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Working Group Updates
half of the section will be designed to sample along the axis
of the dispersing hydrothermal plume that originates at the
southern EPR (the world's biggest plume, originating from the
world's fastest-spreading ridge). The eastern half of the same
section will provide a contrast with the iron and manganeserich
lenses of water that make up the oxygen minimum zone
that extends offshore from the Peru Margin - one of the most
highly productive regions of surface ocean. The time frame for
these section studies is currently anticipated to be 2012-2014.
We expect that our WG will work together with GEOTRAC-
ES in the development of these programs and, in particular, a
complementary process-oriented and submersible-led investigation
of the high-temperature vent-sources for the southern
EPR plume, focussed along the super-fast SEPR ridge-axis.
Links with other IR WGs
The activities of our WG are tightly connected with other IR
WGs. Members of the Vent Ecology, Deep Earth Sampling,
and Monitoring and Observatories WGs actively participated
in the IRTI, and several are also involved in the SCOR Working
Group. The development of interdisciplinary approaches
and dedicated tools, in turn, provide inputs to the reflexion
of these WGs. We will continue developing synergies in the
future with other IR WGs. Particularly, we will be pleased to
provide contributions to future InterRidge Theoretical Institutes
and workshops.
Upcoming events
- ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Nice, France, Jan. 25-30,
2009. Session: From molecules to organisms: Chemoautotrophic
pathways and mechanisms of energy transfer in extreme
marine environments.
- Goldschmidt Conference, Davos, Switzerland, June 2009.
Session: Pathways and regulation of energy and carbon transfer
in extreme deep-sea environments.
Deep Earth Sampling
Chair - B. Ildefonse (Univ. Montpellier II, France)
Members
The WG for Deep Earth Sampling has one new member in
2008: Huaiyang Zhou (Tongji University, China).
Recent events
- A Magellan workshop "Lithospheric heterogeneities, hydrothermal
regimes, and links between abiotic and biotic processes
at slow spreading ridges," partly funded by InterRidge,
was held in September 2008 in Montpellier, France (see article,
this volume).
- IODP recently set up a Thematic Review Committee (Oceanic
Crustal Structure and Formation; www.iodp.org/trc/),
which met in Oct. 2008 in Zürich, Switzerland. A report
should be available soon on the IODP web site.
Future of the WG
Our WG was formed in 2004 as part of the InterRidge Next
Decade Plan. Following our activities associated with the Mission
Moho Workshop in 2006 and a group proposal submitted
to IODP in 2007, it was time in 2008 to either disband the
WG or move forward with a new mandate. We held several
discussions over email prior to the 2008 IR Steering Committee
meeting. At this recent IR STCOM meeting, it was recognized
the importance of our WG in this upcoming year as the
IODP INVEST workshop in September 2009 (listed below)
will be receiving input for planning the next decade of IODP
science beyond 2013. The Steering Committee emphasized the
importance of our WG in contributing to this planning for the
future of scientific ocean drilling. Thus, we will continue the
WG, with a more focused mandate to provide inputs on priorities
and targets to the 2009 IODP INVEST workshop. In the
short term, we are planning to meet for a discussion just prior
to the AGU Fall Meeting in December 2008. We also plan to
identify money and time to possibly organize a dedicated WG
meeting next year, before the INVEST workshop. In addition,
the IR Steering Committee recognized the need for a liaison
between this IR WG, representing the IR community-at-large,
and IODP.
Upcoming events
- AGU Fall Meeting, Sunday, December 14, 2008, WG meeting
with discussion open to other community members who
are interested in joining our planning effort for the 2009
IODP INVEST Workshop (contact Benoit Ildefonse for details
on this meeting: Benoit.Ildefonse@um2.fr).
- ECORD Summer School on Geodynamics of Mid-Ocean
Ridges, 31 August - 11 September 2009, Bremen, Germany,
http://www.glomar.uni-bremen.de/ECORD_Summer_
School_2009.html. The IR WG members are involved in organizing
this summer school with colleagues from MARUM
and the IODP core repository in Bremen. We hope to attract
about 30 Ph.D. students and postdocs, to work on geody-
InterRidge News 45 Vol. 17, 2008