OVER THE PAST few years continental margins research has become a major focus of the international geoscience community. New national supporting programs have been initiated in many countries, e.g. in France, Japan, UK, and USA. To foster a greater degree of international coordination of margins research activities, to focus sufficient resources on some common, large interdisciplinary investigations, and to help leverage funding in each others countries, a new international geoscience initiative dedicated to continental margins research was formed in 1999.

    InterMARGINS is an international and interdisciplinary initiative concerned with all aspects of continental margins research. It is designed to encourage scientific and logistical co-ordination, with particular focus on problems that cannot be addressed as efficiently by nations or national institutions acting alone or in limited partnerships. Initially InterMARGINS will focus on the following broadly defined research subjects:

• Rifted Margins
• Sedimentary Processes
• Seismogenic Zone Processes
• Subduction Factory Processes
• Fluid Processes, Geochemistry, Microbiology

    InterMARGINS will attempt to foster and enhance communication between national margins-related research programs. It will develop and maintain databases of ongoing national and multinational projects and research activities, initiate and carry out workshops and disseminate information to members through newsletters and other forms of communication.