MagellanPlus Workshop: Mission-Specific Platform Approaches To Assessing Natural Hazards That Impact Society

Oceanic natural hazards pose threats to coastal communities worldwide. These include earthquakes, tsunamis, submarine landslide, volcanic eruptions, and tropical cyclones. Scientific ocean drilling can contribute to our understanding and assessment of these hazards through rapid response measurements of hazardous events, learning from past hazard records, and sub-seafloor monitoring and observation. With the impending retirement of the D/V JOIDES Resolution and operational limitations of the D/V Chikyu, it is important to consider other options for achieving scientific ocean drilling goals. We convened a workshop in Lisbon, Portugal, in July 2022 to identify locations where natural hazards, or preferably several different hazards, can be addressed with mission-specific platform (MSP) drilling, with a consideration of further location-based workshops. Participants split into three working groups to develop hypotheses surrounding climate and tropical cyclones, slope failure, and processes at active margins that can be tested with MSP drilling and can be addressed using the unique capabilities of these platforms. We produced 13 questions or hypotheses with recommendations on specific areas or locations for drilling. Our hope is that the results of this workshop will lay the groundwork for future pre-proposals.