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Working Group Updates
There are numerous on-going and upcoming integrated studies
and monitoring efforts at MoMAR Lucky Strike including
a test observatory site at Lucky Strike in 2010 (MoMARSAT
project, France). It was suggested that special attention should
be given to the planning and coordination of scientific activities
in this area, to the sharing of data and information, and to
the development of a data policy for activities at this site. This
translated into an effective coordination of U.S., French and
Portuguese cruises and experiments in summer - fall 2008, and
the release of a first GIS database for the MoMAR area through
the MoMAR web page (http://www.momar.org).
At the 2008 InterRidge Steering Committee meeting it was
thus determined that the WG should continue with a revised
mandate, focusing on the specific tasks of the MoMAR GIS
database, cruise coordination, and planning for the next major
international MoMAR workshop. This thrust is justified
because of the expected installation of the ESONET Mo-
MARSAT observatory in 2010 and the need for international
collaboration in data sharing and cruise scheduling in the
MoMAR area. The WG will also aid in identifying new sites
and new experiments (e.g., new monitoring opportunities) in
the MoMAR area and promoting collaboration among international
scientists with complementary research interests and
tools. Although focused on MoMAR, the WG will expand efforts
to communicate with other mid-ocean ridge observatory
programs. The WG will also follow the development of the
OSPAR MPA sites, which included Rainbow, and the eventual
extension of the continental shelf, which may include Rainbow
within Portuguese instead of international waters.
Members
Due to the evolution of the Monitoring and Observatories WG
as described above, there will be a significant change in membership
for 2009. R. Santos will rotate off as co-chair at the end
of 2008, but will stay on as a WG member. Our new co-chair
will be Ana Colaço (Portugal). Our new membership will initially
include Doug Connelly (UK), Emilie Hooft (USA), and
Anna-Louise Reysenbach (USA), but additional members will
be added based on developing projects or needs identified by
the community.
MoMAR cruises
Coordination of U.S., French and Portuguese field programs
in the MoMAR area in 2008 involved a total of 5 cruises,
with activities focused primarily at Raibow and Lucky Strike.
These included ROV Jason II dives onboard R/V Revelle (PI
A.-L. Reysenbach, K. Ding and J. Seewald, 07-08/08), ROV
VICTOR dives at Lucky Strike and Rainbow onboard N/O
L’Atalante (PIs J. Escartin and J. Dyment, 08/08), hydrophone
recovery for hydroacoustic monitoring of seismicity onboard
Gago Coutinho (PI J. Goslin, 09/08), OBS recovery and deployment
onboard N/O Suroit (PI W. Crawford, 08/08), and a
series of ROV test dives including the MoMAR area onboard
Gago Coutinho (PI N. Lourenço, 10-11/08).
Visit the InterRidge website
for more information about our working groups,
including proposals for the new WGs in 2008:
http://www.interridge.org/WGlist
Seafloor Mineralization
Chair - M. Tivey (WHOI, USA)
The WG for Seafloor Mineralization was formed in 2008
and currently includes members from 10 countries (Canada,
China, France, India, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, UK, and
USA). Our WG has as its focus the objective of understanding
the formation and evolution of seafloor massive sulfide
(SMS) deposits. Most known SMS deposits are still active hydrothermal
systems and yet their preserved and relict counterparts
remain relatively unexplored and undocumented. The
primary objective of the WG will be to target the inactive and
preserved systems in order to address gaps in knowledge of the
biology, geochemistry, and geophysics of SMS deposits. In this
way, progress can be made towards understanding the govern-
InterRidge News 47 Vol. 17, 2008