Spanish National Committee, IGCP

 

 

Short report to the 35th Session of the IGCP Scientific Board

 

Paris, 14-16 February, 2007

 

 

The annual meeting of this committee was held at Teruel, in the headquarters of the 'Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis', on June 23rd to 24th 2006, sponsored by the cited foundation. In this case we followed previous meeting with an emphasis on visiting localities with a high geological and cultural interest, such as in 2005 when the Symposium "Geociencias, recursos y patrimonio geológicos ", a contribution to our 30th Anniversary, was held at Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia).

On Friday 23rd the committee met in the morning, and in the afternoon there had two invited talks, both with topic on Geoparks:

  • Icnitas de dinosaurios de Portugal, by Dr. Vanda Faria dos Santos, Lisboa, and
  • El Geoparque "Parque Cultural del Maestrazgo, by Dr. José L. Simón, Zaragoza.

    On Saturday 24th, we visited the "Parque Geológico de Aliaga" belonging to European Geoparks, Dr. José L. Simón, University of Zaragoza, was our guide.

    During 2006 there was a total of 12 working groups (two with Spaniard co-leaders, IGCP projects no. 502 and 513). Only seven sent to this chairman their annual reports. Three new Spanish Working Groups (SWG) started this year, belonging to IGCP project no. 506, 512 and 515. A part of SWGs scientific activities have produced three monographic publications, two related to working group IGCP project no. 513,

  • Karst, Cambio climático y Aguas Subterráneas (J. J. Durán, B. Andreo y F. Carrasco, eds.). Serie de Hidrogeología y Aguas Subterráneas nº 18. IGME, Madrid.
  • Guía de las Cuevas Turísticas de España (J. J. Durán, ed.) 2006. IGME y Asociación de Cuevas Turísticas de España, Madrid.

    and one related to IGCP project no. 497,

  • Evora Meeting 2006. Ediacaran to Visean crustal growth processes in the Ossa-Sierra Morena Zone (SW Iberia): Conference Abstracts and Field trip guide (M. F. Pereira and C. Quesada, eds.). Publicaciones del Instituto Geológico y Minero de España. Madrid.

    Since 1993 this committee policy has been focused on promoting SWG meetings in appropriate scenarios, as geological sciences congress, and conferences. But, it is also strongly supported annual international meetings of IGCP projects in Spain. Both ways, national and international scope, are successful to spread SWGs researches among our colleagues. Most of the working groups organized annual meetings, and attended their respective international project meetings. The SWG project no. 467 was co-organizer of the Scientific Session of the Sociedad Geológica de España, held at Barcelona in late November. Three SWGs (projects no. 493, 499 and 502) organized a symposium during the XXII Jornadas de la Sociedad Española de Paleontologia, held at Leon in late September. Members of the SWG project no. 499 were also co-leaders of this meeting field-trip. Members of the SWG project no. 497 were co-organizers of the international meeting "Ediacaran to Visean crustal growth processes in the Ossa-Sierra Morena Zone (SW Iberia)" held at Evora, Portugal, in late September to early October. Members of the SWG project no. 502 were invited by the Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II" where participated as guest speaker in the seminary "The origin of massive sulphides in the Iberian Pyrite Belt and the environmental impact and risk associated to their exploitation", in late June. The SWG project no. 513 organized the III International Karst Meeting, held at Málaga in April.

    Such a participation is noticeable as during four years we have not had finantial support by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, only the Spanish Geological Survey (IGME) has maintained its support.

    The committee publish an annual newsletter "Boletín Informativo", whose issue no. 31st has been published in last January and mailed to members of the SWGs, national geological research institutions, representative persons of other national committees, IGCP secretariat, members of the IGCP Scientific Board, etc. Furthermore, several monographic publications on particular project topics have been also published, as mentioned above.

    This committee will meet in next May at Nerja (Málaga), sponsored by the Fundación Cueva de Nerja, making emphasis on the geological karst processes. A field-trip will be held in the Nerja region, with wonderful karst landscapes.

    During my attendance to the Scientific Board Session, in 2001, I asked to improve a more close colaborations between National Committees and project leaders, both during new project proposal and project development. I remembered it, last year, during my address to all of you. Unfortunately, it has been done in a very few cases. This is a trouble to enhance the role of IGCP, and its relationship with the National Committees.

    New proposals should be sent in advance to those National Committee chairpersons whose countries would be especially involved in such a project. It is important getting a balance between project activities and National Working Group inputs. Just ask for support it is not enough, frequently this chairman has no idea about national colleagues interested in such a proposal.

    I suggest anew to the IGCP Secretary, to ask to project leaders that they send regular information to National Committee chairpersons, especially those with a national participation in the project and/or where activities will be organized.

    Granada, February 14th, 2007

    Marcos A. Lamolda
    Chairman, Spanish National Committee, IGCP