Our Department

Overview

There has been remarkable progress in the Earth and planetary sciences in recent years. Through ongoing research, we continue to learn more about the 4.6-billion-year history of the Earth, the process of its evolution, global warming and environmental change, plate tectonics, and disaster science, and the search for and observation of planets. We continue to make discoveries that span the micro to the macro, and uncover new areas for investigation of interesting phenomena. But uncovering these complex phenomena and developing new fields of discovery?both within and outside of our planet?is increasingly difficult. We can no longer rely on knowledge from isolated fields of specialization, but must instead learn to share and incorporate ideas from a wide range of disciplines. From this perspective, the Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences works to connect and develop methodologies unique to various academic fields, thereby realizing multidisciplinary research and education. To promote coordination between organizations, in 2008 we launched the Integrated Earth Science Hub.

The Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences comprises the Department of Geophysics and the Department of Geology and Mineralogy. The Department of Geophysics undertakes research not only regarding the Earth's core, mantle, and crust, but also its oceans and atmosphere, and even interplanetary space. We analyze ground-based and satellite data to combine methods for theoretical, laboratory, and simulation experiments to learn more about the ever-changing dynamics of the geosphere, through which we hope to learn to predict such changes. In the Department of Geology and Mineralogy, we emphasize observation and analysis through both fieldwork and laboratory testing to examine phenomena related to the Earth's strata and rocks, minerals, and fossils from the context of the Earth's developmental history.