EAG Ambassador in La Serena, Chile 2015

Attending to the Congreso Geólogico de Chile is always a great experience, not only because I’m Chilean and I live far from my country (currently I’m living in Spain) but because this conference is held every three years in Chile and brings together geoscientists from all over the world, especially from South America, into one meeting covering all disciplines of Earth sciences. This year the conference took place in La Serena, a very beautiful city located north of the capital, from October 4th to 8th. Around 1000 people attended; where besides the presentation of scientific works it was discuss the geologist role in the society, which I personally think is a very important subject that sometimes we, researchers forget.

 

I delivered an oral presentation entitled “Subduction initiation, recycling of lower continental crust, and intracrustal emplacement of subcontinental lithospheric mantle in the westernmost Mediterranean” as part of the Metamorphism and Magmatism in Subduction Zones symposium. Although the study area of most of the works presented in this conference were focused on Chile, I was pleased to see that a lot of people was very interested in what we are doing in the other side of the world. Several works on mantel rocks were presented in this event which provided me the outstanding opportunity not only to have a scientific exchange but also to network with other professionals from Chile and South America working in similar research topics.

I had also the chance to see from firsthand the damages of the 8.3 magnitude earthquake that affected Chile during the month of September, 2015. The epicenter was about 60 kilometers of La Serena, and gave rise to large waves along the Chilean coast, especially in La Serena. Despite this terrible natural hazard, the conference took place normally, and we, the assistants, only felt minor movements during the conference day’s (with minor movements I mean 6.4 magnitude earthquakes, but for any Chilean this is minor!).

 

I would like to thank to the Early Career Science Ambassador Program for the opportunity to be an ambassador of the EAG in my own country and to be able to show my work in this important conference.

Conference bag and badge.

About the author

Maria Isabel Varas-Reus is a PhD student at the Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Spain (Geochemistry and Petrology Group). Her research is focused on the causes and timing of heterogeneity of radiogenic isotopes in the Subcontinental Lithospheric Mantle. The areas where she conducts her work are located in Ronda (southern Spain) and Beni Bousera (northern Morroco).