The SCOR - InterRidge Meeting on "Mid-Ocean Ridges and Other Geological Features of the Indian Ocean" will take place on 14-16 November, 2018, in Goa, India.

Goals

This meeting aims to encourage involvement of the Ridge and Marine Geology and Geophysics communities in the International Indian Ocean Expedition - 2 (IIOE-2). The budget allocated by SCOR and InterRidge will mostly be used to allow students, young scientists, or other scientists to participate, with special attention given to countries bounding the Indian Ocean and potentially involved in the IIOE-2.

The InterRidge WGs play an essential role in promoting, facilitating, and coordinating new researches that focus on a theme of emerging scientific promise or are conducted in a unique geographic setting along global ridge-crests. Such researches should significantly benefit from the InterRidge coordination. A typical WG is coordinated by two co-chairs and gathers about ten active members reflecting the national and disciplinary diversity of InterRidge.

The InterRidge Office is pleased to announce the launch of call for Student and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in 2018. As part of InterRidge’s mission to promote international, collaborative, and interdisciplinary studies of oceanic spreading centers, we invite proposals for InterRidge Student and Postdoctoral Fellowships of up to 5000 US$ each.

Forty-nine scientists have registered to the InterRidge Workshop on Oceanic Transform Faults held from 22nd to 24th May 2018 in Brest/Plouzané (France). The lists of participants and of keynote speakers are on-line, please visit the workshop website to find the most important information.

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).

The applications for InterRidge Student and Postdoctoral Fellowship of Julia Machon, Inmaculada Frutos and Guangyu Xu have been accepted for funding. The application of Thomas N. Guigère for the InterRidge Cruise Bursaries has also been validated by the Steering Committee. Congratulations!

InterRidge Working Group on Ecological Connectivity and Resilience, chaired by Anna Metaxas and Lauren Mullineaux, has recently published a review entitled "Exploring the Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents in a Metacommunity Framework" in Frontiers in Marine Science. Congratulations to authors for this thorough review of current knowledge and gaps on the mechanisms supporting the stability of vent meta-communities, of high relevance to the assessment of impacts at regional scales and design of protection plans!

David and his wife were originally from South Africa, a country to which they remained strongly attached. After his university studies in Cape Town, David joined the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory near New York in 1963. The Lamont was created after the second world war and represented the lead of the United States in oceanography.

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.