites, mount Kotsu, Sanbagawa Belt -
Resident metamorphic petrologist Duncan explains it all -
Looking for eclogites -
Looking for eclogites -
A boat trip down the Oboke Gorge to see sedimentary units of the Sanbagawa Belt -
The Sakawa Geological Museum -
A reproduction of the famous Zalinger Age of Reptiles mural in Sakawa; the original is in the Peabody! -
Yoshi checks out an outcrop of the Shimanto Belt -
Sandstone outcrop, Eshima, Awaji Island -
Sandstone outcrop, Eshima, Awaji Island -
Sandstone outcrop, Eshima, Awaji Island -
Sandstone Outcrop, Eshima, Awaji Island -
Getting ready to brave Mount Fuji on a windy day -
Yoshi gets us oriented, Mount Fuji -
Mount Fuji -
At the rim of Hoei crater, Mount Fuji, site of the 1707 eruption -
Hoei crater, Mount Fuji -
Trying not to blow away on Mount Fuji
In June 2017, a group of 12 G&G graduate students and faculty visited the geologic highlights of Japan, following up on the Spring 2017 “Regional Perspectives on Global Geoscience” seminar class. The trip was planned by G&G students Duncan Keller, Katelyn Gray, and Yoshi Miyazaki, and the faculty leaders for the trip were Maureen Long and Noah Planavsky. Our two-week adventure ranged across the islands of Honshu, Awaji, and Shikoku and covered a huge range of geologic, geophysical, oceanographic, and climatological features. Highlights included visits to several geologic and fossil museums, a day exploring the Sendai Plain to see features from the 2011 great earthquake and tsunami, a stop to see a Ryoke Belt pegmatite that featured meter-long tourmaline crystals, a view of a spectacular pyroclastic flow deposit on the Sea of Japan, a visit to the youngest exposed granodiorite pluton on Earth, a stop to see an exposure of the Median Tectonic Line, an exploration of the famous Kiso River bedded cherts, a museum stop that featured a preserved 5 meter fault offset from the 1891 Nobi earthquake, a hike up Mount Ibuki, which has some of the heaviest orographic precipitation on Earth, a boat trip to see the Naruto Whirlpools up close, a hike to see blueschists and eclogites of the Sanbagawa Belt, and a hike to Hoei Crater on Mount Fuji. We had a day off for sightseeing in Kyoto and even felt an earthquake (well, some of us did) - a shallow magnitude 5.2 in Nagano Prefecture.