スリランカで考えたこと

こんにちは、Ayubowan！　4月から横山研究室・業務協力者の柴辻です。

今年の2月、私はお休みを頂いて3泊5日でスリランカに遊びに行ってきました。実は

サンフランシスコ講和条約の時、スリランカの代表が日本に対する賠償請求権を放棄

してくれた、という有名な史実があるのですが、私はそれを知りませんでした。ツア

ー一行がネゴンボ空港に到着して大型バスで出発するなり、現地ガイドがこの話をし

て「だから日本の皆さんはそのお礼として少しでもいいからスリランカでお金を使っ

てくださいね」というのです。私は思わず財布を握りしめ、もう日がとっぷり暮れた

ネゴンボ郊外の風景をバスの窓から観察しました。

①ホテルから見たシギリアロック

空港からの道路には照明灯がなく、走っている車やたまにいる自転車もライトはつい

てないようで、外はほぼ闇です。目をこらして見ると、そんな闇の中を人が歩いてい

るのがわかります。次の日からも観光バスの窓から外を見ていると、何もない田舎道

をどこから来てどこに行くのか、一人で歩いている人がよく目にとまります。たまに

犬も歩いています。なぜ目にとまるかというと、犬や人の歩く姿に何だか存在感があ

るのです。人はほとんど手ぶらだったり、小さな買物袋みたいのしか持ってないのに

、この存在感は何でなのか、気になってきました。

②町の酒屋と門番のおじさん

思い起こせば私が学生の頃、京都に「河原町のジュリー」という有名な浮浪者がいま

した。彼の毎日の巡回コースは決まっていて、私は一度、河原町通を歩いてくる彼と

すれ違ったことがあります。その迫力と臭気に血が逆流する思いがしました。それで

も、大学の教育哲学の先生は「存在感のある歩き方ができるのは河原町のジュリーだ

け」と授業で褒めていたのです。スリランカから日本に帰って、柏駅からバスに乗り

、歩いている日本人を窓から観察しましたが、どうも存在感は感じません。ジョギン

グしている人はまだましです。考えてみるに、スリランカの田舎道を歩いていた人も

、河原町のジュリーも、きっと「無念無想」で歩いていたに違いないと思いつきまし

た。まあこれは私の推測です。

③古都キャンディの朝

さてスリランカは国民の半数が仏教徒です。子供は小学校でパーリ語のお経を少し習

うそうです。この子供たちが成人して、人生でいきづまったりした時、心はパーリ語

のお経に帰りつくのでしょうか。もしそうであるなら羨ましいことだと思います。こ

こではブッダは日本でより敬われ、日本でより身近な存在に感じました。私は何にで

も感化されやすいので、すぐにスリランカの小乗仏教のファンになりました。（たち

まち忘れましたが。。）

スリランカは宗教も自然も多様性のある魅力的な国です。背の高いココ椰子やバナナ

の林は見てて見飽きることがありませんでした。シギリアロックの上から見渡すジャ

ングルは爽快、途中の洞窟壁画の美女も感動的です。今度はツアーではなく、個人旅

行で行ってみたい。スリランカにフィールドワークで行かれる方、ぜひ私も同行させ

てください！

1 month along the Kuroshio~ KH-25-1

Hello this is Miya!

From February 7 to March 7, Cat and I joined a one-month voyage on board R/V Hakuho Maru along the Kuroshio Current. It was the longest stretch of time I’ve ever spent at sea—both rough and amazing, as always.

Preparation for this cruise was no small feat. We washed more than 800 bottles for dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) sampling. It was a huge effort, only possible thanks to teamwork. Big thanks to everyone who pitched in—especially Shunsuke for his dedication in leading the bottle washing troops!

Sampling on board wasn’t easy either. With only two of us handling sampling and filtration at 13 depths per station, the workload was intense. Thankfully, the weather held up and we managed to collect samples at nearly all planned sites. At the first five stations in the East China Sea, I was running on little sleep and feeling pretty exhausted. When we were lucky, we found extra hands to help with filtering. Unfortunately, our snack stash didn’t last long—it ran out in just a few days.

The latter half of Leg 1 felt much more relaxed. We had time to enjoy Mahjong, board games, and movie nights.

At the end of Leg 1, we stopped at Shimizu Port in Shizuoka, where Yusuke and Yosuke came on board with more bottles and snacks, and helped fix some broken equipment. Leg 2 had an easier pace, giving us more time for mahjong, exercise, yoga, and bonding. We even painted the sampling bags at the last station, a small attempt to make the long hours of sampling more fun.

This is the longest cruise I have been on so far. Next time I hope I could be on a 2-month cruise :)

P.S. Check out the archive of my Instagram stories for more info about our voyage: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17999749922754684/

New Papers (Elsevier) 2025/09/09-2025/09/15

Chemical Geology

1. Decoupling of δ¹³C_carb and δ¹³C_org during the Carnian Pluvial Episode in marine successions of South China. Enhao Jia, Jacopo Dal Corso, Kui Wu, Yong Du, Yuyang Wu, Fengyu Wang, Xu Dai, Huyue Song, Daoliang Chu, Lei Zhong, Zhiwei Yuan, Xiangmin Chen, Yuting Liu, Zhe Li, Haijun Song.

2. Evolution of inorganic and organic carbon in the slab during subduction indicated by continental volcanic rock. Zheng Xu.

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

3. Probing lower-crustal fault properties with frequency-dependent tidal tremor triggering. Lian Xue, Roland Bürgmann, Zeyan Zhao, Nicholas M. Beeler, Elías R. Heimisson, David R. Shelly.

4. Frequency-dependent seismic radiation process of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake from teleseismic P-wave back-projection. Kotaro Tarumi, Kazunori Yoshizawa.

5. Constraints from uranium and molybdenum isotope ratios on the origin of enriched mid-ocean ridge basalts. Joel B. Rodney, Morten B. Andersen, Bramley J. Murton, Tim Elliott.

Geochemica et Cosmochimia Acta

6. Observed seasonal trends of diatom-derived C₂₀ highly branched isoprenoids (HBIs): implications for paleoclimate studies. Megan C. Corcoran, Aaron F. Diefendorf, Nicholas Wiesenberg, Thomas V. Lowell, Gregory C. Wiles, Mark A. Wilson, Broxton W. Bird, Hans Naake, Watts L. Dietrich.

7. Using carbon isotopes to trace the origin of volatiles on Earth and Mars. Damanveer S. Grewal, Sujoy Mukhopadhay.

Global and Planetary Change

8. Sedimentary records of East Asian Summer Monsoon evolution and source-sink variations in the northern continental slope of the South China Sea since 70 ka. Zhibing Zhou, Huanhao Liu, Zhongbo Wang, Debo Zhao, Shaohua Zhao, Jun Sun, Pengyu Qiao, Jierui Huo, Qiuxuan Peng, Yang Wang, Nan Wang, Shouye Yang

9. Orbital and sea-level controls on long-term sediment deposition in the Amazon Fan. Gabriel R. Moizinho, Thiago P. Santos, Germain Bayon, Martin Roddaz, Natalia Vázquez Riveiros, Marina Rabineau, Daniel Aslanian, Victor Carreira, Elton L. Dantas, Roberto V. Santos.

Marine Geology

10. Distribution of biochemical components in sedimentary organic matter of a Coastal Wetland: Anthropogenic and detrital influences. Eleonora M. Fernández, Carla V. Spetter, Mariana Gentile  Diana Villagran, Ana Martínez, Natalia Buzzi.

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

11. The 9.2 ka event during the early Holocene recorded by a stalagmite from Dongge Cave. Chuntong He, Bin Zhao, Yongjin Wang, Kan Zhao, Shaohua Yang, Qingfeng Shao, Hai Cheng, Yijia Liang.

Quaternary Geochronology

12. Direct dating of marine sediments using optically stimulated luminescence techniques: Insights from ODP cores 658B and 659A. S.J. Armitage, D. Sahy, S.R. Noble, R.C. Pinder, J. Tindall. 

Quaternary International

13. Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating of fossil mammals from the Pinjor Formation, Upper Siwaliks, India. Anubhav Preet Kaur, Anne Skinner, Rajeev Patnaik.

New Paper Introduction (Elsevier 19/08/25 - 26/08/25)

 

Chemical Geology

1. Occurrence of Tungsten-rich shallow groundwaters linked to underlying hydrothermal activities and thiotungstates formation in deep geothermal fluids – Qinghai Guo, Junbiao Qian, Hao Luo, Li Luo https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009254125003869 

2. Grain-scale δ 34S zonation in pyrite from the Chilpi Basin, India: Evidence for closed-system microbial sulfate reduction in the Proterozoic – Susobhan Neogi, Trisrota Chaudhuri https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009254125003948

 

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

3. Unraveling the spatiotemporal fault activation in a complex fault system: the run-up to the 2023 Mw 7.8 Kahramanmaras earthquake, Turkiye - Sebastián Núñez-Jara, Patricia Martínez-Garzón, Grzegorz Kwiatek, Yehuda Ben-Zion, Georg Dresen, Dirk Becker, Fabrice Cotton, Marco Bohnhoff https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X25003681

4. Alleviating post-injection seismic hazard in enhanced geothermal systems: Insights from a multi-scale study - Yinlin Ji, Supeng Zhang, Hannes Hofmann, In-Wook Yeo, Shemin Ge, Günter Zimmermann, Shouding Li https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X25003772

 

Global and Planetary Change

5. Disentangling the multi-phase alteration of fossil charcoals: A cautionary tale from the Isle of Mull, Scotland - Thomas Theurer, David Jolley, David K. Muirhead, Dmitri Mauquoy, Malcolm Hole https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818125002991

6. Multi-proxy records of wildfires and climate-vegetation-wildfire mechanisms during the Middle Jurassic of the Yili Basin, Northwest China - Jiamin Zhou, Longyi Shao, Timothy P. Jones, Yangyang Huang, Mengran Chen, Jing Lu, Jason Hilton https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921818125003005

7. Exploring the feedbacks of vegetation and carbon cycle processes to climate changes under thermal events in Northeast China by reconstructing Eocene climate and atmospheric CO2 levels - Jianan Kang, Qingtao Meng, Fei Hu, Chenxiang Li, Penglin Zhang, Yini Wang, Lin Ma, Baoyi Li https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921818125003182

 

Marine Geology

8. Sea level changes and the Indian Summer Monsoon influence on chemical weathering and sediment deposition on the Ninetyeast Ridge over the past 21 ka - Md. Sazzad Hossen, Jianguo Liu, Yun Huang, Md Hafijur Rahaman Khan, Bin Wang https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025322725001574

 

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

9. Organic carbon burial in a middle Eocene East Asian paleolake: Response to global and regional climate changes - Qiqi Li, Shang Xu, Fang Hao https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018225004687

 

Quaternary Research

10. A late Holocene molecular hydrogen isotope record of the East Asian Summer Monsoon in Southwest Japan – Els E. van Soelen, Naohiko Ohkouchi, Hisami Suga, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damste, Gert-Jan Reichart https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033589416300394

11. Determinants of fire activity during the last 3500yr at a wildland-urban interface, Alberta, Canada – Emma L. Davis, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi, Amber Gall, Michael FJ Pisaric, Jesse C. Vermaire, Katrina A. Moser https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033589416300588

12. Assessing the effects of climate change and land use on northern Labrador forest stands based on paleoecological data – Isabel Lemus-Lauzon, Najat Bhiry, James Woollett https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003358941630062X

New Papers (Nature, Science, etc) 2025/08/10-2025/08/19

 Nature

1.The geologic history of marine dissolved organic carbon from iron oxides | Nature

2. Calving-driven fjord dynamics resolved by seafloor fibre sensing | Nature

3. Large riverbed sediment flux sustained for a decade after an earthquake | Nature

Nature Communications
4. AI-powered spatiotemporal imputation and prediction of chlorophyll-a concentration in coastal ecosystems | Nature Communications

5. Major sea level fall during the Pliocene M2 glaciation | Nature Communications 

6. Organic matter degradation by oceanic fungi differs between polar and non-polar waters | Nature Communications

7. Non-temperature environmental drivers modulate warming-induced 21st-century permafrost degradation on the Tibetan Plateau | Nature Communications

8. Spatiotemporal patterns of methane fluxes across alpine permafrost region on the Tibetan Plateau | Nature Communications

9. Nitrogen and CO2 enrichment interact to decrease biodiversity impact on complementarity and selection effects | Nature Communications

Nature Geoscience 
9. Methane production from lignin in anoxic peatland | Nature Geoscience

10. Drivers of global glacial erosion rates | Nature Geoscience