Research interests

My research focuses on (but is not limited to) the characterization of the fluid transport in porous media, the use of transient gas tracers to study physical processes in the solid earth, and the application of dissolved gas/solid species in the pore water of unconsolidated sediments as proxies for environmental reconstruction. For a complete list of my publications and conference contributions please refer to my personal website (https://tomonaga.ch).

CV

2022 - present
Technical specialist at the University of Basel.

2020 - present
Founder and CEO of the Eawag Spin-off Entracers GmbH (https://entracers.com).

2018 - 2022
Senior scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Dübendorf.

2016 - 2018
Postdoctoral associate at the Institute of Geological Sciences of the University of Bern.

2015 - 2016
Marie Curie Experienced Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Dübendorf.

2014 - 2015
Marie Curie Experienced Researcher at the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (AORI), The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan.

2010 - 2013
Postdoctoral researcher (project coordinator) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Dübendorf.

2010 
Ph.D. in environmental sciences (Dr. sc. ETH), ETH Zurich.

Selected publications

Tomonaga, Y., Yagasaki, K., Park, J.-O., Ashi, J., Toyoda, S., Takahata, N., & Sano, Y. (2020). Fluid emission along the Nankai Trough: He isotopes reveal direct seafloor mantle-fluid emission in the Kumano Basin (southwest Japan), ACS Earth Space Chem., 4(11), 2105–2112.

Hensen, C., Duarte, J. C., Vannucchi, P., Mazzini, A., Lever, M. A., Terrinha, P. G., Géli, L., Henry, P., Villinger, H., Morgan, J., Schmidt, M., Gutscher, M.-A., Bartolome, R., Tomonaga, Y., Polonia, A., Gracia, E., Tinivella, U., Lupi, M., Cagatay, M. N., Elvert, M., Sakellariou, D., Matias, L., Kipfer, R., Karageorgis, A. P., Ruffine, L., Liebetrau, V., Pierre, C., Schmidt, C., Batista, L., Gasperini, L., Burwicz, E., Neres, M., & Nuzzo, M. (2019). Marine transform faults and fracture zones: a new perspective integrating seismicity, fluid flow and life. Front. Earth Sci., 7, 39.

Tomonaga, Y., Giroud, N., Brennwald, M. S., Horstmann, E., Diomidis, N., Kipfer, R., & Wersin, P. (2019). On-line monitoring of the gas composition in the Full-scale Emplacement experiment at Mont Terri (Switzerland). Appl. Geochem., 100, 234-243.

Takahata, N., Tomonaga, Y., Kumamoto, Y., Yamada, M., & Sano, Y. (2018). Direct tritium emissions to the ocean from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident. Geochem. J., 52(2), 211–217.

Sano, Y., Kinoshita, N., Kagoshima, T., Takahata, N., Sakata, S., Toki, T., Kawagucci, S., Waseda, A., Lan, T., Wen, H., Chen, A., Lee, H., Yang, T. F., Zheng, G., Tomonaga, Y., Roulleau, E., & Pinti, D. L. (2017). Origin of methane-rich natural gas at the West Pacific convergent plate boundary. Sci. Rep., 7, 15646.

Tomonaga, Y., Brennwald, M. S., Livingstone, D. M., Kwiecien, O., Randlett, M.-È., Stockhecke, M., Unwin, K., Anselmetti, F. S., Beer, J., Haug, G. H., Schubert, C. J., Sturm, M., & Kipfer, R. (2017). Porewater salinity reveals past lake-level changes in Lake Van, the Earth’s largest soda lake. Sci. Rep., 7, 313.

Tomonaga, Y., Marzocchi, R., Pera, S., Pfeifer, H.–R., Kipfer, R., Decrouy, L., & Vennemann, T. (2017). Using noble-gas and stable-isotope data to determine groundwater origin and flow regimes: application to the Ceneri Base Tunnel (Switzerland). J. Hydrol., 545, 395–409.

Kagoshima, T., Sano, Y., Takahata, N., Ishida, A., Tomonaga, Y., Roulleau, E., Pinti, D. L., Fischer, T. P., Lan, T., Nishio, Y., Tsunogai, U., & Guo, Z. (2016). Spatial and temporal variations of gas geochemistry at Mt. Ontake, Japan. J. Volcanol. Geoth. Res., 325, 179–188.

Tomonaga, Y., Brennwald, M. S., Meydan, A. F., & Kipfer, R. (2014). Noble gases in the sediments of Lake Van – solute transport and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Quat. Sci. Rev., 104, 117–126.

Brennwald, M. S., Vogel, N., Scheidegger, Y., Tomonaga, Y., Livingstone, D. M., & Kipfer, R. (2013). Noble gases as environmental tracers in sediment porewaters and in stalagmite fluid inclusions. In P. Burnard (Ed.), The Noble Gases as Geochemical Tracers (pp. 123–153). Advances in Isotope Geochemistry. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.