Maynooth University Geography students Rhonda McGovern and Sean O’Kane are currently in the North Atlantic's Malin Sea onboard the Marine Institute’s Research Vessel 'Celtic Voyager'. They are part of an Irish/UK collaborative geological research project MARA2 (6th - 15th May) sampling the sea floor of the Malin Shelf to improve maps of sediment types there. Seabed sediment is a crucial part of the local marine ecosystem and thus the health of the sea. New geophysical data to be collected imaging the shallow sediment cover will also inform us about the nature of deglaciation from the Malin Shelf during the last Ice Age.
Both students will be using the ship time experience in their taught masters project work on the MSc in Climate Change and GIS & Remote Sensing programmes at Maynooth University Dept. of Geography. You can keep track of their vessels’ progress here: https://www.marine.ie/Home/site-area/infrastructure-facilities/research-vessels/track-vessel and read about their adventures here: @HeatherMarGeo and @followtheboats
This research is supported by the Marine Institute, and is funded under the Marine Research Sub-Programme by the Irish Government AND an SFI Enterprise Postdoctoral Award to Dr. Kieran Craven for a collaboration between Maynooth University and the Geological Survey of Ireland, DCCAE MarineInst ScienceIrel GeolSurvIre