Javier Hernández Molina is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, and today he is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the study of so-called contourites, deep depositional systems that are the subject of study by scientists from all over the world, given their importance, both for the study of the paleoclimatic record and for their strong economic implications. Andalusian by birth, this expert has been collaborating for years with the Geological Oceanography and Biogeochemistry research group, XM-1, of the CIM-UVigo Marine Research Center and, as a result of this collaboration, this Tuesday he is visiting the Faculty of Marine Sciences to give a conference and a course in which he will have the opportunity to share his experience in these topics with the students and teaching and research staff of this center.
According to the expert, who has been a professor at the University of Vigo for more than ten years, the relevance of the study of contourites worldwide stems from the fact that these deposits are being identified as possible hydrocarbon reserves and, therefore, oil companies are investing a lot of capital in their study. Along these lines, Hernández Molina is developing many projects for the study of these sedimentary environments from all points of view -geological, paleoceanographic and economic-, through several projects, many of them financed precisely through hydrocarbon companies.
A hot topic whose study is evolving very rapidly
“The main idea of my speech is to convey that ocean circulation leaves a mark on the submarine bed, not only now, but has been leaving it over time and, from those traces that are seen on the bottom, paleoceanography can be determined, that is, how the currents evolved in the past and thus understand how the planet has evolved”, explained the specialist. “The applied part for us as a society is that there are resources, both mineral and energy, that are associated with all these deposits”, stressed Hernández-Molina, who also pointed out that this is a topic that many research groups are working on worldwide and that in the last decade has been evolving very quickly due to its implications. “It is what you could call a sexy topic for the scientific community”, joked the expert.
The conference took place this afternoon in the new graduation hall of the Experimental Sciences Building and the course will be held in the afternoon. Around fifteen students will participate, both from the Marine Sciences Degree and the Interuniversity Master’s Degree in Oceanography, who will be joined by some researchers from the faculty. “The relevance of the study of contours worldwide makes it necessary for graduates in Marine Sciences to have specific training in this field,” explains researcher Anxo Mena, who was in charge of introducing Hernández Molina.
Meeting of the international Inpulse project
Taking advantage of the visit to the campus of this professor of Royal Holloway, the Faculty of Marine Sciences also hosted a post-campaign meeting of the Inpulse project (Interaction of oceanographic and sedimentary processes in the continental shelf: environmental implications and habitats), in which numerous state and foreign institutions participate and which is financed by the grants for R&D&I projects corresponding to the State Program of Research, Development and Innovation. Coordinated by Luis Miguel Fernández Salas, from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, the project consists of two subprojects, one of which -subproject2- is led by the Geological Oceanography and Biogeochemistry research group, a team led by the Dean of the Faculty of Marine Sciences, Miguel Ángel Nombela, and in which Professor Hernández Molina also participates.
O pasado verán tivo lugar no golfo de Cádiz a campaña do proxecto e nela extraéronse multitude de datos sedimentarios, sísmicos e batimétricos de diferentes áreas desta zona cunha resolución nunca empregada ata este momento. “Agora estamos a realizar o tratamento destes datos e, neste sentido, aproveitamos a visita de Javier para realizar esta reunión e para formular tamén posibles colaboracións futuras”, explicou Mena.
Source: DUVI
