Dr. Man-Yin Tsang investigates fluid–rock–microbe interactions to understand how natural resources form and how environments change over time. She uses sediment porewater geochemistry to reconstruct fluid flow events and environmental conditions, and Quaternary sulfate geochronology to study geological processes along tectonic margins. Her work advances knowledge of Earth systems and supports more sustainable approaches to resource exploration and use. She welcomes undergraduate students to join her research projects in the coming fall/winter (more details in late August).

FUTURE 2024 PI-team, Appelgate, B., Dugan, B., Eguchi, N., Fornari, D., Freudenthal, T., Fulton, P., Kelley, S., Lang, S.Q., Manalang, D., Mix, A., Trask, R., Andrys, J., Beethe, S., Bridgham, H., Cabaniss, H., Cargill, S.K., Conroy, C.W., Costa, K., Cox, A., Cross, A., Dwyer, D.,  Dodd, J., Donnelly, J., Finlayson, V., Hashim, M., Heaton, D., Huber, J., Hupp, B., Jackson, M.G., Jasper, C., Kitajima, H., Libman-Roshal, O., Lowery, C.M., Maletic, E., Marranzino, A.N., Mejía-Mercado, B.E., Morrow, T., Yobo, L. N., Pallone, C., Panter, K., Patterson, M.,  Peccia, A., Ronge, T.A., Roth, E., Staro, A., Stelling, K., Todes, J.P., Tsang, M.-Y., Wieman, S.T., Konrad, K., Reilly, B., Schrenk, M., Walczak, M., and Tominaga, M. 2025. "The FUTURE of the US marine seafloor and subseafloor sampling capabilities". AGU Advances, 6, e2024AV001560. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001560

Flemings, P.B., Thomas, C., Phillips, S.C., Collett, T.S., Cook A., Solomon, E.A., Colwell, F., Johnson J.E., Awwiller, D., Aylward, I., Bhandari, A., Brooks, D., Cardona, A., Casso, M., Coyte, R., Darrah, T., Davis, M., Dugan, B., Duncan, D., Germaine, J.T., Holland, M., Houghton, J., Mills, N.T., Mimitz, M., Minarich, D., Morono, Y., Murphy, Z., O’Connell, J., Petrou, E., Pettigrew, T., Pohlman, J.W., Portnov, A., Purkey-Phillips, M., Redd, T., Sawyer, D., Schultheiss, P., Shannon, K., Sullivan, C., Small, C., Tozier, K., Tsang, M.-Y., van der Maal, C., Waite, W.F., and Walton, T. 2024. “UT-GOM2-2 Preliminary Report Terrebonne Basin Northern Gulf of Mexico”. University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13648253

Nan, J., Tsang, M.-Y., and Yao, W. 2024. “Organic carbon oxidation and the associated pyrite formation in deep sediments at the Nankai subduction zone”. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 107081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2024.107081

Nan, J., Tsang, M.-Y., Li, J., Köster, M., Henkel, S., Lin, F., and Yao, W. 2023. “Postdepositional behavior of molybdenum in deep sediments and implications for paleoredox reconstruction”. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(21), e2023GL104706. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104706

Tsang, M.-Y., Böttcher, M.E., and Wortmann, U.G. 2023. “Estimating the effect of elemental sulfur disproportionation on the sulfur-isotope signatures in sediments”. Chemical Geology, 632, 121533. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2023.121533 (Open proof version: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/am/pii/S0009254123002334)

Tsang, M.-Y., Tutty, L., and Bank, C.-G. 2023. “The effectiveness of cooperative learning in teaching quantitative reasoning with ternary diagrams in a science class”. Journal of College Science Teaching, 52(7), 111-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047231X.2023.12315886

Bowden, S.A., Kobayashi, Y., Offeh, O.E., Tsang, M.-Y., and Yamamoto, Y. 2023. “Potential analytical interferences when measuring Tmax during temperature programmed pyrolysis of hydrothermally altered volcanoclastic sediment”. Experimental Results, 4, e5, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1017/exp.2023.3

Yao, W., Tsang, M.-Y., and Wortmann, U.G. 2022. “Oxidation of pyrite during barite extraction”. Chemical Geology, 607, 121011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2022.121011

Tsang, M.-Y., Toyoda, S., Tomita, M., and Yamamoto, Y. 2022. “Thermal Stability and Closure Temperature of Barite for Electron Spin Resonance Dating”. Quaternary Geochronology, 71, 101332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101332

Tsang, M.-Y., and Wortmann, U.G. 2022. “Sulfur isotope fractionation derived from reaction-transport modeling in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific”. Journal of the Geological Society London, 179(5): jgs2021-068. https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2021-068 (free access in GeoScienceWorld)

Köster, M., Kars, M., Schubotz F., Tsang, M.-Y., Maisch, M., Kappler, A., Morono, Y., Inagaki, F., Heuer, V.B., Kasten, S., and Henkel, S. 2021. “Evolution of (bio-)geochemical processes and diagenetic alteration of sediments along the tectonic migration of ocean floor in the Shikoku Basin off Japan”. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 10.1029/2020GC009585. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GC009585

Heuer, V.B., Inagaki, F., Morono, Y., Kubo, Y., Spivack, A.J., Viehweger, B., Treude, T., Beulig, F., Schubotz, F., Tonai, S., Bowden, S., Cramm, M., Henkel, S., Hirose, T., Homola, K., Hoshino, T., Ijiri, A., Imachi, H., Kamiya, N., Kaneko, M., Lagostina, L., Manners, H., McClelland, H.-L., Metcalfe, K., Okutsu, N., Pan, D., Raudsepp, M.J., Sauvage, J., Tsang, M.-Y., Wang, D.T., Whitaker, E., Yamamoto, Y., Yang, K., Maeda, L., Adhikari, R.R., Glombitza, C., Hamada, Y., Kallmeyer, J., Wendt, J., Wörmer, L., Yamada, Y., Kinoshita, M., and Hinrichs, K.-U. 2020. “Temperature limits to deep subseafloor life in the Nankai Trough subduction zone”. Science, 370(6521), 1230-1234. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd7934 (Selected as “one of the five most recommended papers related to deep life research published in 2020” by the International Center for Deep Life Investigation (IC-DLI))

Tsang, M.-Y., Yao, W., and Tse, K. 2020. “Oxidized silver cups can skew oxygen isotope results of small samples”. Experimental Results, 1(e12), 206. https://doi.org/10.1017/exp.2020.15 (Paper that won the Early Career Research Prize 2020 of Experimental Results, Cambridge University Press)

Tsang, M.-Y., Bowden, S.A., Wang, Z., Mohammed, A., Tonai, S., Muirhead, D., Yang, K., Yamamoto, Y., Kamiya, N., Okutsu, N., Hirose, T., Kars, M., Schubotz, F., Ijiri, A., Yamada, Y., Kubo, Y., Morono, Y., Inagaki, F., Heuer, V.B., and Hinrichs, K.-U. 2020. “Hot fluids, burial metamorphism and thermal histories in the underthrust sediments at IODP 370 Site C0023, Nankai Accretionary Complex”. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 112, 104080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2019.104080

Tonai, S., Kubo, Y., Tsang, M.-Y., Bowden, S., Ide, K., Hirose, T., Kamiya, N., Yamamoto, Y., Yang, K., Yamada, Y., Morono, Y., Heuer, V., Inagaki, F., and Expedition 370 Scientists. 2019. “A new method to measure the quality of geological cores using x-ray computed tomography and its application in IODP expedition 370”. Frontiers in Earth Science, 7, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00117

Tse, K., Chiu, H.-C., Tsang, M.-Y., Li, Y., and Lam, E. Y. 2019. “An unsupervised learning approach to study synchroeity of past events in the South China Sea”. Frontiers of Earth Science, 13(3), 628-640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-019-0748-x

Tse, K., Chiu, H.-C., Tsang, M.-Y., Li, Y., and Lam, E. Y. 2019. “Unsupervised learning on scientific ocean drilling datasets from the South China Sea”. Frontiers of Earth Science, 13(1), 180-190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-018-0704-1

Hamada, Y., Hirose, T., Ijiri, A., Yamada, Y., Sanada, Y., Saito, S., Sakurai, N., Sugihara, T., Yokoyama, T., Saruhashi, T., Hoshino, T., Kamiya, N., Bowden, S., Cramm, M., Henkel, S., Homola, K., Imachi, H., Kaneko, M., Lagostina, L., Manners, H., McClelland, H.-L., Metcalfe, K., Okutsu, N., Pan, D., Raudsepp, M.J., Sauvage, J., Schubotz, F., Spivack, A., Tonai, S., Treude, T., Tsang, M.-Y., Viehweger, B., Wang, D.T., Whitaker, E., Yamamoto, Y., Yang, K., Kinoshita, M., Maeda, L., Kubo, Y., Morono, Y., Inagaki, F., and  Heuer, V.B. 2018. “In-situ mechanical weakness of subducting sediments beneath a plate boundary décollement in the Nankai Trough”. Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, 5(70), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40645-018-0228-z

University of Washington, Postdoctoral Scholar

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science / Kobe University International Fellow

University of Toronto, Ph.D.

University of Hong Kong / University of California Santa Barbara, B.Sc.