Earthquake triggers research in Pacific Ocean

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international marine research program that explores Earth's history and structure recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks, and monitors subseafloor environments. IODP builds upon the earlier successes of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), which revolutionized our view of Earth history and global processes through ocean basin exploration.

Geology.com publishes a story about the Costa Rica Seismogenesis Project (CRISP) expedition carried out by the scientific drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution, and the nearly 1,500 m of sediments collected from the ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica, revealing records of some two million years of tectonic activity along a seismic plate boundary.

You can find more on this story in the original sources:

http://geology.com/press-release/pacific-earthquake-triggers/
http://iodp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=577&Itemid=1237

The CRISP research site is located 174 km (108 miles) off Costa Rica. IODP image.

Core

http://xkcd.com/913/

DRT2011 in Oviedo (and cider, chorizo, fabada...)

As I wrote some months ago, this year's DRT meeting will take place at the end of August/beginning of September in Oviedo, capital city of Asturias (Spain). University of Oviedo organise this time the biannual reunion dedicated to deformation processes at different scales and, besides a great meeting with very interesting keynote talks, they also offer a pre- and post- fieldtrips that you shouldn't miss.

From today, July 7th to 31st, the normal registration fee is just 200€, and if you decide, and you should, register for the fieldtrips and the conference dinner, the total amount would be 595€.
You can find more information in their website: http://www.geol.uniovi.es/drt2011/Home.html
Not convinced by the talks, fieldtrips to the Variscan foreland fold and thrust belt and to the hinterland of the orogen? Not convinced by the value for money of the conference?

Then, perhaps you should go in order to try sidra (Asturian cider),

the chorizo,

and fabada! (and many, many, many more dishes that you will love!)
Not yet convinced??? Then take a look to the pictures of the YORSGET meeting organised also by the Department of Geology of University of Oviedo: http://www.unioviedo.es/YORSGET/FOTOS-CONGRESO/PHOTOGALLERIES.htm

(And yes, I miss my homeland and I will be there :-) )

:-)

Louis Neel Medal to Ernie Rutter

Prof. Ernie Rutter, from the school of Earth, atmospheric and environmental sciences of the University of Manchester, has been awarded with the Louis Néel Medal of the EGU for "his major experimental and field contributions to our fundamental understanding of the deformation behaviour of the Earth's lithosphere. In particular, his systematic laboratory studies have led to a greatly improved understanding of natural rock deformation".

The Louis Néel Medal, named after the French physicist (awarded a Nobel Prize in 1970),  has been established by the Division on Magnetism, Palaeomagnetism and Rock Physics. This medal is reserved for individuals in recognition of outstanding achievements in rock magnetism and rock physics and geomaterials.

The full story, here: http://www.egu.eu/awards-medals/awards-and-medals/award/louis-neel/teng-fong-wong0.html

Prof. Rutter: http://www.seaes.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/staff/staffprofile.php?id=52