It is our pleasure to introduce you to the NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience project in Marine Geodynamics and Georesources (iMAGE). iMAGE-CREATE is a new platform for training in solid earth geosciences that brings together land-based geologists and marine scientists to achieve a better understanding of the Deep Earth, its hazards, and its resources.
The supply of energy and mineral resources to a growing global population is a major challenge for the future. To find new resources that can be exploited safely, we need better models of the Earth’s crust and its endowment. Critical new knowledge about the Earth’s crust is emerging from the study of plate tectonics in the oceans. Acquiring this knowledge and applying it to resource discovery on land requires a new type of training and skilled geoscientists who can use that expertise in the real world.
The University of Ottawa is partnering with students and researchers from across Canada and in leading institutions overseas to develop a unique research and training program in geodynamics and georesources. We are working directly with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, to provide world-class experience at sea as well as on land. Canada, as a global leader in resource development, and Germany, with its state-of-the-art marine infrastructure, are the ideal partners to achieve the goals of this new CREATE.
Members and affiliates in the program are participating in unprecedented research and training opportunities that combine all aspects of the solid earth geosciences (geology, geochemistry, and geophysics). They are studying the origins of the Earth’s crust and its contained resources as they are forming today in the oceans and where continents emerged in the distant geological past. Canadian and international graduate students and postdoctoral trainees are working together in team projects around the globe, with expert supervision and access to international research infrastructure. Our goal is to take students out of the classroom and engage them directly, at sea and in the field, with the world’s leading experts in geodynamics and georesources.
While working on their own research topics, trainees are joining sea-going expeditions and mapping schools and receiving hands-on instruction in the application of sophisticated geophysical technology, supported by intensive courses on geodynamics and resources delivered by the collaborating centers.
We’re going deep to discover the resources of the future, and we look forward to seeing you all there.
Prof. Mark Hannington, Director
Dr. David Diekrup, Coordinator
iMAGE-CREATE
Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Ottawa
