Leave your summer vacation homework to us! A museum where you can learn about the earth and meet Kanagawa
Go, see, and feel the world of art
File.3 Kanagawa Prefectural Planet Earth Museum of Life
It has been 4.6 billion years since the birth of the planet Earth, the planet of life. A museum where you can learn about the history and diversity of life in an easy-to-understand way along the flow of time. There are about 10,000 life-size specimens, from giant dinosaurs to meteorites to pea-sized insects. It's fun just to look at the exhibits that tell a story, but please be aware that if you take your time to look around, you'll feel like you'll need a whole day.
Whether you like geology, space, animals, insects, plants, or fish, you have to visit. Go anyway!
A vast universe on the ceiling of the entrance. Underneath it, fossils of life that has carved history in various spaces on the earth, such as the sky, land, and sea, are lined up to welcome you.
The first theme on the first floor is "Think about the Earth."
No one has ever seen the moment the earth was born, so meteorites flying from outer space are used to solve the mystery. By connecting fragmentary information extracted from various rocks, the image of the creation of the world is expanded.
The romance of a scientist is kind of amazing.
Dawn in the center is the "Mandrabira meteorite" that fell in Australia. It weighs 2.5 tons, so of course it's real. The ingredients are mostly iron, so if you smell it when you touch it, it certainly smells a little rusty.
In museums, you can touch exhibits unless they are in a case or fenced off. Let's think about the history of the earth and life by mobilizing all five senses, such as touch and smell, which cannot be conveyed by internet images.
This globe shows the epicenter and volcano of an earthquake with white and red bulbs, respectively. In places where ancient civilizations flourished, such as Africa and the Middle East, and in areas where Western cities are concentrated, there are almost no light bulbs. On the other hand, the Japanese archipelago is so full of red and white light bulbs that the shadows of the islands cannot be seen. It may be miraculous that a cutting-edge city is developing on such unstable ground.
Whether life is born there or not, the strata are full of stories. I don't really know how difficult it is, but anyway, it's very powerful!
The second theme is "thinking about life."
About 2 billion years ago, bacteria, which can be said to be the origin of life, were born on the earth. It seems that it will take more than 1.5 billion years for trilobites to appear.
And 100 million years ago, the familiar "Ammonite" appears. Of course, the stratum here is also real. If you look for it, it seems that nautilus, bivalves, and the ancestors of snails are also hidden.
The parts that can be reached are polished by everyone's hands and are glossy. You could call it a trace of a treasure hunt.
The process by which aquatic organisms rise to land and evolve into amphibians and reptiles is also on display.
But after all, it's the fossils of large beasts that excite me. Dinosaurs and elephants (such as mammoths) have an overwhelming presence in the large hall.
A fulfilling collection that is irresistible for insect lovers. I apologize for thinking from a human perspective, but the shape of insects is truly bizarre and mysterious.
Of course, they are all valuable natural history materials.
Just as dinosaurs become extinct and replace them, mammals adapted to various environments expand their influence on the earth. Approximately 6,500 years ago is "just recently" in terms of the history of the earth.
Here, representative creatures are selected from all the "orders" of mammals and displayed as stuffed animals. When you think about it, it's a little strange to see animals that would normally never meet, lined up side by side, looking like they're getting along (?). That's what makes it different from a zoo, but what's really amazing is that you can take a closer look at it from a close distance where you can butt noses. The sharp teeth of a carnivore and the size of a brown bear can be felt realistically only when you see them up close.
A flock of birds is flying over the hall.
If you look closely, the waterfowl are also flying properly.
When you look down on the hall on the first floor from the escalator that goes up, you feel like a bird.
Beside the escalator, points such as "Mammoth's eye height" and "Tyrannosaurus' eye height" are noted, so be sure to check them out as well.
However, please note that the escalator cannot stop at that position.
The first theme on the 3rd floor is "Thinking about Kanagawa's nature."
Let's examine how the earth we live in was formed and what kinds of animals, plants and marine life have been nurtured from a local perspective. Kanagawa is located on the point where three of the four plates that the Japanese archipelago rests on collide, so it seems that there is a diversity of vegetation. In addition, Sagami Bay, which is famous for its overwhelming depth of water, is said to be home to an abundance of fish species that overwhelms other regions in Japan.
Rather than being interested in natural history, I was happy to imagine the menu of a sushi restaurant.
The final theme is "Thinking about Coexistence with Nature - Present and Future of Humanity."
In the natural world, substances are circulated between the atmosphere, water, the surface of the earth, and organisms, and balance has been maintained. In recent years, human activity, which is just one of the life forms living on the earth, has had a great impact on this balance.
From here on, the focus will be on data exhibitions rather than easy-to-understand specimens and models. It's a bit difficult, but I'd like to stop for a moment and think about what the data means.
The last is the "Jumbo Book Exhibition Room".
Twenty-seven 3.2-meter-high three-dimensional encyclopedias full of real specimens. Since the display can be changed "one by one", it is a selling point that you can develop with a high degree of freedom according to the season and current affairs. The world of science is always full of new discoveries, so a mobile exhibition corner like this is a must.
When you go down the stairs to the second floor, there is a library with nature-related books.
During the summer vacation period (until August 19, 2018), study instructors are stationed at the school to give children advice on independent research in the field of science. Once you have decided on a research theme, the museum curators will be able to help you with searching for and organizing more detailed information, so feel free to ask.
Once you've compiled an interesting report, let's apply for the "Children's Natural Science Exhibition" sponsored by the museum!
Special exhibition now being held!
《Let's make a botanical journal! ~The creation and future of "Kanagawa Prefecture Botanical Magazine 2018"》
In 1988, the "Green Family Register" compiled by the efforts of ordinary people living in Kanagawa Prefecture was published for the first time in Japan. A special exhibition is being held to coincide with the announcement of the second revision following the 2001 revision.
It introduces the findings from the latest research, how the plants in the region have been investigated, and the efforts to connect the past and the future.
■ Period Until Sunday, November 4, 2018
*For more information
http://nh.kanagawa-museum.jp/sp/2018special/
