2007 Volume 41 Issue 2 Pages 43-62
This is a review of the researches I have been conducting with my colleagues over the past 50 years. We examined geochemically behaviors of materials in several natural phenomena such as (1) groundwater movement under alluvial plains, (2) fault activities, (3) crustal movements including earthquakes, (4) geological development of the Japanese Islands relating to plate movement, (5) hydrocarbon distribution in the earth mantle, and (6) syntheses of organic materials by shock waves. For the phenomena (1), (2), (3), I have focused on the behavior of deep seated fluids such as He, Ar, H2, CO2, and CH4. For (4), I paid attention to Ti, Mn, several heavy metals, and carbonates in particularly siliceous and argillaceous sediments, and REEs in pre-Cenozoic volcanics. I pointed out the tectonochemical significance of manganese carbonate bands, manganese micronodules, hydrothermal cherts. For (5) and (6), I emphasized that existence of mantle hydrocarbons and abiological syntheses of organics have strong implication to astrochemistry and origin of life.
