Book

(written in 1975)

He was born of farming stock in 1923 at the foot of the Akagi Volcano on the upper reaches of the Tome River, in central Honshu. In his youth he loved literature, particularly pcety, and felt the attraction of the mountains very strongly. His interests centered in mountain topography, and his first intention was to make this his field of study. However, impressed by the words of his middle-school teacher, that topography is based upon geology, he altered his course from topography to geology.

In 1949, he graduated from the Tokyo University of Literature and Science. His graduation thesis had as its subject the moIIuscan fossils of the Neogene Tertiary of his native country. After graduation, he took up employment in the Japanese Hydrographic Office upon the recommendation of the Chief Hydrographer, Dr. K. Suda, who comes from the same district. Here, he studied the sediments on the continental shelf around the Japanese lslands, and every other Sunday he engaged in field work with his friends, surveying the Quaternary system in the suburbs of Tokyo. ln 1958 he received his doctorate (D.Sc.) from his Alma Mater. In 1961 he presented the hypothesis of a large scale rise in sea level since the late Miocene, and attributed it to the expansion of the earth. From that time on, until 1974, he pursued this theme and gathered his results into this book. ln 1964, he transferred to Tokai University from the Hydrographic Office.

His other published scientific works in Japanese include "The Shelf Sediments in the Adjacent Seas of Japan (1958),""The Pacific Ocean (1962)," "Continental Slope (ln Deep-Sea Geology. 1970)." "Continental Shelf (in Shallow-Sea Geology, 1972)." In Addition to these, he has published popular books including "The World Under the Sea (1964)," and "Science of the Pacific Ocean (1969)." He has also translated Hans Petterson?s "Westward Ho with the Albatross (1957)" and "Tne Ocean Floor (1959)" into Japanese.

At present, he is interested in petroleum-bearing rocks, guyot, and granite. Each of these topics has a bearing on the eustacy of the geocynclinal stage.