Meeting

On June 10-11, the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) hosted the 16th International Symposium on Polar Sciences in Incheon, Korea. The symposium brought together ~144 scientists from the broad fields of both ridge and climate research, representing 11 countries around the globe. The meeting was timely, with the expected launch this week of the new Korean research icebreaker R/V Araon, with sea trials planned for November 2009.

The InterRidge Working Group on Seafloor Mineralization (SMWG) has developed three groups of questions and recommendations to advance the scientific knowledge of seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits:
What are the spatial controls on hydrothermal activity and SMS deposition?
What are the timescales for the evolution of SMS deposits?
What are the changes in biological communities that occur during the evolution of an SMS deposit?
Recommendations range from developing a list of criteria to quantify the extent of activity at a hydrothermal vent site, to using cutting‐edge technology to locate and characterize inactive deposits, to encouraging biological studies of inactive and extinct SMS deposits.
PDF file: InterRidge Seafloor Mineralization Working Group - 2009 Meeting Report

Hosted by the Ocean University of China from 14 - 20 July 2008, the Qingdao Ocean Sciences Summer School was one of the largest gatherings ever held for graduate students in biogeosciences and oceanography in China.

There are several sessions of interest to InterRidge at the upcoming Goldschmidt Conference to be held in Vancouver, Canada, 13-18 July 2008(http://www.goldschmidt2008.org/).
Abstract deadline: March 1st.

Session 6a: Ridges and Geochemical Mapping of the Mantle
Session 10e: Mechanisms and time scales of crustal assimilation
Session 15c: Hydrothermal systems in ultramafic rocks
Session 15e: Quantifying the chemical exchange between the oceanic lithosphere and oceans