A decade of growth in the South Pacific marine geoscience data base

The marine geoscience data base for the South Pacific has grown by an order of magnitude over the past decade. The catalyst for this growth has been the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), a regional organisation that serves as a marine and coastal geological and geophysical survey for the island nations. Work programmes developed at its international workshops and annual technical sessions have been implemented, in part through the Tripartite Programme that has resulted in several monographs and many research papers, including some in this special issue. These results have encouraged work by other agencies. The outcome has been a much-enhanced understanding of the tectonic framework and hydrocarbon and mineral resource potential of the region and the development of new play concepts and process models for mineralisation of interest to explorationists.