Greetings from Japan! I arrived in Kyushu, the southern-most of the main islands of Japan, on the second of October to start my sabbatical research at the Aso Volcanological Laboratory. It was a long trip from Idaho, but it was worth it! I haven’t really had a chance yet to get started on my research, but I’ve been getting to know the people at the institute, learning my way around the area, and, of course, learning to drive on the left hand side of the road! I’ve driven on the left side of the road in several countries over the last few years, but it does seem to make a difference when you can’t read the street signs.
Actually, as far as reading Japanese goes, I’m in better shape than I might have been. I was fortunate that Professor Ikuyo Suzuki (Suzuki-sensi), the Japanese professor at the University of Idaho, took me under her wing for the first few weeks of the fall 2009 semester. Under her patient teaching I learned to write hirigana script, one of three (four if you count romanji) scripts in common usage in Japan, as well as the basics of meeting, greeting, and trying to get along in Japan. Without her help I don’t know how I would have even made it to Kyushu!
As I said, I haven’t done much science since I arrived. However, this weekend I took advantage of my days off by driving east and north to visit Kuju volcano. Kuju is an active volcano about one and one-half hours drive from my apartment, and it was well worth the drive! My first stop was at the Hachobaru geothermal power plant. The Hachobaru plant is the largest in Japan, with 110MWe electrical generating capacity. I was pleased to have the chance to walk around the site, see the steam separators and condensers, and examine the production and re-injection wellheads. Here’s a photo one small area of the site:
Being a geologist that studies hot springs and geothermal reservoirs I was pleased to have the opportunity to walk around the site. I couldn’t resist the temptation of peeking inside the visitor’s center. They had a very nice cross-section cut through a re-injection line:
Because the fluids in geothermal reservoirs usually have a high concentration of dissolved solids (for example, silica, sulfur, and sometimes even gold!) this sort of precipitation is common in the pipes of geothermal power plants. The object in the photograph just in front of the precipitate-filled pipe is a tricone rotary bit for drilling wells in rock.
After my visit to Hachobaru I went looking for some “jigoku.” Jigoku is a Japanese word for “hell,” but it is usually used to refer to geothermal springs that are too hot to bathe in (if you can get in it, it’s called an “onsen”). Mud pots, fumaroles, and steaming ground all generally fall into the category of jigoku. I did find some nice areas not too far from the powerplant:
A close-up view gives some idea of the variety in the manifestations of hot springs; here are just a couple of photographs:
I’ll close this post now, but I’ll have more stuff in the future as I get down to my research in Japan. Until then, Ja Mata (see you later)!
Tags: Jerry Fairley
Hey Professor Fairley! Glad to hear you made it to Japan safe and sound. Thanks for the update live from Japan. I hope to hear a lot more about your sabbatical in the future. Please keep us updated in Moscow!