Introduction â– Director's Discourse â– INFOMAR â– New Products â– Landslides Workshop â– Geological Photography Challenge â– Long Term Impact of IYPE â– GSI Customer Centre â–
GSI Win eGovernment Award â– Schools Geoscience Competition â– Diary Dates
INFOMAR
Enda Gallagher
INFOMAR exhibits at Volvo Ocean Race, Galway
GSI joined forces with our partners, the Marine Institute, to showcase INFOMAR activities in a special exhibition on the quayside during the Volvo Ocean Race event in Galway recently. Over two weeks in late May and early June INFOMAR was presented to schools and the general public during the stopover of this prestigious race in Galway. In a specially constructed "Explorers" education tent visitors were able to view a highly interactive exhibit of seabed mapping, including props of old seabed mapping equipment, stunning computer visuals of ships mapping our seabed today, shipwrecks and "The Real Map of Ireland", a beautiful map showing Ireland’s 220 million acre underwater territory.
The stand was primarily aimed at school children from both inside and outside Galway who visited in their droves (Thurs 4th June saw 600 students and their teachers visit the tent). Every student received an "Explorers" activities book and map, while teachers received a teacher’s pack that will assist them in integrating marine subjects into the SESE curriculum back in the classroom. The tent was the subject of great excitement at all times, but particularly when Ian Walker, skipper of the Green Dragon (Ireland’s main entry in the race), visited!
Seabed Survey Data help pinpoint coral reefs
GSI is delighted that data from the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS) mapping programme have helped to identify the location of coral reefs off the west coast of Ireland. Our high resolution INSS bathymetry charts were used in a recent, pioneering RV Celtic Explorer cruise (May 2009) led by scientists from the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway. The charts enabled the identification of new areas likely to support coral reefs and when one of these was then dived by the new national remotely operated vehicle (ROV), it was revealed to host a seascape of spectacular coral reefs. So spectacular in fact that they have been described by the chief scientist of the cruise, Dr Anthony Grehan, NUI Galway, as being "by far the most pristine, thriving and hence spectacular examples of cold-water coral reefs that I’ve encountered in almost ten years of study in Irish waters."
The major new coral reef province is located on the southern end of the Porcupine Bank and it covers an area of circa 200 sq.km. It contains as many as 40 coral reef-covered carbonate mounds. These are underwater hills, some of which rise as high as 100m above the seafloor. Also a scientist on the cruise was Anna Rensdorf, a GSI Griffith Geoscience PhD student in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, NUI Galway.
Cold water coral reef. Pink and white varieties of the major framework-building coral species Lophelia pertusa. Large solitary corals (left of centre) Desmophyllum sp. and anemones. Copyright NUI Galway
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