The activity of IGCP 405 in the first calendar year of its existence was centred on its inaugural conference ENVIWEATH’ 96 - „Environmental Aspects of Weathering Processes“. It was held on December 1 - 3, 1997 in hotel Santon, Přístavní 38, Brno. The participants were accomodated in the same hotel.

The conference was divided into three thematic sessions:

During the meeting, 44 papers were delivered by 39 speakers; two posters were displayed. Altogether, about 60 participants (thereof 28 foreigners from 13 countries) attended the presentations. The abstracts of oral presentations were issued in the form of Book of Abstracts (84 pp) distributed among the participants at the beginning of the conference. Based upon the authors’ consent, the electronic form of the abstracts is presented on the home WWW page of the IGCP 405 project (http://www.sci.muni.cz/~sulovsky/abstracts.html). The full length papers will be published as a special issue of Folia Facultatis Scientiarum Rerum Naturalium Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis (to appear in April 1997).

Besides the scientific programme, the conference involved successful social program – conference dinner in the University Club (sponsored by German producer of XRD machines Stoe& Cie), and excursion to the lab facilities of the Department of Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry, followed by a wine party.

List of ENVIWEATH’96 participants

Participant / Country

The conference was followed by the meeting of principal national coordinators, focused on the following topics:

• Assessment of the most urgent short term tasks, determining the successful start of the Project. It was agreed to collect first the following information:
• addresses of persons and institutions performing research of weathering;
• the results they achieved;
• projects relevant to the IGCP 405 topics (past, in progress, under preparation)

These data will be assembled in a database made fully accessible to all contributors and to certain extent to the whole Internet community via publishing it on a devoted WWW page.

Another database will describe the instrumental (analytical) facilities available to the IGCP 405 participants, and other analytical enterprises they use in weathering research.

 

1. Choice of the next meeting occasions:

• a special session at EUG-9 in Strasbourg (23 – 27.3.97) – convenor P.Sulovsky
• international conference ENVIWEATH’97 (24 - 26.11.97) held in Bratislava, Slovakia (organisers – Slovak IGCP405 group; keynote speakers invited by Simon Langan). The conference will focus on two thematic fields:
• Weathering in acid conditions
• Weathering of industrial waste

1. As the long-term task were identified:

• the formation of databases of thermodynamic and kinetic data on mineral dissolution
• the joint preparation of workshops focused on highly specialised themes of weathering research

 Activities outside the ENVIWEATH’96 conference:

• an informative meeting of some IGCP 405 participants took place within the 8^th International Congress on Stone Deterioration and Conservation of Stone in Berlin.
• The Russian National Group of IGCP 405, led by Russian National Co-ordinator Professor Andrei Bulakh, had its special meeting on 14.11.96, when thirty Russian participants of IGCP #405 gathered at Department of Mineralogy of the St.Petersburg University.

All activities of IGCP 405 participant relating to the project theme known to the project leaders are reflected by the IGCP405 WWW home page at: http://www.sci.muni.cz/~sulovsky/igcp405.html.