Within the framework of this group, which exist since 1996, several meetings have organized, including the final meeting of IGCP Project and constituting meeting for the Fromage Group in Strasbourg (oct. 1996) and a meeting in Kona, Hawaii (may 1997), respectively. This homepage, is to replace our regular newsletter, and gives detailed reports on meetings, proceedings volumes, and news.

We are happy to receive more proposals or general ideas with respect to a future meeting. As a polite reminder, we are generally happy to receive your input for the Fromage web site, in the form of abstracts, reports on meetings related to Fromage, reports on new projects, as a forum of discussion, etc. It is up to you to help shaping the Fromage Site.

The recent years have been of great interest for marine authigenesis, especially in overlapping domains, such as the discovery of microbial formation of dolomite in Lago Vermelha, a near-marine lagune in Brazil (C. Vasconcelos, J. McKenzie et al.), the use of sequential extraction analytical techniques to calculate and specify phosphorus accumulation rates in sediments, and to use those as proxy for environmental change (G. Filippelli, K. Ruttenberg, M. Lucotte, et al.), the importance of "endo-upwelling" for authigenesis in atoll settings (C. Jehl, F, Rougerie, Trichet, J., et al.), and the discovery of recent and upper Pleistocene phosphate-bearing ferric iron crusts in Lake Baikal (well, not quite marine....; Deike, R., et al.), just to name some developments. Directly related to authigenesis is a topic that caused and still cause a considerable amount of controversy: the discovery of carbonate and magnetite aggregates with microbial affinity in martian meteorite ALH84001 (McKay et al.).
And, finally, are not the famous clathrates (methane-containing gas hydrates) found in continental slope settings produced by marine authigenesis?

Given the interdisciplinary approach, more and more used in research on authigenesis, we - as a research group - wish to broaden our scope and remain open for all kinds of developments in other disciplines which have (sometimes unexpected) interfaces with authigenesis. If we think of the great impact that, for instance, microbiology or stable isotope analysis has had on our understanding of authigenic processes....

We would like to wish you a healthy and productive time and hope to see you soon.