A scientific conference is being held on Sunday 16 September that will see Europe's leading geologists gathering in Tallinn for the first time to discuss the discovery, study and use of mineral resources and related environmental problems and to elect a new president for their organisation. The 2007 conference is the association's 15th and has the name MAEGS-15, but is the first to be held in Estonia. “The conference generally will focus on mineral resources, as you might expect – we will be looking at their discovery, how they are studied and problems associated with controlling their use and with the environment,” Raudsep explained. The conference is planned to feature around 60 presentations, providing overviews of both regional and pan-European achievements and problems in mineral resource geology and mining. “Scientists from Estonia and the other Baltic States have an excellent opportunity at a forum like this to introduce their work to others,” Raudsep remarked. Among those representing Estonia with presentations will be geologists Väino and Erik Puura from the University of Tartu; emeritus professor Enno Reinsalu and geology professor Ülo Sõstra from the Tallinn University of Technology; Department of Mining director Ingo Valgma; and Rein Raudsep himself. Estonian scientists will make a total of 11 presentations. The participants in the conference are interested in learning more about Estonia's mineral resources and will be taken on excursions to the north and west of the country, visiting the Väo, Aidu and Vasalemma quarries, the Kohtla mining museum, the Northern Estonian glint, the Lavassaare peat production area and other sites. Following the conference's general meeting, the AEGS council will be renewed and a new president will be elected for the association for the next two years. The event as a whole, being held at the National Library in Tallinn, will last until 20 September. AEGS was established in 1975 in Reading in the United Kingdom, where the first meeting of European Geological Societies was held under the name MAEGS-1. One of the main problems facing the association even then was the optimal use of mineral resources and related environmental protection, but the issues it has dealt with since then have been of a much broader nature: the structure of the earth's crust, geological mapping, the development of Europe's sedimentary rocks, orogenous processes and magmatism, the geology of the Atlantic ocean, paleogeography, seismic processes and studies of increment cores, the geology of the Carpathians, problems associated with the water table and contemporary geological processes. For further information please contact: Agnes Jürgens See also http://www.maegs15.org/ |
