SUU Presents Ridge 2000 Distinguished Lecturer

Published: April 16, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Southern Utah University is excited to present a special convocation lecture in partnership with the Ridge 2000 Distinguished Lecturer Series. The convocation will feature Chemical Oceanographer, Gary Masoth on Tuesday, April 17 at 11:30 AM in the SUU Auditorium. It is free and the public is warmly invited to attend.

Gary Massoth has spent his life living on the edge — more specifically, on a convergent margin plate edge. Gary's research path over the past 31 years as a chemical oceanographer has migrated ever westward: from estuaries and coastal waters of the western US, to mid-ocean ridges of the eastern Pacific, and most recently to intra-oceanic arcs of the western Pacific. His research focus over the past 20+ years has been to assess the effects of deep-sea hydrothermal discharge on the chemistry of the oceans. Gary has participated in over 76 research expeditions (including 15 as a Cruise Leader), 28 dives in research submersibles, and 6 remotely operated vehicle (ROV) campaigns, for a total of just over 3 years of time at sea.

Mid-ocean ridges, or MORs, mark the formative edges of the mobile plates that surface the solid Earth and are the single largest continuous geological feature of our planet extending ~67,000 km through the major ocean basins. MORs lie submerged beneath yet another mobile and predominant planetary feature, the salty fluid we call ocean. This talk will follow an eye-opening journey of discovery along the margins of the Pacific plate (and in-between), and reassess, with our eyes now more wide open, why the sea is salty.

Mr. Massoth’s lecture will be the final Convocation presentation in the 2006-2007 school year series. The 2007-2008 school year series will begin in September.

For more information about Southern Utah University’s Convocation series and a complete listing of presentations please visit www.suu.edu/convocations

Contact Information:

435-586-5400
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