João Mata, IDL researcher, participates in mission in Antarctic

João Mata  (researcher of IDL and Professor at the Departamento de Geologia-FCUL) participated in a geological mission in Antarctica, carried out between January 13th and February 10th under the auspices of FCT, through the Research program Propolar.

During this mission, in which he teamed with Pedro Ferreira (LNEG), Paleogenic and Cretaceous magmatic rocks from the islands of King George (Fildes and Barton peninsulas) and Nelson were mapped and sampled. These samples will be used  1) for geochemical research (elemental and isotopic) in order to better understand the evolution of magmatic sources of the South Shetland island arc and 2) to determine the rocks thermal properties (e.g. conductivity) that will enable the better understanding and modelling of the permafrost processes affecting the region (data to be used by PERMANTAR Project of Gonçalo Vieira and João Branco, IGOT). During the stay, the researchers were housed in the South Korean King Sejong station and the Chilean base Professor Julio Escudero.

You can see some more images in our portfolio and a video about the mission in our youtube channel.