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Goro Komatsu Research Professor CONTACT IRSPS - Univ. G.d'Annunzio Viale Pindaro, 42 65127 Pescara (ITALY) Tel. +39-085-4537507 Fax +39-085-4537545 Email: goro@irsps.unich.it EDUCATION 3/1988 B.S. Earth Sciences, Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) 12/1993 Ph.D. Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A.) RESEARCH INTEREST My major research focus is surface landforms of terrestrial planets. I am interested in their formation processes and implications for the evolution of the planets. I studied channels and valleys on Venus. Many of these enigmatic features were likely produced by actions of low viscosity lavas although other origins are not excluded. For Mars, I am interested in processes of water, including oceans, outflow channels, valley networks, layered deposits, ice-magma interactions, glaciation, gas processes, and sedimentation with exobiological implications. For Earth, I have worked on cataclysmic flood research projects in northern Alaska and southern Siberia, and worked on possible impact craters in Italy and Mongolia. I conducted studies of paleolakes and cave systems in the Gobi Desert and northern Mongolia in order to reconstruct paleoenvironments in which paleolithic humans migrated and settled. I also studied about subglacial volcanoes in southern Siberia. Earth is a planet. I often couple studies of similar geolgical processes on Earth and on other planets. I love to be in the field as well as work in front of a computer watching fascinating images from other planetary bodies. Expedition-type fieldwork is especially interesting for me since it has a lot in common with planetary exploration. Science is a collective effort. And collaboration with other scientists has been essential in my work. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS KOMATSU, G., V.R. BAKER, V.C. GULICK, AND T.J. PARKER 1993. Venusian channels and valleys: Distribution and volcanological implications. Icarus, 102, 1-25. KOMATSU, G., AND V.R. BAKER 1997. Paleohydrology and flood geomorphology of a Martian outflow channel: Ares Vallis. J. Geophys. Res., 102, 4151-4160. KOMATSU, G., AND G.G. ORI 2000. Exobiological Implications of potential sedimentary deposits on Mars. Planetary and Space Science, 48/11, 1043-1052. KOMATSU, G., P.J. BRANTINGHAM, J.W. OLSEN AND V.R. BAKER 2001. Paleoshoreline geomorphology of Boon Tsagaan Nuur, Tsagaan Nuur and Orog Nuur: the Valley of Lakes, Mongolia. Geomorphology, 39/3-4, 83-98. KOMATSU, G., 2007. Rivers in the Solar System; Water is not the only fluid flow on planetary bodies. Geography Compass, 1/3, 480-502. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00029.x KOMATSU, G., S.G. ARZHANNIKOV, A.V. ARZHANNIKOVA, AND K. ERSHOV, 2007. Geomorphology of subglacial volcanoes in the Azas Plateau, the Tuva Republic, Russia. Geomorphology, 88, 312-328. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.12.002. KOMATSU, G., AND BAKER, V.R., 2007. Formation of valleys and cataclysmic flood channels on Earth and Mars, In: Chapman, M.G. (ed), The Geology of Mars: Evidence from Earth-Based Analogs, Cambridge University Press, pp. 297-321. KOMATSU, G., G.G. ORI, L. MARINANGELI, AND J.E. MOERSCH, 2007. Playa environments on Earth: Possible analogues for Mars, In: Chapman, M.G. (ed), The Geology of Mars: Evidence from Earth-Based Analogs, Cambridge University Press, pp. 322-348. KOMATSU, G., G.G. ORI, S. DI LORENZO, A.P. ROSSI, AND G. NEUKUM, 2007. Combinations of processes responsible for Martian impact crater layered ejecta structures emplacement, J. Geophys. Res., 112, E06005, doi:10.1029/2006JE002787. KOMATSU, G., S.G. ARZHANNIKOV, A.R. GILLESPIE, R.M. BURKE, H. MIYAMOTO, AND V.R. BAKER, 2009. Quaternary paleolake formation and cataclysmic flooding along the upper Yenisei River. Geomorphology, 104, 143-164, doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2008.08.009.