Manchester-led workshop due to address priorities for oceanic islands and seamounts

Research and impact 20 August 2019

Dr Neil Mitchell shared details of an upcoming workshop sponsored by InterRidge, with the aim of  identifying priority areas for research in all aspects of islands and seamounts located near to ridges, including geological, oceanographic and biological aspects. 

The shelf and island of Santa Maria in the Azores.

The UK is responsible for giant sea areas around its overseas territories, several of which are volcanic islands (for example, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha). According to wordatlas.com, the combined UK Exclusive Economic Zone totals 6.8 million km2, the fifth largest globally. These areas contain fisheries and potentially exploitable seabed minerals. Such resources could become important future sources of revenue and employment, but exploiting them can have environmental impacts on the ocean fauna and seabed. There are also concerns of the effects of on-going climate change, for example, on corals. These and other issues were raised recently in an article for the Geological Society’s magazine and in a letter by Neil linked to the article, ‘Managing the UK’s seamounts’ 16th August 2019.

In recognition of the importance of such issues, Neil is co-convening a workshop in the beautiful Convento Trinas in Lisbon 19-21 September this year. It will be sponsored by InterRidge, an international organization dedicated to cooperation on mid-ocean ridge research, with further funding provided by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research for three developing-country early career scientists to attend. The call for participants has already attracted more than 30 scientists from places as far afield as New Zealand and Chile. Please contact Neil if you are interested in attending: Neil.Mitchell at manchester.ac.uk

The workshop will be hosted by the Instituto Hidrográfico, Lisbon (Portugal), within the beautiful grounds of a previous convent (Convento Trinas).

climate changeenvironmental impactgeography pathway manchesterInterridge workshopocean faunaoceanic islandsphysical geography manchesterseamounts