Download - Member Country Report of JAPAN - ccop.asia · igneous and metamorphic rocks under the polarizing microscope, handpicked - radiolarians and observed them operating a scanning electron

CCOP-55AS/3-7

55th CCOP Annual Session 3 – 7 November 2019 Chiang Mai, Thailand

Member Country Report of

JAPAN

Submitted by

Japan Delegation

(For Agenda Item 3)

COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR GEOSCIENCE PROGRAMMES IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA (CCOP)

CCOP Member Country Report: JAPAN 1

ANNUAL MEMBER COUNTRY REPORT

Country: JAPAN Period: 1 July 2018 – 30 June 2019 1. OUTREACH

1.1. Summary This chapter describes the major outreach activities of the Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) on their research outputs on geoscience. The first section below reviews the general outreach activity of GSJ mostly targeting the people in Japan. The second section introduces the International Training Course that GSJ launched in 2018.

1.1.1. Outreach activity of GSJ GSJ gives priority to outreach activity as an important opportunity to provide its research results to the public, particularly to young students, industry people, and policy makers. The Geological Museum, the most important outreach facility of GSJ, exhibits GSJ’s research outcomes both by its permanent exhibition, which is regularly updated, and by short-term special exhibits held several times a year. In addition to the outreach activities through the Museum, GSJ conducts the following activities. For the general public: - Geological Information Exhibition at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of

Japan. The 2018 event in Sapporo, Hokkaido was postponed from September 2018 to March 2019 (Fig. 1.1) due to a strong earthquake that hit southern Hokkaido on September 6, 2018.

- “Geo Salon,” a seminar series on geological science to the public in Tsukuba and other places.

- Open Laboratory Day for the public in Tsukuba and regional offices of AIST. - Geological exhibition for the “Geology Day (10th of May),” a special day set by

academic societies and other geology-related organizations to promote the understanding of geology in Japan.

- Exhibition at the METI, which is held as a part of the Kids Day events of the central government in Tokyo during summer holidays.

For industry and academics: - One or two-day exhibits for industry in Tsukuba and regional offices of AIST. - Training course on geological mapping for junior employees of geology-related

companies. GSJ is trying to enhance training course based on the requests from companies.

- “GSJ Symposium” on specific geoscience topics. Some symposia are planned to the general public (Fig. 1.2).

GSJ website (https://www.gsj.jp/en/) is GSJ’s another important measure of outreach. GSJ provides various kinds of geological information including recent research results,

COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR GEOSCIENCE PROGRAMMES IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA (CCOP) CCOP Building, 75/10 Rama VI Road, Phayathai, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand Tel: +66 (0) 2644 5468, Fax: +66 (0) 2644 5429, E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.ccop.or.th

2 CCOP Member Country Report: JAPAN

prompt reports of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, online geologic maps, geological databases, etc. through its website.

Fig. 1.1: Geological Information Exhibition held in Sapporo in March 2019.

Fig. 1.2: GSJ Symposium held in Chiba on January 18, 2019 with the theme of “Understanding the Geology and Earthquake Hazards in Chiba Prefecture.”

Programme Contact Person: Social Coordination Group, Research Promotion Division, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

1.1.2. GSJ International Training Course From 2018, GSJ has provided a training opportunity for young geological researchers and engineers in the CCOP member countries to improve their practical geological survey techniques and to build up international human networking. The training course is funded by GeoBank, the GSJ’s own foundation launched in 2017 with the support of companies and individuals interested in geoscience. In 2019, the second international training course was held from June 4 to 21 under the title of “GSJ International Training Course on Practical Geological Survey Techniques 2019 -Application to Geological Disaster Mitigation-” with nine trainees from nine of the


CCOP member countries. The program was comprehensively organized so the trainees can learn not only basic skills and knowledge of earth science, but also its application to the issues with high social needs. The trainees received intensive lectures and practical works on fieldwork, geological maps and databases, experiments with the latest equipment, and so on. For example, they joined field excursions (Fig. 1.3), observed igneous and metamorphic rocks under the polarizing microscope, hand-picked radiolarians and observed them operating a scanning electron microscope (SEM) (Fig. 1.4). They also experienced microtremor survey (Fig. 1.5) and leaned how to track volcanic eruption process with core and outcrop samples (Fig. 1.6). The training received favorable remarks from the trainees. They rated the program as useful and practical for their future works, created a new friendly international connection and felt their stay in Japan comfortable. GSJ will hold another training course next year, improving its content to make it more informative and beneficial for the participants based on the feedbacks from both trainees and lectures. Details of the third training course will be announced in early 2020.

Fig. 1.3: Field excursion in Abukuma Mountains. Fig. 1.4: SEM observation of radiolarians.

Fig. 1.5: Demonstration of microtremor survey. Fig. 1.6: Observation of volcanic debris of Mt. Fuji.

Programme Contact Person: International Coordinating Group, Research Promotion Division, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]


2. COOPERATION AND PARTNERSHIP

2.1. Summary GSJ conducts international cooperation activities either on a bi-lateral basis or under an international project. The major areas of international collaborative researches that are related to Southeast Asian countries are: - Geological information (OneGeology and CCOP Geoinformation Sharing

Infrastructure Project) - Geological hazards (Asia-Pacific region geohazards risk) - Geological environment (Coastal geology) International cooperation activity on geological environment and others conducted by Kanazawa University in Cambodia and by the University of Tokyo are also reported in this chapter. In addition, a tri-lateral cooperation between China, Korea and Japan, called “Trilateral GeoSummit” started in 2015 is also introduced here.

2.2. Geological Information 2.2.1. OneGeology GSJ has been continuously implementing the OneGeology project covering East and Southeast Asia in cooperation with CCOP and its member countries. The WMSs of the geological maps of Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea are hosted by the GSJ server. Those of Laos, Thailand and South Korea are hosted by their own servers. GSJ has just submitted 11 WMSs to OneGeology for their registration. These maps include the 1:1M Geological Map of Mongolia, 1:10M Geological Map of Asia, the 1:10M Plutonic and Volcanic rocks of Asia, 1:10M Earthquake Source Region of East Asia, 1:10M Tephra Fall of East Asia, and 1:200k Seamless Geological Map of Japan V2. The OneGeology website covering East Asia is now moved to the GSi system and the new URL is https://ccop-gsi.org/gsi/onegeologyasia/index.php.

Program Contact Person: Dr. Kazuhiro Miyazaki, Research Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

2.2.2. CCOP Geoinformation Sharing Infrastructure for East and Southeast Asia (GSi) The CCOP Geoinformation Sharing Infrastructure for East and Southeast Asia (GSi) Project is one of the important CCOP activities to establish comprehensive geoscience database that can share the geological information. The scope of the GSi project is (1) to compile various geoscientific information in the CCOP member countries and construct a database on the open Web using world standard and GIS formats (Fig. 2.1), (2) to promote digitization of geoscience data in the CCOP member countries at a high-quality level, and (3) to establish a comprehensive geoinformation database and infrastructure in Asia. The project aims to make geoscientific information available and easily accessible to anybody using the GSi system. The geoscientific information includes geology, geohazards, geophysics, mineral resources, geo-environment, groundwater, topographic maps and remote sensing data. The duration of the project is from 2015 to 2020. The first


version of the GSi system was officially opened to the public during the 3rd CCOP GSi International Workshop in Langkawi, Malaysia on September 18-20, 2018 (Fig. 2.2). The GSi main portal site (Fig. 2.1) provides web-based functions for spatial data rendering and analysis using WMS and WPS, respectively (Bandibas and Takarada, 2019). It can also be used to download data in several formats (Shapefile, KML, PNG and PDF). The system follows the standard model of the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). It also provides an interface for the creation of a customized WebGIS portal site for spatial data viewing and processing. More than 15 customized portal sites are currently set up. These include the portals of the participating CCOP member countries, CCOP-GSJ Groundwater Project, ASEAN Mineral Resources, and OneGeology covering East Asia. More than 690 maps are stored under the portal sites in the GSi system. Maps available in the GSi system include the 1:10M-1:50k geological maps, 1:1M-1:200k seamless geological maps, 1:50k-1:10k geological map of volcanoes, 1:50k-1:10k hazard zoning maps (earthquake, liquefaction, tsunami, volcano, flood and landslide), 1:1M seismotectonic map, 1:50k coastal erosion map, 1:250k Quaternary geology map, 1:1M geochemical map, 1:1M magnetic anomaly map, 1:1M-1:750k groundwater map, 1:50k hot spring distribution map, 1:1M-1:250k mineral resources map, 1:100k road map, 1:50k city map, and ASTER satellite data. The mobile version of GSi system is also available. The 4th CCOP GSi International Workshop will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia on October 1-3, 2019.

Fig. 2.1: The CCOP GSi main portal site (https://ccop-gsi.org/main/).

Fig. 2.2: The 3rd GSi International Workshop in Langkawi, Malaysia.


Reference: Bandibas, J. and Takarada, S. (2019) Geoinformation sharing system for East and Southeast Asia

using SDI, OGC Web services and FOSS. International Journal of Geosciences, 10, 209-224.

Program Contact Person: Dr. Shinji Takarada and Dr. Joel Bandibas, Research Institute of Earthquake and Volcano Geology, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 2.3. Geological Hazards 2.3.1. Asia-Pacific Region Global Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption Risk Management (G-EVER) The Asia-Pacific Region Earthquake and Volcanic Hazards Mapping Project aims to develop an advanced web-based hazard information system that provides information about past and recent earthquake and volcanic hazards online. The Asia-Pacific Region Earthquake and Volcanic Hazard Information System shows the distribution of earthquake hypocenters and source areas, tsunami inundation areas, active faults and fatalities caused by seismic events in an interactive and user-friendly interface. It also shows the distribution of Holocene volcanoes, calderas, large-scale ignimbrites, tephra falls, and fatalities in major volcanic events (Fig. 2.3). The fatalities in earthquakes and volcanic events are classified by the main cause of death and graphically illustrated. The data of the Eastern Asia Earthquake and Volcanic Hazards Information Map (Takarada et al., 2016) can be displayed and downloaded, in shapefile and other GIS readable formats, using the Hazard Information System. Mobile version is also developed (https://ccop-geoinfo.org/gever-mo/; Bandibas and Takarada, 2019). This project has been implemented with the cooperation of major research institutes and organizations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Fig. 2.3: G-EVER Eastern Asia Earthquake and Volcanic Hazard Information System (http://ccop-geoinfo.org/G-EVER) showing the distributions of volcanoes and tephra falls.

The content of the system was recently updated with more detailed data. This includes datasets containing 267 earthquake source regions worldwide (>6 Magnitude). The active fault distribution in East and Southeast Asia is also compiled and updated using recent data from the Philippines and Thailand. Three tsunami-affected areas of the 1707 Hoei, 1868 Meiji-Sanriku, 1993 Hokkaido-Nanseioki earthquakes in Japan are recently compiled. Around 236 earthquake fatality data covering East and Southeast Asia since


1850AD are also included. The fatality information is classified based on the cause of fatalities, which are building collapse, fire, tsunami, landslide and other reasons. The system also contains information about 26 calderas, 24 large-scale eruption ignimbrites and 14 tephra fall distributions with isopach maps (Fig. 2.3) covering East and Southeast Asia. The ignimbrites were the results of the major caldera-forming eruptions such as Toba, Tambora, Aso-4, Aira, Krakatau, Rabaul, and Pinatubo. References: Bandibas, J. and Takarada, S. (2019) Mobile application and a web-based geographic information

system for sharing geological hazards information in East and Southeast Asia. Journal of Geographic Information System, 11, 309-320.

Takarada, S. et al. (2016) Eastern Asia Earthquake and Volcanic Hazards Information Map. Geological Survey of Japan, AIST.

Program Contact Persons: Dr. Shinji Takarada and Dr. Joel Bandibas, Research Institute of Earthquake and Volcano Geology, GSJ, AIST, Email: [email protected], [email protected]

2.4. Geological Environment 2.4.1. Coastal Geology in Asia Several research projects about coastal and river catchment geology have been executed in parallel in East and Southeast Asia in collaboration with organizations of these countries. Joint fieldworks to clarify/investigate modern and late Holocene fluvial sedimentary processes were carried out in the Cambodian Mekong River flood plain with the General Department of Mineral Resources, Cambodia in September 2018 and February 2019. Sedimentological investigation of the Thu Bong River delta, Mekong and Dongnai rivers, and Can Gio mangroves in Vietnam has been carried out with the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Resources Geography, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. The ages of Holocene and Pleistocene coastal sediments from China was also determined by optically-stimulated luminescence dating in collaboration with several Chinese organizations. These activities resulted in the following publications.

Gugliotta, M., Saito, Y., Nguyen, V. L., & Ta, T. K. O. (2019). Valley-confinement and river-tidal controls on channel morphology along the fluvial to marine transition zone of the Dong Nai River System, Vietnam. Frontiers in Earth Science, 7, 202.

Li, Y., Tsukamoto, S., Shang, Z., Tamura, T., Wang, H., & Frechen, M. (2019). Constraining the transgression history in the Bohai Coast China since the Middle Pleistocene by luminescence dating. Marine Geology, 416, 105980.

Wang, J., Tamura, T., & Muto, T. (2019). Construction and destruction of an autogenic grade system: The late Holocene Mekong River delta, Vietnam. Geology, 47(7), 669-672.

Gao, L., Long, H., Zhang, P., Tamura, T., Feng, W., & Mei, Q. (2019). The sedimentary evolution of Yangtze River delta since MIS3: A new chronology evidence revealed by OSL dating. Quaternary Geochronology, 49, 153-158.

Gugliotta, M., Saito, Y., Nguyen, V. L., Ta, T. K. O., & Tamura, T. (2019). Sediment distribution and depositional processes along the fluvial to marine transition zone of the Mekong River delta, Vietnam. Sedimentology, 66(1), 146-164.

Gugliotta, M., Saito, Y., Nguyen, V. L., Ta, T. K. O., Tamura, T., & Fukuda, S. (2018). Tide-and-River-Generated Mud Pebbles from the Fluvial to Marine Transition Zone of the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 88(9), 981-990.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Toru Tamura, Research Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


2.4.2. International activity of Kanazawa University Kanazawa University carried out research and educational activities mostly in Cambodia in partnership with the National Authority for Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA National Authority), the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), and the Department of Geology, the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Cambodia (DGMME) from the second half of 2018 to the first half of 2019. Kanazawa and Komatsu Universities sent eight undergraduate students of various departments to the APSARA National Authority from August to September 2018 as a part of capacity building programmes related to research activities at the Angkor World Heritage site and the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve site of UNESCO in Cambodia. The students were engaged in the routine works of the authority to learn environmental management, such as monitoring of groundwater level, water quality survey in moats of temples and local rivers, and afforestation in the world heritage site (Fig. 2.4).

Fig. 2.4: Internship students learning environmental issues of the Angkor World Heritage Site at Run Ta Ek Eco-village in August 2019.

Fig. 2.5: International workshop on "Evaluation of Mechanisms Sustaining the Biodiversity in Lake Tonle Sap, Cambodia, Phase 2" held at the APSARA National Authority in March 2019.


Serious environmental problems such as water pollution, changes of the freshwater ecosystem and coastal erosion have emerged in the Lake Tonle Sap and its environs due to the recent rapid growth of the Cambodian economy and notable development of tourism in the Angkor World Heritage site. In order to conserve the great biodiversity and unique sedimentological and hydrological settings of the lake, a three-year research programme named “Evaluation of Mechanisms Sustaining the Biodiversity in Lake Tonle Sap, Cambodia (EMSB)" Phase 2 started in April 2016, led by Kanazawa University in cooperation with the APSARA National Authority, ITC and DGMME. The progress result of the research activities such as ichthyology, invertebrate zoology, plant ecology, hydrology, sedimentology from 2016 to 2018 was presented at an international workshop held at the main office of the APSARA National Authority in Siem Reap, Cambodia in March 2019 (Fig. 2.5).

Programme Contact Person: Professor Shinji Tsukawaki, Department of Inter-Institutional Collaboration, Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa University Email: [email protected] Web: http://mekong.ge.kanazawa-u.ac.jp 2.4.3. Geophysical research at the University of Tokyo The Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo (UTokyo), has been engaged in (i) the ultrasonic laboratory measurement, (ii) the rock physics modeling, and (iii) the development of seismic data analysis methods, especially for seismic attenuation estimation. Its targets include geothermal energy, active faults, conventional oil and gas, and methane hydrate. We welcome young foreign researchers who are interested in our research field and work together to our laboratory as visiting researchers. Methane hydrate (MH) is generally considered to be a potential unconventional energy resource for the next few decades. Methane hydrate is a crystalline compound consisting of water and guest molecules (usually methane) that forms under high pressure and low temperature. The presence of hydrate can significantly impact the physical properties of the background sediments. This results in geophysical anomalies allowing us to employ a corresponding geophysical method in the characterization of hydrate-bearing sediments. Among these geophysical anomalies, the velocity and attenuation of P- and S-waves have been extensively used to characterize the occurrence and distribution of hydrate and assess the hydrate saturation of hydrate-bearing sediments. Most sonic logging data acquired in hydrate-bearing zones have shown increasing velocity of P- and S-waves accompanied by high attenuation of P- and S-waves. In the eastern Nankai Trough, the attenuation values of P- and S-wave estimated in the sonic logging frequency range (10 to 20 kHz for P-waves and 0.5 to 1 kHz for S-waves) also show a significant increase in hydrate-bearing sediments. However, P-wave attenuation values from zero-offset vertical seismic profiling (VSP) data (30 to 110 Hz) indicate a lower attenuation compared to the values in the sonic logging frequency range at the same well locations, which implies frequency-dependent P-wave attenuation in hydrate-bearing sediments. In order to elucidate the attenuation mechanisms responsible for this frequency-dependent P-wave attenuation in hydrate-bearing sediments, we apply two different rock physics models that have recently been developed to consider the squirt flow in porous/microporous hydrate and the interaction between sand and hydrate grains. The predicted attenuation values are compared with those derived from field sonic logging and VSP data (Fig. 2.6). Finally, we infer that this frequency-dependent P-wave attenuation may be due to the squirt flow caused by the combined effect of the degree of hydrate saturation and two


permeable systems (one is between sand grains and the other is between hydrate grains), and/or due to the squirt flow caused by fluid inclusions with different aspect ratios in a microporous hydrate.

Programme Contact Person: Assoc. Prof. Jun Matsushima, Frontier Research Center for Energy and Resources, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo Email: [email protected]

2.5. Trilateral GeoSummit The Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ) hosted the 3rd China-Japan-Korea Trilateral GeoSummit in Sapporo, Japan on July 29-31, 2019. The Trilateral GeoSummit, held every two years since 2015, is an opportunity where the heads of the China Geological Survey (CGS), the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) and GSJ meet and discuss the cooperation among the three institutes. The aim of the Trilateral GeoSummit is to enhance the geoscientific researches in East Asia by strengthening the partnership and promoting joint research activities among China, Korea and Japan, and to take a leading role together in the accumulation and utilization of geological information in East and Southeast Asia. The first GeoSummit was held in Beijing, China in April 2015 hosted by CGS, and the second GeoSummit in the Jeju Island, Korea, in June 2017 hosted by KIGAM. For the third GeoSummit, 11 people from CGS, 15 from KIGAM, 30 from GSJ, 3 from the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat in Korea, and the Director of the CCOP Technical Secretariat gathered and strengthened the human network. The main meeting of the 3rd GeoSummit was conducted on July 30, consisting of the plenary session in the morning (Figs. 2.7 and 2.8) and the technical sessions in the afternoon. The themes of the four parallel technical sessions were Active Fault, GIS, 3D Geological Modeling, and Coastal Geology, for which the three institutes have strong interest and the social demands are particularly high in the countries. Intensive and

Fig. 2.6: Measured attenuation (symbols) and attenuation predicted (lines) by the rock physics model for the P wave with different hydrate saturation (Sh) as a function of frequency: (a) P-wave attenuation for an aspect ratio of 0.0001 and (b) for an aspect ratio of 0.0004. P-wave attenuations from monopole data were measured at 14,000 Hz, and from VSP data at 100 Hz. (after Zhan and Matsushima, 2018).


positive discussions were made on the collaboration in all the four technical sessions. On July 31, the participants joined the field excursion to the Toya-Usu Global Geopark, where they enjoyed the dynamic nature of the volcanoes and learned how the volcano eruptions have influenced the people’s life in and around the geopark (Fig. 2.9).

Fig. 2.7: Plenary session of the 3rd Trilateral GeoSummit.

Fig. 2.8: Group photo after the plenary session.

Fig. 2.9: Group photo at a site the 2000 Usu Volcano eruption affected.

Program Contact Persons: Dr. Toshihiro Uchida, International Coordination Group, GSJ, AIST Email: [email protected]


3. KNOWLEDGE ENHANCEMENT AND SHARING 3.1. Summary Systematic geological surveys and researches have been conducted by GSJ and other geoscience organizations in Japan for the development of geological resources, mitigation of geological hazards, geological mapping on land and sea, and environmental conservation and underground utilization. The chapter summarizes those research activities mostly conducted by GSJ. The list below shows the major research and survey organizations in Japan and their major tasks related with earth science. For the update of their research activities, please refer to their websites. 1) GSJ (Geological Survey of Japan): Geological information, geological resources, geological

environment, and geological hazards (earthquake and volcano). (https://www.gsj.jp/en/)

2) JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Cooperation): Development of geological resources including oil, natural gas, metallic minerals, coal and geothermal.

(http://www.jogmec.go.jp/english/) 3) JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency): Observation of earthquakes and volcano activity.

(https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html) 4) GSI (Geospatial Information Authority of Japan): Geodetic measurement and monitoring,

geographic information. (https://www.gsi.go.jp/ENGLISH/)

5) PWRI (Public Works Research Institute): Civil engineering technology related with landslide, flooding, and infrastructure. (https://www.pwri.go.jp/eindex.html)

6) JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology): Marine science related with climate change, earthquake, ocean drilling, biology, etc.

(http://www.jamstec.go.jp/e/) 7) NIED (National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience): Disaster

resilience against earthquake, volcano eruption, landslide, flooding, etc. (http://www.bosai.go.jp/e/)

8) JAEA (Japan Atomic Energy Agency): Technology for the geological disposal of nuclear wastes. (https://www.jaea.go.jp/english/)

9) NIES (National Institute for Environmental Studies): Climate change and environmental risk. (http://www.nies.go.jp/index-e.html)

10) RITE (Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth): Carbon capture, use and storage. (http://www.rite.or.jp/en/)

3.2. Geological Resources 3.2.1. Mineral Resources 3.2.1.1. Introduction Although the price of base metals has almost been stable, that of precious metals such as Au, Pt has gradually risen against the background of US dollar depreciation in 2018-19. Under the circumstances, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has continued to budget for the securement of base and critical metals, mainly through Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) and AIST.


3.2.1.2. Research Activities at GSJ and AIST (1) Mineral Resources on land The SURE (Strategic Urban Mining Research Base) consortium, which is organized by AIST and private companies related to material engineering, is actively conducting the R&D on recycling technology under the following three task forces: 1) resource recycling and information linkage, 2) automation of recycling factories, and 3) grand design of resource recycling. The Research Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment (GREEN) of the GSJ has been in charge of the mineral exploration and are conducting the following three programs: 1) the study on the concentration mechanism of critical metals, resource evaluation, and the beneficiation of ore minerals, 2) the geological and technical studies on industrial minerals and their processing, and 3) international cooperation and consulting on mineral resources. For the program of metal elements, GREEN has been continuing a joint project studying the potential of critical metals in Myanmar with the Department of Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration (DGSE) (Fig. 3.1). In 2018, GREEN has resumed research activities related to domestic metallic mineral resources and exploration technologies (Fig. 3.1), which had been suspended since 2003. GSJ has also conducted following projects on industrial minerals: 1) the standardization of performance evaluation technique on bentonite, and 2) the geological studies on bentonite, kaolin, and silica resources in Japan and Russia.

Fig. 3.1: Field survey in Myanmar (left), and sampling for geochemical exploration in Japan (right).

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Nobukazu Soma, Research Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected] (2) Deep-Sea Mineral Resources To establish a convenient and efficient survey method for deep-sea hydrothermal deposits, GSJ conducted a research program using a deep-tow package which consists of swath bathymetry system, side-scan sonar, Sub-Bottom Profiler (SBP), CTD, magnetometer and chemical sensors. With the package, clear images of hydrothermal plumes and surface structures can be obtained. Based on the results, ROV (remotely operated vehicle) dives were conducted in FY 2018, which led to a discovery of new hydrothermal fields. GSJ also has developed a highly flexible and high-resolution deep-towed seismic streamer cable to identify geological structures below the sea floor. To obtain a high-resolution seismic signal, this streamer can be operated at a maximum depth of 2,000 m with state-of-the-art technology of electronic circuits that withstand high pressures up to 22 MPa. High-resolution seismic data were successfully obtained during the test of the system in a deep sea. The system enables much clearer reflection images of subsurface stratified sediments.


GSJ also conducted the cooperative study of the “Developing Innovative Technologies for Exploration of Deep Sea Resources” with other institutes and universities as a part of the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion (SIP) Program. Its objective is to develop the technologies for the survey of marine resources on the sea bottom in 6,000 m of water.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Kohsaku Arai, Research Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.2.1.3. Mineral Resource Development by Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) (1) Introduction In order to ensure stable supply of mineral resources for industries and people of Japan, JOGMEC supports Japanese companies in securing the interests of resources overseas at the development stages ranging widely from formation of exploration projects to assistance in development and production. The brief introduction of the JOGMEC’s activities and achievements in Asia from July 2018 to June 2019 is given below. Departments in parentheses are the ones in charge. (2) Overseas exploration (Metals Exploration Department) To reduce early-stage risks in exploration for Japanese companies and facilitate their overseas mineral exploration activities, JOGMEC carries out mineral exploration jointly with various organizations abroad such as state mineral enterprises, regional governmental organizations, geological survey organizations, local mining companies, and major or junior mining companies that hold mineral properties (“Joint Venture Survey”). If the exploration results are positive, the equity interest is transferred to Japanese companies from JOGMEC. When a Japanese company owns or has assurances of ownership of exploration rights in an area with mineral potential, JOGMEC conducts projects and shares the costs with the corporation (“Overseas Geological Surveys”). In the past year, JOGMEC executed projects in two countries in the CCOP countries, namely Cambodia and Myanmar. In Cambodia, JOGMEC and the General Department of Mineral Resources (GDMR) of Cambodia conducted soil geochemical exploration and drilling. (3) Mine pollution control (Metals Environment Management Department and Metals Finance Department) JOGMEC provides technical and financial support to local governments and companies in Japan so that they can implement efficient and reliable measures to prevent mine pollution. JOGMEC also provides latest technological information and know-how of environmental conservation on mine site to the engineers of the countries rich in mineral resources to support their sustainable mining. In response to a request from the Philippines, JOGMEC organized a workshop in Manila in January 2019 and shared information regarding the measures to be implemented in protecting the environment as well as rehabilitation of areas affected by mining operations.

Program Contact Person: Ms. Kazuko Yoshizawa, Metals Strategy Department, JOGMEC E-mail: [email protected]


3.2.2. Energy Resources 3.2.2.1. Oil and Gas The major domestic oil and gas fields are located in the Niigata Basin and Akita-Yamagata Basin, both in the Japan Sea side of northeastern Honshu. Several oil and gas fields were found in Hokkaido in the central zone extending in the north and south. Some oil and gas fields are expected in the basins in the offshore of the Pacific side of northeast Honshu and Hokkaido and in the offshore of the Japan Sea side of southwest Honshu. In the FY 2018 and 2019, exploration, development and production were done in several oil and gas fields. Domestic exploration activities and oil production were carried out by JAPEX, INPEX and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration as well as natural gas production by INPEX, JAPEX, JX and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. Inc. (MGC). Water soluble gas is produced with iodine rich waters by the Kanto Natural Gas Development Co., Ltd. and other companies in the southern Kanto Basin (east of the Tokyo Metropolitan area), Miyazaki and Niigata prefectures. JOGMEC has been conducting offshore 3D seismic survey projects around Japan since 2008, with the seismic survey vessel “Shigen” and data processing by JOGMEC. In FY 2017, it acquired 3D data at the offshores of Tottori and Hyogo prefectures, Joban area, eastern Boso peninsula and Nagasaki prefecture. In 2019, “Shigen” will be replaced a new 3D vessel with 13,721 tons of displacement. JAPEX drilled the exploratory well at about 50 kilometers offshore of the Hidaka area, Hokkaido, where the water depth is 1,070 meters, from March to July of 2019 as part of the commissioned project by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The well was safely drilled to a depth of 2,530 meters below the sea bottom. While various geological data were obtained through the operations, production test was also conducted for a reservoir with positive gas indications recognized and stable gas production has been achieved. Detail results of the analysis will be released shortly. JAPEX has been conducted the tight oil initiative program of the Onnagawa formation at the Ayukawa Oil-field in the Akita-Yamagata sedimentary basin. The production rate has increased more than five times after acidic jobs to open micro-fractures filling with carbonate or silicate. Tight Oil (10 kl/day at first) and shale gas (2,000 Nm3/day at first) has been produced since December 2016. Dr. Satoru Yokoi, JAPEX, estimated the tight oil reserves in the Ayukawa area to be 2 million bbl using the Downey et al. (2011) method. Kumada et al. (2018) evaluated the potential of the Onnagawa tight oil by basin modeling and showed the high oil saturation ratio in several areas in the Southwest Akita basin, which indicates the high potential of tight oil in these areas (Fig. 3.2). JOGMEC started the study on the petrologic properties of the Onnagawa siliceous shale that has high potential for shale oil in 2018. They will also start the study for the Teradomari formation in the Niigata basin. Domestic production in Japan is shown below: Annual crude oil production in 2018: 498,892kl (condensate: 304,163 kl)

(= 8,600 bbl/day) Annual natural gas production in 2018: 2,707 mil Nm3 (water soluble gas: 490 mil Nm3)

(= 260 mil. cf/day = 49,000 BOE/day)


Japanese oil development companies have been exploring and developing oil and natural gas resources all over the world, especially interested in Southeast Asia, PNG, Western Australia, Middle East, Africa, Norway, UK, Caspian Sea, Russia, North America, Venezuela and Brazil.

Fig. 3.2: Distribution of oil saturation ratio in Onnagawa Siliceous shale in SW Akita basin based on the result on basin modeling. Left: lower Onnagawa Formation. Right: middle to upper Onnagawa Formation (Kumada et al., 2018).

Among them, INPEX has been producing LNG and gas-condensate from its operation site in Ichthys, offshore West Australia since 2019. The company will produce 8.9 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and 1.65 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) per year with the maximum production amount of 100,000 bbl/day. It is expected to be operational over a period of 40 years. INPEX also has submitted a proposal for the Abadi LNG Project to the Indonesian government authorities. The project aims to develop the Abadi gas field in the Arafura Sea in Indonesia and onshore LNG development scheme with the annual LNG production capacity of 9.5 million tons. Japanese oil developing companies have many oil developing activities with several national oil organizations in the CCOP region such as Petronas, PTTEP and PetroVietnam. Detail information is available in their websites. * JOGMEC: http://www.jogmec.go.jp/english/index.html * INPEX Corporation: http://www.inpex.co.jp/english/index.html * JAPEX: http://www.japex.co.jp/english/index.html * JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration: http://www.nex.jx-group.co.jp/english/index.html * Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. (MOECO): http://www.moeco.co.jp/english/index.html * Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.: https://www.idemitsu.com/ * Itochu Oil Exploration (CIECO): http://www.itochuoil.co.jp/e/index.html * Mitsubishi Corporation Exploration (MCX):

http://www.mcexploration.com/en/index.html * Petro Summit E&P Corporation: http://www.psep.tokyo.jp/ (Japanese only)

Programme Contact Person: Yuichiro Suzuki, Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]


3.2.2.2. Gas Hydrate The Research Consortium for Methane Hydrate Resources in Japan (MH21), established in 2001 and organized by the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (ANRE/METI), was composed of JOGMEC, AIST and several other organizations from industries and universities. The MH21 program continued in three phases, Phase 1, 2 and 3. The program had two targets on methane hydrates: sand bed type and shallow type ones. The recent activities regarding the research and development of natural gas hydrate are shown on its website: http://www.mh21japan.gr.jp/english/ The main research objective of the sand bed type methane hydrates is the R & D for the gas production in offshore methane hydrate fields in Japan. The second offshore methane hydrate production test was carried out on the Dai-ni Atsumi Knoll in the Nankai Trough area from April to June 2017 in order to establish gas production technologies. The outline of the results as well as other activities in Phase 2 and 3 is available in the summary report of the Phase 2 and 3 at the MH21 website: http://www.mh21japan.gr.jp/archives05/ The Methane Hydrate Project Unit in the Research Institute of Energy Frontier of AIST (MHPU, https://unit.aist.go.jp/rief/mhpu/) has been developing safe and efficient methods for producing natural gas from methane hydrate as a project of the MH21 consortium. MHPU has carried out in-situ analyses and characterization of pressurized core samples of hydrate concentrated layers, and physicochemical behavior analysis during gas production from gas hydrate deposit using simulation and history matching. For the shallow type methane hydrate, ANRE has started a research concerning recovery technologies and marine geophysical surveys for the future shallow methane hydrate production tests. Preliminary reports of these researches were presented at the Methane Hydrate Forum 2018 held at the University of Tokyo on January 23, 2019. The MH21 program finished on March 31, 2019 and is now being reorganized into new programs which will be announced soon.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Takeshi Nakajima, Research Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected] 3.2.2.3. Coal Most of the coal fields in Japan are located in central and eastern Hokkaido and northern Kyushu. The Ishikari coal field, the most important one, is distributed in central Hokkaido and had produced high volatile bituminous coking coals. Most coal fields were deposited during Paleogene time and several seams on land are distributed 1,000m deeper than the sea level extending to several kilometers off shore below the sea bottom. Domestic coal production has decreased from over 50 million metric tons (MMt) in1960 to 1.29 MMt in 2016. About 0.54 MMt from the Kushiro Coal Mine, the only operating underground coal mine in Japan. The rest of 0.75MMt is produced from seven open-pit coal mines in Hokkaido. All domestic coal is used in thermal power plants. The amount of imported coals in Japan is 192 MMt in 2017.


Details of coal reserves in Japan were surveyed in the 1950’s and has been revised up to now. The survey result in 2008 by the Japan Coal Center (JCOAL) is shown below. Proven reserves: 4,899 MMt Probable reserves: 3,422 MMt Possible reserves: 11,824 MMt JOGMEC supports the oversea activities of Japanese companies and hold the mining safety training course for foreign mining engineers from China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. operates several coal mines in Australia. * Japan Coal Energy Center (J-Coal): http://www.jcoal.or.jp/eng/ * Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.: see Oil & Gas section Programme Contact Person: Yuichiro Suzuki, Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment (GREEN), GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.2.2.4. Geothermal Resources (1) Overview It has been inferred that Japan has approximately 23 GWe of estimated potential of geothermal energy from naturally existing hydrothermal system down to the depth of basement rock (~3 km deep). After a long stagnation period of geothermal development from the beginning of this century, new activities have started after the incident of the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi nuclear reactor in March 2011. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) gives fiscal incentives for geothermal developments, such as subsidies for exploration and drilling, and the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) scheme. These measures have encouraged geothermal development by private sectors. As of August 2019, 34 new geothermal power plants have started power generation since the enactment of geothermal FIT in July 2012, making the total national geothermal capacity as 554 MWe (compiled data from Kamenosono (2018), METI and JOGMEC). Although most of these new plants are rather small in scale using lower temperature geothermal fluid, a full-size power plant of 44 MWe, for which 3-year-long environmental assessment is required, has started its operation in May 2019 at Wasabizawa, Akita Prefecture. A topical thing is that Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), the current operating agent to give fiscal supports to private sectors, has begun a service to give technical advises to local authorities on issuing permission for geothermal developments. For this purpose, JOGMEC holds periodic advisory committee meetings consisting of geothermal experts in the nation. As to ground source heat pump (GSHP) system, the number of installations has recently been increasing by 20% each year until 2013. About 2,230 systems were installed by the end of 2015, while there were 1,500 at the end of 2013. The number of installations has decreased a little at 2014 and 2015 (MOE, 2017). The Geo-Heat Promotion Association of Japan, an NPO mainly consist of company members, promotes the installation. (2) Research Activities The hottest and challenging project on geothermal research is a national project on the subduction-origin supercritical geothermal resources funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a funding agency of METI (Fig. 3.3). The project was launched after a two-year prefeasibility study. The Cabinet


Office of Japan (CAO) considers the subduction-origin supercritical geothermal resources as one of the most promising technologies for drastic reduction of emission of green-house gas around 2050. Teams of researchers from national/public institutes, universities, and industry are implementing the NEDO-funded projects towards drill of proof-of-concept borehole in near future (Asanuma et al., 2019). As a funding agent of METI, JOGMEC also supports technology development by private sectors and/or research institutes. JOGMEC also conducts its own geothermal R&D such as regional airborne geophysical survey, heat-hole survey and drilling technology development.

Fig.3.3: Conceptual model of supercritical geothermal system in Japan.

In the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the Shallow Geothermal and Hydrogeology Team (SGHT), Renewable Energy Research Center (RENRC) is conducting suitability mapping and developing the system optimization technologies for GSHP application for both closed and open loop systems based on hydrogeological data with consideration of the advection effect. SGHT published suitability maps of five areas in Tohoku district in Japan in June 2019. SGHT is collaborating with universities and institutes in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia on demonstration projects of GSHP. A three-year project “Assessment on Necessary Innovations for Sustainable Use of Conventional and New-Type Geothermal Resources and their Benefit in East Asia” conducted by RENRC was completed in June 2018. It was a cooperation project with researchers from China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The final report, giving new insights in the value of geothermal energy use and recommendation to policymakers, was posted in October 2018 at the website of the sponsor, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) (Yasukawa and Anbumozhi, 2018). References: Asanuma, H., T. Mogi, N. Tsuchiya, N. Watanabe, S. Naganawa, Y. Ogawa, Y. Fujimitsu, T.

Kajiwara, K. Osato, K. Shimada, S. Horimoto, T. Sato, T. Ito, S. Yamada, K. Watanabe, Y. Gotoh (2019) Status of Japanese Supercritical Geothermal Project in FY2018, Trans. GRC

Kamenosono, H. (2018) 2017 Japan Country Report. IEA Geothermal Annual Report 2017. Ministry of the Environment (2016) Census result of ground-source heat utilization 2016 (in

Japanese). http://www.env.go.jp/press/files/jp/103827/besshi_h28result.pdf

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Yasukawa, K., and Anbumozhi, V. (2018) Assessment on Necessary Innovations for Sustainable Use of Conventional and New-Type Geothermal Resources and their Benefits in East Asia, ERIA Project Report 2017 No 07, 164p.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Hiroshi Asanuma, Renewable Energy Research Center (RENRC), AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.2.3. Groundwater Resources (1) Summary GSJ is implementing groundwater research on the following five topics: 1) publication of water environment maps, 2) basic study for groundwater hydrology, 3) study of coastal deep groundwater, 4) technical cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, and 5) study of ground source heat pump systems. (2) Scientific Research Activities for Groundwater GSJ has published a series of digital hydrogeological map “Water Environmental Map” for several basins and plains in Japan. They are composed of geological and geomorphological maps and hydrological information such as water quality and groundwater table and available with CD-ROM. However, browser updates sometimes caused problems in displaying the digital maps from the CD-ROM. To avoid such problems, the web version of the Water Environmental Maps has been released along with the Groundwater Database of Japan (Fig. 3.4) since May 2019. At the same time, the Water Environmental Maps of “YufutsuPlain”, “Chikushi Plain (ver. 2)” and “Osaka Plain” were also released. Groundwater sampling has been done in Niigata Plain, Northern Kyushu and Wakayama Plain as the next target areas for the publication. GSJ has also conducted a study for a high-level nuclear waste program, developed an evaluation method for stability of deep groundwater in coastal areas. In 2019, a Push-Pull test will be conducted using a well with a depth of 350 m in order to obtain the hydrogeological properties in a deep aquifer.

Fig. 3.4: Groundwater database of Japan.


(3) Activity in CCOP The CCOP-GSJ-DGR Groundwater Project Phase III Meeting was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand on 13-15 February 2019. It was the final project meeting for the Phase III. The total number of 4,483 groundwater data which the member countries compiled and uploaded through the project are available from the GSi Groundwater Portal, https://ccop-gsi.org/gsi/groundwater/index.php. The outcome of the project includes publication of the technical report on CCOP Groundwater Project Phase III (GW-9) by the end of 2019. The technical repot will consist of the followings: - Report titled “Hydrogeological map -Present status and future plan” - Explanation documents for the country’s capital city or representative area in the GSi

Groundwater Portal. - Public policy for groundwater observation system in Public Policy Group. The member countries discussed the next groundwater project and requested for the continuity of the CCOP-GSJ Groundwater Project. In the next phase of the project, we expect the advancement of the groundwater database to be integrated into the GSi Groundwater Portal as well as other cooperative activities to solve groundwater problems in the CCOP region. In the Sub-Project of the Development of Ground-Source Heat Pump (GSHP) System in CCOP Regions, a thermal response test (TRT) was conducted for the GSHP system installed at the Vietnam Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resource (VIGMR), Hanoi to evaluate the apparent thermal conductivity of the ground in July 2018 (Fig. 3.5). The apparent thermal conductivity at the VIGMR site was estimated about 1.5 W/m/K and proved to be large enough for the cooling application of the GSHP system. Regarding to the new project for renewable energy in the CCOP region, “Feasibility survey for energy saving cooling system using groundwater heat source implementation plan in Kingdom of Thailand” (Misawa Environment Technology Co., Ltd) was accepted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in March 2019. https://www2.jica.go.jp/ja/priv_sme_partner/document/1087/At182104_summary.pdf The project is supported by the Department of Mineral Resources, the Department of Groundwater Resource, Chulalongkorn University and CCOP.

Fig. 3.5: Connecting the borehole heat exchanger to a TRT instrument with a pipe (left) and the TRT instrument (right).


Programme Contact Person: Dr. Youhei Uchida, Research Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment, GSJ, AIST Email: [email protected]

3.3. Geological Hazards 3.3.1. Earthquake Related Studies 3.3.1.1. Studies of Active Faults Onshore and offshore active faults were surveyed to determine their distributions and past earthquake activities with financial support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) along the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line active fault system, the Shibetsu fault zone and the Hinagu fault zone. The analysis of the drilled cores from the sea bottom of offshore segments of the Hinagu fault zone was also conducted. Furthermore, an onsite briefing of trenching survey was held for citizen as an outreach activity (Fig. 3.6). The results of our paleoseismic investigation will be used for the long-term evaluation of active faults in Japan by the Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion (HERP) of the Japanese Government. HERP website: http://www.jishin.go.jp/main/index-e.html

Fig. 3.6: Briefing for elementary school students at a trenching site on the Hinagu fault zone, Kumamoto Prefecture. The outreach activities are important to help people improve their awareness of disaster prevention.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Yukari Miyashita, Research Institute of Earthquake and Volcano Geology, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.3.1.2. Studies of seismotectonics We have published the local stress map in the Kanto district on the basis of focal mechanism solutions of earthquakes within the earth's crust (Imanishi et al., 2019). Following the previous fiscal year, we continued to construct the local stress map in the Chugoku District as a new target area. We newly determined focal mechanism solutions of 1400+ microearthquakes shallower than 25 km in the past 13 years and the total


number of focal mechanism in the catalog increased to 2700+ with the ones already determined (Fig. 3.7). The figure shows that the strike-slip faulting type earthquakes occur throughout the area, which is consistent with the fact that the active faults within the area represent strike-slip faulting. We also found that reverse- and normal-faulting earthquakes are locally distributed, which suggests the heterogeneity in the local stress in the area. Most of the P-axes are oriented in the E–W directions, while in the northern part from ~131.5°E to ~133.5°E, they rotate a few tens of degrees counterclockwise with a width of ~50 km. The local-scale stress variations found in this study will help us to understand the local tectonics as well as to assess the seismic potential of near-by active faults.

Fig. 3.7: Focal mechanism solutions in the Chugoku district determined in this study. The focal mechanisms are color-coded following the definition of Flohlich (1992), where we classified them as reverse (green), strike-slip (red), and normal (blue) faulting earthquakes.

Reference: Imanishi, K., Uchide, T., Ohtani, M., Matsushita, R. and Nakai, M. (2019) Construction of

Crustal Stress Map in Kanto Region, central Japan. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Japan, 70, 3, 273-298 (in Japanese with English abstract).

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Kazutoshi Imanishi, Research Institute of Earthquake and Volcano Geology, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.3.1.3. Study of subduction zone paleoearthquakes Clarifying a source fault and its rupture history for the past giant earthquakes generated from a subduction zone is very important to evaluate seismic and tsunami hazards. We are therefore conducting a paleoseismological survey in coastal areas, which treat various records such as historical documents, tsunami deposit, and marine terrace. Our study areas extend from the Pacific coast of the Japan Islands facing the subduction zones (Kuril-Japan Trench, Sagami Trough, and Nankai Trough) to the coast facing the Japan Sea. Based on the obtained field data, we try to infer a source fault model by simulating tsunami inundation or coseismic crustal movement. Our activity and results of surveys in 2018 are as follows. Kuril-Japan Trench: Along this trench, giant earthquakes, for example, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, have repeatedly occurred off eastern Hokkaido and off central to southern Tohoku, respectively, but in the area between these two areas, occurrence history is not yet revealed. We thus conducted an analysis of tsunami deposit obtained from the coast


in Noda, Northern Tohoku. The result will contribute to recognizing the history of the giant tsunami in this area. Sagami Trough: To reconstruct coseismic vertical displacement during the 1703 Genroku Kanto earthquake more precisely, we surveyed raised shoreline features such as sessile marine assemblages along the coast of the Boso peninsula. Our study results contribute to long-term forecast of the large earthquake which will damage the Tokyo metropolitan area (Fig. 3.8). Nankai Trough: We study under the project “Disaster mitigation research project on Megathrust earthquakes around Nankai/Ryukyu subduction zones” entrusted by MEXT. To reconstruct the tsunami inundation history along the trough, we conducted a tsunami deposit survey in three sites, Minami-Ise in the eastern coast of the Kii peninsula, Kochi and Susaki in Shikoku. Japan Sea: The southwestern coast of Hokkaido has been attacked by two large tsunamis (the 12th century and AD1741). The cause of these tsunamis are thought to be a historically unknown large earthquake for the former and a landslide triggered by the volcanic activity in the Oshima-Oshima Island for the latter. We simulated these tsunamis and proposed a fault model and a landslide model respectively. We compile these geological data such as tsunami deposit at each site and are preparing to publish them on the website of the tsunami deposit database established by GSJ (https://gbank.gsj.jp/tsunami_deposit_db/).

Fig. 3.8: Survey of uplifted sessile assemblages in the Boso Peninsula near the Tokyo metropolitan area. Two levels of uplifted sessile assemblages indicate two historical earthquakes of the 1703 Genroku (the higher) and the 1923 Taisho (the lower).

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Masanobu Shishikura, Research Institute of Earthquake and Volcano Geology, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.3.1.4. Precise monitoring system for the Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai Earthquakes GSJ has been constructing observatories to monitor groundwater and borehole strain in and around the expected focal zones of the Nankai and Tonankai earthquakes since 2006. Wells of 30, 200 and 600 meters deep were constructed in each of the observatories. Groundwater level and groundwater temperature are observed in each well, and a multi-component borehole strainmeter and a borehole tiltmeter were installed at the


bottom of either the 600 or 200 meters deep well. Sixteen observatories are in operation as of June 2019. Short-term slow slip event (SSE), an aseismic transient slip of faults that occurs over days, is an important crustal event in monitoring the Nankai subduction zone. GSJ has continued to estimate their fault models using not only its own borehole strainmeter/tiltmeter/groundwater data but the NIED* Hi-net tilt data and the JMA** strain data, which were provided based on the bilateral collaborative research agreements between AIST and the two organizations. Thirty-five fault models were estimated from November 2017 to October 2018. The data from the nine borehole strainmeters are used for instant estimation of a fault model with Mw of 8.7 for the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Mw 9.0), whose magnitude preliminarily announced by JMA just after the earthquake was 7.9. This model was estimated using the data recorded during the first 7 minutes after the origin time of the earthquake (5 minutes after the first P-wave arrival). *NIED: National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, http://www.bosai.go.jp/e/ **JMA: Japan Meteorological Agency, http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Norio Matsumoto, Research Institute of Earthquake and Volcano Geology, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.3.2. Volcanic Hazards GSJ is studying volcanic and magmatic activities from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint. Assessment of volcanic activity was carried out by sampling and analyzing volcanic gas and eruptive materials. Eruptive histories of active volcanoes were studied with radiometric dating techniques and geological mapping. Intermittent phreatomagmatic eruptions occurred at the Kuchinoerabujima Volcano, southern Kyushu, from October 2018 to February 2019. Small scale pyroclastic flows travelled down the slope on 18 December 2018 and 17 January 2019. We showed the distribution of pyroclastic flow deposits (Fig. 3.9) and analyzed the eruptive ash for these eruptions.


Fig. 3.9: Distribution of the pyroclastic flow deposits for the 2018-2019 eruptions of the Kuchinoerabujima Volcano.

Fig. 3.10: 3D geological map of Hachijojima Volcano.

The “Volcanoes of Japan” database for Japanese volcanoes from 2.6 Ma to present has been revised (URL; https://gbank.gsj.jp/volcano/index_e.htm). Detailed eruptive history of active volcanoes including the Hachijojima Volcano, 290 km south of Tokyo, are released on the database with topographic shading and 3D geological maps added (Fig. 3.10). Volcanic ashes from ongoing eruptions of the Sakurajima and Aso volcanoes in Kyushu have been analyzed and reported to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Yoshihiro Ishizuka, Research Institute of Earthquake and Volcano Geology, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.4. Coastal Zone Geology 3.4.1. Seamless geological map in coastal area GSJ started the "Geology and Active Fault Survey of the Coastal Area" project in 2008. This project aims to contribute to the reduction of the earthquake risk in coastal zones where active faults and soft ground are distributed. GSJ conducts geological and geophysical surveys such as borehole drilling and high-resolution seismic and gravity profiling from land to sea and makes a seamless geological map in coastal area. Surveys of the coastal geology in 2014 to 2016 were conducted in the eastern coast of the Boso Peninsula and the northern coast of the Sagami Bay, central Japan. The results of the former have been published in January 2019, and those of the latter will be published in 2020. We started to survey around the coastal areas of the Ise and Mikawa Bays as a three-year project from 2017. In this area, there are a lot of active faults in both sea and land area. We, therefore, carried out the seismic reflection survey combined with borehole drilling across active faults to assess the activity of the active faults (Fig. 3.11). Especially, we are focusing on the following faults: Shiroko-Noma, Chisato, Tarusaka, and Takahama faults. In addition, in order to clarify the standard stratigraphy and underground geological structure of the Quaternary age in this area, a large amount of borehole data analyses and gravity surveys were carried out. These results of this area will be published in 2021-2022.


Fig. 3.11: Seismic profile across the Shiroko-Noma Fault with two borehole cores. GS-IB18-1 core is 36 m long and GS-IB18-2 core is 65 m long.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Rei Nakashima, Research Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected] 3.4.2. Three-Dimensional Geological Model in Coastal Urban Area GSJ carries out the 3D mapping project of the Tokyo Metropolitan area as a cooperative work with the geological institutes of local governments. The 3D geological map covering the northern Chiba Prefecture in the eastern part of the Tokyo Metropolitan area was released on the website of the “Urban Geological Map” (https://gbank.gsj.jp/urbangeol/) in March 2018 in collaboration with the Chiba Prefectural Environmental Research Center (CERC). As a next objective, we started the 3D geological mapping project of the central Tokyo area in cooperation with the Civil Engineering & Training Center of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The map is created from a 3D geological model constructed based on high-quality stratigraphic data and a vast number of borehole logs. First, the drilling surveys were conducted for the purpose of establishing the standard stratigraphic framework. Additionally, we created the prototype of the 3D geological model (voxel model) of the Setagaya area, western part of the central Tokyo (Fig. 3.12). The 3D geological model shows incised-valley fills composed of soft muddy sediments beneath the highly urbanized Setagaya area. These sediments have a potential risk of amplifying earthquake ground motion. Better understanding of the distribution patterns of such incised-valley fills by 3D geological modeling contributes the mitigation of earthquake disasters. Proceeding the geological survey and the 3D geological modeling, we will publish the 3D geological map of the central Tokyo area on the website in a few years.


Fig. 3.12: 3D geological model of the Setagaya area, central Tokyo (Nonogaki et al., 2019). Blue part indicates incised-valley fills composed of soft muddy sediments.

Reference: Nonogaki, S., Matsumoto, S., Nemoto, T., Nakazawa, T., Nakayama, T. (2019) Simple voxel

modeling of soil property using borehole data. GEOINFORUM-2019, Abstr., 25–26.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Tsutomu Nakazawa, Research Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected] 3.5. Environmental Geology 3.5.1. Soil Contamination Soil contamination is an “old and new environmental problem”. While the situation in rapidly developing countries has become more and more serious, treating with new types of contamination by emerging contaminants in developed countries have become a new challenge. Environmental remediation of contaminated sites is not only a simple technical problem, but also has close relationships with regional socio-economic development. The concept of sustainable remediation that considers the balance among environmental, social, and economic aspects has been recently developed and a new ISO standard on sustainable remediation has been issued recently. Considering the situation of soil contamination in Japan, strategical studies on characterization, remediation and risk assessment of different kinds of contaminants with emphasis on the newly regulated substance, chloroethylene (vinyl chloride: VC), have been performed at GSJ. Representative research topics in FY 2018 are as follows: 1) Characterization of the biodegradation properties of newly regulated substance VC: Field investigation (Fig. 3.13), laboratory experiments, and systematic literature survey have been performed to understand the pathways of biodegradation, major factors that affect biodegradation and the rates associated with biodegradation of VC.


Fig. 3.13: Field investigation at a site contaminated with newly regulated VC.

2) Proposal of a synthesiological framework for sustainable remediation: Soil contamination is a complex issue that requires an interdisciplinary effort involving research into contaminants, their practical removal, and social implementation. A synthesiological framework has been proposed for addressing soil contamination problems with feasible countermeasures. Detailed information is available in Japanese: Synthesioligy, 12(1), 39-47, or in English: Synthesiology-English edition, 12(1), 41-50. 3) Field investigation and laboratory analysis towards the publication of Geochemical and Risk Assessment Map of Subsurface Soils of Shikoku Region: Geochemical information together with potential risks of subsurface soils has many practical implications, such as land use planning, distinguishing naturally occurring and artificial contaminations, and risk communication, etc. To accelerate the publication of geochemical and risk assessment map of subsurface soils, maps have come to cover wider area from prefecture unit to regional unit, and publication of Shikoku region is planned by the end of FY 2019. https://unit.aist.go.jp/georesenv/georisk/english/home/home_map.html Detailed information on other research subjects are available from the following website: https://unit.aist.go.jp/georesenv/georisk/english/home/index.html

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Ming Zhang, Research Institute of Geo-Resources and Environment, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

3.5.2. CO2 Storage (CCS) The Geological Carbon Dioxide Storage Technology Research Association, which is composed of four companies (OYO Corporation, INPEX Corporation, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd., and Taisei Corporation) and two organizations (Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, and Geological Survey of Japan, AIST), works on the project “Research and development of safety technology for geological CO2 storage” funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Its mission is to promote the development of technology for large-scale geological storage (1 million tons CO2 per year) suitable for the geological conditions in Japan, and for improvement of social acceptance. The project includes three major themes: (1) Establishment of safety management technology for large-scale


geological storage of CO2, (2) Establishment of technology for effective injection into and utilization of a large-scale storage site, and (3) Development of criteria and standards favorable for promoting CCS. Among these schemes, AIST studies unique and superior core technology in low-cost monitoring, coupled-analysis of hydraulics and dynamics, and measurement of geochemical reaction rate. Regarding the high-precision gravity monitoring at the CCS demonstration project site in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, we have successfully completed a replacement of an existing superconducting gravimeter to subsequent ones without missing the gravity data. As a result, we achieved seamless accumulation of gravity data over four years. In addition to the trial run of parallel measurements using two gravimeters towards future practical operations, we started the measurement of groundwater levels and borehole self-potential to analyze the impacts of variations of each groundwater level and soil moisture on gravity data. As an unforeseen situation, a big earthquake occurred near the Tomakomai site on September 2018. In response to the request to consider the relationship between this earthquake and the CO2 reservoir, we tried to estimate the possible stress change around the hypocenter based on the linear distance from the CO2 injection point to the hypocenter. The result showed that the magnitude of the stress change corresponds to only thousandth of the stress in crust induced by the variation of earth tide. We have promoted technology exchanges and dissemination of our research and development results taking every opportunity such as Japan-US cooperation on CCS research, international conferences of AOGS2019 (16th Annual Meeting of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society) and the 10th KIGAM (Korea Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources) -AIST joint workshop on CO2 geological storage.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Masao Sorai, Institute of Geo-resources and Environment, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

4. DATA AND INFORMATION 4.1. Summary This chapter describes the publication and distribution of geo-information done by GSJ from July 2018 to June 2019. 4.2. Publication (1) Maps Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ) has published five map sheets, one CD-ROM and five web-based publications during the period of this report. Map sheets - 1:50,000 Geological Map (4) (Fig. 4.1) - 1:200,000 Geological Map (1) CD/DVD ROM - Marine Geological Map (1) Web publishing - Water Environment Map (3) - Seamless Geoinformation of Coastal Zone (1) - Miscellaneous Map Series (1)


Fig 4.1: 1:50,000 Quadrangle Geological Map “Azuma Yama” published in August 2018.

(2) Others Monthly newsletters “GSJ Chishitsu News” have been published both in print and on the web. (12）

Geoscientific reports newly published are: - Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Japan (Vol.69, No. 2 - Vol. 70, No. 3) (9) - Annual Report on Active Fault and Paleoearthquake Researches (No. 18) (1) - GSJ Interim Report (Nos. 76, 77, 78) (3) - GSJ Open-File Report (Nos. 654-679) (26) - GSJ Technical Report (No. 10) (1)

Program Contact Person: Mr. Osamu Kase, Geoinformation Service Center, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected] 4.3. Data Services GSJ has published the databases below on its website in the past year. Database: - Groundwater Database for Japan Downloadable vector data (Shapefile and kml file): - 1:50,000 Geological Map (30)

Program Contact Person: Mr. Kazuki Naito, Geoinformation Service Center, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]


4.4. Data Archive GSJ has provided 1,675 records of the metadata of its maps to the geospatial information clearing house of the government, in Japan Metadata Profile (JMP) ver. 2.0 formats. GSJ has also been operating a bibliographic database GEOLIS (Geological Literature Search System) since 1986, in which about 505,500 metadata are currently registered.

Program Contact Person: Information Resources Office, Geoinformation Service Center, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected] 4.5. ASTER Value-Added product open to the public GSJ has provided ASTER Value-Added (hereafter ASTER-VA) product free of charge since 2016. ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is an advanced optical sensor onboard NASA’s TERRA satellite. GSJ has been involved in the sensor development originally for the earth resource exploration. As of July 2019, 3.5 million images covering all over the world is archived and accessible from MADAS (Fig 4.2). MADAS (https://gbank.gsj.jp/madas/) is a system which can search for the ASTER-VA data without registration. ASTER-VA can be browsed and downloaded as KML and GeoTIFF format. ASTER-VA data as KML can be browsed on Google Earth and other web maps. ASTER-VA can be displayed on the GSi website (https://ccop-gsi.org/main/), too (Fig 4.3). See the website for details.

Fig 4.2: MADAS website.

Fig 4.3: ASTER-VA on GSi website.


The agreement of the current ASTER project between Japan and the USA will expire in October 2019. We are working on a new diplomatic note to extend the mission agreement so that we can maintain data distribution even after the expire date. ASTER has far exceeded its design life of six years since 1999 and the orbit number was to increase from 5 digits to 6 digits (orbit number 99,999 => 100,000) during 2018. There was a concern that this roll-over, which occurred on October 6, 2018, might cause some problems. But we prepared for the event in advance, and the 100,000 orbit roll-over milestone had the minimum impact. To mark the milestone, Terra was featured in an article on the NASA website and received a commemorative sticker (Fig 4.4). https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-s-terra-satellite-celebrates-100000-orbits GSJ makes a lot of effort to keep free distribution of ASTER-VA collaborating with NASA. This will contribute to CCOP activities.

Fig 4.4: Commemorative sticker of TERRA 6 digits.

Programme Contact Person: Dr. Koki Iwao, Research Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, GSJ, AIST E-mail: [email protected]

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