A Working Group comprises a Working Group Chair or Co-Chairs who drive the progress of the group and report back to the Steering Committee, and the working group members. The scientists come from various universities and research institutes around the world, and their expertise is diverse but pertinent to the project the working group is tackling. This ensures that ridge-related research projects are addressed from different perspectives.
Current Active Working Groups
| Theme | Objective(s) | WG-Chair(s) |
| Oceanic Transform Faults |
To focus on five questions that are likely of large interest to the Earth sciences community: - How do large and mega- transform domains react to both far- and near-field stress changes? - How do transforms interact with the underlying mantle. What are the effects of temperature, rheology and composition? - What is the interplay between transform dynamics and magmatism? - Which relationship exist between oceanic transform faults and their counterparts on continental margins? - Are oceanic transform faults sites of intense fluid-rock interaction and biogeochemical exchange? |
Marcia Maia, France; Barry Hanan USA; Daniele Brunelli, Italy |
| Integrating Multidisciplinary Observations in Vent Environments (IMOVE) | To foster and coordinate the integration of hydrothermal data from vent fields where observatory-style data have been acquired. | Thibaut Barreyre, Norway |
| Island Arc and Backar(BI-ARC) | To foster a holistic approach to address fundamental questions about intra-oceanic arc and backarc basin processes by examining the long-term and short-term evolutionary cycles using geochemical, hydrothermal, biological, tectonic and subduction dynamics approaches. | Maria Seton, Australia |
| Circum-Antarctic Ridges |
To improve knowledge on 1) heterogeneity of the mantle; 2) How do 3 mantle domains interact? 3) How do ridge processes vary with time? 4) How do fauna travel? |
Anne Briais, France; Jian Lin, USA; Sung-Hyun Park, Korea |
| Hydrothermal Energy and Ocean Carbon Cycles | Will plan a revised consideration of the diverse pathways of biomass generation driven by hydrothermal processes and the potential contribution that they may make to the global ocean carbon cycle | Nadine le Bris, France and Chris German, USA |
| Oceanic Detachment Faults | Foster and strengthen links to other efforts and programs towards the study of oceanic detachment faults. Animate and facilitate coordination within the scientific community to advance the understanding of these structures. | J. Pablo Canales, USA and Javier Escartin, France |
| Seafloor Mineralization | Examine SMS deposit distribution, maturation and evolution and to investigate the processes (biological, chemical, geological) that are responsible for their formation and preservation | Maurice Tivey, WHOI, USA |
| SMART | To provide a focus for international coordination in the South Atlantic. | Colin Devey, Germany |
| Vent Ecology | To foster cutting edge collaborations and other studies that will contribute to our understanding of the ecology of hydrothermal vents | Stephane Hourdez, France, and Yoshi Fujiwara, Japan |
