Project Members

Geological and oceanographic developments of the
Japan Sea and other marginal seas during the Late
Caenozoic Era

Shinji Tsukawaki, D. Sc., Associate Professor [ tukawaki@t.kanazawa-u.ac.jp ]

　Marginal seas represented by the Japan Sea are situated only along the eastern continental margin of the Eurasian Continent. It is well known that modern natural environment of the surface of the Earth would not be formed without various contributions from these seas.

　Since the Japan Sea is a unique sea because it virtually closes to the Pacific Ocean being unlike the other seas and it has formed by tectonic movements during the last 20 million years, such settings hold out a promising prospect for investigations of unique geological and oceanographic developments of the sea as well as the circum-marginal sea areas.

　Both onshore and offshore geological investigations for the coastal area of the Japan Sea and the sea itself would make to explain the geological significance of the pan-Japan Sea area from the past to the future through the present.

　Further, investigations in same manner of the South China Sea that is utterly different from the Japan Sea in geological and oceanographic settings and a comparative study between the seas will characterize the Japan Sea itself precisely.