Will answers be found from out at sea?
Updated: 26-Jan-2012
| -[63412].res.jpg "Expedition 339 spent two months off the Algarve and Alentejo coasts collecting ocean sediment samples.")
Expedition 339 spent two months off the Algarve and Alentejo coasts collecting ocean sediment samples.
|  |
An international team of 35 scientists set sail on ‘Expedition 339’ on November 17, 2011 for two months and have begun observational studies on the deep ocean sediment samples retrieved from various locations along the Iberian coast.
Basalt and sediment core samples were taken from five drilling spots off the Algarve and Alentejo coasts, and the team now believes that data found may provide answers to long standing questions regarding tsunamis and earthquakes predicted for Portugal.
Following a report by the Portuguese Society for Earthquake Engineering (PSEE), this news comes as a positive step in the right direction as PSEE warned last year that “Portugal is not prepared for an earthquake and should it occur, it could take the lives of between 17,000 and 27,000 people.”
At a conference held in Lisbon on January 18, Dorrik Stow, a professor who was on board the ship and is now researching data found, said: ““The expedition brought us many of the eagerly anticipated answers to our questions, as well as wholly unexpected scientific results.”
Between the African and European tectonic plates, the team on board found new and unexpected evidence that proves a tectonic pulse at the point where the plates meet, and it is this pulse that is responsible for earthquakes and tsunamis, that in the past have left large amounts of debris and deposited sand at sea.
At several drill sites, a chunk of geologic record was missing from the sediment cores, providing evidence that strong currents have been passing through the seafloor.
Due to perforations up to five kilometers below the seabed made by the Integrated Oil Drilling Programme (IODP) Expedition 339, data providing information about climate changes that have occurred over the past 1.5 million years, including four of the major ice ages, has been found and is now being analysed to provide possible forecasts on future weather progressions.
Throughout the expedition, a Pleistocene sediment archive offshore of the Algarve was retrieved and will further improve the chances of discovering data regarding climate change in the future.
Scientists on board the JOIDES Resolution ship also believe that these drilling locations may provide new oil resources.
The expedition concluded on January 17 when JOIDES Resolution docked in Lisbon, until January 20. More than 600 people visited the ship at the Alcântara Pier.
For more information about Expedition 399, please visit www.joidesresolution.org
Click here to follow the Algarve Resident on facebook
|
-[63411].res.jpg)
-[63410].res.jpg)
top
the algarve web designers