5th Asia Oceania Geosciences Society Conference (AOGS 2008)

5th Asia Oceania Geosciences Society Conference, AOGS 2008,
Busan, Korea, June 16-20, 2008
http://www.asiaoceania.org/aogs2008
NEW Abstract deadline - February 7, 2008

Session (SE71): Gas hydrate occurrences in Asia
Conveners: Young Keun Jin (KOPRI, Korea, South, ykjin@kopri.re.kr), Saulwood Lin, Ryo Matsumoto, Keun Pil Park

Gas hydrate is a hot issue in scientific communities as a potential energy resource and an important factor to cause past strong and sudden global warmings. Recently gas hydrates have been found in many Asian regions including Japan, India, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Russia. This session should improve our understanding to gas hydrate occurrences in Asia regions and international research cooperation on gas hydrate.

Session (SE72): Recent multidisciplinary studies of mid-ocean ridges and ophiolites
Conveners: Sung-Hyun Park (KOPRI, Korea, South, shpark314@kopri.re.kr), Jian Lin, John Chen, Susumu Umino, Natsue Abe, Raju Kamesh

Mid-ocean ridges are the largest volcanic system on Earth and play an important role in the exchange of energy and material among various domains of our planet. Oceanic crust, covering over 65% of the Earth surface, is being generated at mid-ocean ridges. Submarine hydrothermal activities at mid-ocean ridges affect the chemistry of oceans and support a unique deep-sea ecosystem that is based on chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis. Studies of mid-ocean-ridges are multidisciplinary in nature, encompassing disciplines of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, hydrothermalism, and biology. In recent years, several Asian countries including Japan, China, India, and Korea have started scientific programs to explore and investigate geological, hydrothermal, and biological processes at mid-ocean ridge and deep seafloor, while increasing collaborations with the US and European counterparts under the auspices of InterRidge. Ophiolites, which are ancient oceanic crust exposed on land, have also attracted scientists in Asia as they offer important accessible sections of mid-ocean ridges. In this session, we invite scientific contributions on diverse issues related to mid-ocean ridges and ophiolites. In particular, we welcome new results and interpretations from recent sea-going cruises, fieldworks, and laboratory studies.

Session (SE73): Tectonic and magmatic evolution of western Pacific marginal basins
Conveners: Sang-Mook Lee (Seoul National University, Korea, South, smlee@snu.ac.kr), Jun-ichiro Ishibashi, Toshiya Fujiwara, Dietmar Muller

The western Pacific is host to numerous marginal basins many of which have formed as a result of change in motions of major plates during Cenozoic. These basins extend from Sea of Okhotsk and Sea of Japan (East Sea) to the north, South China Sea, basins in the Philippine Sea plate, active basins along Izu-Bonin Mariana trenches and Melanesian borderland, and down to the south along Tonga-Kermadec trenches. Many of these basins developed as a result of back-arc opening and have geologic structure and volcanic/magmatic manifestations, which are important sources of exchange in material and energy between deep earth and exterior including hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. Understanding the formation and evolution of marginal basins has been a key question for geoscientists. The marginal basins are also of societal importance. The regions around the basins are among the most populated and industrialized places on the earth and are where we obtain much of resources including gas and petroleum. They are also regions venerable to natural hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis. In recent decades many governmental agencies have been developing strategies to manage resources and mitigate possible hazards within their marine territories. While a lot of efforts including marine surveys are being conducted by individual countries, not much effort has been made to understand the geological phenomena that have shaped those basins which often require investigations far back into the past. In this session, we invite scientific contributions that have improved our knowledge of tectonic and magmatic events that have shaped the marginal basins. These include new survey results, measurements, modeling work and interpretations.

Session (SE74): Subduction Zone: Tectonics and Magmatism
Conveners: Ryuichi Shinjo (University of the Ryukyus, Japan, rshinjo@sci.u-ryukyu.ac.jp), Dapeng Zhao

Trench-arc-backarc basin system represents one of major features of our planet earth. How are they initiated, how do they operate unique magmatism and seismic activity, and how do they eventually evolve? Understanding these systems is therefore by necessity a multidisciplinary effort. This session covers wide range of 'subduction zone'-related topics including geophysical, geochemical and petrological observations, modeling, and experimental results.