01/05/2025 MEFISTO @ European Geoscience Union (EGU) General Assembly 2025
The first results of the MEFISTO project were presented by PI Matteo Bazzaro at the EGU General Assembly 2025 (27 April – 2 May 2025).
In an oral presentation, Dr. Bazzaro explained the objectives of MEFISTO, illustrated the multidisciplinary approach of the project to study methane emissions in the two areas under investigation and discussed the preliminary results, which aroused great interest among the audience
The international conference was a great opportunity to publicise the project to the scientific community and a lot of positive feedback was taken home!
20/03/2025 MEFISTO @ Quasimeme Workshop
MEFISTO participated in the Quasimeme workshop on Quality Assurance for Inorganic Carbon System Measurements in the context of Ocean Acidification Monitoring and Marine CO2 Removal Technologies held at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK (18-20/03/2025).
During the event, Dr. Vincenzo Alessandro Laudicella, technologist from OGS, presented the results of the carbonate system analyses from the first three MEFISTO sampling campaigns in the form of a poster, which was met with great interest by the international researchers and delegates attending the workshop.
The event proved to be a great networking opportunity where state-of-the-art carbonate system analysis techniques, new instruments and software were discussed and presented.
The project’s kick off meeting was successfully held online on 26 January 2024.
MEFISTO, coordinated by OGS and developed in cooperation with the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology – INGV, is financially supported by the European union through the “Fund for the National Research Programme and Research Projects of Significant National Interest (PRIN)” in the framework of the NRRP – Nex Generation EU Mission 4 “Education and Research” to define the actual contribution of the marine coastal areas to the atmospheric methane (CH4) budget.
The scarcity of data concerning CH4 fluxes in coastal areas negatively affects the exact calculation of this greenhouse gas atmospheric budget, whose accuracy is vital for verifying potential reductions in emissions linked to the adoption of effective climate mitigation strategies. In fact, CH4 released from coastal seafloor can escape directly into the atmosphere by rapidly bypassing the water column through bubble transport.
Over the next two years, MEFISTO will specifically focus on reducing uncertainties in the estimation of natural CH4 fluxes in such environments. The study, combining classical physical, chemical, and molecular methods with innovative hydroacoustic approaches, will be aimed to assess which forcings favour or prevent the release of this gas into the atmosphere in two Italian shallow coastal areas: a seepage zone recently identified in the Gulf of Trieste and centred on the Bardelli outcrop (Northern Adriatic Sea) and the hydrothermal vent area off the Panarea Island (Aeolian Archipelago, Southern Tyrrhenian Sea).
