Earth-Ocean Links International School - 2023

With the support of the Embassy of France and the University of Ghana’s Department of Earth Sciences in Ghana, ISblue and Ifremer (France), and the Upstream Training Trust (South Africa), the 2023 session of EOL itinerant masterclass was hosted by the University of Ghana’s Department of Earth Sciences in Accra, from Monday 9th to Tuesday 17th October 2023. 

This Earth-Ocean Links itinerant Masterclass has a label UNESCO since 2021. It aims to contribute to society by:

  • increasing the chances of getting a job;
  • increasing industry-academia relationship;
  • acquiring a holistic tolerant vision; and
  • increasing researchers’ self-confidence.

Presentations of research findings and practical courses extended over six days at the University, and followed by a field trip to Takoradi in the western coastal region of Ghana. The aim was to enhance capacity building in Marine Geosciences, coastal management and water resource management, and facilitate the start of new joint research projects. 

The oral presentations focused on scientific methodology and cognitive biaises, recent and ongoing studies conducted by the different groups in the sub-disciplines of geophysics, stratigraphy, sedimentology, coastal management, palaeo-oceanography, geo-health, citizen science, water chemistry, climate and sea-level changes.

The practical and ‘brain storming’ sessions facilitated exchanges of ideas and the drafting of joint research proposals on the following three themes:

  1. Water quality, from head-waters to our taps;
  2. High resolution mapping from coastal plains the marine shelf;
  3. Economic geology and geodynamic history of Ghana and South Africa.

These three joint proposals are still in progress (working online) through three groups of young researchers and students from Ghana, South Africa and France, with the help of senior researchers. These projects, led by the three groups of young scientists, will be submitted to funding agencies.

 

The fieldwork primarily focused on sedimentology, stratigraphy and structural analysis of the Western Basin. Participants studied outcrops of basement rocks and Sekondian sedimentary sequences, and visited settlements along the coast. 

Participants came from South Africa (AEON), France (IFREMER and Université de Bretagne Occidentale), and Ghana (University of Cape Coast and University of Ghana). These were mainly postgraduate students and young researchers:

  • South Africa – 1 senior researcher, 2 postdocs, 3 PhDs, and 1 Master from Nelson Mandela University
  • France – 2 senior researchers, 1 PhD, 1 post-doc and 1 Master from IFREMER and Université de Bretagne Occidentale
  • Ghana/Accra – 5 senior researchers, 5 PhDs, and 10 Masters from the University of Ghana
  • Ghana/Cape Coast  2 senior researchers, 4 Masters and 3 Honours from University of Cape Coast.

A guided tour of the Cape Coast Castle exposed the participants to the history of the slave trade in Ghana.

EOL Session 2024

 

The next EOL Masterclass is being planned in April 2024, at the Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth/Gqeberha, South Africa, including a floating university for the training at sea using the R/V The Observer of the South African Institute Aquatic Biodiversity. 

The use of SAIAB's RV The Observer will enable us to develop the geological and geophysical mapping of the coasts and bays of southern South Africa and to enrich the geological database (bathymetry, coring, seismic data of the first sedimentary layers), particularly necessary for the biological studies carried out in South Africa.

This session has already secured funding for the use of the R/V the Observer, part of the rental and transport of geophysical tools, and logistics in South Africa. It will be the subject of a Ghanaian request to the French Embassy, among others, for their participation in this session, as well as French requests to complete the funding for the geophysical part and the mobility of French students and young researchers (ISblue, UNESCO).

 

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