ICDP Workshop MEME, Gioia dei Marsi (Italy), October 24 -27, 2023.

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The Fucino Basin hosted the largest lake of the Central Apennine in Italy until a few centuries ago. It is a tectonic intermountain basin featured by a continuous and long sedimentary history, likely extending from the Pliocene to the recent historical times. The location of the basin downwind of the intense explosive activity of peri-Tyrrhenian volcanoes provides the unique opportunity to study this extraordinary western Eurasia Plio-Quaternary lacustrine succession based on independent chrono-logy. The main objective of the MEME project is to gain insights into the mode, tempo and dynamic of the Plio-Quaternary evolution of different domains and components of the Earth system. This includes different spatial (e.g., from global climate variability to the regional environments, tectonics and explosive volcanism) and temporal (long-term, orbital and millennial-centennial climate variability) scales and will extend an independent-dated (40Ar/39Ar) lacustrine record back to ∼5 Ma.
Following the successful completion of several pre-site surveys between 2017 and 2021, including several coring campaigns and seismic data interpretations, the research initiative MEME announces an ICDP workshop in the town Gioia dei Marsi (L’Aquila, Italy) on October 24 -27, 2023.
The agenda of the workshop will involve reviews of existing datasets and interpretations as well as discussions on scientific and operational objectives of the MEME drilling project. Scientists from various disciplines will address how several scientific topics and methods will be integrated towards a successful drilling and field operations campaign, including logistics and legal issues as well as funding. A half-day excursion will be carried out at Fucino Basin and its vicinity.
Scientists wishing to contribute to this workshop and the planned drilling project are invited to apply with contact details and a short description of their interests and intended contribution. All applications should be sent to Biagio Giaccio (CNR-IGAG, biagio.giaccio@cnr.it) by September 1, 2023. A scientific committee will decide on invitations considering the relevance of the applicants’ expertise to the goals of the project and the need for balance among the disciplines. Costs to attend the Workshop will be covered as much as possible with ICDP funds.
We seek a diverse group and broad international participation and welcome applicants from any field relevant to MEME. To complement existing expertise in the project, we particularly encourage applicants with interests in fields related to geophysical exploration. modeling, microbiology and drilling engineering. Preference will be given to scientists from ICDP member countries and early career researchers.