GEO5680 – Floating University: Marine Expedition in Lake Baikal
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
This intensive course provide a unique opportunity for young researchers to participate to a marine expedition, collect data and learn quickly on topics that are commonly only orally taught. Students will learn habits about living on-board, will be exposed to multiple disciplines, and learn teamwork practices on multidisciplinary topics. Students are guided through the coherent interpretation of the collected data integrating them on a broader view combining the various disciplines used during the expedition.
The Training Through Research Program (TTR) is an international Research and Education program that conducted multidisciplinary offshore expeditions throughout all the European and Arctic margins. Since 2014, TTR operates also in Lake Baikal with the educational program "Class@Baijkal". This "Floating University" program is organized in cooperation with the HOTMUD partners of the Moscow State University and the Limnological Institute of Irkutsk. The course provides training and research material for young scientists that are tutored by senior staff during the expedition. Topics span from geophysics, tectonics, sedimentology, geochemistry, microbiology. According to their needs/interests, students will be allocated to a selected team where they are taught to process geophysical data, or collect samples from the cored sediments. The selected survey areas include gas/oil seepage sites, mud volcanoes, gas hydrate deposits, submarine slides, hydrate bearing and degassing tectonic structures, deep sea canyons. Daily lectures are provided on board. Students present preliminary on-board observations and data interpretations. More dedicated seminars focus on settings similar to the one explored during the expedition, but located in different regions of the planet. During the cruise the participants collaborate for the dissemination of the results and life onboard completing a daily blog.
Learning outcome
The students are trained to various activities beginning from the involvement in the phases of cruise preparation. During the expedition, they acquire skills on the acquisition of geophysical data as well as their interpretation in order to plan the strategy for further samplings. Seafloor sampling is conducted using various tools, coupled with under water video records. Petrography and geochemistry analyses of the collected samples and subsampling procedures are completed involving all the participants. The data collected are then processed for further laboratory analyses in various Institutes and may be used by students for their BSc, MSc and PhD projects.
Admission to the course
Students admitted at UiO must apply for courses in Studentweb. Students enrolled in other Master's Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.
Nordic citizens and applicants residing in the Nordic countries may apply to take this course as a single course student.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.
Priority: Since this course is part of a Research and Education Programme, priority will be given to the students that intend to use the collected data for their individual projects.
The number of study places will vary. Admission takes place after individual application. When more applications than available seats, a ranking of applicants will be based on?grades.
Formal prerequisite knowledge
The course includes mandatory fieldwork. A health-and-safety course for safety in the field must be passed before you can participate in this:
Overlapping courses
- 5 credits overlap with GEO9680 – Floating University: Marine Expedition in Lake Baikal.
Teaching
Learning modules/structure:
- 14 days marine expedition (7d geophysical data acquisition 7d sea floor sampling)
- Daily lectures and presentations from all the participants
- 5 days of final workshop with presentation of data from the students
- Joint work to prepare the cruise report
- Results of processed data are presented at a post cruise meeting few months later
General information about excursions at the Department of Geosciences
As the teaching involves laboratory and/or fieldwork, you should consider taking out a separate travel and personal risk insurance. Read about your insurance cover as a student.
Examination
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Field activities and oral presentation: This will be the evaluations of the performance during the course activities and the oral presentation provided at the end of the course.?
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Field report: This is a written report of the field activities, which is to be submitted after the end of the course.
Attendance on the field course / excursion is obligatory.
It will also be counted as one of the three attempts to sit the exam for this course if you sit the exam for the following course:
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about?the grading system.
Resit an examination
Students who can document a valid reason for absence from the regular examination are?offered a postponed examination at the beginning of the next semester.
Re-scheduled examinations are not offered to students who withdraw during, or did not pass, the original examination.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.