Field expeditions and education are the core activities of the HOTMUD program. Due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, several of the 2021 planned research and education activities have been cancelled, in particular the onshore and offshore expeditions. These activities have now been postponed to 2022 and, accordingly, the budget has been adjusted and shifted for the following year. However the HOTMUD activities continued with some other planned training and education initiatives including one field expedition (TTR20 cruise), one field expedition in Italy (Formiche Island), and participating to conferences (EGU 2021, MARESEDU-2021, LPI 2021, EPSC2021 Conferences). The conference contributions are co-authored by members of the HOTMUD team. The HOTMUD activities are updated on a dedicated website (https://www.mn.uio.no/geo/english/research/networks/hotmud/).
Barents Sea TTR20 expedition
The activities of the Training Through Research (TTR) program (of which HOTMUD is partner) successfully completed 19 expeditions throughout the European and Arctic margins. The HOTMUD team contributed to organize the TTR20 expedition is in collaboration with the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russian Federation. This Barents Sea expedition took place in September and October and targeted areas with glacial deposits, modern and ancient degassing systems displaying pockmarks features at the NW of Nova Zemlya. ~30 scientists and students from the Moscow State University and the University of Oslo participated to the expedition. Daily lectures and training courses were completed on board during the expedition. Students will use the collected geophysical data and sediments for their Master and PhD theses.
https://instagram.com/ttr_floating_university?utm_medium=copy_linkhttps://www.facebook.com/pg/geomsu/posts/
Formiche Island
A field expedition was conducted during August 2019 in the Formiche di Grosseto ("Ants of Grosseto") Island, Italy (see red dot in side figure). This island is located ~9.4 miles (15.1 km) from Marina di Grosseto part of the Tuscan Archipelago. In the island have been identified a set of offshore hydrothermal vents at water depths varying from 5 to 15 m. The origin of these (presumably) CO2-rich submarine thermal discharges remains unknown. These subaqueous vents were sampled during the August fieldwork by a HOTMUD scuba diver that trapped the vented fluids inside crimped glass vials. The samples have then been analysed for elemental and isotopic composition of the dissolved gas in order to decipher the origin of the seeping fluids and their composition.
EGU conference
Between 9?30 April 2021 took place the European general Assembly in Vienna. In the framework of the Natural Hazards session 8.5 on radon degassing, we reported the first measurements of 222Rn and 220Rn activities in soil in Taylor Valley, Antarctica. This study is part of broader project that aims to understand and quantify the gas emissions ongoing in Antarctica. Further results are being processed to produce estimates about CO2 and CH4 emissions.
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/39165
MARESEDU-2021 Conference
The International Marine Research and Education Conference (MARESEDU) is a multidisciplinary international annular conference, addressing various aspects of marine research and education. Its traditional topics include (1) integrated marine research ? state and perspectives of multidisciplinary studies; (2) sustainable use of marine resources and sustainable practices of environmental management; (3) biodiversity conservation in marine environment; (4) advances in geological surveys on continental shelf and beyond; (5) organization of expeditions, fieldwork and internships involving students; (6) education in ?marine disciplines?. MARESEDU include plenary sessions, scienti?c sessions, round tables meetings/workshops, and a competition of early career researchers? presentations. Its main mission is building common interests via information exchange and scientific cooperation between research communities in the field of interdisciplinary marine research, education and outreach.
The HOTMUD activities will be presented at MARESEDU-2020 in October 2021.
https://www.maresedu.com/materials-en
LPI 2021, EPSC2021 Conferences
The HOTMUD team continued the research studies on the Martian surface investigating the morphologies related to hydrothermal and sedimentary volcanism. Recent satellite image observations allowed identifying kilometres extensive flows that originate from subcircular negative features that are interpreted as sedimentary volcanoes.
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2021/EPSC2021-77.htmlhttps://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1614.pdf
CEED and the Department of Geosciences (GEO) at the University of Oslo have been pioneering the studies of piercements triggered by the emplacement of magma in sedimentary basins or by the generation of hydrocarbons in organic-rich basins. Vast areas offshore Norway are populated by a large variety of modern and palaeo piercements that are currently focus of great interest. These geological structures represent one of the most intriguing phenomena of the Earth's crust, not least for its implications in energy resource exploration, seismicity, geohazard and atmospheric budget of greenhouse gases released at present and during the global climate crises characterizing our planet’s history. The research community investigating piercements includes research domains that often do not interact.
HOTMUD proposes to set the bases for a multidisciplinary platform for research and education with some of the best Institutes including Norway (CEED-UIO and CAGE-UIT), Russia (Moscow State University and Irkutsk National Research Technical University), USA (University of California, Berkeley), Japan (Kitami Institute of Technology) that conduct similar, but also complimentary activities on this topic. Tapping from the know-how and the already existing network of each institute, we plan to design a novel course in the framework of the Norwegian graduate school DEEP (coordinated by CEED) covering all the topics related to piercements structures. Engaging a long- and short-term students and researchers mobility, we plan to establish a virtuous circle of research and education through a “Floating University” model for offshore missions and equivalent onshore seminars and field campaigns at exclusive loclities. Our model will allow students to actively participate to research while learning multidisciplinary approaches providing the flavour of discoveries that ultimately drive scientists worldwide.
