Nishida Prize

Commendation

Research on global environmental changes as a consequence of Deep Earth Processes

A list of five major papers

• Kuroda J, Hagino K, Usui Y, Saito S, Bown PR, Hsiung KH, Murayama M, Ando T, Sakai S, Hackney R, Ohkouchi N (2022) Stratigraphy around the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary in sediment cores from the Lord Howe Rise, Southwest Pacific. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 134, 1603–1613, doi.org/10.1130/B36112.1.
• Kuroda J, Jiménez-Espejo FJ, Nozaki T, Gennari R, Lugli S, Manzi V, Roveri M, Flecker R, Suzuki K, Yoshimura T, Sierro F, Ohkouchi N (2016) Miocene to Pliocene osmium isotopic records of Mediterranean sediments. Paleoceanography, 31, 148-166, doi:10.1002/2015PA002853.
• Kuroda J, Tanimizu M, Hori RS, Suzuki K, Ogawa NO, Tejada MLG, Coffin MF, Coccioni R, Erba E, Ohkouchi N (2011) Lead isotopic record of Barremian-Aptian of marine sediments: implications for large igneous provinces and the Aptian climatic crisis. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 307, 126-134.
• Kuroda J, Hori RS, Suzuki K, Gröcke DR, Ohkouchi N (2010) Marine osmium isotope record across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary from a Pacific pelagic site. Geology, 38, 1095-1098.
• Kuroda J, Ogawa NO, Tanimizu M, Coffin MF, Tokuyama H, Kitazato H, Ohkouchi N (2007) Contemporaneous massive subaerial volcanism and late Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event 2. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 256, 211-223.

Major achievements

Dr. Junichiro Kuroda has revealed that changes in the interior of the solid earth, which have been discussed on a long-term scale (10⁶ -10⁹ years scale), have a significant impact on the earth’s surface environment even on a short-term scale of 10³-10⁵years. Radiogenic isotopic compositions of some heavy elements such as lead and osmium of marine sediments are susceptible to the solid Earth processes such as massive eruptions of Large Igneous Provinces. By analyzing marine sediments in detail, he was the first in the world to show that the formation of Large Igneous Provinces was directly linked to the Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events, a large-scale change in the Earth’s surface environment. His achievement received much attention. Its methods and revolutionary ideas have permeated the international community, and even appeared in textbooks of Earth Sciences. He has also actively participated in the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and has played an important role in leading international collaborations, such as a drilling proposal to recover buried thick salts underneath the Mediterranean Sea that formed when the Mediterranean Sea was dried up at the end of the Miocene (Mediterranean Salinity Crisis). He is expected to continue to play an active role internationally in the interdisciplinary fields of geology and geochemistry. For these reasons, Dr. Junichiro Kuroda is judged to be a worthy recipient of the Nishida Prize.

Nominator

Naohiko Ohkouchi

Supporters

Asahihiko Taira, Hodaka Kawahata