Collaborating on ocean research
0th December
A three - day visit to Sydney by the German oceanographic research vessel, Die Sonne (the sun),emphasises the importance the German Government attaches to working with Australian scientists on major research projects of interest to both countries.
The Sonne, which has not been back to Germany since 1992, operates permanently in southern tropical and temperate waters, while crew members and teams of visiting scientists rotate between Germany and the ship.
The Sonne came to Sydney for a full-day workshop at UNSW, aimed at strengthening the 28-year scientific collaboration between Australia and Germany and deciding on research priorities for the future.
“The workshop identified marine biology and geology and global climate change as areas of primary interest not just to Australia and Germany but to every nation, particularly as climatologists are now generally agreed that the oceans hold the keys to global climate change,” said Dr Ditta Bartels, UNSW’s Director of International Research Programs. and now a member of the six-person working committee set up at the workshop to co-ordinate research projects and arrange funding options.
During a briefing on board the Sonne on Monday, 9 December, Dr Matthew England, an oceanographer from UNSW's School of Mathematics, demonstrated the power of ocean modelling with a simulation of the spread of radioactive material from Mururoa Atoll, should that atoll collapse because of seismic damage from nuclear testing. The simulation showed how the radioactivity would be carried to the coasts of New Guinea and Queensland.
Professor Kaj Hoernle, from Geomar in Kiel, Germany, gave a detailed briefing on the ocean drilling and floor sampling program the Sonne had just completed on the Hikurangi Plateau adjacent to the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. He said very little was known about this immense submarine outflow of lava, beyond that 3.5 million cubic kilometres of lava had poured on to the ocean floor in the geologically very short time of one to two million years. One aim of the research was to determine whether this outflow of lava had contributed to the break-up of Gondwanaland about 130 million years ago, or was a consequence of the break-up.
The Sonne is equipped with instruments able to drill, sample and film the ocean floor to a depth of eight kilometres, as well as extensive ocean water sampling, temperature measurement and analysis instruments.
The other members of the working committee are: Dr Hans Staehle, Director of the International Bureau of the German Ministry for Research and Education; Mr Reinhard Ollig, responsible for Geology, Marine Sciences and Antarctic Research and the Ministry’s research vessels; Professor John Benzie, Director of UNSW's Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies; and Professor Kurt Lambeck, Australian National University and Foreign Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science.
The Sonne, which has not been back to Germany since 1992, operates permanently in southern tropical and temperate waters, while crew members and teams of visiting scientists rotate between Germany and the ship.
The Sonne came to Sydney for a full-day workshop at UNSW, aimed at strengthening the 28-year scientific collaboration between Australia and Germany and deciding on research priorities for the future.
“The workshop identified marine biology and geology and global climate change as areas of primary interest not just to Australia and Germany but to every nation, particularly as climatologists are now generally agreed that the oceans hold the keys to global climate change,” said Dr Ditta Bartels, UNSW’s Director of International Research Programs. and now a member of the six-person working committee set up at the workshop to co-ordinate research projects and arrange funding options.
During a briefing on board the Sonne on Monday, 9 December, Dr Matthew England, an oceanographer from UNSW's School of Mathematics, demonstrated the power of ocean modelling with a simulation of the spread of radioactive material from Mururoa Atoll, should that atoll collapse because of seismic damage from nuclear testing. The simulation showed how the radioactivity would be carried to the coasts of New Guinea and Queensland.
Professor Kaj Hoernle, from Geomar in Kiel, Germany, gave a detailed briefing on the ocean drilling and floor sampling program the Sonne had just completed on the Hikurangi Plateau adjacent to the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. He said very little was known about this immense submarine outflow of lava, beyond that 3.5 million cubic kilometres of lava had poured on to the ocean floor in the geologically very short time of one to two million years. One aim of the research was to determine whether this outflow of lava had contributed to the break-up of Gondwanaland about 130 million years ago, or was a consequence of the break-up.
The Sonne is equipped with instruments able to drill, sample and film the ocean floor to a depth of eight kilometres, as well as extensive ocean water sampling, temperature measurement and analysis instruments.
The other members of the working committee are: Dr Hans Staehle, Director of the International Bureau of the German Ministry for Research and Education; Mr Reinhard Ollig, responsible for Geology, Marine Sciences and Antarctic Research and the Ministry’s research vessels; Professor John Benzie, Director of UNSW's Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies; and Professor Kurt Lambeck, Australian National University and Foreign Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science.
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