Workshop on the Assembly of Gondwana

自从第一次提出大陆漂移的可能性以来，超大陆的概念，即冈瓦那，激发了地球科学家的想象力和研究。冈瓦那的中、新生代碎裂现在已经有了相当多的了解，但超大陆的起源在很大程度上仍然是一个猜测的问题。由于冈瓦纳岛约占世界大陆地壳的一半，冈瓦纳岛的集合史是古生代末期“盘古大陆”集合史的一大部分。此外，冈瓦那的碎片堆积的年龄和顺序对破译中、晚元古代超大陆(“Rodinia”)的构造和历史造成了重要的制约。首席调查员希望通过组织协调一致的研究项目，调查地理区域，并使用被认为特别有用的技术，来研究冈瓦那的组装情况。首先，他们将举办一次研讨会，以确定既重要又需要协调一致的问题。他们已经召集了一个在不同地理领域和地球科学学科具有专门知识的国际科学家小组，并将在1993年春天把他们聚集在一起。这次研讨会的主要目的将是为进一步协调的研究项目编写一份提案。

The concept of a supercontinent, named "Gondwana, "has stirred the imaginations and stimulated the research of geoscientists since the first suggestion of the possibility of continental drift. The Mesozoic-Cenozoic fragmentation of Gondwana is now reasonably well understood, but the original of the supercontinent is still largely a matter of speculation. Because Gondwana constituted approximately one half of the world's continental crust, the history of assembly of Gondwana is a large part of the history of assembly of "Pangea" near the end of the Paleozoic. Furthermore, the age and sequence of accretion of fragments to Gondwana place important constraints on efforts to decipher the configuration and history of fragmentation of a middle-to-late-Proterozoic supercontinent ("Rodinia"). The principal investigators wish to study the assembly of Gondwana by organizing coordinated research projects that investigate geographic areas and use techniques that are regarded as particularly useful. As a start, they will hold a workshop to identify problems that are both important and require a coordinated approach. They have assembled an international group of scientists with expertise in various geographic areas and geoscience disciplines and will bring them together in the spring of 1993. The primary purpose of this workshop will be to prepare a proposal for further coordinated research projects.