IGCP Board; 10th session; Report of the ... - unesdoc - Unesco

published recently. A comprehensive programme
has been initiated, combining detailed lithologie
mapping with stable isotope (Pb-, S-, O-)
analyses to study the variables controlling the
primary distribution of the Dalradian barite and
metalliferous chert mineralizations, including
basin morphology, distance from hydrothermal
brine discharge source, and local depositional
environments in terms of T°C, pH, f O2 and
availability of S02 2 + and S 2 ".
Studies of volcanite-hosted deposits have again
been prominent throughout 1981. Increased interest
is being shown regarding the extent, the
chemical character and the mineral faciès of
exhalite mineralizations (including iron formations)
away from the main mineralization centres.
A project has been initiated in Norway to
study exhalites in both ophiolitic and island arc
environments, while similar investigations are
nearing completion in the Appalachians of eastern
Canada. Tourmalites, associated with massive
sulphides in the New England area of USA
and ironstone sediments in Lower Palaeozoic
rocks near the Avoca massive sulphide deposit,
South-eastern Ireland, also are considered as
exhalative volcanogenic mineralizations. Apart
from the detailed Pb-isotope survey of the sulphide
deposits in the Bathurst district, New
Brunswick, Canada, similar studies are carried
out in USA, UK, Sweden, and Norway. The results
of the case history study of exploration
methods (geological-geochemical-geophysical)
used in the search for stratabound sulphide deposits
will be available.
The continued high level of activity in postgraduate
work being carried out under the auspices
of the Project reflects a natural maturing process
within the Project, having started with more
regional, general, geologically oriented problems
and now having moved into fields of more
detailed, individual deposits descriptions and
special problems studies that are being carried
out throughout the whole of the Caledonian-
Appalachian Orogen. In the countries east of
the Atlantic a total of 20 postgraduate students
have started or are working on the Projectsponsored
research problems. Of these, 6 are
completed, 8 are approaching completion and
the others are at various stages of progress.
To the west of the Atlantic, in Canada, doctoral
studies are in progress at the universities of
Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Toronto
covering various aspects of the Canadian stratabound
sulphide deposits and several more thesis
research works have just been completed.
In the USA, 4 universities are involved with the
Project's research, besides the USGS, involving
about 20 active researchers, of which 12 are
postgraduate students (mainly at MSc level).
Three MSc theses have been completed.
Activities planned. Field meetings and symposia
have been a major feature of the Project's international
activities. After the successful symposium
and excursion held in Scotland in 1981,
30
there will be a break in this type of activity in
1982, in order to give Project workers time to
prepare contributions for the final Project symposium,
which will be held in Ottawa, Canada
in September 1983, with accompanying field
excursions to eastern Canada and the New England
states of the USA.
A meeting of the International Working Group will
be held in Copenhagen in early May 1982 to consider,
inter alia, the final forms of the 1:5,000,000
mineral-deposit map and the correlation chart,
and to decide the programme for the 1983 symposium
and the contents of the concluding Project
volume.
No. 61 SEA-LEVEL MOVEMENTS DURING
THE LAST DEGLACIAL HEMICYCLE
A.L. Bloom, Department of Geological
Sciences, 211 Kimball Hall, Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
Description. Establishment of a graph of the
trend of mean sea-level during the last déglaciation
and up to the present time. This graph will
be an expression of the changing hydrologie balance
between ice and water in response to climatic
changes. Individual records of relative
sea-level movements from localities all over the
world will be used, and conclusions will be drawn
about local crustal movements along coasts and
about the fundamental parameters of strength and
elasticity of the Earth's outer layers.
Summary of activities. A symposium of the
Project, entitled "Variations in Sea-Level Last
15, 000 years" took place in Columbia, South
Carolina, USA from 6-8 April 1981, followed by
field excursions to the coastal plain of South Carolina
(8-10 April) and the Delaware coast (11-12
April). About 40 scientists participated, including
a remarkable 15 from the 29 national Project
leaders. Two and one-half days were devoted
to technical papers and business meetings.
The papers presented at the meeting will be published
in a symposium volume. The guidebook for
the South Carolina field excursion is a significant
contribution to the regional sea-level research.
At the meeting, the future of the Project was
discussed at length.
Summary reports from the annual reports for
1981 from the national working groups of Brazil,
Denmark, Finland, France (1980), Japan, the
UK and the USSR edited by M.J. Tooley, appeared
in "Sea-Level" (the Information Bulletin of
IGCP Project No. 61) January 1982, No. 7,
pp. 5-19.
Activities planned. The Project will be involved
in a joint symposium at the INQUA meeting in
Moscow in August 1982 with Projects Nos. 24,
146 and 158.