University of Beira Interior has a project to assess resources and geological risks in the Atlantic

Called the GEMMA project, it will be focused on the Macaronesia region (Azores, Madeira, Canaries, and Cape Verde), a natural laboratory to study many of the processes that control the internal dynamics of the entire planet and will be carried out between 2022 and 2024.

Rui Fernandes, professor at UBI and coordinator of the project, told to national newspaper “Público” that for the construction of the geodynamic models, geodetic observations will be made in order to monitor the slow geophysical processes. These geodetic methods make possible to quantify changes on the Earth's surface on a millimeter-scale and to detect small variations in its interior.

The objective is to find new geodynamic solutions to explain the forces and processes that operate in the Macaronesia region and the investigation will have implications for the management of geological and resource risks. This information is useful for applications such as navigation, engineering, and sea-level studies.