Workshop sponsored by IODP-MI and JOI .......................................................................................................................................
The workshop deadline has passed. For inquires regarding late applications, please contact either Mike Coffin: or Clive Neal: .
Large igneous provinces (LIPs), encompassing oceanic plateaus, magma dominated ‘volcanic’ continental margins, submarine ridges, flood basalts in ocean basins, and continental flood basalts on land, constitute a first-order problem in Earth science. The origin(s) of LIPs and the processes involved in their formation are critically important for understanding mantle and crustal geodynamics. Investigating relationships between LIP emplacement and global environmental change are crucial for advancing our understanding of the Earth system. The IODP Initial Science Plan Earth, Oceans, and Life highlights LIPs as a high-priority initiative for IODP. The major goal of this LIP workshop is to develop strategies for achieving a better understanding through scientific ocean drilling of both solid Earth processes and changes in Earth’s environment associated with LIP emplacement. The proposed workshop will be the first comprehensive examination of the role of ocean drilling in understanding the origin(s) of LIPs and links between their emplacement and environmental changes since the 1990 JOI/USSAC workshop ‘Large Igneous Provinces’.
Scientific ocean drilling has played a pivotal role in advancing our knowledge of LIPs. Nevertheless, awareness of the tremendous opportunities offered by the new riser vessel Chikyu, the more capable riserless scientific ocean drilling vessel, and mission specific platforms needs to be raised significantly in the scientific community. The prospect of deeper basement penetrations of LIPs, of shallow water drilling, and of improved recovery of alternating hard (e.g., chert) and soft (e.g., chalk) sediments has excited individual and small groups of researchers, but has not been considered by a broad, multidisciplinary group of scientists formulating coherent strategies to advance LIP research. The proposed workshop will provide a forum for educating the community about new drilling, logging, and borehole monitoring capabilities, as well as new site surveying capabilities (e.g., R/V Langseth and commercial 3D seismic), and foster discussion of the optimal ways and targets to utilize them on the frontiers of LIP science. Developing new approaches and strategies for drilling, and combinations thereof, to address the outstanding scientific problems posed by LIPs will be a major goal of the workshop.
The workshop will comprise three days of meetings and a one-day field trip to spectacular exposures of the Tertiary North Atlantic large igneous province in Antrim, including Giant’s Causeway. The meetings will be a mix of invited keynote addresses, short presentations by all participants who wish to speak, and breakout sessions. It is expected that the workshop will result in a short EOS meeting report and a longer, comprehensive workshop report that describes the scientific objectives, presents a drilling strategy for addressing those objectives, and identifies technological and engineering requirements.
Mike Coffin (co-chair) Ocean Research Institute University of Tokyo, Japan
Clive Neal (co-chair) Department of Civil Engineering & Geological Sciences University of Notre Dame, USA
Tim Bralower Department of Geosciences Penn State University, USA Bob Duncan College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University, USA Olav Eldholm Department of Earth Science University of Bergen, Norway Elisabetta Erba Department of Earth Sciences University of Milan, Italy
Cinzia Farnetani Institut de Physique du Globe Laboratoire de Dynamique des Fluides Geologiques, France
Godfrey Fitton School of GeoSciences University of Edinburgh, UK
James Head Department of Geological Sciences Brown University, USA
Stephanie Ingle School of Ocean & Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii, USA
Nao Ohkouchi Institute for Research on Earth Evolution Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science Technology, Japan
Mike Rampino Earth & Environmental Science Program New York University, USA
Marc K. Reichow Department of Geology University of Leicester, UK
Stephen Self Department of Earth Sciences The Open University, UK
Yoshiyuki Tatsumi Institute for Research on Earth Evolution Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science Technology, Japan
Dapeng Zhao Research Center for Prediction of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions Tohoku University, Japan
The workshop will convene in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, July 21-26, 2007. Participants should plan to arrive in Belfast on July 21 and depart on July 26. Round-trip transportation from Belfast to Coleraine will be provided by the workshop conveners. The workshop will be held at the Coleraine campus of the University of Ulster and will include a one-day field trip to spectacular exposures of the Tertiary North Atlantic large igneous province, including Giant’s Causeway and the Carrickarede volcano. Accommodations for participants will be in Cranagh Village on the university campus (http://www.ulster.ac.uk/accommodation/ccampus.html).
More information will be provided to invited participants as soon as it is available.
Agenda (