Field research collaboration with movie creator
Satsuma Iwo-jima island is a small volcanic island located on the north-westernmost margin of the Kikai caldera. Many hot springs identified along the shore. Brown to creamy white water, which formed mixing with hot spring water and seawater, identified around the island. Especially Nagahama Bay have been studied for understanding the mechanism of Banded Iron Formation (BIF) which are abundant around the time of the great oxidation event, approximately 2.4 giga years ago. The high rate sedimentation iron oxide in Nagahama Bay is observed and it is suggested that microbial activities mediate the formation process. Although, several studies on bio-mineralization in Iwo-jima hot springs have been reported, only a few microbial communities were reported. In order to understand microbial communities and their ecosystem, this field research and sampling were conducted.
Furthermore, this island show dynamic interaction among earth surface, deep earth, and ocean with changing color of shore, beautiful and wild nature, and so on. Mr. Sakano, movie creator, stimulated his imagination by the nature of Iwo-jima and process to investigate the origin of life. This collaboration have been started from March 2017, outreach project by ELSI, “CMS (Creators Meet Scientists) project”.