IGCP PROJECT 396 - 1996 Meeting

INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL CORRELATION PROGRAMME PROJECT 396

Full title -: The record of the Quaternary on continental shelves; their interpretation, correlation and applications
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Report on 3rd Annual Meeting: 25th-31st October 1998

Report on the Meeting
1st Business Meeting
List of presented papers
List of Workshops
Working Group Discussions
2nd Business Meeting
National Reports
Field Trips

Summary of the Meeting
The 3rd International Meeting of IGCP-396 was hosted by the National Institute of Oceanography in Dona Paula, Goa between Sunday 25th October and Saturday 31st October 1998.
The Meeting began with a reception in the grounds of the Prainha Hotel on the Sunday evening when delegates had a chance to meet each other
The formal opening by the director of NIO took place on Monday 26th October and this was followed by a presentation by the Co-Leader Wyss Yim on the relevance of the project. This opening ceremony was reported in the local Press. Following this opening, the Secretary gave delegates a demonstration of the IGCP-396 WEB Pages.
A series of scientific sessions involving both oral and poster presentations took place over the next few days. In addition, one whole day was devoted to a Workshop of 8 papers, while two separate business meetings, and a meeting of the Stratigraphy Group was held.
The conference dinner was held on the Monday evening, while an evening trip on the river was the social event organised for the Tuesday river trip Field trips on the Wednesday and Saturday completed the meeting

1st Business Meeting 26th October 1998: 16:30
In the late afternoon, the first of two Business meetings was held in which the report and minutes of the 2nd Annual Meeting held in Durham were approved. There were two matters arising from this.

At Durham, there had been a reluctance for anyone to lead the Sequence Stratigraphy Group, and consequently this had been amalgamated with the Dating Group. In Goa, there was much interest in the subject and Francesco Chiocci agreed to lead this Group.

At Durham, the issues as to whether the Carbonates Group could be subsumed in such a Group (I.e. IGCP-404) were aired. On balance it was agreed that the present IGCP-396 Working Group on Carbonates should remain, and that members should be aware of, and join, if relevant, the Working Group of IGCP-404 on Global Carbon on the Continental Shelves which is led by Wayne Hantoro who is also a member of IGCP-396.
It was resolved in Durham that the status of the links with IGCP-404 be reviewed annually. In Goa, it was also agreed that the present status should continue, even though there had been limited activity reported in this area since the Sydney Meeting. The matter would again be reviewed at the next meeting.

Some discussion was held on which, if any Working Groups should hold a meeting in Goa. It was noted that the Marine Processes and Marine Geotechnics had been amalgamated and this combined group had had a propductive discussion at Durham, as had the Dating and Paleo-oceanography Groups.
Accordingly, preference was given to the other groups, and it was agreed that there would be just one Plenary Working Group discussion for the Stratigraphy Working Group and that an objective of the meeting was to formulate the Aims and Objectives of the Group.

2nd Business Meeting Friday 30th October 1998: 14:30
The entire meeting was devoted to the choice of the Venue for 1999. Two locations were submitted

Cape Town South Africa in late July/ early August
Shanghai in late October
Formal presentations were given on behalf of both locations, and some discussion took place about the merits of both and also wider issues.

An issue in favour of Cape Town was that it preceded INQUA in Durban and there might be a opportunity for some people to combine attendance at both. This was countered by others who thought that the attendance at both would be small, and that the proposed dates would overlap with the pre-conference field trips of INQUA.

Concern was expressed over the very short time between Goa and Cape Town in that it would be difficult for many people to generate new work in time. This had been an issue in the past between the Sydney and Durham Meetings which had a similar time interval. Others expressed concern that the time in July was undesirable as is cut into the window of opportunity for work at sea.

Against an October date was the fact that annual reports were due in by the end of the month making it difficult to prepare a coherent document in time. Further the Co-leader indicated that it would be difficult for him because of Teaching Commitments.
In the subsequent Vote, Cape Town emerged as the winner (partly, as this would mean a meeting in a different Continent)

Working Group Discussions
As resolved in the 1st Business Meeting (Minutes 1 and 3], only one Working Group met as a Plenary Session. The outcome of the discussions formed the basis of the "Aims and Objectives" of the Working Group

Workshops
The whole of Thursday 29th October was devoted to a series of 45 minute Workshops on the following topics:-

1: Soil/Sediment Microfabrics
2: Drilling
3: Stable Isotopes
4: Sequence Stratigraphy

5: Multibeam swath bathymetry
6: Dating
7: Applied Aspects in Hong Kong
8: Mineral Resources

Field Trips
Three trips were organised for people attending the meeting.

A social trip on the Tuesday evening involving a trips on the River. during this trip the delegates were entertained by a demonstration of Goanese Dancing.

A Field Trip [Wednesday] to visit three separate sites on the Goa Coast. At one a discussion took place on the work done at NIO to overcome erosion by a river as it entered the sea.
On the return to NIO, the group visited the Cathedrals in Old Goa.

A Field Trip [Saturday] to see archeological sketches on exposed rocks in southern Goa.

contact geo.micro@uea.ac.uk