Goldschmidt geochemistry conference: Japan

Alastair Lough

NOCS

 

Thanks to a travel award from the Challenger Society I was able to attend the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Yokohama, Japan. Having never travelled anywhere in Asia before I was excited to get the opportunity to attend a conference on the other side of the world and experience a different culture as well as meet other American and Asian based researchers that I may not have met at other European based conferences.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get around and order food in restaurants despite not being able to speak or write any Japanese myself. This is largely helped by how polite everyone is. All of the signs have the English spelling of locations which are pronounced generally as you would expect them to be in English which is a big help.

Goldschmidt is a huge conference that covers topics from the chemistry of meteorites to mineral deposits and everything in between. My work focuses on understanding how trace metals are supplied to the ocean and utilised as nutrients by phytoplankton which is important for the drawdown of CO2 from the atmosphere via the biological carbon pump. Most of the talks I attended were directly related to my research however I also like to attend talks that apply the same methods I use to different questions. The Goldschmidt app is very useful for this. It enabled me to organise my time wisely at the conference without having to carry around the conference programme which is about the size and weight of a brick. Being able to organize my time in this way enabled me to attend all the key talks directly related to my work but also enabled me to attend talks outside my usual sphere of knowledge so I can get a handle on what’s going on in the wider world of ocean geochemistry.

My talk was on iron colloid (also referred to as nanoparticles) formation in hydrothermal plumes in session 12d on the Oceanic Cycling of Trace Elements using elemental, isotopic and modelling approaches: Geotraces and beyond. The keynote at the start of the session highlighted hydrothermal plumes as a subject of debate due to conflicting lines of evidence from isotope and speciation studies and it was great to be able to contribute to this discussion directly with my research.

Afterwards I was able to discuss my research with several scientists who wrote key papers on this subject that are cited many times in my thesis. Through friends I’d made at Goldschmidt in Prague the previous year I was also able to meet other scientists researching a range of subjects from Universities in Arizona, Oxford, Southampton, Ankara, Leeds and Tokyo.

My other conference highlights include the Samurai demonstration before one of the poster sessions with confetti used creatively to show when a fatal blow had been inflicted! And also Liane Benning’s plenary talk on climate change in the Arctic which also mentioned my favourite subject, Fe nanoparticles.

Whilst I wasn’t blown away by some of the more traditional Japanese food I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the country and attending the conference and would jump at the opportunity to go back and visit Japan for fieldwork, another conference or on holiday.


Profile:

Mr Alastair J.M. Lough is Postgraduate research student within Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton at the University of Southampton. His research focuses on biogeochemical processes that supply iron and other nutrients to the oceans. Specifically iron sourced from hydrothermal plumes and diagenetic processes in continental margin sediments. http://www.southampton.ac.uk/oes/postgraduate/research_students/ajml1g12.page  

Latest News

NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025


The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. The agenda will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join.

To participate, please complete your registration here.

For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk

Read More


Townhall on UK Arctic Ocean contribution to International Polar Year 32/33

 
SAVE THE DATE
12:00 11th June – 16:00 12th June 2025
NOC Southampton

The Arctic is one of the most rapidly-changing regions on our planet, with impacts on global sea-level rise, changes to our climate and weather patterns, and threats to our shared biodiversity and ecosystem services. With the international community rapidly mobilising towards the International Polar Year 32/33, and with new international programmes and initiatives now being shaped, it is timely for the UK Ocean Science community to come together and articulate what its unique offerings could be to Arctic research and technology.

This hybrid 2-day meeting, to be held at NOC Southampton, is intended to start this process. Recognising the Arctic Oceans role in global Earth and Human systems, anticipated outcomes include a high-level shaping of what the UK Arctic Ocean community would like to achieve over the course of the IPY, stimulation of new collaborations and proposals for grand Arctic challenges and a baseline from which wider integration with terrestrial, atmospheric and cryosphere communities, both in the UK and overseas, can be built.  Discussions will continue in diverse forums, including the UK Arctic Science Meeting in September and at Challenger 2026.

This action is supported by the UK Arctic Office and UK Arctic and Antarctic Partnership

Further details and meeting registration link will be circulated in April together with a questionnaire to help shape the agenda and discussion

In the meantime…SAVE THE DATE

Read More


Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year

The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.

The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.

If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.

Read More