Bøger af Joern Thiede

NATO Advanced Research Institutes are designed to explore unre­ solved problems. By focusing complementary expertise from various disciplines onto one unifying theme, they approach old problems in new ways. In line with this goal of the NATO Science Committee, and with substantial support from the u.s. Office of Naval Research and the Seabed Assessment Program of the u.s. National Science Founda­ tion, such a Research Institute on the theme of Coastal Qpw!llinq and Its Sediment Record was held September 1-4, 1981, in Vilamoura, Portuqal. The theme implies a modification of uniformitarian thinking in earth science. Expectations were directed not so much towards find­ ing the key to the past as towards explorinq the limits of interpret­ inq the past based on present upwelling oceanography. Coastal up­ wellinq and its imprint on sediments are particularly well-suited for such a scientific inquiry. The oceanic processes and conditions characteristic of upwelling are well understood and are a well­ packaqed representation of ocean science that are familiar to qeolo­ gists, just as the maqnitude of bioproduction and sedimentation in upwellinq reqimes --among other bioloqical and geoloqical processes-­ have made oceanographers realize that the bottom has a feedback role for their models.

A group of geoscientists from a number of NATO countries met under NATO sponsorship in Copenhagen on February 27 and 28, 1978, and formulated a proposal entitled "EVOLUTION OF THE GREENLAND­ ICELAND-FAEROE-SCOTLAND RIDGE, A KEY AREA IN MARINE GEOSCIENCE". This part of the North Atlantic Ocean is of particular interest because of its anomalously shallow bathymetry which has profoundly influenced many aspects of the evolution of the North Atlantic. The proposed investigations therefore aim to study the deep crustal structure including relationship of continental and oceanic crust, history of subsidence of the ridge including its past role as a land bridge, age of the oceanic basement along it and its history of formation, and the influence of the ridge on Tertiary and Quaternary depositional palaeoenvironments. In furtherance of this proposal, it is intended to carry out a series of seismic and drilling operations on the Ridge during the coming years. These major marine investigations will be mainly funded from national sources. An important preliminary stage to the project is the collec­ tion and synthesis of available data. NATO has already approved a small budget for this purpose which has enabled a geoscientist to work partly at the Department of Geological Sciences of Durham University, UK, and partly at Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, USA, for about six months to compile the data. The most important map showing magnetic anomalies and lineations in the area, is included in a pocket at the back of this volume.