Group of researchers on the first week of Rio Gondwana Workshop 2015. From left to right: (1) Top- Peter Szatmari (Brazil), George V (USA), Miguel Basei (Brazil), Peter Johnson (USA), Victor Ramos (Argentina), Rudolph Trouw (Brazil), Nicholas Barnett-Moore (Australia), Evânia Alves (Brazil), Fernando Carlos (Brazil), Raisa Costa (Brazil); (2) Bottom – Alan Collins (Australia), Bastien Linol (South Africa), Renata Schmitt (Brazil), Pamela Richetti (Brazil) Macarena Roca (Brazil), Felipe Nepomuceno (Brazil); (3) Front: Marco Antônio Thoaldo (Brazil), André Assis (Brazil) Rafael Fragoso (Brazil).
The IGCP-628 organized a three week workshop in Rio de Janeiro to present the Gondwana Map draft 1.3 and discuss it with the scientific partners. In between the debate meetings, there were 12 major talks, one course on G-Plates software and one course about the evolution of the African Plate through time. It was a great opportunity to discuss with few scientists that work in different Gondwana fragments the advances of the IGCP-628. The meeting was very fruitful. The invited speakers were: Dr. John Bradshaw (New Zealand), Dr. Alan Collins (Australia), Dr. Peter Johnson (USA), Dr. Victor Ramos (Argentina), Dr. Colin Reeves (Holland), Dr. Renata Tomezzoli (Argentina), Dr. Bastien Linol (South Africa), Dr. Nicholas Barnett-moore (Australia), Dr. Miguel Basei, Dr. A.C. Pedrosa Soares, MSc. Cesar Rigotti and Dr. Leonardo Cury (Brazil).
First week (22/6 to 26/6)
THE GONDWANA MAP AND THE GEOLOGICAL DATA BASE
The state of art of the project and mostly the geological maps and GIS database were presented. We showed the results and the data that we had worked so far at the Gondwana Lab. We had talks on geology of different Gondwanan continents and discussed the common and specific problems that we are dealing, regarding the representation of geologic units and the Gondwana margins. The main topics discussed were: – The time of the Gondwana Geological Map; The updates of the geological maps; The resolution/scale of the geological database and map; The outcomes of the IGCP-628 project; The post-Jurassic cover ; The Legend; The Geological database.
Second week (29/6 to 03/7)
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF GONDWANA
This week was devoted to the paleogeographic reconstruction of Gondwana (rotation, fit and projection of the Gondwana-derived blocks). There were talks and discussions in the mornings, especially on continental margins, paleomagnetic data, rotation and plate subdivisions. Afternoons, we had the G-Plates course given by Nick (Nicholas Barnett-moore) from the University of Sidney. The main topics discussed were: Exporting and importing the Gondwana Geological database to reconstruction softwares; Intracontinental deformation; Oceanic floor data; Paleopoles.
Third week (6/7 to 10/7)
African Geodynamics – from Precambrian to present day
Prof. Colin Reeves gave a fantastic short course on the geodynamics of the African plate for researchers and graduate students. This is our key continent on the Gondwana map, so it was worth having a special week on the African tectonics. The main topics of his course were: Africa Now – our laboratory; Undoing the oceans – Africa and Antarctica; Paleozoic Africa – the centre of Gondwana; An African mosaic within Gondwana; East Gondwana reassembled; The evolution of the Indian Ocean; The evolution of the South Atlantic Ocean; The evolution of the Bouvet Triple Junction; Three episodes of rifting within Africa; Dykes, hotspots and large igneous provinces; The architecture of the Precambrian in Africa; and Synthesis and summary.
Photos of the event and other material are available below for download.