Hisashi Kuno

Hisashi Kuno
Born 7 January 1910
Tokyo
Died 6 August 1969
Tokyo
Fields Petrology, volcanology
Alma mater University of Tokyo
Known for "Volcanos and volcanic rocks" (1954), genesis of basaltic magmas

Hisashi Kuno (1910–1969) was professor at the Institute of Geology, University of Tokyo. He was first son of Kamenosuke Kuno (a painter of the Japanese classical school) and Tome Kuno.

Life

There was a field excursion after the North Izu earthquakes in 1930 (Izu Peninsula, southwest of Tokyo). This resulted that his life work (the rest 40 years) was the petrology of the Izu-Hakone region, the basaltic magmas and the crystallization of pyroxenes. He graduated at University of Tokyo (former Tokyo Imperial University) in 1932 and became assistant professor in 1939. He was drafted into the army during World War II in July 1941. He was stationed in the Manchuria and he could study the geology and mineralogy of pegmatites and several basalt plateaus there. He received his doctor of science in 1948.[1] He visited the United States in 1951–52 and worked with professor Harry H. Hess at Princeton University. He was appointed professor of the Institute of Geology in 1955.

When the Wadati–Benioff zone (earthquake foci in the mantle) is less than 200 km deep, tholeiitic basalt magmas are produced (Izu Ōshima, Mount Hakone for instance). At intermediate dephs high-alumina basalt magmas are formed (Mount Fuji, Southern Yatsugatake Volcanic Group, Mount Ontake, for instance) and at dephs greater than 250 km alkali olivine basalt ones (Oki-Dōgo, for instance). Hisashi Kuno contributed to unfold this causal correlation.[2][3][4]

He received the Japan Academy Award (1954). He was president of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) during the period 1963–1967, and vice-president of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and for the International Union of Geological Sciences at the time of his death. The Kuno Cirque, Read Mountains, Shackleton Range, Antarctica was named in his honour.

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ Kuno, H. (1950). "Petrology of Hakone volcano and the adjacent areas". Japan Geological Society of America Bulletin 61 (9): 957–1020.
  2. ↑ Kuno, H. (1966). "Lateral variation of basalt magma across continental margins and island arcs". Bulletin of Volcanology 29 (1): 195–222. doi:10.1007/BF02597153.
  3. ↑ Yagi, Kenzo (1970). "Memorial to Hisashi Kuno". The American Mineralogist 55 (3-4): 573–583.
  4. ↑ Schmincke, Hans-Ulrich (2013). Vulkanismus (4 ed.). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG). p. 104. ISBN 978-3-534-26245-8.