News

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is launching a new area of research, the Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative. Over the next nine years, the foundation will invest $140 million to support development of new tools, theory and concepts about aquatic symbioses and to bring different research communities together to learn how symbioses involving microorganisms function, evolve and serve critical ecosystem roles in marine and freshwater environments.

The Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabedauthority (ISA) has released an updated proposal of Draft Regulations on Exploitation of Mineral Resources in the Area.

ISA has led several rounds of global stakeholder consultation over the last five years to develop the draft exploitation regulations, which will regulate exploitation of deep-sea minerals in a way that supports the commercial recovery of seafloor mineral resources with effective protection for the marine environment.

The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) is soliciting ocean exploration proposals to address knowledge gaps and support growth in the Nation's Blue Economy and/or to contribute to Seabed 2030 goals. Proposals are being requested on the following three topics:

In January 2020 the InterRidge Office is due to rotate under the appointment of a new Chair. All interested Members of InterRidge are invited to submit bids to host the new office and nominations for the new Chair.

A new international project has been proposed called the Global Seamounts Project (GSP), to intensively survey a range of 18 seamounts in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins, over eighteen expeditions beginning in 2019 and continuing through 2023. The project will generate standardized sets of inter-calibrated, multidisciplinary field data over the survey range to develop a new ecosystem model for seamounts.

An international team of scientists has discovered a new hydrothermal field near the Gigante Seamount in the Azores. The team, including scientists from the EU Horizon 2020-funded project ATLAS, have been surveying the largely untouched seas of the Azores, an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic which harbours some of the most important deep-sea ecosystems in the Atlantic Ocean.

In collaboration with the Deep-Sea Environments and Ecology section of Frontiers in Marine Science, Diva Amon, William Chadwick, Stephen Hammond and Randi Rotjan (host editors) are organizing a Research Topic “Pacific Deep-Sea Discoveries: Geological and Biological Exploration, Patterns, and Processes”. The aim of this project is to bring together international experts to provide a comprehensive view of the recent exploration, information, discoveries, and research findings from the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Nadine Le Bris and Jérôme Dyment, co-chairs of InterRidge, attended the 24th Session of the Council of International Seabed Authority that took place in Kingston on 5-9 March 2018, preceding a session of the Legal and Technical Commission (LTC).

An InterRidge Working Group is currently being proposed on seamounts and volcanic islands located close to mid-ocean ridges. This will address a wide range of science and practical questions that range from solid earth to biology. At the moment, the group includes researchers studying the Azores, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha and the Foundation Seamounts.

Following an invitation by SCOR (Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research), the InterRidge Steering Committee has decided to support the organization of the Joint InterRidge-SCOR Workshop on the Indian Ocean Ridges. Discussions with SCOR on the workshop organization are currently starting.

The 3rd European Mantle Workshop will take place in the historical University of Pavia, situated approximately 40 km South of Milan, from Tuesday 26th to Thursday 28th June 2018. The workshop aims at providing a framework of advanced knowledge on the evolution of the Earth’s mantle. The workshop is mainly intended to discuss the mantle beneath Europe and neighboring areas; presentations from other parts of the world are welcome. Oral and poster presentations are scheduled.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is explicitly mandated to promote and encourage the conduct of marine scientific research in the Area (UNCLOS, art.143), and accordingly, the coordination and dissemination of the results of such research analysis. In line with the above, the ISA Secretary-General Award for Research Excellence is one of seven voluntary commitments made by the Authority at the 2017 UN Ocean Conference.

InterRidge News is published annually by the InterRidge Office. The next - 23rd Volume shall be published in November 2017. Our newsletter contains brief research articles, the world ridge cruise schedule, updates from the InterRidge Working Groups and from our National Correspondents, and a calendar of upcoming meetings of interest to the InterRidge community. InterRidge News is intended for the rapid publication of preliminary results and cruise reports that do not appear in other publications.

The next AGU Fall Meeting (American Geophysical Union) will be held on 11-15 December 2017 in New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
The abstract submission is now open, the deadline is on 2nd August, 2017 (23:59 EDT/03:59 +1 GMT).

The InterRidge Steering Committee is an assembly of representatives from the Principal and Regular Member Nations of InterRidge. Principal Member Countries have two voting representatives while Regular Member Countries have one. Each Corresponding Member Country has a national correspondent who is welcome as observer at the annual Steering Committee meeting. Working Group Leaders are also invited at the meetings to report on their activity.