Marine geology lab opens at U of T

The University of Toronto officially opened its Scotiabank Marine Geology Research Laboratory on March 1. Laboratory director Steven Scott said work in the lab, located at the university’s new Earth Sciences Centre, will focus on solving mysteries of the ocean floor.

“The nautical and sea bottom boundaries are a large part of Canada’s sovereign territory and sovereignty is an issue currently being examined by the Canadian government,” Scott said.

“Economically, the resources available in offshore mining may not come into play for years, but work in the lab is already helping to provide a knowledge base for Canadian industry in its search for metals on land.”

Scientists at the U of T recently worked with Americans on a massive, gold-bearing sulphide deposit on the mid-Atlantic floor off the North American coast. Such research is a way of gaining insight into how and where to search for gold-bearing sulphide ores on land in Canada.

Another project involves a team of scientists from the U of T, the Atlantic Geoscience Centre in Nova Scotia and from Australia which is producing the first high resolution bathymetric maps of the sea floor off eastern Papua New Guinea. Manned submersible dives with Soviet scientists are planned for April.

The lab is named after Scotiabank in recognition of a $500,000 donation by the Bank of Nova Scotia.